the exploration of winter veggies continues ..

parsnips .. 

size 9 parsnip ..

a while back .. during the summer .. i thinned the parsnip patch .. a few weeks later i pulled one to see what they were doing .. well, they'd been busy .. !!! .. that parsnip was as long as my shoe size .. ! .. a beautifull specimen, my friend, phil, might have said .. i was thrilled to see such a parsnip emerge .. i think i might have even done a little happy dance .. these the first parsnips that i've grown .. parsnips aren't a vegetable seen in many gardens .. and, although i've eaten a few they aren't my favourite veggie .. there are people who love eating parsnips .. (to each their own) .. from the time kathleen planted the seeds .. in a lovely curving pattern .. i'd watched these guys grow and tended them throughout the summer .. what a wonderfull reward for such a pleasurable task .. 

it's said that parsnips sweeten with frost .. so, of course i'd like to find out if that's true .. we've been attempting to stretch the harvest out over time .. the outcome of that 'experiment' is that there are now only a few waiting for a frost .. once i saw how beautifully they were growing it was hard not to pull them .. i have to work on my patience, in that regard .. it seems to me that there's a window of time when any vegetable is at it's 'best' .. i'm on the road to find out when and where that window is ..

brussel sprouts
 

brussel sprout's top ..

after transplanting the brussel sprouts into the garden they grew amazingly quickly .. before we knew it they were filing up the bed .. wonderfull beings .. standing tall and beautifull in bed #3 ..

'red ball' brussell sprout forming ..

since then i've learned a bit about how brussel sprouts grow ..

for instance .. different times when i'd been down to the garden i noticed that the little crotches .. where leaf meets stem .. were always filled with water .. at first, i was a bit concerned thinking that that water would be detrimental somehow .. (how quickly our mind moves into ignorant speculation .. ! ..) ..

then .. a little later, i read that brassicas actually enjoy a good shower .. that they like water .. that it's good to keep their soil moist .. when i went back to the garden .. armed with this new information .. i could see how the little sprouts really did seem to be enjoying the water that gathered around them .. as if it were a necessary element in their growth ..

then .. summer turned to autumn .. there was plenty of moisture while we were diligent in watering the garden throughout the summer .. but then october was turned out to be quite dry .. and i noticed that the moisture in the crotches of the sprouts had dried up .. knowing what i did about what brussell sprouts like i made a point of watering all the brassicas in an attempt to keep them happy .. we'll see ..

kohlrabi ..

kohlrabi is a vegetable that i was introduced to by the mother of a friend from junior high school in winnipeg .. susie's heritage was ukranian .. her mother was a wonderfull vegetable gardener .. kohlrabi was one of the many vegetables that thrived in her garden .. at first bite kohlrabi made it to my 'favourite veg' list ..

i've yet to have what i would call 'success' in growing it myself .. it's another mystery to solve .. kohlrabi seems to be more an autumn vegetable than a winter one .. at least so far as my observation have been up to now .. they grew quickly from seed .. and in fact i harvested three of four beauties right at the beginning of their strongest growth .. the ones that are left now .. perhaps a month or so later .. are completely different .. whereas the younger ones were tender and sweet .. the texture has changed as the kohlrabi has matured .. the sweetness remains .. certainly good enough for stews and soups .. or stirfrys .. more to learn next year ..

cabbage ..

look at this cabbage forming .. it's beautifull .. ! .. again, i've worked in gardens where cabbage were growing yet not paid much attention .. now this winter garden provides me with the opportunity to do just that .. pay attention as they grow .. i've been watching the cabbages more closely since i realized they were folding their teeny tiny leaves into a 'head' .. it's a slow process .. fascinating to watch ..

whenever i do a walkabout the garden i touch the cabbage heads to see how they're doing .. i can feel how loose the leaves still are .. as images of dense, almost translucent cabbages, come to my mind i think there's a long way to go before these little guys will grace anna's stand .. they're called 'january king' ..


