Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Many people (and by many, I mean 1) have asked me where my garden posts have disappeared to. I've so far managed to avoid answering questions, but it is time the truth was revealed - my garden and I have broken up. To this day, it's difficult to talk about the ending of our relationship, but after 3 seasons I finally realized that the garden just couldn't commit. Every spring/summer we would have a great time and make all sorts of promises for the next year, but after a frosty winter, I realized that the garden just couldn't be there for me in the Spring. It was a tough thing to accept, but I just could not continue to live with the disappointment of disappearing perennials and late spring frosts. The straw that broke the camel's back was the 10 new daylily plants that failed to live and left me with an ugly empty plot of weeds and dirt.

As with most break-ups, it's been hard to let go and I have to admit to the occasional slip up where I've wandered barefoot into the dirt thinking that a few seeds and a new annual could heal all the hurt, only to wake up the next day and see the empty spot where my white columbines used to grow. While these temporary delusions have been hard to bare, they have also taught me that just because I couldn't be in a relationship with the garden, doesn't mean we can't be friends. I have tried to find ways to make this friendship work, outside of all the expectations of grandeur.

Distancing myself from the garden has been aided by the horrendous weather that Whitehorse has suffered this summer. The drive to loiter around amongst the flowers has been curbed by what seems like a continuous cycle of cold rain and gloomy skies. I should have predicted fate when on June 9th we were covered in snow while Ottawa basked in 30 degree heat.

There are a few parts of the garden that are doing well:

I've had fun growing some moon flower vines, which are, unfortunately, being overwhelmed by my overzealous cosmos.

I've learned that blanket flowers will not make it through the winter, but instead of being upset about it every Spring, I've decided to replace them on an annual basis.

The vegetable beds are doing well, considering the bad weather. It seems like lettuce and cabbage are the greatest benefactors of the consistent moisture.

I started these white begonias from bulbs in April, we will see if I can keep them alive through the winter and next year.

I decided last year to try out alliums, despite the fact I knew they wouldn't survive through the winter. I kept them in the fridge all year long and put them in the garden in May. Only one survived, but it was a special surprise.

Finally - the only perennials to truly perform are the globeflowers and delphiniums which are running rampant and threaten to take over the entire side bed.

I caution everyone to not feel too sorry for me, yes the breakup was bad, but I've met a wonderful new partner...actually multiple partners. I've decided that I'm not ready to commit myself to anyone had have been seeing a variety of bicyles and I'm definitely enjoying the ride.

Sierra posted this on Jul 29, 2008 from the garden | | permanent link

The Colour Purple

Inspired by a fun book (which I borrowed from Lisa and never returned) 75 Exciting Vegetables for Your Garden , I've been trying to grow some fun foods. This year's biggest and most colourful addition to the garden was a Graffiti cauliflower that was not only bright purple and enormous (bigger than a basketball), but also incredibly delicious. This cauliflower is the crowning achievement of the garden (so far...) and I am bitterly dissappointed that there will not be a Harvest Fair to show it at. The Purple Monster (yes, I named my vegetable) may have been saved the fate of sitting on a paper plate from 8 hours, but it couldn't stay out of my stomach, so for a small dinner party yesterday we had a cauliflower and carrot salad that was very scrum-didly-umptions.

Keeping with the purple theme, this year's garden also featured red baron onions, which were the first onions I've ever had that didn't get eaten by worms. These onions taste like shallots and can be used like green onions. I also grew purple carrots (again) this year. I don't think they get as long as the normal orange nantes carrots, but who cares - they're purple. Purple trumps length in the carrot world. The purple cabbage isn't exactly a special vegetable, but I'm going with a themed post - so what the heck.

The last purple emergent of the day is a nice trumpet lily that I can't quite capture on the camera. The lily bulbs were bought this year and started in the house. This ends up being a nuisance, but you get your flowers out of the deal...so nuisance or not, I'll probably do it again next year.

Last, but definitely not least, are my favourite sweetpeas. I get these seeds from a small organic company. They aren't as showy as the grandiflower sweetpeas, but they are smelly and unique. I love the bicoloured flowers...

Sierra posted this on Aug 17, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

The Rise of Wormopolis!!!

Gardening is one of those few activities where it is very important to be shitty. In fact, in the end, the more full of shit your garden is the better it will grow. This year, I did not do a great job of properly amending my garden beds before planting. The outside vegetable beds got a couple bags of steer manure and a few bags of compost, but somehow I forgot to treat my greenhouse with as much love. This accidental error has left me with a greenhouse full of mediocre tomatoes and struggling zucchini. Thankfully some of the hanging tomatoes were put in fabulous soil and a producing enough tomatoes for a bowl of bruschetta a day.

