Above you'll see a colourful summary of what we planted last summer. Wonderful wonderful wonderful!! Thanks to Jane for keeping such good records. If you click on the above, you can read it in large text. Just use the back button to come back here again.
The blank plot plans are ready to print at our email group. You can print out as may as you like (they are in pdf) using your printer settings "draft" and "black ink only" if you like, and fill them in as you plan. Very fun.
Also, if you're new to the garden and you don't know which are the family allotments and which are the community beds, or if you want to print out a blank garden-plot map in jpeg try this one:
You should be able to click on the above to make it bigger, and then save it to your computer for direct printing. (just fit-to-page). It helps you find the greenhouse! hhahahaha.
Dear Gardeners, Here's a super quick way to remember how to rotate your vegetable beds for good healthy soil use and the supression of soil viruses.
If you start as above, with one bed in each phase (EWHGF in consecutive beds) and then each bed moves through the same order: from E to - W to - H to - G or F, then you can have successive crops from each bed throughout a two-three year period.
Here's a video that shows each bed going though the five crops:
Jim's own list of veggies using this system (we'll add planting dates to this) is here:
And the following information comes from G. Johnson of respectyouralders Planning Rotations for Year-round Veggie Production
Rotation 1
Growing: W Winter-harvested crops: Winter leeks, kholrabis, brussel sprouts, root crops. Harvest by: Late February In time for: EEarly spring-sown crops: peas, fava beans, lettuces, most greens, radishes, cloche-sheltered root crops, early potatoes, early cabbage
Rotation 2
Growing: EEarly spring-sown crops: peas, fava beans, root crops, most greens (spinach), oeverwintered spring bulbing onions. Havested by: late June, early July In time for: W - the bulk of direct seeded winter crops: winter carrots, kale, brussel sprouts, overwintering broccoli and cauliflower, rutabaga, beets, chard, kholrabi, transplanted winter leeks.
Rotation 2.5
Growing: E early potatoes, early cabbage, fall sown garlic Harvested by: early August In time for: W Late sown winter crops: overwintering onions, cloched greens, daikon radish.
Rotation 3
Growing; Wspring-producing winter crops: kale, collards, purple sprouting broccoli, spring cauliflower Harvested by: early to mid-May In time for: H - Heat loving summer crops: corn, vine beans, late potatoes, squash, sunflower, tomato transplants etc.
Rotation 4
Growing: HHeat loving summer crops: corn, vine beans, late potatoes, squash, sunflower, tomato Harvested by: late September to mid-October In time for: F or G - garlic, fava beans, winter cover crops (fallow). ------------------------ Note: that if needed, Rotation 1 can be slightly out of order.
Jen adds: Also, the above system lets you choose garlic or fallow for the final rotation, and if you choose garlic, then fallow should follow the garlic, with the planting of a cover-crop.
This system also allows you to follow garlic with a fall sown winter crop if necessary (rotation 2.5 above). But in general it seems to work to rotate as per the above video:
EARLY WINTER HEAT-LOVING GARLIC and/or FALLOW
Feel free to advise and to add to the above lists, if it makes rotation easier to plan.
In lieu of our usual garden work party, there was a fun meeting at Beacon House on Saturday morning, January 30th, at 10 a.m. for everyone who wished to participate in selecting seeds for this year's garden.
We looked over Westcoast and Saltspring seed catalogues, companion planting books and U.K. gardening books from our DIGS library, and had a look through the seed packets left over from last year, to determine what we need to order.
This invitation will be repeated for next week, when we finalize our seed selection. All meetings are open to communal gardeners, allotments gardeners, and any interested islanders. The more, the merrier. Some of the cool ideas that came up today:
- an upcoming viewing of the Canadian documentary about Monsanto seed companies and why we might want to not use them (ie: Stokes seeds owned by Monsanto now.)
- crop rotation; how to make an easy to use method for our garden's crop cycle, so that the dirt is always fresh :>) See the next on easy-to-rotate method Jim came up with (Every Woman Has Good Fingers.....short movie in next post on this.)
