Growing Giant Onions

 December's earthy excitement is in growing the Giant Onions (see photo below) for the Giant Onion Contest at our Fall Fair each year. Luckily most of the work is done for you as you can pick up your giant onion sprouts from DIGS, already sown and grown indoors under lights, and then all you have to do is care for the wee sprouts and plant them in the ground when it's warm enough (in March) and then grow them as large as you possibly can and win the prize at the fall fair (as Jim often does; do you want to beat Jim?)  :>) Photo shows what he's capable of.

Here are Jim Harris's words of advice on this topic.

______________________

Fall Fair Bulletin #3

How To Grow Giant Onions 

by Jim Harris 2024

 Onions are a long season crop and must be started early in the darkest and coldest part of the year. To that end I will plant the giant onion seed in mid-December. The particular seed I'm using is from a single giant onion I grew two years ago.

 I will grow the seedlings through January and February and you will be able to pick up some giant onion seedlings in March, when they should be planted outdoors. The reason I'm speaking about this now is that what you can be doing right now is preparing a garden bed for these future transplanted onions. Be prepared for the year ahead.

 Firstly, find a sunny spot, spread manure or leaves or peat on top, sprinkle with dolomite lime and a measured amount of high phosphorus fertilizer (high middle number of the three numbers on the bag; a good example is "Superphosphate") and dig it all in.

When planting out the seedlings, I like to put a tomato cage over the plants to support the leaves and to top mulch the onion bed. 

You must water regularly and use a high Nitrogen fertilizer (a high first number of the three on the bag) until June 21st. Then you can switch and fertilize with a low Nitrogen fertilizer. You should end up with both a Fall Fair entry (largest onion) and also a great ingredient for making French onion soup next fall. 

Good luck!

______________________end Jim's advice

For those wanting to learn more about perfecting your onion growing know-how here are some visuals:

How to grow giant onions:

Part 2: caring for seedlings (video):

Part 3: Onion harvesting, curing and storing (video):

_____________________

Happy growing,

Jen for DIGS

Let's Grow Dahlias!

 

Let’s grow Dahlias! by Claire C.

Dahlia’s are a wonderfully strong, colourful, showy plant that are great for cutting.   There are over 50,000 varieties within about 40 species, with 15 recognized colours.  

Fall  October - November 

If you still have dahlias blooming in your garden - great! but they will soon die down with the first frost.

Now is a good time to either: 

1. Cut down the stocks and leave the tubers in the ground with as much mulch as you can on top and keep your fingers

crossed for a winter that isn’t too wet and freezing.  

Dahlias tubers don’t like being wet and if they freeze they will die.  

2.  If you’d like to save some of the tubers from your plants now is the time to dig them up, wash them off, divide them, and store them. 

You are likely to have between 6-10 tubers from each of your plants.   

There is a lot of information on how grow, dig, and store dahlias and I’ll reference my two favourite websites for complete directions.  

Floretflowers.com offers a free fall mini course on digging, dividing, and storing dahlias.  This is a free course but you have to register.  Click on the banner near the top of their website to watch the videos.  

The American Dahlia Society also offers a ton of information on all aspects of growing dahlias. The Dahlia University section is great for viewing various topics of interest.   

Spring March-May

I usually wake up my stored tubers early April.  If I see an eye growing on the crown I plant them in small to medium pots with good soil until they are ready to plant out in the garden about mid May.  Dahlias like to be planted out roughly when your tomatoes do and for our areas and "never before the snow is gone from Mt. Benson." (according to a seasoned grower). 

Generally a a water soluble or granular fertilizer or one with a higher nitrogen number can be used until mid summer when the nitrogen should be minimized.  

Dahlias are not the favourite food of deer but they are definitely NOT deer proof.  I keep most of mine behind a fence but I also have some in unfenced areas in our yard.   

If you’d like to buy dahlia tubers from growers in the Nanaimo area the Nanaimo Gladiolus and Dahlia Society has a tuber sale near the end of April at Country Club Mall.  When the date has been finalized I will post to the ProIsle Group and you are welcome to contact me there by email for more information.  

In closing I’d like to thank all of you who have bought dahlias from my stand.  I will continue to do this to raise funds for our local food bank - Loaves and Fishes.  

Happy growing - Claire C.

Become a Lettuce Monarch!

 Dear Garden Lovers,

The time has come for me to move my "Lettuce Queen" focus onto other projects, and so I am handing over the growing of our community garden's lettuce to the next Lettuce Monarch who has stepped forward to take on the tossed salad of it all. Currently there are six flats of sprightly spring lettuce babies in the big poly greenhouse at DIGS which need an occasional look-in until March (keep them from freezing or drying out). Hopefully they will not freeze if we can get it together, and others will take over this miniature crop of starters for the winter. Thanks so much for Sheny for offering to do next spring and summer's lettuce crop! Happy news!! :>D

Here is all the best info. on how to grow lettuce below.

I use the West Coast Garden Guide  to determine our coastal growing season for lettuce (March through October) and have planted several different varieties to determine the best eating lettuce. It's fun to experiment!

Here was my easy kitchen table method:

 On damp ProMix soil/media, sprinkle a few lettuce seeds every couple of weeks. Once the seeds have sprouted, transplant them gently into six packs (36 plants per tray - mix up the colours; make a quilt!) on a table at DIGS, in the shade. Keep them watered and then eventually move each lettuce into a one gallon container or into a raised bed. I even recycled the plant-sale media (old soil) and mixed it with leaf mould to create a no-cost mixture to plant the mature lettuce into their gallon pots. Add a sprinkling of organic pelleted fertilizer; plonk in the lettuce plug.  Easy. 

