Adventures in growing edibles veganically in a small townhouse backyard in Ottawa, Canada. (veganic since ~2021)
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Covering basil tonight and upcoming nights -- going down to 13-14 next few nights, and 8 next Sat night!
Monday, May 30, 2022
Stevia harvesting via pruning -- drying/powderizing and putting into tea, delicious!!
A few weeks ago I started minor pruning of the stevias, then I hang the trimmings to dry. A week or so later I crumble them by hand (very easy) and store them in a jar. Half a teaspoon in my work morning tea -- delicious!! Would be amazing to grow enough for a year's supply of tea-sweetening... I can dream...
Dill and last stevia transplanted
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Kaolined 2 cucumber plants (diluted recipe compared to last year)
The two west-most cucumbers. Just because. Will see if they burn or crisp up in the coming days, compared to the un-kaolined cucumbers.
Used this recipe (diluted compared to last year):
1/2 cup kaolin
5 cups water
Tulle placed over all zucchinis
The yard is a sea of tulle, between the zucchinis, broccoli, beets, and kale/chard... but it's worth it.
Will most likely need to remove the tulle from some of the zucchinis when they grow to a certain size, but last year my first SVB moth sighting was June 13th 2021, so at least they will be protected for a while.
Saturday, May 28, 2022
Basil transplanted; results of the basil experiments are inconclusive
First piracicaba broccoli harvest
Nice loose "heads" from 5 or 6 of the 8 plants so far, harvested them all today. Had these in my salad mix (didn't like them stand-alone raw). Nice!
Apparently there should be lots of offshoots for quite a while.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Collected mowed grass for mulch
From some local schools. Not quite dry enough yet, so spread out on bed paths to dry before applying to plants.
Transplanted cukes, zukes, and tomatoes
All that's left now are the basils and dills. Could have done it today as the forecast looks decent, but ran out of time.
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Ivory Silk Lilac Tree 95% dead -- what happened??
Very strange. I thought it was just slow in getting the leaves due to the cool/rainy spring we had, but then looking at all the other trees whose leaves are in full swing -- nope, mine is 95% dead. There are a few random small leaves here and there but even those don't look healthy. I wonder what happened? The only thing I can think of is maybe something happened last year with the road work.
Hopefully it doesn't get removed until a new one is ready to go in, as it's being visited by a good number of birds throughout the day despite there being no birdfeeder.
House finch couple
The lilac tree out front (which is now 95% dead) has been frequented the last few days by a house finch couple. Nice birds; the male seems pretty brave, doesn't fly away when I go out. I think they're making a nest in the top of the neighbour's cedar bush thing.
I've had no birdfeeders up for several months so it's nice that birds still come around even without food. I did set up the bird bath last week but haven't seen anyone in it yet.
White Cabbage Moth laid eggs on the uncovered Waltham broccoli
Saw the moth fluttering around the Wathams, checked and sure enough there were some eggs. So, removed the eggs and placed the tulle.
Friday, May 20, 2022
Waltham broccoli transplanted (central bed)
All 4 were winter sowed. Could have transplanted a while ago but didn't get around to it.
So, the central bed broccoli is only Waltham, and the west bed broccoli is only Piracicaba.
Prep for zucchini & tomatoes: Dug in mineralized rock phosphate and/or kelp meal and/or alfalfa (experiment)
Thursday, May 19, 2022
Reference: Veganic seed-starting mix
Totally doing this next year!
JV's recipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWU2lyzPbz8
https://www.facebook.com/events/3309684622596372/?active_tab=discussion
20 litre / 5 gallon peat
1/2 cup dolomite lime (to offset the acidity of the peat)
Mix above, water thoroughly. Then, add in:
3 cups perlite (for aeration)
2 cups vermiculite (for aeration and water retention)
1/4 cup granulated seaweed
1/4 cup colloidal soft rock phosphate
Mix above, water thoroughly. Then, add in:
10 litre / 2.5 gallon potting mix or well-finished veganic compost
Mix above, water thoroughly. Then, add in:
1/2 cup soybean meal (fertilizer)
1/2 cup mycorrhizae (to help build the mushroom base for the root systems)
Other things to consider:
- "Live mulch" in Gatineau
- Promix mycorrhizae (but need to add fertilizer to it: alfalfa meal, soybean meal, & kelp meal)
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Tomatoes are rallying; basil still looks awfullllll; fuzz on inside soil
Potatoes planted, in ground and in pots -- with some mineralized rock phosphate (all "Banana" fingerling variety from Ritchie's)
Oooh, a nice bed of potatoes for probably the first time ever, in the prime spot: northwest corner including where the asparagus bed was (which I removed today, see other post). Nice and deep good soil there, so I've stored four buckets in the basement to pour over the bed area in the coming weeks. The bed has 4 rows each with 4 potatoes (intact, each with multiple sprouts). Sprinkled each row with 3 Tbsp mineralized rock phosphate which I loosely dug in.
In pots: The largest terracotta-colour pot has 3 potatoes and is next to the air conditioner. Then, as an experiment, two of the black traditional potato pots along the fence (i.e. in shade), each with 4 small potatoes. Added 3 Tbsp mineralized rock phosphate to each pot.
Asparagus bye-bye
Alas, I just couldn't justify keeping the asparagus patch along the west bed when it gives so few spears and has issues with aphids and stuntedness etc. So, removed it all. Now the only asparagus remaining are a few spears that come up along the north edge which is now turned into grass, will let those spears do what they want.
Grass seed sowed
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Hardening update: Zinnias and tomatoes
Zinnias: Started hardening a few days ago. Outside all day (has been nice and warm) in shade, some sun. Inside at night.
Tomatoes: Started hardening today. Just because they look so sad. In shade in afternoon.
Added alfalfa and kelp to all of the tomatoes
Mixed together pre-soaked alfalfa pellets and kelp meal; then scratched off ~an inch of soil to add a good handful, then put the soil back. Maybe the ProMix Premium is crap, or at least this bag of it. It's just weird because I've never had this problem with seedling tomatoes before... and I've definitely used ProMix Premium before... maybe it's just a problem with the new bag of it that I bought a few months ago.
Also, noticed that the Jasper variety is substantially greener than all the others.
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
WTF is wrong with all of the tomatoes!?!?!
Argh, now it's not just the basil that look like crap -- it's also the tomatoes!! They're yellowy, curly leaves, some leaves have dried/crisped up. Potted them up today to see if that helps, but even the newest ones that are very small (they're all quite small though) look like crap.
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Basil experiment: Half kept on dry side, half kept on damp side -- all with lights higher up
Friday, May 6, 2022
Basil up-potted and mixed with vermiculite -- here are the tips I received
"I’d say either went too long without water or you put cold water on the leaves when watering."
"I had this problem with few leaves. I was watering too much I guess. So I pinched those leaves and dried the soil completely before watering more."
"They need to be re-potted out of the seedling tray and into pots."
"If leaves are wilted slightly or damaged, even t8s will burn them to a crisp. Lack of water or too much could be the cause but as Lori mentioned those cells look really small. Definitely get those little guys potted up"
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Cucumber (Eureka), Golden Glory zucchini, and Eight Ball zucchini started in PT
My first time trying these varieties.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Basil (Prospera) round 2 started in PT
Basil looking sad!! Why!?!? Same as last year, despite different seeds/variety??
Sunday, May 1, 2022
Carrots round 2 sowed
The first round in the SE corner of the north bed doesn't look promising, too much clay bits on the top (let alone throughout). A few have popped up but decided to do a new bed just north of there. Looks much better soil there, just have to hope no big rains to wash out the seeds until they establish.