- our AGM guest speaker, Connie, will be speaking on Feb. 21st on the topic of healthy organic soil, and will also visit our garden that morning prior to the AGM at 1 pm. Anyone who wishes to help rake, clean up and tidy the garden prior to the big visit day is welcome to do so. Let's show off our February garden!
- everyone wrote down their three fave veg on slips of paper, and BEETS came up alot, as did beans. There was lots of discussion on various kinds of beans that people like (pole and bush) and several people remarked on the variety called ROMANO that makes a great tasting small green (string) bean.
- comments on tomato varieties that taste best: yellow tomato that was in the little diggers bed was prolific and delicious. We still have seeds for this Golden Girl. Early Girl is also well liked.
- ideas were shared for handling all the calendars of planting and lists of plants, and seeding times. These will be followed up next week same place, same time.
- what did I forget? Let me know, and I'll add it here.
Please send your comments, ideas and thoughts. You can send them to me at my P.I. email and I'll print them on this blog.
Dear Gardeners, Have a look back at the DIGS garden in 2009. Above is May 24th to July 30th. Double click on the above picture to make it larger. Then use your back button to return.
Wow. What a garden! More pictures coming (I'm lifting them off my videos). Best, J.
Attention Gardeners: We met this Saturday, January 23 at 10:00 in the garden. The greenhouse had some cleaning/sweeping and three flats of more wintery mesclun was planted. There was a Little Diggers' meeting at the Harris's about the upcoming program for this spring. If you are interested or would like to participate in planning Little Diggers events, please join in. Our AGM is February 21st, and we'll get the coffee and cookies happening for that. Exciting guest speaker! We're thinking of perhaps moving the teepee to the left of the social shed, and Jim put seaweed on the garry-oak young trees in the park. More notes taken from today's meeting are under the COMMENTS button below. Just click on it. M/J.
What's up when the rains let up? (slide show now no longer here.)
There are snowdrops at the lighthouse, spicy mesclun and giant onions (seen-as-seedlings) under lights, winter rye in the DIGS garden, herbs and winter vegetables, and other lovely vistas after the sun breaks through.
Dear Garden lovers, Today I was going to out and photograph young seedlings, cool greenhouse sowings and tiny plants in the forest (like miner's lettuce which I saw growing as I walked through the woods yesterday), but was stopped by this strangely familiar weather (see above).
Yes it's pure westcoast duck weather with an astonishingly long-lived pineapple scent (all the way from Hawaii). Very appealing for staying indoors and asking all our enthusiastic readers to submit a sentence or two and a photo or two to get us blogging. Please send your ideas for this blog. I really can't keep talking to my own tiny self like this (hahahhahaa!) For inspiration, there are some great gardening blogs very similar to ours, at the list bottom right as you scroll down to see links.
Please send ideas!!! Yes those pineapples on the wind *do" smell great but...that duck can't stand there forever! Best, J.
Dear Gardeners, A quick tip about a lovely lettuce that Jim has discovered!
Matina is a butterhead lettuce (like Boston lettuce) that has a small, compact head, and, wait for it....withstands amazing amounts of doofus beginner-gardener abuse!
Ahem...ahem... But it's true. Last year I accidentally, and very slightly, abused some delightful Matina lettuces (okay they fell over in their six-pack and looked dreadful!), and the tiny darlings not only survived, my gosh, they flourished. Jim swears by it for endurance and delish-factor, and says it has these great properties:
- slow to bolt (or doesn't even try to bolt, which is amazing in the heat)
- can stay way too long in a small pot or seed tray and still go on to grow later, even if others would be rootbound by then, even after wilting and falling over etc., Matina holds on and survives almost all human error.
- tastes amazingly sweet and one head makes a perfect salad for two people.
- lasts and lasts and lasts into the summer - not injured by re-transplanting
- can be sown, like all lettuces, RIGHT NOW, on your windowsill, in a yogurt container with holes punched in the bottom, nested inside another yogurt container, and can then sit on a sunny windowsill in small transplant pots or cell packs quite a long time before being put out in the garden.