Click on pictures to enlarge them.

The biggest enemies of lettuce are slugs and too much heat/sun. So at DIGS we grow them on a shady table (slugs can't jump that high), keeping them safe until they have grown to the hardy size that slugs will leave alone before planting them out into beds around the Community Garden. Anywhere shady is a good bet. We also use Safer's Ferrous Sulphite  to get rid of slugs in the raised beds.

More info. below.

Best, Jen

How to grow great lettuce video.

All my notes are below:

Types of Lettuce:

- Jim H. has my all the lettuce seeds from this year. We take our seeds home and keep them in the fridge in waterproof containers. Seeds kept dry and cool can last up to ten years.

 - some useful lettuce varieties are "slow to bolt" which are great for July and August heat

- some are called "winter lettuce" which tend not freeze until it gets truly icy. Have fun looking at the catalogues. 

- most lettuce we grow is leaf-lettuce and we leave it to mature as long as possible so people can pick outer leaves and keep growing the centers.

- also some of the "head lettuce" never actually forms a head at DIGS (the raccoons chomped on the iceburg lettuce just as it was making heads last year, the idiots!) so don't feel bad if you only get floppy leaves. All is beloved. :>)

The most popular lettuce variety last year that did make a head was a little Boston lettuce called "Tom Thumb" (harvest one head per person; so cute!) from West Coast Seeds.

- romaine has been the one most successful head-forming lettuce to grow and is sturdy and resilient.

- eaters also tended to like curly bright lime green leaf  lettuces such as "Black Simpson" and "Grand Rapids".

- feel free to purchase seed and get reimbursed or ask Jim & Veronica to order

- pelleted lettuce seed can be very hard to sprout; avoid it unless you really want that variety.

- if you are trying to sprout pelleted lettuce, use wet paper towel between two yogurt lids, and wrap in plastic for three days. Once the pellets split and the seed emerges as a sprout, tweeze out the sprouts gently and plant in moist pro-mix; I also do this with spinach to save time.

Timing:

- As a 55-60 day crop for lettuce you just count back from when you want to harvest and plant on the date 60 days earlier the number you wish to have. I only every planted 20-30 seeds a week or every two weeks to be sure I didn't run out of table or bed space.

Light levels:

- lettuce seeds are stimulated to sprout in the light so do not cover the seeds deeply. I just sprinkle a tiny amount of soil over the seeds, barely covering them.

- lettuce plants can live on 3 hrs. of dappled sunlight a day. At DIGS they get mid-morning light and are shaded for the hottest part of the day by the forest height along that front fence.

Temperatures:

- lettuce loves an average temperature of 10 to 22 C degrees (peak seasons are May-June, and Sept-Oct due to this factor).

- hotter than 23 C in the daytime and it starts to go bitter and bolt, so plan to have baby lettuces ready to replace those going leathery leaved, or which are about to bolt. Baby lettuces can withstand the heat due to youth, but shading material also handy.

- if colder than 10 lettuce starts growing slowly (lack of sunlight will also arrive at same time usually) but as long as it doesn't freeze it can be held at 5 C all winter (Veronica suggests transplanting those six-packs to bigger 4" pots and maybe double cover with Reemay, or keep a lightbulb to create heated greenhouse?). In the spring when the light and heat increase, those over-wintered teenage lettuce will mature rapidly if it doesn't freeze and soak.

- I spoke to Veronica about how to deal with the unheated greenhouse lettuce this year, and we're still looking for some styrofoam to put under the crop, and for Jim to put the winter doors on the greenhouse. (next year we'll have the new heated greenhouse but will have to use sterilized media/pots).

Fertilizer:

- ProMix already has some plant fertilizer in it, apparently.

- once the plants go into six packs a little boost of diluted liquid organic fertilizer can be helpful if plants are yellowing

- when filling the gallon pots (bottom half leaf-mold, top half used pro-mix) I put a scant teaspoon of "Real McCoy" granular fertilizer in each gallon pot right at the lettuce's root level.

Watering:

- in hottest weather it's likely the lettuce will need a good soak once per day. They are 98% water and will wilt, go leathery, stunt, if not kept cool and moist. I used to water at 8-9 am with the hose. The other lettuce beds are looked after by whomever is on the roster. They might need double checking if the person doesn't come every day.

Spacing:

- you can space teenager plants quite densely and then harvest some plants at a younger/smaller stage to let the bigger ones grow into the spaces left.

- if you're getting rid of older lettuce seed packets, you can plant very densely for a square of "cut and come again" mesclun (mixed lettuce types) which can be harvested with scissors and left to grow twice/three times.

Supplies:

 - soil and compost at back of garden outside the fence

- pots, Pro-Mix bails, wheelbarrow, and flats/six-packs in brown tent

- organic pelleted fertilizer in Joyce's Greenhouse

Giant Garlic tips for next year's Fair

 

This year's winner was so large, the earth shook!

The 2024 Fall Fair is now a happy piece of P.I. history, and already planning has begun for the 2025 version scheduled for Sept. 6, 2025.

Will you be ready for next year's fair with your GIANT GARLIC?

Written by Mike G. former garlic professional:

Believe it or not, there are some things that need to be done now to prepare your entries for next fall’s fair, namely The Largest Garlic Bulb competition.

