Yesterday, I started in on pruning our Siberian Pea & Lilac bushes. I found after an hour (only having done 2 bushes) that my tools were inadequate. I was using a hand saw and a set of Fiskars gardening shears. I may have to go and invest in some stronger pruners. I gave up on that project and cleaned out my front beds in preparation for planting (more on that later).
Been thinking about my greenhouse boxes for a while now, but it's been getting down to -6 C at night, so I wasn't quite ready to plant them yet (gardening season opened on Apr 1 at the greenhouse). I also have misplaced my seeds from last year in my enthusiasm, so I had to start again from scratch. This time, I went with West Coast Seeds which came highly recommended to me from the greenhouse crew.
I had a laugh when I realized J's outfit matched the West Coast box almost perfectly.
I'm using fertilizer for the first time this year....exciting!!
Our picks of seeds:
If you don't know about the Hinton Community Greenhouse Society, you just go and take a look or connect with our gang on Facebook. Anyway, long story very short - second year for it, and we have two greenhouses donated by Kinder Morgan.
We affectionately call them Southside (left) and Northside (right). I defected to Southside this year. Its still a work in progress, as are many of my favourite places. So the "renovations" going on, don't bother me one bit.
I have two plots this year - one 18 sq foot (3x6') and one 13 sq foot (3.5x3.5'). I chose to add manure to my boxes, I find in my front beds this really helps the moisture stay within the soil, so I opted to try this in the boxes too. I mixed in 3 bags in the large plot, and 2 bags in the small plot. This was overkill according to the bag, but I figured a little dirt never hurt!
The couponer in me was happy too - it was on sale this week at Canadian Tire. I then wet the soil with water that I had to haul in - our taps aren't hooked up yet - and got a good workout in the process and J got a wheelbarrow ride.
Just as I was trying to figure out how to finish and take J baby home for a nap, D showed up and took him home & the dog. Everyone else left the greenhouse at the same time, and it was so quiet, I could hear the wind rustling the poly.
Having a quiet moment is rare for me lately, so it was really relaxing. I experimented with fertlizer, and I added roughly 1.5 cup to my row of runner beans, 1 cup to each zuchinni hill and 2 cups to every spot of tomatoes. The pail says to use about 1 cup to every 10'. Gaia Green is a great mixture that contains alfalfa meal, steamed bone meal, blood meal, glacial rock dust, mined Potassium Sulphate, natural humate complex, Rock Phosphate, Greensand, Kelp Meal, and Gypsum.
After all of that good work, I was soaked in sweat, filthy, and exhausted, but oddly satisified and relaxed.
More work to come - including my sketches of each garden bed, what I'm growing my cold frame, and building a trellis and planting a little more, but I'm happy with the progress so far.
Are you growing anything this year?
(Ben Fleet)I'm going to try to. I tried to start last year but sadly there was no growing in my garden.I added lots of compost to hopefully give the soil lots of nutrients as well as some topsoil so here's to hoping. Not sure what I want to grow yet
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