And yes, now's the time to start seeding a few lettuce a week. We are 8 weeks before last frost, and these tiny dudes like 40 to 70 degrees!
In the book "Square Foot Gardening", the author shows you how to time the harvest of your daily lettuce by only planting a few seeds at a time in vermiculite, and watering from below. It's quite easy. The tiny sprouts lift out easily by the leaves with the aid of a small stick or pencil to lift the roots into their next sized pot.
When it's warmer outdoors (and less torrential), we move them on to bigger pots, or put them in your lettuce beds outdoors. In planting out lettuce you should save space for successive sowings so there are always several heads ready to eat every week.
But with all the leaf lettuce types that we lettuce lovers like to mix and match, and it is awfully nice to try a huge variety, after one or two summers, we're really loving the Matina if you want a whole head at one meal. For other leaf varieties you can pick the outside leaves for your salad, and leave the leaf lettuce to grow on for up to three months. One company of the two that sells it says of Matina:
Matina Sweet Butterhead Lettuce: 50-70 days Matina Sweet is an adorable little butterhead that likes to stay home. It is tender and succulent and is never for sale anywhere since it does not travel well. Matina Sweet’s delicate leaves gently embrace a densely-folded, blanched creamy heart with a luscious, buttery flavor. It is slow to bolt and heat-tolerant. Need we say more?
And if you're new to planting lettuce for salads, here's a great U.K. video that covers the basics in a very friendly way.
Hope you enjoy discovering this tiny excellent butterhead of a lettuce. And do comment and let us know if you decide to order some seeds and what you think of it.
Sweetpotatoes (all one word) is the correct name of the variety of orange fleshed tuber that most of us love for cooking. We call them yams, but apparently that's a derivation of a misnomer.
And did you know that the time to start thinking about sweet potatoes is in January? I certainly did not know this; but I hasten to add, as a novice veggie grower, I find it pretty fascinating. If you want to grow these orange-fleshed tubers, you'll want to find or grow sweetpotato "slips" from sweetpotato varieties that grow well in Canada with our shorter growing season. You need "short season" sweetpotatoes. Scroll down and see below for ordering good slips from NB, or for more links to info. on the Canadaian suited short-season sweetpotato varieties we need this far north. Although fun to watch in a glass, apparently store bought yams are the wrong variety for our climate, and are typically treated to reduce sprouting.
Yams in pots on your patio? What a great idea! One of the topics that got me interested in reading "The big black binder" of Digs veggie clippings was to follow up on questions about sweetpotatoes. So I took some notes from an article originally from B.C. Gardener Magazine (2001 by Linda Gilkeson) on growing Sweetpotatoes in B.C.. Seems like we could grow them in pots on sunny patios, and enjoy them SO easily at home. I'm going to give it a try if I can get some organge-fleshed sweetpotato slips together. Meanwhile, here are some highlights of the article: fabulouso!
1. Grow slips in the first week of February. You can make your own slips from untreated organic varieties, or order slips in January (see below). To grow slips in future years from harvested and stored crops, plant the sweetpotato on its side in moist peat with 1/3rd exposed. After 5-6 weeks on top of a warm spot like a water heater, you'll see dark reddish shoots at one end. Move it to a sunny spot, perhaps a south facing window.
2. In mid-April, gently dislodge slips from the tuber and plant them in four inch pots. Place back in the sunny window.
3. Mid-June plant one plant per 3 to 5 gallon black plastic pots in a misture of compost, well-rotted manure, peat moss and soil. Plant five inches deep. Add bone meal and wood ashes (sweetpotatoes love potassium and low nitrogen) and be sure and screen garden soil to get rid of wire worms before adding. Dress with a thick layer of mulch to retain moisture.
4. Place pots in the hottest part of the garden, against a rock wall, or on stone patio which can reflect heat. Each plant will grow to become a thick vine with dark green leaves.