The winning bulb in the 2024 Fair weighed in at 7.5 ozs (or 178 grams). If you’d like to beat that bulb, here’s what you have to do this month, according to Mike and Andria Gillespie, DIGS’ growers who used to run their own commercial garlic farm in the Ottawa Valley:

First you have to understand that garlic is not a difficult crop to grow and by following just a few directions now you could be in next year’s winning circle.

Find a sunny, fairly dry spot to grow your bulbs. It doesn’t take a whole lot of space. Keep in mind garlic doesn’t like to “get its feet wet” so water sparingly during dry spells. 

Prepare the soil this month by working in lots of compost to feed the fungi and bacteria. Remember, at this point, you are feeding the soil, not the plants. That compost will be broken down to feed the garlic when it’s planted. Also, it’s time to work in a little fertilizer, (they all have three numbers on the bags. You’ll want one with a low nitrogen rating — first of the three numbers. You don’t want to produce a lot of leafy growth, rather something to help the roots develop  (that’s the job of phosphorus, the second number). The third component is potassium, another key nutrient. A mix of 4-10-10 is something to aim for.

The type of garlic you plant should come from a reliable garden centre or garlic grower. (Planting bulbs from the grocery store is a non-starter since they are often chemically treated to stop them from sprouting). Look for a variety like Red Russian and a bulb size of at least two inches across at the base. Store bulbs in a dry, cool place until you’re ready to plant.

Planting in this region is generally best at the end of October into early November. Here’s how to plant:

The day before planting, crack open each of your bulbs (by sliding a blunt blade between the cloves and twisting to loosen the first clove — the rest can now be pulled off).

Press each of the cloves four inches into the soil (butt end down). Space your cloves at least four inches apart in rows. Cover the plantings, sprinkle a handful of fertilizer over the bed and then top with a mulch of chopped-up leaves or straw.

Your crop is now ready for winter. Underground, while there’s still some warmth in the soil, the cloves will establish a small root before going into dormancy.

Come spring, the cloves will start to shoot through the mulch, which can either be left in place to help control weeds or teased off the shoots.

By mid June each of the plants, now about knee-high, will begin to produce a “scape” — a small bulb coming out of the top of the plant. Once that scape has coiled around, snap that coil off and remove the tough grassy spike at the top. Your scapes can be enjoyed fresh, chopped up into one-inch pieces and sautéed in butter or olive oil until soft (delicious on rice, new potatoes, fish, etc.). You can also chop them up, pop them into the freezer and use all winter in stews, sauces or soups. Be aware, to leave scapes on the plants will suck all the bulbs’ energy, so make sure you take them off.

By mid-July when half the plants’ leaves have turned brown, it’s time to harvest your crop (it’s a seasonal dance — bulbs left too long start to lose their paper and won’t store well, picked too soon and they’ll be missing out on potential growth).

Pull the bulbs gently from the bed, tease the dirt from the roots and bunch them (10 to a bunch is good), then hang on a rack in a dry shed to cure for two weeks.

Now you’ll soon be ready to start preparing your entry (follow the directions) for the Fall Fair’s garlic competition.

Be sure to save a quarter of your crop for replanting next fall. Just leave your good-sized bulbs hanging in the shed until planting time. For calculation, just remember there’s usually about five cloves to a bulb, so keep that in mind when planning the size of next year’s crop (e.g.: 10 bulbs will produce about 50 plants — an amount eaten by the average family over the winter. But don’t forget, too, bulbs for your next crop.

Happy growing!

Mike G. for Digs

Tomato science & fall planting

 Tomato science! Did you know these things? (video)

And if you enjoyed the above video, you may find these two also of tomato growing interest: (video1) (video2)

Now is the last chance for seeding fall crops (see right side bar links to see the BC coastal planting chart for veggies, from WestCoastSeeds.) and Hakurei turnip have been planted (2 weeks apart) in Bed no. 1 under Reemay cloth (prevents roots being ruined by chewy bugs).

And this past week we uncovered the white Reemay cloth from the carrots and parsnips so you can see what they look like (the chewy bugs are hopefully finished their life cycle for those crops). Carrots can be tasted by those gardeners who are curious. These are not as sweet as last year's. They are Bolero instead of Nantes, so the sugar quantity is naturally lower.

Still rhubarb, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini to be harvested every few days to keep the plants producing continuously. Enjoy these harvests, as cold weather of fall is coming!!

Jen for DIGS

Garlic Braid Raffle

 Dear Garden Lovers,

Each year we sell raffle tickets to win one of these three gorgeous garlic braids. All proceeds go to support our garden (to buy peat moss/wire/string/potting soil/planting materials/lumber etc.).

The garlic was grown here on P.I. by us organically and was expertly strung into professional braids by Mike G. They are beautiful as they are tasty. You just hang it in your kitchen and snip each head of garlic off the braid as you need it, and the braid will last all winter.

Tickets to win a braid of giant, organic garlic will go on sale at the Fall Fair on Sept. 7th.  at $2 a ticket, or three tickets for $5. 

There will be three draws for one garlic braid each time.

You may also get a Great Garlic Raffler coming door to door with tickets, so sit back and wait,  and don't count your cloves until they're smashed!

 Three draws for one braid each time. Consider the odds. And aren't they radiant (see photo)..... Zoom in on the botanical photo, bottom right, to see some exquisite garlicy beauty. :>)

Click on photo to enlarge it.

Veggie News in early August

Find out about our Fall Fair here. It's the tiniest but it's the BEST! :>)

DIGS veggie news from this past July:

Sorry for not much blogging in July. But here's what's planted in each bed at the moment as of August 3rd:

click on map to enlarge it

And now for the diggy veggie specific news....