the purple sprouting broccoli is .. i believe .. a late winter early spring crop .. west coast seeds suggest harvest is february to may .. this is another of those vegetables that i've grown fond of over the past couple of years .. it' so wonderfull to have fresh, crunchy sprouts at that time of year ..

the cauliflower mystifies me .. i'm watching closely but so far don't see a lot happening .. cauliflower are also an overwintering crop .. like the broccoli their growth slows down in the colder weather .. apparently they can handle temperatures of -12 to -19 degrees .. i haven't seen any little cauliflowers forming yet ..

during the next few winter months i'll continue to put any produce i harvest out on anna's stand .. there won't be many and the timing will likely be inconsistent .. so first come first served .. enjoy ..

our winter veggie garden is growing .. ! ..

this year we got curious about growing a winter vegetables .. inspired by gardeners from the east coast .. pacific northwest .. and britain .. and by paying attention to what to plant when, we now have quite an assortment of winter and autumn delights coming along in the garden ..

red ball brussel sprouts ..
for christmas .. ? ..

spinach .. scallions .. carrots ..
recently planted ..

turnips and radishes .. 

cauliflower .. 

we'll pull parsnips in october .. 

little cabbages already forming .. 

beets .. kohlrabi .. arugula .. 

as this is our first concerted effort to plant winter vegetables in this garden there's lots of experimentation going on .. consequently, there's just a few cabbages and cauliflowers planted .. two varieties of brussel sprouts .. half bed of purple sprouting broccoli .. we want to see how things grow for us .. discover what vegetables we like .. we'll try a few mustard greens and hardy lettuces and asian vegetables, too .. we'll put tents over these ones giving them some added protection .. from the rain, mostly ..

there's lots to learn about growing winter veg .. that's what this garden is for, in part .. to discover .. to learn .. to enjoy ..

so keep your eyes on ana's stand throughout the cooler months for some fresh winter delights ..

the brassica bed about a month ago ..
they're about 3 feet tall now .. 

Fall Fair coming up

FALL FAIR UPDATE
Just a few weeks left before our third Fall Fair – Friday, September 13th and Saturday, September 14th.

If you think you bake a great pie or loaf of bread or make a spectacular jam or jelly or produce anything else you can fit into one of the 16 categories, now is the time to get your entry ready for our fall fair. Brochures are on all the island bulletin boards as well.
________________________________

DIGS FALL FAIR ENTRY FORMS.
for SATURDAY, SEPT 14/2013

Name_________________________Phone_________________

Please circle the category below that you are entering. You may enter as many categories as you wish, but please fill out one form per entry with your name and phone no.
There is a $1.00 fee per entry.

All entries must be presented at Beacon House on Friday, Sept 13th (6 to 8 p.m.) or Saturday morning (9 to 10 a.m. ). PLEASE no late entries!

Beacon House will be closed to the public while the judging is taking place (Saturday morning, 10 a.m. to noon).
At noon on Saturday, the exhibits will be open for viewing.
Good Luck!

VISUAL ARTS

1. Best Painting
2. Best Sketch
3. Best Photograph
4. Best Natural Beach Art

HORTICULTURE

1. Biggest Zucchini
2. Most Unusual Vegetable
3. Single Heaviest Onion
4. Flower Arrangement...Three different varieties of flowers in a jam jar (minimum of
five blooms)
5. Three vegetables or fruit on a plate, same size and type.

BAKING/PRESERVES

1. Best Pie
2. Best Bread
3. Best Muffins
4. Best Jam/Jelly
5. Best Pickles/Chutney
6. Preserved Fruit in a Jar
7. Best Cookies
8. Best Buns
9. Best Cake
10. Best Fruit Crisp


HOME ARTS

1. Any Knitted or Crocheted Item
2. Any Type of Craft
3. Any wood working
4. Fabric Craft – needlepoint, felting, weaving, dyeing, sewn item

CHILDREN

Primary ( 6 years and under)
Junior (7 years and over)

1. Visual Arts – painting, drawing or sketch
2. Three veggies or fruit – same size and type on a plate (see rules in horticulture section
3. Cookies – 6 uniform size, same variety
4. Fabric craft
5. Ceramics or Woodworking

___________________________________
Also, at 12:00 several island vendors will be selling their wares on the back lawn of the Beacon House along with the librarians who are selling books.