Finding good stuff for the garden can be a bit of a nuisance if you don't happen to have some sheep or horses wandering your backyard. Each year, it seems like I'm loading my car with a couple dozen bags of feces and rotten vegetables. In the end, I have garbage bags full of plastic and a visa bill that seems hard to rationalize. This year, in an effort to be slightly more self-sustaining, I've decided to invest in a new super-civilization of poop-machines aptly named Wormopolis. Wormopolis is a tupperware container full of red wigglers that happily (and somewhat magically) transform kitchen scraps into beautiful, but stinky, worm manure (more asthetically referred to as "worm casings"). This poop is rumored to be super-shit in the world of gardening, so I am very excited to test it out next year. The worms were gifts from my friend Lisa and a work colleague who apparently has a superpower when it comes to worm countries. It is this colleague that has advised me on how to start and build a worm civilization.

To grow a worm world take a tupperware container and drill some holes into the bottom, sides and tops. Your worms still need air and it's important that the worm juice (delicious sounding, I know) has a place to trip. Put about 2 inches of peat moss or soil in the bottom of the container, you can also add finely shredded paper or sawdust. Then just add your kitchen scraps (same rules as compost...no oils or meats). Make sure your worms are kept about 5 degrees, so in the winter, you will either have to put them in the house or sneak them into a neighbour's basement. They are pretty stinky, but in the end they'll help you grow pretty smelling flowers - so who cares! It won't take long to see the nice dark "casings" which can be scooped out and added to your soil in the spring.

The best part about this method of composting is that it's quick! With the cooler temperatures and dry air up here, I find it hard to get my compost really hot. This is probably partly because I believe in the lazy method of composting that doesn't involve turning it over or aerating it. The worms can get a bigger bang for your banana peels, by transforming them in a couple weeks instead of a couple years. If you keep your wormopolis happy, they'll reproduce like crazy and by the time spring comes, you can drop a couple handfuls right into your compost bins and hurry them along. This does mean sacrificing some of your countrymen, but sometimes in the search for freedom and democracy - lives are lost.

Here's some Wallys and Wandas...

Sierra posted this on Aug 06, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Oooh La Lily!

The lilies in the garden are opening up and stinky, but fabulous. So far, the August weather is fabulous...lets hope we can make it last!

And the Splish Splash Geranium...just because

Sierra posted this on Aug 03, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Veggie Garden - July 18

The lack of blog posts is due to an excellent Edmonton trip that included the rodeo, visits with friends and a fabulous pig roast at Lac La Biche. I brought the camera to document every millisecond of my vacation, but forgot it in my bag the entire time. That is because I'm so incredibly organized and on the ball...

I am back in Whitehorse and my husband did an amazing job keeping all the plants alive and healthy. The garden beds are full and I can't seem to eat enough lettuce. Here is garden bed number one:

The second garden bed:

My fabulous little herb wheelbarrow, it's awesome and full of yummy stuff:

The perennial beds are doing really well, especially the columbines. I'm thinking that I will add more and more columbines every year, since they are incredibly reliable and very showy:

The greatest garden surprise so far this year is my Alaska melons! They are fun looking and taking over my greenhouse...

I realize this post is incredibly boring, but I promise to try to be more entertaining in the future...

Sierra posted this on Jul 19, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Veggie Garden - July 2

It's only been 10 days since the last garden picture, but the midnight sun makes things grow at a ridiculous pace. Here is garden #1:

And garden #2:

Pretty incredible change, n'est-ce pas? I've already pulled out and re-seeded some lettuce. The greenhouse is also looking nice. Lots of tomatoes on the vine, although nothing ripe yet.

Here's my tomato bed:

The bean/zucchini/tomato bed (with hollyhocks in the back).

And finally the hanging baskets which are melons and tomatoes.

Sierra posted this on Jul 02, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Be Still My Dutch Heart

In the miracle of all miracles, look what has popped out in the garden:

While tulips aren't completely unheard of in the Yukon, they aren't exactly a regular northern occurrence. When my Mother and I dug the tulips into the ground last fall, I never dreamed that they might actually make it through the winter. When not a single crocus made it through the winter months, I was sure the tulips were DOA. Despite it all, they made it and look great with the hostas.

This success has given me the inspiration needed to invest obscene amounts of money in bulbs and hope for an even bigger tulip success next year. This tulip experience has reaffirmed my belief the less I take care of a plant, the better they do. For the bulbs all I did was make a 2 inch deep hole in the ground, sprinkled in bone meal and hoped for the best.

The other new bloom in the garden, is an interesting looking purple flower.

Sierra posted this on Jun 28, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

The Veggie Garden - June 22

Things are finally coming together...the camera was located, a memory card was found and the sun was out, so it was time to get a picture of the vegetable beds. This year, I planted most of my vegetables on the May long weekend. I've kept the row covers on them and will probably keep the covers on right until August. I've altered my planting slightly from last year, when I followed the square foot planting method. This basically meant dividing my garden into square foot sections and planting evenly spaced seeds. This year, I abandoned the idea of separating up my garden, but kept with the evenly spaced seeds. I use a companion gardening book to determine what goes where and this year, I was extra careful about making sure that beets and carrots didn't get overshadowed by lettuce or cabbage.