First the bad news:

HEADLINE - Destructo Rocky Racoon and his Relatives Strike Again:

 Raccoons broke through the TOP of the bird netting over the raspberry cage, and, as usual, lumpishly crashed through the fruiting canes. Depressing for the humans, but extremely fun for the drooly racoons. Notice they only go for the caged raspberries. They don't touch the blueberries (also caged) nor do they eat many of the ever-bearing raspberries, which are open and easy to reach. Strange.

We await the annual feeling of raccoon DOOM when they eat all the grapes and apples just on the very day they were ripe. Yikes.

Also this week a bird (likely) nipped off the growing tip of the newly planted clematis. (what?!) We'd replanted a new one after losing the climbing clematis to frost this past winter.

Also, 45% of the more aristocratic garlic suffered Fusarium Wilt  and had to be destroyed. Usually we have a modest sized crop, but this year not so much.

And now for the good news:

We are harvesting lots of blueberries, kale, chard, rhubarb, green beans and broccoli right now. Come on down on Saturday mornings at 10am and be part of the tasty harvesting!!

The many many heads of lettuce had to be harvested during that 32 degree heat wave, but in a week or two, there will be more lettuce to make salads with. Right now garden workers can pick outer, larger leaves from the bigger lettuces by the gate and on the table.

The early potatoes this year were glorious, creamy dreamy and thin skinned. What a pleasure. We are also harvesting New Zealand Spinach (not everyone's fave, but prolific) and the zucchini are starting to come in (grated with onion for pancakes is a great use for them now!).

And in curious news:

The parsnips were successful, but now seem to be bolting in the heat! Will they work? Will the transplanted ones be hydra-headed?

Also, I'm curious if it's too early to start fall spinach, so have twelve tiny spinach seedling in my air-conditioned house right now. Wish me luck!

The specially cared-for DIGS carrots are terrific, try reaching under the Reemay to try one. Are you curious to taste what a real organic carrot is like?

Come on down and visit the garden. It's looking so very LUSH!

Harvesting on Saturday mornings is a togetherness activity! See you there!

Best, Jen

Fall Fair on Sept. 7th, 2024

DIGS Tenth Annual Fall Fair 2024!

Saturday, September 7th at Beacon House on P. I. with a dance in the evening!

Submit your competition entries at Beacon House on:

Friday, September 6th: from 6pm - 8pm 

OR

Saturday, September 7th : from 8am - 9:00 am (Baking entries only Saturday morning)

How the day will go: September 7th, Saturday

9 am to 12:30 Beacon House CLOSED for judging

12:30 pm OPEN to 3 pm with Hot Dogs, Chips, Drinks available

View exhibits

Garlic Braid Raffle (Tickets only)

Kids Races

Cock-a-Doodle Poo contest

Coconut Shie

Kids Face Painting

Egg tosses – 1) kids 2) adult

Adult Tug of War

Pick up your competition entries and ribbons from 3pm to 4pm

7pm to 9 pm DANCE AT BEACON HOUSE  Entry is FREE!!

_________________________________

GENERAL RULES FOR ALL ENTRIES

1. NO LATE ENTRIES will be accepted. See times on previous page.

2. Adults…one dollar PER entry. NO entry fee for children, even if entered in an adult category. Enter as many items as you wish.

3. Two age categories for children and teens:

Primary 7 years and under

Junior 8 to 14 years

Children and teens may enter in their age category OR they may choose to challenge the adults in their categories

4. Entries must be MADE or GROWN or BAKED by the entrant within the last 12 months.

5. There are 5 categories and several classes within each larger category (see below).

Ribbons for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places will be awarded for each class within a category.

_____________

CATEGORIES (please read instructions carefully)

VISUAL ARTS

1. Painting

2. Sketch in black and white mounted on a black mat (no frame or glass) (black mat supplied if required)

3. Photograph mounted on a black mat (no frame or glass)

4. Natural Beach Art

5. Carving/Sculpture/Wood Working

6. Card Making using photographs

HORTICULTURE

“BEST” means best representation of species

1. Biggest Squash

2. Best Root Vegetable

3. Biggest Zucchini by Weight

4. Biggest Onion by weight (roots removed, tops folded over with elastic)

5. Largest Garlic Bulb by weight (roots removed, top trimmed to 1”)

6. Biggest Tomato by weight

7. Best Potted Herbs

8. Flower arrangement of any variety

9. Single Bloom

10. Best Apple

11. Best Tomato

BAKING/PRESERVES

Special Category: Judge's Challenge Recipe* Soft Pretzels! See below for recipe details for this special entry in the baking section.

1. Pie, any variety, topped (crust, crumble etc.)

2. Muffins (4 of one variety)

3. Yeast Breads or Buns…white, brown, whole grain, sourdough

4. Coffee cake or Loaf cake

5. Cookies, six of uniform size, same variety

6. Cake, any layer cake with icing or frosting

7. Fruit Crisp

8. Judge’s Challenge: entrants bake the judge’s recipe

9. Homemade Candy, Fudge, Peanut Brittle

10. Kombucha (fermented tea in clear glass container)

NOTE: The following must be in containers with standard 2 part lids, hot water sealed and labelled with the date.

