Posted on December 16th, 2011 by Joel Russ
There is “gardening” in the literal sense of the word, and in the metaphoric. In the literal sense, for me right now it consists of harvesting the last of the lettuce and kale from our sun-heated greenhouse. There’s no supplementary heat in there, and considering that our nighttime temps have gone below -12, it amazes [...]
Filed under: Food, Organic Gardening, Rural Living, Vegetable Gardening | 3 Comments »
Posted on October 18th, 2011 by Joel Russ
As everyone realizes, growing plants on soil means that the plants will draw out nutrients from that soil. Some soils start out in fertile condition, offering a high level of essential nutrients – and some don’t. But in any case over time, there will be a draw-down of nutrients – mainly nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, [...]
Filed under: General Practices, Organic Gardening, Soil Management, Vegetable Gardening | No Comments »
Posted on September 29th, 2011 by Joel Russ
We’ve harvested garlic, onions, pears, apples, squash, hot peppers, and a few other things in the last ten days. I’m now getting a jump on some of the autumn work, since I will be away for some of the early part of the season. We’ve got fall leafies growing in the greenhouse. I put in [...]
Filed under: Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Soil Management, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 4 Comments »
Posted on August 5th, 2011 by Joel Russ
We’re growing a variety of corn – Hooker’s Sweet Corn – that is able to form ears even in a year like this one, with its cool nights, lots of overcast and rain late into the gardening season, high humidity, and a minimum of truly hot days. The ears of corn are forming now on [...]
Filed under: Food, Organic Gardening, Rural Living, Vegetable Gardening | 5 Comments »
Posted on July 8th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Most of us have heard the expression “knee high by the first of July,” referring to a standard for gauging the progress of sweet corn here in Central Kootenay. In the past, usually having simply direct-seeded corn into our garden, we’ve rarely achieved quite that stature in our corn plants by July 1. Nevertheless, most [...]
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Posted on June 7th, 2011 by Joel Russ
I got the corn in. A fair-size patch near one end of our larger garden. After transplanting, the early-started (indoors) corn plants are standing up in the first rows. I did a lot of direct-seeded rows, too. I had soaked the seed I was going to plant directly in the garden – giving it about [...]
Filed under: Food, Harvest Lessons, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 15th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Mixed cloud and sun the last little while, but pretty consistently sunny the last couple days. Energizing! Our peas are up in a double row. And indoors, with a lot of plants having moved from our grow-light shelves out to the greenhouse, we had room to start two large trays of heritage-corn seeds. And the [...]
Filed under: Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 5th, 2011 by Joel Russ
With much satisfaction, and eagerness for the eventual tomato crop, a couple days ago we potted-up our Bonnie Bests and our San Marzanos from their 4-inch pots to gallon ones. These varieties are round-type and paste-type, respectively. They are both indeterminate (vine-type) varieties, which are well-suited to greenhouse nurturance. And that’s where we’ve put them [...]
Filed under: Decorative Gardening, Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Soil Management, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | No Comments »
Posted on April 26th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Pear buds are quite swollen, and apple buds just a bit behind. I’m glad I’ve got my pruning done. Actually, today I spent time pruning our grape vine – which is not budded-out yet, though in cutting any of the larger vine branchings the vine will bleed a fair bit. No matter, it seems. I’ve [...]
Filed under: Food, General Practices, Organic Gardening, Rural Living, Tips & Tricks, Vegetable Gardening | 6 Comments »
Posted on April 11th, 2011 by Joel Russ
Sunday, the 10th. Today began with me chainsawing a lot of 36-inch sections from 6×6 timbers, toward a set of outdoor steps for the slope down to our pond. While I was doing that, Lou (my partner) worked over in the greenhouse, where she transplanted about six dozen of my green-onion starts into the edges [...]
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