5. In the last week of September, turn over the pot and harvest several large, and many small sweetpotatoes. The small do not keep as well, so eat them first.
6. To cure the sweetpotato for storage, spread to dry in sun for a few hours and then bring inside to cure for 10-14 days. keep in a dry, cool, but not cold, storage area, and use throughout the winter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end article
More info: This book by Ken Allan is apparently very worth having for Canadians who love sweetpotato home growing: The book and the organic slips for February planting in Canada can be ordered from: Mapple Farm Email: wingate@nbnet.nb.ca 129 Beech Hill Rd Weldon, New Brunswick E4H 4N5 (Canada) Phone: (506) 734-3361
Information on slip source - Mapple Farm:
A grower of unusual but useful certified organic (OCIA) planting stock: Short-Season Sweet Potato Slips, a select list of 7 Distinctive Tomatoes, Jerusalem Artichokes, Chinese Artichokes, Egyptian Onions, French Shallots, Horseradish, Snow Pea Shoots and more. Paper Catalog Cost: Free in Canada. Also sells SweetPotato handbook (recommended) by Ken Allan
Dear Gardeners, I've been pouring over the collected vegetable tips in "The big black binder" which is a new addition to our DIGS collection of gardening articles. Thanks to Jim for putting the best articles together in one place!! Always a big spinach lover, I was attracted the article "Nearly Year Round Spinach" by Hazel Beeler which provided the following information:
Nearly Year Round Spinach
Traditionally grown as a cool weather crop in spring and fall, our milder climates can allow a year-round spinach crop using the same Reemay (polyester) agricultural fabric material for shading in the hot months and cold-protection in December and January, for an almost year round spinach harvest.
Spinach has a tendency to bolt in the hottest part of the year and there are three factors in bolting: Day-length, the plant's age, and temperature. We can adjust the timing of when to plant seeds, and day-length is beyond our control, but we can do quite a bit to help shade and protect spinach using agricultural fabric such as Reemay.
Over our 4'x16' raised beds we build canopies of Reemay using six 18 inch stakes, one at each corner, and two at the side mid-points. The stakes have twine wrapped at the top, and the Reemay is attached with clothespegs which can be easily removed for watering, weeding, and harvesting.
In hot weather, keep the spinach under the canopy moist at all times, and although it will eventually bolt in the hottest weather, the shading slows bolting down considerably. Keep sowing new plants, and pulling old ones to control the age of the plants to delay bolting.
New seeds will not germinate well about 70 degrees F, so you can sow them indoors where it is cooler, and often, using damp paper towel is a quick way to get a cool start to a small number of germinating seeds for successive plantings.
Summer won't produce HUGE leaves as the spring and fall spinach, but the taste will still be very satisfying.
The same Reemay covers can be draped over the beds directly, and weighted with stones or boards, to protect the spinach to below zero. Where winters are very mild, spinach will withstand temperatures that hover around zero, or above, and can even revive after being openly snowed upon (as they did for us at DIGS last winter!)
Fall crops planted in September can be harvested into December. Winter crops planted in November will stop growing and then restart as daylight hours lengthen in the new year. Spring seeding can be started very early indoors, and then planted out. [end article added to by Jen and originally based on (Sept/Oct 2007) issue - Back Home Garden Magazine.)
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Note: There are also varieties of chard that are handy substitutes for true spinach with slightly different flavours and colours, as well as heat-tolerant New Zealand Spinach (not a true spinach by a good substitute) for those who wish to try it alongside their true spinach.
Please use the COMMENTS below and let us all in on your tales of spinachio! :>)
Nanaimo Community Gardens Classes - Connie Kuramoto is teaching some classes through Nanaimo Community Gardens, but they offer much more than that. Lots of other classes, and instructors, and they have plant sales on Wednesdays at their greenhouse behind Beban Park. Check them out. Everyone is welcome.