11. Jam, Jelly, Marmalade

12. Pickles, Chutney, Relishes, Salsa

13. Fruit preserves

HOME ARTS AND CRAFTS

1. Knitted or Crocheted item

2. Ceramics, pottery

3. Sewn item

4. Felting

5. Spinning

6. Weaving

7. Dyeing

8. Needle Work

9. Quilting

10. Rug Hooking

11. Card making – crafted or drawn

CHILDREN– Primary (7 and under) Junior (8 to 14)

1. Visual Arts (painting, sketch- mounted on black mat, beach art, photograph – mounted on black mat)

2. Best dressed or decorated veggie or fruit

3. Baking (for Juniors only 8 to 14)

4. Fabric or Wool craft

5. Ceramics – pottery or woodworking

6. Lego structure

7. Play dough structure

8. Biggest Maple Leaf

9. Script Handwriting (not printing)

______________________

*Judge’s Challenge Recipe

SOFT PRETZELS - Four 4" pretzels

Recipe must be followed exactly. No substitutions.

First prize will be a $25.00 Thrifty’s Gift Certificate

Ingredients:

1 and ½ cups (360ml) warm water

2 and ¼ tsp (8g) instant or active dry yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled

3 and ¾ cups – 4 cups all-purpose flour (469-500g)

2 tbsp coarse salt for sprinkling on tops

baking soda bath: ½ cup baking soda 9 cups water

Directions:

In large bowl or stand mixer bowl, whisk yeast into warm water. Allow sit for 1 min. Then whisk in the salt, sugar and melted butter. Slowly add 3 cups of flour into bowl, 1 cup at a time.

Mix with wooden spoon or dough hook attached to stand mixer, until thick. Add 3/4 cup more flour until no longer sticky. If still sticky add 1/4 cup more flour or as needed. Poke dough with finger; if bounces back it is ready to knead.

Continue to knead the dough in the mixer with dough hook and beat for additional 5 full minutes. Or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes. Sprinkle in 1 tsp of flour at a time if the dough gets too sticky while kneading.

Shape the kneaded dough into a ball. Cover lightly with a towel and allow to rest for 10 mins.  Meanwhile boil 9 cups water and Baking Soda.

Preheat oven 400°F. (205°C)

Cut dough into 1/3 cup sections (about 75g each). Roll each section into a 20-22 inch rope. Form a circle with the dough by bringing the two ends together at the top of the circle. Twist the ends together. Bring the twisted ends back down towards yourself and press them down to form a pretzel shape.

Drop 1-2 pretzels into the boiling water & baking soda. Remove after 20-30 seconds using a slotted spoon. Remove as much excess water, place pretzel onto baking sheet lined with silicone or parchment paper, sprinkle with coarse salt. If using parchment paper it is recommended to lightly spray with a nonstick spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 400 F. (204 C.) until golden brown.

Submit for Contest: 4 Pretzels x 4 inches in size

_________________

Reminder: PLEASE PICK UP YOUR ENTRIES AFTERWARD, between 3 to 4 pm and see you there!!

____________________

June plantings & harvest

click on photos to enlarge

Now being harvested by our team of Saturday morning 10am planters:

Bed 17c - lettuce - the outer-most leaves can be picked to make salads.

Bed 21 - mesclun 'cut and come again'  lettuce can be cut with scissors one row at a time; ask how! (you cut horizontally leaving 2" of base to grow all over again.)

Bed 17a - Hakruei turnip has been harvested and replaced with parsnips!

Also: Asparagus, rhubarb individual harvests are ongoing in Beds 14 & 16. Remember to harvest the asparagus by cutting with a knife from below the soil. (Don't break off the spears, this harms the plant). With rhubarb you pull the stalks from low near the root to pull each stalk upward individually.

What has been planted?

click on map to enlarge it

Map was updated June 19th

This week our hard working tomato, cucumber, potato and squash volunteer put in all three crops from the plants we'd kept in the greenhouse from the plantsale. It's been a long cold spring without the heat that these plants need, and so we've had to hold them rather a long time before putting them outside. Hopefully the heat will come. We've had to replant Basil and have lately added Green Beans too. 

Update June 8th-19th: Kale, chard and beets were seeded and transplanted. Parsnips for late fall harvest were seeded in two small areas. Squash has been re-seeded offsite to replace those at DIGS that have suffered from the cold.  

Come to the garden for a self-tour and see all the cool things that are happening in the cool of this late spring-like weather.

click on photos to enlarge

Best, Jen for Digs

Plantsale & tiny pot pickup

 

click on photos to enlarge

Our plantsale in May was a success and many thanks go to all the volunteers who gave many hours over the spring transplanting teeny tiny plants into larger and larger pots. Thanks too to  all the volunteers who watered, transported flats, helped customers, placed signage and all the myriad jobs that go into an event of this scale. Huge thanks to master gardener Jim who single-handedly planned and produced all these plants for us here on this island. Amazing amazing amazing!

 On June 4th two more volunteers will drive around the island picking up the following pots and trays if you put them out on your lawn kindly. These are needed for next years's plantsale ( Please don't drop off pots at the harvest table as too many un-needed strays end up in mixed pot drops :>)

These are the pots that DIGS needs:

click on photos to enlarge

Thanks so much to everyone who helped and especially those who did many many hours of loving plant intelligence. It was fabulous to see the range of plant varieties! Lastly thanks to all who left extra donations on top of their purchases. The more we do the more we can do. And the fragrance, taste and colour are all worth it!

Jen for DIGS

Dessert Auction June 22nd

 

Dessert Auction coming up!