Hot Dogs,($3.00) pop and ice cream bars ($1.00) will be available at the bar starting at 12 noon.

Jim H. will be pressing apples and making juice on the back lawn as well. Bring a container and you can take home some fresh apple juice!

On the lower field Veronica will be organizing different races for the kids – sack race, egg and spoon race and three legged race.

Kid's races will start at 1:30pm.

New this year is the Partner Calling Contest.
Entrants, male or female, can be loud, seductive or nasty.... or be creative....

Saturday evening (7:30 pm) the fall fair wraps up with a dance in the Beacon House with a variety of music including line dance lessons there will be snacks.

Tickets for the dance are $5.00 each (kids get in free) and are available from Margaret.

Get ready for the Fall Fair!

Photos from early June

Dear Garden Lovers,
The Little Diggers have been growing giant vegetables (in pvc pipes against the fence), planting squash and tomatoes, and all sorts of other things (sifting soils, potting up summer plants). The Big Diggers have been harvesting spinach, lettuce, beet greens, chard, snow peas, and watching everything burst into summertime liveliness.
Enjoy these photos.
Two Sundays in early June.




To enlarge, click on photos above, and choose SLIDESHOW fullscreen. (F11)

Direct link to photos. (in case you don't see above slideshow on your computer.)

Best, Jen

Photos - newsletter & plant sale

Here is a tiny handful of bake-sale plant-sale photos from Saturday.



To enlarge, click on the photos and choose FULLSCREEN slideshow.

Also, lots of folks wanted to see colour photos from our island's most recent newsletter.

Here's a direct link: newsletter photos from Jen.
Here's a slideshow.



To enlarge, click on the photos and choose FULLSCREEN slideshow.

Best, Jen

P.S.
Here are some requested simple garden charts for our DIGS planting this year:
What goes where?

How's the old rotation going? (read months at right side bar bottom to top).
Getting ready to plant Tomato, Carrots and Beans after May 24th when soil is warmer. All beds rotated to prevent pests and diseases.
 Bed numbers at top for community plots:

Also: when to plant which seeds in our climate?

Here is a sample of a gardener's timetable from the U.K.(which has similar climate as P.I.)
You can enlarge the chart, large enough to read, just click on the the image below. To return here, click on the upper right X or use the BACK button to return to the blog.



If you need a printed versions of any of the above, look on the DIGS bulletin boards.

Plant & Bake Sale Upcoming - Little Diggers

PLANT SWAP AND SALE

DIGS annual plant swap and bake sale is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 11 at 10 am at the community garden. Friday will be a day to help set up, and Saturday early will be great if you're bringing baking.


===============================================

LITTLE DIGGERS

Little Diggers Gardening Program began on April 6 but you can join in at any time.
All island children are welcome .
We will meet in the community garden at 10:30 am on Sundays through the season starting May 1st.

There is a $5.00 registration fee per child.

If you require more information please contact Jim Harris at meharris@telus.net

See you SUNDAYS, 10:30 am, for little diggers, rain or shine!

What does ORGANIC really mean?

Dear Garden lovers,

Today at DIGS we were talking about organic seed and organic fertilizers.
There was much confusion about the term "organic" so I went home and looked it up, and guess what?
It's a hugely confusing word.

Organic when applied to vegetables and fruits can mean
a) grown without pesticides, and/or
b) grown without chemically produced fertilizer

And note that there are fertilizers made from pulverized rock, so they are not "chemically produced" in a lab, but mined and simply pulverized, like limestone for lime or Potash for Potassium.
What you'd be environmentally conscious of would be the soundness of the mining practices.

