Adventures in growing edibles veganically in a small townhouse backyard in Ottawa, Canada. (veganic since ~2021)
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Pole beans for yard soaked in water overnight tonight
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Freezer is almost empty of last year's meals
Stevia from last year all gone (except for the two small jars of un-inspected)
Alas! Used up the last of the aphid-inspected stevia today. Have been having 1/2 tsp per workday (though used to use only 1/4 tsp) in my tea. I don't think I can stomach using the un-inspected stuff, so will use the store powdered stevia until I get some of my own this year.
Results of carrot experiment = success! (and no freezing needed) -- and part b of round 2 carrots started
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
First basil harvest (/pruning)
A nice harvest with the first pruning of these 18 plants! Had them on noodles with nutritional yeast and onion top trimmings.
Results of experiment with beets round 2: Indoor starts a clear winner
Wow, the beets I started inside 6 days ago have now mostly germinated and popped up a cm or two or three, whereas the beets I started outside 6 days ago and are under row cover are mostly nowhere to be seen.
Today I transplanted the indoor beets. The ones that had multiple split apart easily, so I split them up. We'll see how they take.
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Stevias were rootbound!! Potted up.
Friday, May 10, 2024
Topped half of the store-bought peppers
Topped 4 of the 9 green peppers, 4 of the 9 sweet banana peppers, and the 1 hot pepper. Though the hot pepper was already quite bushy -- but I topped it anyway.
(I already topped all of my home-grown peppers a while ago but it hasn't helped with bushiness for them yet -- they all look so wimpy.)
Beets -- round 2 (round 1 was a TOTAL FLOP)
Wow, this is the absolute worst beet germination situation I've ever had, like, ever, I'm pretty sure. There were MAYBE 3 or 4 max that germinated. No idea why. I had covered them with a light mix of vermiculate and soil, and watered frequently.
So, today I started round 2. I did them a couple of different ways.
Both ways I started by soaking the seeds overnight.
Then, one batch I put directly into the garden, sprinkled around rather than measured/spaced out, and placed a piece of floating row cover over top.
The other batch, I sowed inside, in my homemade potting mix, using the tray that has .... 36? little compartments (that I use for lettuce for example_). These I'll wait until they pop up and have grown a wee bit, then will transplant them the typical way. I put 2 seeds per compartment.
Carrots -- round 2 -- new method, and, an experiment
Well, next year I'll for sure use the burlap or cardboard method. But the problem is this year, though germination was spotty, there are a decent amount growing -- so I don't want to throw all that away. So, how to fill in the gaps?
I'm trying out the method in this video:
- Sprinkle soil (I used soil from the garden) over a plate (I used my real plates, not paper plates).
- Moisten the soil.
- Sprinkle carrot seeds generously over top.
- Don't cover the seeds -- just press them firmly down.
- I then misted the seeds to make sure they're moist (but the video doesn't do that).
- Place the plate of seeds into a large ziplog bag, and seal the bag.
- The video says to then put the plate in the freezer for 24 hours. EXPERIMENT: I did two plates -- one went into the freezer, the other didn't.
- After 24 hours, remove from the freezer.
- Place bagged plate in indirect sunlight (either inside or outside).
- Monitor until they germinate.
- Once they're popping up, sprinkle the soil with the seeds into the garden. She doesn't "transplant" them one by one or anything like that -- she just brushes them around the area.
- Done.
So, today I got round 2 carrots started using the above method, with the experiment noted above (one plate went into the freezer, the other didn't).
Thursday, May 9, 2024
My peppers are leggy and wimpy, so bought some from Ritchie's
Butternut started
I was late starting the butternut squash (Waltham) because I didn't have any seeds left. Bought some today, started 5 seeds.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Buckwheat sowed
Sowed buckwheat in the east half of the central bed. All I did was rake up the top layer of soil (didn't do any digging), then scatter the seed, then rake around a bit, then water it. Didn't protect it with anything to keep it safe from critters -- so we'll see how it does.
Potatoes planted in yard -- with an experiment
OMG!!!!! EXPERIMENT RESULT! YES add alfalfa to the tomatoes' & ground cherries' potting mix!!!!! *HUGE* difference for those with / without alfalfa!!!
Monday, May 6, 2024
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Soooooo many earthworms!!!
Wow! There were tons, tons, tons of worms, including baby worms, in the pile of soil where I had dumped the container soil last fall and where there were lots of leaves and on which I had piled the hollyhock stalks etc. I was in that pile today to put some of the soil into containers and wow, soooooo many worms! Way more than in other part of the garden where I was digging today.
Reference: Squash bugs webpage
I've never had to deal with squash bugs yet, but am quite sure it will be a thing at gaga. So, was doing a bit of research to steel myself. Here's a great page with a lot of tips/tricks:
https://tendingmygarden.com/squash-bugs-tactics-for-winning-the-war/
I am thinking I might actually try keeping tulle on some of the allotment squashes even after they start flowering, and drive over every morning or every other morning before work to hand-pollinate... I'm not sure, we shall see.
Started in PT: cucumber, watermelon, cantalope summer squash, winter squash (forgot to buy butternut)
Potatoes for yard have been cut
In the yard I'll grow these varieties:
- Kennebec
- AC Chaleur
I chose those randomly from among the many potato varieties I bought at Ritchie's last week.
A few of those two kinds are still left over so will go to gaga.
I cut most of them in half, placed on cardboard, cut side up, will let them scab over before planting later this week.
Where are the beets!? Carrots are appearing
The carrots sowed a few weeks ago started appearing a few days ago.
The beets on the other hand are very few and very far between!
The beds look so compacted.
I hadn't covered with anything -- no cardboard, no burlap, no plastic, etc.
Next year I realllllllly need to use an alternate approach and cover them with something. I think the multi-times-a-day of watering them really compacts the soil. And, if I miss out and they dry out, wah-wah.
Carrot experiment: lazy sowing under leaves
Hardies have been transplanted into yard
Today I transplanted these into the yard:
- broccoli x 3 (all piracababa) -- with double-layer of tulle
- kale (all dwarf vates) x 9 in north bed and x ~3 or 4 in with the broccolis -- with double-layer of tulle
- chard (all fordhook) x 9 in north bed -- with double-layer of tulle
- green onions x ~5 in with the broccolis -- with double-layer of tulle
- lettuce (Ruby and romaine) -- all the long grey rectangular containers
Left over of the above plants, that can go into gaga later on:
- broccoli x 2 or 3
- kale
- chard
- onions
Friday, May 3, 2024
Cabbage butterfly moth thing seen in yard!!! FOY
Wow! Seems so early in the season. The one I saw was on the ground at first, walking/futzing around -- I wonder if s/he was newly emerged from inside the backyard! Flew away eventually.
Therefore, I ran inside and quickly netted all of the relevant hardies (they're still in their small pots).