Islanders, have you decided what dessert you are going to do for the June 22 Dessert Auction?  How about a cheese cake or a bundt cake or pound cake? A peach or pecan or pumpkin pie? An Awesome Apple Cobbler, Luscious Lemon Mousse or a Sumptuous Strawberry Trifle? Decisions, decisions, decisions! There is a plethora of good cooks on the island and perhaps you might be one to join the ranks.

Everyone who enters a dessert will put their name in a hat and at the end of the evening 6 lucky cooks will get to take home one of the lovely hanging baskets decorating the tables. So, get digging into those recipe books. June 22 is fast approaching.  

Marg Harris

May 20th plantings

 Dear Garden Lovers,

 After the plantsale comes the plantings! Here is what is planted at the moment (shown in colour). Updated again on May 22nd so it's truly up to date.

click on image to enlarge

Items in gray are soon to be planted. (cukes, tomatoes, squash, beans etc.)

Go have a self tour. Everything is looking great. Those folk who work on Saturday morning workparties are welcome to take the largest spinach leaves from the outside of each plant as well as some lettuce leaves from bed 7. Other lettuce is being planted all over the shady front of the garden including in pots, so soon we'll have a bounteous supply of "outer leaves" to pick. New lettuce will be seeded in June.

And for those interested in new tasty items, you maybe aren't yet familiar with the "Ground Cherry". It was new to me. It is a yellow "cherry" that tastes a bit of pineapple, that can be used for pies and crumbles, just like sour cherries. You just treat it like raspberries or other fruit. A fantastic fruit to have in your freezer! So we've planted eight of them.  See recipes here: Ground cherry recipes 

More updates on the DIGS plantsale to follow.

Best, Jen

Digs Plant Sale May 11th !!

DIGS 2024 Annual Plant Sale

10am to 12pm on Saturday May 11th, 2024

See the plant list with links and photos here.

The plant sale will be held at our Community Garden (rain/shine) and features annuals, perennials, patio plants, deer resistant/shade plants and vegetable starters.

1.  Fifteen people at a time can enter the garden to shop (please don’t socialize too much so those who are still waiting in line don’t have to wait too long.)

2. Please bring your own bags, boxes or trays, wheelbarrow, to carry your purchases home. Only a limited number of such items are available.

3. There is no plant “holding area” due to limited space.

4. Payment is by the Honour System. Bring a pen and paper or calculator and tally up your plants (plant names and prices will be clearly marked) and put cheque or cash in the honour box. Assistants can help for those challenged by the math. See the plant price list below.

This Year’s Special: Only one shaft of sunlight at your place? Try: patio sized fruit & vegetables! See Jim Harris’s table at the sale for all these special plants! (To see what he will be offering this year: See the plant list with links and photos here.)

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DIGS 2024 Plant Price List

Vegetables 

6 packs  $4  basil, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, dill, ground cherry, kale, kohlrabi, leek, mint, onion, lettuce, parsley, pepper

2.5” pots $2  pepper

3.5” pots $3  cucumber, leek, giant leek, giant onion, squash, zucchini

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Tomatoes 

3.5” pots $3  Cherry: Sweet Million, Tumbler, Gold Nugget, Red Robin, Sunrise Bumblebee  Regular Tomato: Early Girl, Super Fantastic, Jubilee, Old German   Beefsteak: Mortgage Lifter, Better Boy Roma: San Marzano Lampadina II       

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Flowers

6 packs  $4  alyssum, aster, bacopa, cosmos, dianthus, impatiens, lobelia, marigold, nicotiana, pansy, salvia, sweet pea, viola.

3.5” pots $4  geranium, nasturtium, wave petunia, verbena

2.5” pots $2 fuchsia

2 gallon pots $7 six sweet pea plants with bamboo stakes

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Perennials

6 packs $4  Flowers: monarda (bee balm), rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) 

6 pack: $4 Herbs: catnip, thyme

3.5” pots  $4  aubretia, campanula (dalmation bellflower), columbine, dahlia, delphinium, foxglove, grasses, hellebore, hens & chicks, hollyhock, lavender, lily, lupin, nirene, phlox, shasta daisy, veronica, yarrow.

5" & 6" pots $5  Flowers/trees: aubretia, columbine, delphinium, hellebore, japanese maple trees, yarrow, strawberry

1 gallon pots  $7  Flowers: arabis, asparagus, azalea, chives, echinacea (cone flower), euonymus, columbine, delphinium, foxglove, fern, grasses, hellebore, hollyhock, hosta, hydrangea, lavender, lily, lupin, nirene, red hot poker, shasta daisy, veronica, yarrow

1 gallon pots Fruit: $7 fig, kiwi, raspberry

1 gallon pots $12  rhubarb, rhododendron

Fruit Bush: $22 Blueberry; $40 for pair of Honeyberry (need two for pollination)

Larger Fig Tree: $40

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See photos and instructions on how to grow all the plants offered here.

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Notes: There will be a limited number of "consultants" on hand to answer questions on the day of the sale.  Loonies & Toonies are useful (no change available.)  Quantities - remember your neighbour;  you are always welcome to go through again!

DIGs Memberships will be available: $10 single/$15 family.

Hope to see you there! ---- The DIGS Plant Sale Committee

Plant List for May 11th 2024

DIGS plant list for 10am-12pm May 11th, 2024

See pricelist and instructions above.

These blue links below will take you to photos and more information on how to grow each of our plants offered this year specifically.

 Asterisk* = deer resistant.