You can see the full descriptions of Gardening Classes held through Parks and Recreation Nanaimo in the Nanaimo Recreation Guide at this link. https://www.nanaimo.ca/ActivityGuide/48/
Looking ahead to May
There are a few events that you might be interested in. I will go into more detail in the next newsletter, but if you are interested you can mark these dates.
May 14 1pm Making Top Quality Compost Teas at the Doighouse Learning Center in Bowser/ Qualicum Bay
If you want to subscribe send request to connie.kuramoto@gmail.com
Quote of interest from March 2022 newsletter from Connie:
"I seed and transplant right into weedy areas by using the sheet mulch method. I cut down any weeds and let them lie where they fall. Then I cover them with at least 5 cm of compost. If I am seeding the It does not have to be finished compost. Then I put down six sheets of newspaper and wet them thoroughly before putting a few inches of soil or compost on top, then seeding. If I am transplanting plants into the bed, I cut down the weeds, and spread compost over everything. I then dig my holes, then put a scoop of compost into each hole. I plant the plants, then lay either 6 sheets of newspaper down, or one sheet of cardboard. I cover the cardboard with mulch and have a weed free bed for the rest of the season. "
We learned all about grape-pruning today in the Digs Garden, and many many thanks to Colin who is an excellent teacher! After watching the demonstration and listening closely to the wealth of expert knowledge being offered I was even inspired to do further reading on the topic (what a total keener! doh!).
Also I have a very cool grape pruning article from a U.K. gardener, which I'm going to put in our new 'articles about crops' black binder, and now I feel much more confident about the topic than before. Not that I have enough sun to grow grapes. ha ha.
On the web I looked up a few more short, informative sources on grape pruning and offer them below as a follow up to today's demonstration. Thanks so much Colin! You really know your stuff! Having special gardening topics is vunderbarr!! Thanks everyone who was there today. So fun!
Pruning Grapes General info for the home grape grower
If you are going to prune a grape vine to maximize edible grape production, you'll actually be "hard pruning" or severely cutting back your grape vines 2-3 times each year. Pruning your grape vines diverts the plant's energy from the roots and vines to create a smaller number of better tasting grape bunches. Cut off canes can be saved and rooted in spring with a successful rooting rate of approx. 50%. Grape pruning should be done in late February or early March but can be done earlier in warm areas like California and the West Coast where winters are temperate.
It's best to prune grapes after the roughest part of winter is over, but before the vine starts to grow for the new season.
New vines will grow from buds on last year's vines. If left unchecked, the vines will become an unruly mess - and can restrict air movement among the vines, which can add to vine mould and fungus problems which are typical especially in coastal B.C.
If you choose not to prune your grapes for fruit, you can instead grow a grape vine that can acts a a visual screen along a fence, or as a shade cover for a too hot window or even a south facing greenhouse that you wish to shade in the summer time. These are both good uses for grape vines on the West Coast, and you may actually taste some delicious grapes if the raccoons don't find your vines too quickly.
Many varieties of wine making grapes provide good eating as well; so grapes are worth trying if you have a sunny spot and supports. Netting can be problematic, so you may wish to plan the trellising you imagine for your grapes with future netting in mind. When planning to prune your grapes, so be sure to check out articles or books devoted specifically to pruning before diving in. This is an area that is MUCH researched and there are some fairly cool plans and methods that have been carefully worked out by many happy grape growers.
The following are some general grape pruning rules:
You should always trim off lateral shoots (shoots growing out to the side). This type of shoot is not very fruitful and should always be removed, unless you want the vine to grow into a support cane on the trellis.
Prune new shoots back hard the first couple of years to encourage the main vine to grow.
The best buds for fruit production on a cane are the sixth through twelfth buds. Buds after that are not as productive and should be pruned back, unless you need them to provide stabilization on the trellis.
Look for winter damage on your vines. Buds that are brown and brittle have been damaged by the winter weather, and should be pruned off.
Keep your vines pruned to allow maximum airflow and sunlight to reach the vines and fruit.
You will also want to protect your grape plants from pests, such as insects, birds, raccoons, and pathogens like mildew or fungus.