What we all also wanted for our DIGS garden was definitely also non-GMO as in:

c) grown without genetic modified organisms (GMO)
d) sold through a non-supporting-of-Monsanto seed company
(not supporting GMOs and not linked to Monsanto who've bought up many seed companies but left their original brand names in tact so you can't tell they're "Monsanto").

a) b) c) and d) we've achieved! (Yay!)
But now, what about organic seed?

Oganic Seed
We've managed to purchase all our DIGS seeds from companies that do not support GMOs nor Monsanto, but since we often pick veggie varieties by their best veggie qualities (like Blue Lake Green Beans, for example) the varieties we pick are not always certified "organic seed."

Organic seed is certified not to have been treated with pesticide, but it does not guarentee better flavour, stronger plants, or higher yields. It is not always clear whether or not the crop for seeds has been treated with organic fertilizer only, and that also leads to some confusion.

So does buying organic seeds matter?
Yes it does matter if you want to generously support all the organically certified farms that produce that seed without pesticide use. That's the way to insure they can continue to thrive. Conventional seed crops often receive more pesticide sprayings than the same varieties grown for eating.
But the pesticide does not stay on the seed, which is cleaned before packaging.
To the best of my knowledge the pesticide is not inside the seed itself.

So buying "organic seed" fully supports future research and development of organic/sustainable farming practices. And we do want to support that. So, so good so far.

But there's more "organic fertilizer" confusion to wade through....

Organic fertlizer:
There seems to be confusion in the general talk about "organic" fertilizer and none of my online reading has really cleared this conundrum up. (see links below)

Fertilizer replenishes the plant food in the soil. Besides trace mineral/elements, all plants also need nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (K), and despite putting tons of well-composted organic manure on a home garden, it's still possible that you're cropping so intensively that your soil is short in N, Ph, or K.
So even if you add lots of perfectly gorgeously ready-to-fertlize-your-veggies manure (and remember uncomposted manure is too "hot" and scorches plants) that you can still be short of N, Ph, K and those trace elements and may have to amend by using some organic fertilizer.

So we'll do our best at DIGS, and remain 100% pesticide and GMO free, and will try to keep up on the copious Organic reading.
Good luck. It's one confusing word that's still being defined even as we speak!
Best, Jen
_________________
Reading
_____________________
What organic means - source for info. on a complex topic:

What food production processes can be called "organic" in Canada?
What substances are permitted and prohibited for use in organic agriculture?

CAN/CGSB-32.311, Organic Production Systems – Permitted Substances Lists, includes the following substances lists:

•Crop production including fertilizers, plant foods, soil amendments, crop production aids and materials, and weed management

•Livestock production including feed, feed additives and feed supplements, health care products and production aids

•Processing and sanitation including organic ingredients, non-organic ingredients and with organic ingredients, processing aids, cleaners, disinfectants and sanitizers, and pest control substances

read more from: http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ongc-cgsb/programme-program/normes-standards/comm/32-20-agriculture-eng.html
---------------
What is organic seed?

http://houseplants.about.com/od/propagatingyourplants/a/What-Are-Organic-Seeds.htm
----------------------------
What is the definition of organic farming?
(2001) Organic farming is based on a simple principle, namely strict respect for the links and natural balances between the soil, plants and animals (animals nourish the soil, which nourishes plants), to which is added the constraint of a prohibition against synthetic chemicals.(2)
From this principle and this constraint follow a number of agricultural practices which distinguish organic from conventional farming, including:
a prohibition against chemical fertilizers and pesticides, plant and animal growth regulators, hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, etc.;
a prohibition against genetically modified organisms;
a prohibition against soilless culture (which does not exclude greenhouse growing);
the requirement, in the case of animal production, to allow free ranging, to use organically produced feed, to limit animal density in buildings, etc.; and
the requirement to observe conversion periods in crop production before any “organic” commercial exploitation, etc.
The supporters of organic farming add a social and ethical aspect to the definition of organic farming, because they see in it a means of preserving a human dimension in agriculture, one that is respectful of the environment and in touch with the consumer.
from:
http://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/prb0029-e.htm
----------------
What about organic meat, eggs, milk?
http://www.thestar.com/news/2008/04/27/what_is_the_meaning_of_organic.html
-------------------
Can manure substitute for organic fertilizers?
http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/fertilizing-old-fashioned-way-with-manure.aspx
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1192.html
-----------------
What are the standards for organic manure?
http://www.cog.ca/faq/index.php?action=search&tagging_id=17
===============================