FLOWERS

For: Planters or Hanging baskets SUNNY

Alyssum* wonderland white, Alyssum* wonderland purple

Bacopa Blutopia

Shock-Wave Petunias: purple, white, red, denim

Salvia* - Red Vista (dwarf)

Salvia* - Amore purple

Snapdragon* Candy Showers (dwarf): Yellow dwarf trailing, Deep purple trailing, Red trailing

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Planters or Hanging baskets SHADY

Impatiens xtreme mix

Viola sorbet spring select XP (tight, compact)

Pansy - Clear Mix

Lobelia Crystal Palace, Lobelia Riviera Blue Eyes, Lobelia Regatta Sky Blue

Lobelia Regatta Rose, Lobelia Regatta Midnight

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Garden flowers SUNNY

Aster* - Milady Mix

Cosmos* - Sonata Mix

Dianthus* Coronet (white and purple)

Dianthus* Coronet New Mix (white, pink, purple)

Geranium in scarlet, pink, salmon,   purple (few); (Scented) attar of roses, orange fizz,

Marigold* (double - scarlet w yellow center) - Spry

Marigold* (double- yellow) Superhero Yellow

Marigold* (double - orange) Superhero Orange

Nasturtium Jewel Mix

Nicotiana* Perfume Mix

Salvia* - Salvatore Blue (tall)

Sweetpea heirloom mix

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VEGETABLES

JIM HARRIS'S SPECIAL: Patio-sized plants!

Vegetables for Planters or Pots (patio/dwarf/compact) see Jim Harris's table for special selections

Basil tower - Emerald (grows into a tower)

Cucumber (patio) - Patio Snacker

Eggplant - Patio Baby (3 inch fruit)

Pepper - Snackabelle

Strawberry Delizz - (good for containers)

Tomatoes for hanging baskets/patio:

Tumbler (red; hanging basket)

Red Robin (red; container 12" tall determinate)

Gold Nugget (golden; container 24" tall determinate)

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VEGETABLES

Vegetables for raised beds:

Broccoli - Gypsy (slow to bolt)

Cabbage - Katarina (green)

Cabbage - Cairo (red)

Cauliflower - Amazing

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NEW! COLOURED CAULIFLOWER

Cooking hint: Preserve colour by roasting or steaming.

Cauliflower - Clementine (orange)

Cauliflower - Graffitti (purple)

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Celery - Hudson

Cucumber - Bush Pickle

Cucumber - Marketmore

Ground Cherry

Kale - Vates (curly - slow bolting)

Kale - Lacinato (dinosaur, tall)

Kohlrabi - (giant) Superschmeltz

Leek - Lancelot

Leek - Giant

Lettuce -  Parris Island Cos (romaine), Buttercrunch, Kaiser, and Speckles (red/green)

Pepper (green - sweet) New Ace

Pepper - Jalapeno Raam (hot)

Pumpkin - Small (7") Sugar

Radiccio - Rossa di verona

Scallion - Parade

Summer squash - Scallopini (yellow) - Sunburst

Squash - Butterbaby

Squash Mini Green Hubbard

Squash Acorn - Festival

Squash Butternut - Waltham

Tomatoes

Also see container/basket cherry tomatoes above in Jim's special plants.

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Vine Cherry Tomatoes (Indeterminate means needs staking and topping):

Sunrise Bumblebee cherry Tomato (orange-gold; indeterminate)

Sweet Million cherry Tomato (red; indeterminate)

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Vine Beefsteak tomato: 

Mortgage Lifter (red; indeterminate)

Better Boy (red; hanging baskets or bedding)

Roma: San Marzano (determinate)

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Vine Regular Tomato: 

Early Girl (red; indeterminate)

Super Fantastic (red; indeterminate)

Jubilee (yellow; indeterminate)

Old German (striped red/gold; indeterminate)

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Onion - Bunching - Parade

Onion - Giant - Kelsae

Zucchini - Yellowfin (yellow)

Zuccini - Raven (green)

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Herbs:

Basil Genovese

Dill - Fernleaf

Oregano*

Parsley

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Update 2024 perennials (asterisk = deer resistant)

Arabis* 

Aubretia* 

Azalea 

Black-eyed Susan* (Rudbeckia) 

Columbine* 

Dalmatian Bellflower* (Campanula portenschlagiana) 

Delphinium* 

Echinacea* 

Hellebore* 

Hollyhocks

Hosta 

Hydrangea 

Lavender*

Lupine*

Monarda (Bee Balm)*

Nirene 

Oriental Poppy* 

Red Hot Poker* 

Rhododendron* 

Roses 

Salvia* - Blue (Meadow Sage) 

Shasta daisy* Leucanthemum x superbum

Tiger lily

Veronica* – Whitley (Speedwell) 

Yarrow*

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Succulent:  Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum tectorum) 

Tree: Japanese Maple 

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Fruit: Fig trees, Blueberry, Honey Berry, Raspberry, Strawberry

Foliage:

 Euonymus 

Assorted grasses*

Ferns*

Lambs ear*

Herbs: Catnip, Thyme*,

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* = deer resistant. 

The Deer proof plant list  is also in the right side bar of this blog for your convenience.

Planning overlapping crops

 Hello garden-lovers,

 This week at the garden we are continuing to direct-seed and transplant spring veggies. Everything that was direct-seeded in early April has sprouted (yay!), but the low temperatures at night mean outdoor veggies are slower than those in the greenhouse. A few at a time the flower and vegetable transplants that can tolerate cool nights are being moved outside; lettuce mostly, of which there are many varieties. Jim had seeded quite a few new ones for the plant sale and gave us some of his transplants to try. Here's how it looks today (see map below). Even though it happens every year, it's still a thrill to see rows of radish and spinach about to burst into full adult-plants after a long winter.