Birds will try to eat the grapes as they ripen. You can protect the fruit by throwing a net over the grape vine, but plan it to avoid the birds getting caught under the net, and being injured.
Growing grapes in a sunny location, with an abundance of air circulation can help cut down on powdery mildew and fungus growth. When checking with your local nursery, ask about grapevine species resistant to powdery mildew and fungus. There are several organic based products on the market today to help control both insects and fungus.
Hardwood Grape cuttings - An Overview Hardwood grapevine cuttings root quickly, making them an ideal choice for grapevine propagation. Take hardwood cuttings from a healthy, mature grapevine when the plant is dormant. An ideal time to take a cutting is after pruning the vineyard. No more than two cuttings should be taken from a cane, and don't use a cane tip. According to the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the New Mexico State University, it's not necessary to treat the cutting with a rooting hormone.
Step 1 Wipe the blades of the gardening shears with rubbing alcohol to sanitize and prevent the spread of plant disease. Do this between each cut.
Step 2 Cut a piece of cane that is five or six buds long. Make a slanting cut at the top of the cutting and a straight cut at the bottom (the end closest to the soil) of the cutting.
Step 3 Wrap the cuttings in moist peat moss and wrap in plastic. Store the package in the refrigerator until spring.
Step 4 Select a sunny location to plant the cuttings, with well-draining soil enriched with compost or well-rotted manure.
Step 5 Soak the cuttings in water for several hours prior to planting.
Step 6 Plant the cuttings, flat side down, leaving 2 to 3 inches of the cutting above the soil line. Space the cuttings 6-inches apart in rows. Space the rows between 2 to 4 feet apart.
*Thoughts of spring dancing in your head?
*Wondering what to grow in your garden this year?
*Time on your hands after the holidays?
*Want to read stories to your family?
*Time to curl up with a good book?
Ask Cate or Gillian how to sign up for a library card and order online for Covid delivery!
Old 2010 post read:
Drop by the Lending Library at 33 Cutlass Lkt, ring the bell, and choose to browse or borrow from over 300 gardening and children's books available for your reading pleasure...or drop by Mondays 3-4 p.m. when staffed. (Note: Closed daily from 1-3 p.m.)
Topics covered include: children's stories, garden murder mysteries, cookbooks, inspirational garden literature, pruning, organic gardening, seed saving, landscape design, companion planting, garden crafts, building garden structures, compost, birds, wildlife, herbs, vegetables, fruits, trees, flowers, native plants, wildflowers...and more...something for everyone. See you there!!
"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything."
ATTENTION GARDENERS: It’s time to ease ourselves back into gardening mode. To that end we will meet this Saturday, January 9th at 10am in the garden. Colin will be there to show us how to prune our grapes and how to propagate them if we wish. There have been some interesting developments over the holidays and so we will have a short information meeting. And there is always seaweed to collect for the compost piles. All are welcome.
1. On January 9th Colin will be at the community garden to show us how to prune our 2 grape vines and how to propogate grapes.
2. Colin also wants to remind any of you who might like some apple cider to start saving your wine bottles.
3. February 21 is the date of our AGM. The guest speaker this year is Connie Kuramoto, master gardener and growing guru. She will talk about "Gardening in Small Spaces" and answer your gardening questions.
4. It's time to start thinking about our Little Digger program. If you have any ideas or would like to supervise a lesson contact Jim. (250 -740 - 0317)
5.Is the group that did the seeds ordering last year going to do it again this year? If so, have any details been worked out?
6. It's still seaweed time. I have been collecting seaweed and moving it to the composter. If you would like to help I would love to hear from you.
7. The seeds for the giant onion contest have germinated! It's a new bigger variety! Sets will be available in February. Rules are the same as last year. More info to follow.
8. We are starting a "vegetable clipping binder" which contains magazine articles relating to specific vegetable crops we are growing in the garden. These articles describe tips on growing specific crops like peas or potatoes. Any articles you see that we might include would be most welcome. The binder is at my home now but it will be moved to the garden when the season starts.