Garden #1 has (from front to back): kale, mustards, turnips, carrots, beets, onions, red cabbage, broccoli, dill and some mixed greens in the attached planter.

Garden #2 has (from front to back): carrots, lettuce, cauliflower (one met an early demise), beets and chard in the attached planter

Garden #3 has my potatoes with the back red wheelbarrow full of herbs.

Every year one of my beds does really well and the other is crap. Unfortunately, I've never been able to remember which is the bad bed, so every year I have to guess which one is flawed. I've tried to mitigate this by adding lots of manure and compost to both beds, but we will see in a couple more weeks. Already, I'm worried about bed #2...

Here is the anemone I have that's grown back really well. The flowers are simple, but beautiful.

I'll save the greenhouse for later this weekend, after I get it cleaned up and looking snazzy.

Sierra posted this on Jun 23, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Garden Musings

I desperately want to write about my garden, but I feel unprepared to do so without my camera. Unfortunately said device is nowhere to be found and I'm unwilling to describe without images. while I wait to find my camera and start snapping, I've realized the great irony of my garden. Today as I was cleaning up grass and weeds I realized that everything that I've tried to eliminate in my garden - chickweed, wild yarrow, aspen, and other weedy wonders, have come back stronger than ever. Conversely, many of the perennials that I've coddled and loved, failed to make a return appearance this Spring. Is the key to success to ignore the garden, do I have to resign myself to growing "weeds" in the garden, or is there something else I'm missing? In my northern garden, the most impressive sophomore perennials to date have been the anemone, delphiniums, maltese cross, columbine and surprisingly hostas. I'm hopeful that next year more of the perennials will make a return appearance and, with time, I'll figure out exactly what survives in a Yukon garden.

Sierra posted this on Jun 21, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Too Tired To Type

The last two weeks have been dedicated to the garden. I've been digging, planting, pruning, mulching, fertilizing, cutting, and seeding. I'm exhausted...and although I'd love to blog about my discoveries, successes and failures; I'm much too tired to compose anything. Soon I will have pictures and more. June 1st should be the last frost date, so after that it's full steam ahead.

Sierra posted this on May 29, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Whatever Happened to May Two-Four???

May long week-end used to be a time for beers and bratwurst cooking over the campfire. Unfortunately, it now seems like the Victoria day week-end, is not a holiday, but an extra day of house and yard work. It's 7:00 pm and I feel like I've run a marathon. In reality, I've been hauling wood, soil, peat moss, compost, and garbage. I'm still two weeks away from being able to plant my annuals and I probably won't put any seeds in the vegetable beds until next week, but there is still lots to do.

Preparing the garden for a busy summer is a lot of work. To get started, I worked on the vegetable and greenhouse beds. I added peat moss, manure, compost, blood meal, bone meal and some wood ashes to make the soil nice and nutritious for all my plants. I turned the beds over and covered them with a light woven cloth that will help warm the soil until I'm ready to plant. For the perennial beds, I added peat moss and compost and dug it in between the plants. There is not much up, but I'm hopeful that in the next few days the perennials will pop up.

After the soil was taken care of, it was time to work on the trees and bushes. Most of the stuff needed a good pruning, especially my crazy currants that like to grow in odd directions and have yet to produce any berries. Despite this, I bought another black currant bush, because I'm confident that if I just keep adding bushes eventually they will have to produce some kind of berry (right???).

Tony and I also joined the majority of Whitehorse at free dump day. A fabulous opportunity to get rid of all the crap that has accumulated in the back yard over the course of an entire winter. Then continued on the Victoria Day tour to Home Hardware, where we picked up a small forest worth of trees.

As I finish typing this entry I realize how pathetic my life has come. Where are the stories about someone shoving a dozen marshmallows into their mouths and screaming "chubby bunny"? Where are the injuries incurred from keg athletics? How did I transform into a garden obsessed yuppie??? So many questions, but no time to ponder them because there are plants to water, greenhouses to seal and lawns to seed...

Sierra posted this on May 20, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

Attack of the Killer Tomato Plants

Only three more weeks until the greenhouse is ready to be planted. These tomatoes have been growing since February. They are getting bigger and stronger; I can only hope that they are ready for the summer. Some of the plants are doing much better than others, and last year's standout star, Stupice, is looking pathetic. To help my little tomatoes, I water them with diluted 30-30-30 fertilizer every time I water. Hanging out behind the tomatoes are the herbs, cabbages, flowers and other assorted plants. Summer is so close...yippee!

Sierra posted this on May 03, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link