Click on the map to enlarge it.

Creeping Shade: We have to face the fact that our community garden is surrounded by incredibly tall trees that simply block the sun. If you were to place a light meter in beds 1 to 5 at this time of year, you might find they only receive less than four hours of sun until July when the sun is higher. So this impacts us, and makes us a shorter season and ever more doubtful location for heat-loving plant like tomato and squash. So we'll have to keep an eye on this as we plan how to adapt over time. We obviously cannot produce in such abundance as Charles Dowding for example, whose farm is well out from under the influence of tree shade.

 But if you want to see some delicious looking examples of multi-cropping in a small allotment sized bed, these videos are GREAT examples, so I'll include them here for inspiration. Enjoy!

New Charles Dowding video on 

keeping your beds full of veg all season:

(video)

For allotment growers interest:

What can you plant in one small vegetable bed? (video)

Also good:

What does a fully planted garden look like mid-summer? (video)

Clearing and replanting in mid-summer (video)

Soil doesn't need to rest with "No Dig method" - keep growing food! (video)

Interesting fact:

We are in the same Plant Hardiness Zone as Charles Dowding, 8b but we have more surprise frosts, I believe, because of the geology of many river valleys carrying occasional arctic super-cooled cold air from the north down to us in our watery haven of warmth. You can look up zones for B.C. here. Dowding is in Somerset UK (zone 8).

Question of the Week: When should I plant tomatoes outdoors? 

A: Whenever there's a question about our zone the best gardening advice I'd probably turn to organic gardener Linda Gilkeson, from Victoria BC. She has a monthly newsletter which I've linked in the right hand column of this blog.

Her newsletter that speaks to the question about when to transplant tomato plants to the outdoors is this one: tomato & other heat-lovers pdf

Also, from what I gather from listening to local gardeners:

Yes, you can plant out early and cloche the plant as forecast requires, for sure.

And if you truly wait til May 24th (the safest possible date) some stores are sold out of all the good tomato plants. So you do have to go buy them by the 15th of May or so, and then keep moving them outdoors bit by bit. Very annoying.

 But everyone takes a little bit of a gamble, and sometimes it does pay off to try for the second week of May. But avoid weakening them or letting them get leggy, that's for sure. (And if they are leggy, bury the stem quite a bit).

Best, Jen

April early seedings

 Dear Garden lovers, 

Today we planted radish, turnip and mixed lettuce. Last week we planted early potato, broadbean, pea, snowpea, and there are new baby transplants of lettuce and spinach (seeded in February). (Update: For April 6th see below and holy cow, the snowpeas are up!!). See this garden map to see where it was planted so you can watch for it to come up. Such a thrill!

click on map to enlarge it.

Items in gray text on the map are future-crop transplants.

Bed 1 - Chard, (seeded) Shelling Peas, (sprouted!)Broadbean

Bed 2 - Early Potato

Bed 6 - transplanting Lettuce shortly (some will go among spinach)

Bed 7 - Bloomsdale/Yukon overwintered Spinach plus additional February seeded Spinach

Bed 14a - Pac Choi (transplanted April 6th)

Bed 15b - Carrot (seeded April 6th) - Mokum F1 hybrid

Bed 17a - Turnip (seeded April 2nd) - Hakurei

Bed 17c - potted Parris Island Cos lettuce joins the parsley (potted April 6th)

Bed 21 - Radish (seeded April 2nd & April 6th)

Bed 21 - mixed Lettuce (Mesclun) (seeded April 2nd)

And for spring personnel: We now have a Radish Empress, a Snowpea Majesty, and a Lettuce Queen. Could you be the next Prince of Chard, Pontiff of Parsnip or Chancellor of Carrots? Come down on Saturday mornings at 10 am to receive your crown (and seed packet)!! We think crops do better if there is one overseer for each. Expertise in each specialty is a great thing!! See you on Saturday!  Jen

Newcomers may also like to see:

  How Our Garden Works & Garden Allotment Guidelines

April 6th update see this diagram below:

click on map to enlarge it.

April 6th: carrots, pac choi and more radish were planted as shown above. 

Question of the Day: What is our gardening Zone here on the island?

 Every micro-climate is different due to elevation (if you're on a mountain in can be colder; when you're down at sea level it is warmer), but like Vancouver, which can range from Zone 8-9, our area is listed as an 8b.

You can look up all of B.C.'s Zones for gardening here.

Question of the Week: What is our compost made out of at DIGS?

A: We layer raked leaves (mostly maple) and seaweed in a 9:1 ratio. They are layered together in a rectangular bin made of old pallets. The leaves break down faster if they are lawn-mown but having switched to a new electric mower (quieter/easier) we no longer have the rip-snorting power to mow leaves as we used to. So we're using a "Rot-It" powder to break down the pile faster. It's working well so far.

Training the climbing vegetables

  Dear Garden lovers,

 This year at DIGS we're hoping to get more education on how to maximize our harvest of tomatoes and cucumbers! To that end, here are some quick, easy-to-understand videos showing how to remove the side shoots and train the plant upward on string supports. They are all by Charles Dowding. Enjoy!

1. Planting tomato plants; with their strings planted with them (video)

2. Side-shoot removal for tomatoes and training cucumbers/eggplant while they grow upward (video)

3. Cordon cucumbers; training them up and over in the polytunnel (video)

Hopefully these time held methods above will help us get larger yields in these popular crops. Comments and video links welcome!!