update on the lasagna bed

the last layer we'd added to the lasagna bed, at the time of the last blog post, was seaweed .. since then a lovely, thick layer of compost was added from two of the three bin composters .. since the three bin composters are moving into a different position, it seemed like a good idea to empty them .. this very long bed emerging by the fence provided the perfect place for the compost to go .. besides compost seems like an  appropriate addition to the lasagna bed .. jessie moved all the compost from the middle bin, and about 1/2 from the bin on the left and put it on top of the seaweed .. the compost wasn't fully 'mature' but in a bed like this one, that's irrelevant since the entire bed is in the process of breaking down ..

the compost was laid down on one saturday morning, and two weeks later shari and marilyn added this final layer of dirt .. it's looking really good .. we've already noted the rate that the bed is changing as all the layers melt together, and are looking forward to planting it in the spring .. one of the first things we'll plant will be "mike's glee," the rhododendron which the garden bought in remembrance of our dear friend and fellow gardener, mike matthews .. it's going right in this corner by the gate ..

i read recently that this type of bed building is also referred to as 'sheet composting' or 'sheet mulching' and has been around for many hundreds of years .. the 'no-dig' aspect is very appealing and, even though i am a gardener who loves to dig, i can see that this method of building a bed could have a place in any garden .. i think part of the beauty is that a lasagna bed can take any shape a gardener can imagine ..

the next phase, once spring arrives, will be to plant deer resistant plants .. down at the garden we're already comparing notes, and would appreciate any input you might have to offer .. i'll do my best to keep you updated regarding plants chosen and how it's all going .. of course, you can wander by any time and take a look for yourself ..

a new addition .. outside the back fence ..

have you noticed the new addition to the garden ..

can you tell what it is? .. pretty fancy-schmancy .. 

it's the new-to-the-garden composting toilet .. jim h. made a 4x4 frame for it to sit on, and then last week he and three other fellows brought it over from barb nield's to the garden on a trailer .. then the four men hoisted it off the trailer and settled it outside the fence behind the greenhouse ..

no more chemical toilet .. we're into a whole other level of organics here at the community garden ..

now we just have to learn what to do with it .. ! ..

what's happening outside the fence ..

i've been asked several times, by different people, about what's happening outside the front fence line at the garden .. well, folks, here it is .. we're using a popular no-dig technique called "lasagne gardening" .. what is lasagne gardening you might ask .. well, we're finding out .. few of us have created a bed this way before, so we're working at it and watching how it's all going to come together .. the idea is simple, really .. like a lasagne, the bed is built up in layers .. the first layer for us was cardboard, which we laid down and then happily let the rain drench thoroughly .. the idea is that the cardboard will suffocate the grass underneath as more layers are added .. the next layer was straw .. next seaweed .. we'll keep adding layers of different organic materials until the 'bed' reaches about 2 feet in height .. then, it will sit over the winter and be planted in the spring ..

this technique is not unlike how we build the compost in the three bin system we have .. i've been compost using a layering method for over fifteen years with great success, so i'm feeling pretty positive about the outcome of our first attempt at lasagne gardening ..

the kicker after that is that we will plant it exclusively with deer proof plants .. !! .. that will be the challenge, but one i think we're up to .. if you have any favourite deer proof perennials .. or shrubs .. maybe you could let us know ..

so keep posted .. i think there's lots to learn from this bed ..