Saving Seeds

Saving Seeds

Food security. What can we do to make sure we’re not completely dependent on business systems to provide our food? Growing some our own vegetables brings us a little closer to the goal. Saving seeds is the next step to additional self-sufficiency.

Starting Seeds Indoors

Starting Seeds Indoors

Do you want to maximize your garden space and grow even more fresh food? Do you want to grow varieties you can’t find as bedding plants? Start seeds indoors to get the most out of your vegetable garden and the local growing season.

Drought and Sunshine

Drought and Sunshine

Posts to my blog have been scarce during the summer of 2021. I found my concerns over the drought, heat wave, forest fires and pandemic sapped a lot of my creative energy. And the abundant harvest demanded so much of my time. Ironic?

Grill Bolting Buttercrunch

Grill Bolting Buttercrunch

Abundant lettuce meets unseasonably hot, sunny weather. The lettuce is stressed so instead of forming a nice leafy heads, it bolts. I hated to pull them. How about grilled bolting buttercrunch?

Pepper Production 2020

Pepper Production 2020

Today, just in time for National Pepper Month and National Hot Sauce Day, here is a detailed report of our pepper production from Jim’s garden this year. As a result of his almost fanatical zeal for hot peppers, we have fresh peppers, frozen peppers, dried peppers,...
End of June Garden II

End of June Garden II

The Secret Garden The gated community  where we live is a dream come true. Mature trees, gardens, ponds, beautiful views, wonderful neighbours, great strata council. The only thing that we both really miss is personal land to grow food, make compost, and experiment...
End of June Garden

End of June Garden

The spring planting scramble is a thing of the past and we are starting to enjoy the first fruits of our labour. It occurred to me that a look at what’s been keeping me busy (and tired) might be of interest, especially to all my urban gardening friends.  We live in a...
Thinking Ahead

Thinking Ahead

Last year, our kale plants provided delicious salads right through until early spring. I didn’t manage to get this year’s winter kale crop seedlings in as early (actually I was a full month later) so I can’t expect the same production from these...
Fortextacies

Fortextacies

I continue to be impressed by this amazing bean variety. At the beginning of September, I expected to pull the plants after what I considered to be a full harvest, but I’m an optimist and when I saw new blossoms, I left them alone. The vines are bedraggled and...
Tucked Up for Winter

Tucked Up for Winter

I thought about calling this post The Dark Side, but that wouldn’t be fair. The north end of the plot is getting ready for winter and won’t have any more work to do until early spring. As a result of covering this quarter with black plastic, the soil will...
The Sunny Side

The Sunny Side

Saturday defied the forecast of rain, so we headed over to the garden to do a little harvesting and cleanup. The south half of the plot yielded one zuchinni, two quarts of beans, eight carrots, seven stalks of rhubarb and a grocery bag of kale. Jim also took some time...
Kale Borscht

Kale Borscht

You’ve probably guessed that we’re big on soup. We each take a jar to work for our lunch every day and it’s always homemade. Yesterday’s trip to the garden gave us two onions, two zucchinis, a quart of Fortex beans, four gigantic Cylindra beets...