Water When Dry

It’s going to be very difficult narrowing this down into a list of what I will actually buy.

I've always wanted a real Christmas tree but never had the room, and I don't like fake trees. I found this tree at Ikea of all places! It's a Picea glauca 'Conica' or dwarf alberta spruce. It's hardy to zone 2 and can do well in containers, so I'm pretty happy to have found this. Hopefully I can keep it alive and happy until next Christmas too.

Last week at work I was harvesting willow stakes to be used in a riverbank stabilization project next year. We came across a few individuals of a very striking species with bright yellow upright branches, and it was growing as a single tree rather than a clump of shrubby whips like the other willows we were cutting. The species is a bit of a mystery, especially now when there's no leaves or catkins to help with identification. I took a few of the branches, bundled them up in plastic, and threw them in the back of my work truck for (very poor) winter storage. I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't desiccate or start budding too early, and if I'm really lucky they'll survive until spring. I think I'm going to try rooting them in pots as a fun little experiment, and maybe I can sell them or give them away. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes!

I went to the garden today with the intention of cleaning up the quackgrass, as I promised the garden coordinator I would, but they had already tilled it. So I spent a couple minutes collecting rhizomes from the surface, not that it will help much. Every single one of those root pieces would turn into a new plant, which is why rototilling quackgrass is the absolute worst thing you can do. Not to mention how terrible it is for soil structure.

I have been absolutely terrible at updating this blog, but the truth is that there hasn't been much to post about. I had a successful carrot and tomato harvest, and saved plenty of poppy seeds. Unfortunately I had no peas, soybeans, or green onions due to the high rabbit population this year, and I didn't even bother trying to grow some of the things I've grown in the past like corn, peppers, squashes and melons. I've decided not to renew my garden plot for next year. The soil is such poor quality and the growing season the City allows is so short that there's very little I can do with this plot. A final kick to convince me not to renew was an email from the garden coordinator telling me to remove all the quackgrass from my plot within the next 2 weeks. Any experienced gardener knows that quackgrass is hard to get rid of and expecting it to be gone in 2 weeks is ridiculous, especially when it's been so wet in Winnipeg lately. The sod that borders the garden plots is full of quackgrass and dandelions, and the city's insistence on rototilling every year only makes the problem worse. I'm considering trying out a few raised beds at the University of Manitoba next summer, where tilling is optional, perennials are allowed, and there's water on site. I haven't forgotten my promise to do a plant-a-day style series, however I haven't had the time or energy. In my personal life, work has become stressful and unpleasant and I had a cancer scare that occupied my thoughts for several months. Luckily it was early enough that the biopsy completely removed all the cancerous tissue and I should be fine. I expect it will be a quiet winter for this blog, but I will be sure to update with any exciting things in my greenhouse. Happy gardening!

It's been a really wet summer in Manitoba and here's the proof. I haven't seen a slug in almost 20 years. I had a bit of fun lightly poking it's head and watching it retract it's eye stalks. Slugs are such weird creatures.

It's been a great summer for American Coots. They're in the rail family and don't have webbed feet, although each toe has a "paddle" that helps them swim and folds up when on dry land. The croaky call is one of the adults, the high pitched chirping is an adolescent that got separated from the family yelling "Help! Help!".

I'm sick of zucchini! After pulling 4 gigantic zucchinis off this plant I decided to send it to the compost heap a little early to make room for a few of my potted plants. For reference, I am 6 feet tall. This plant was BIG!

Holy moley an actual garden update! .... Although there isn't a lot to update on. My garden ended up being pretty simple this year. All that's really growing this year is tomatoes (fewer plants this year!), 5 varieties of carrots, basil, marigolds to deter pests, a massive zucchini plant, and the pink poppies @biodiverseed sent me. Peas and soybeans got eaten by rabbits, and the green onions were shaded out by the grass that creeps in from the edges. I was ruthless with volunteer tomatoes this year. I don't want another tangled jungle disaster like last year. And I gave up on trying to grow corn, squashes or melons. If I still have the same job next year, I might just skip growing veggies altogether and plant my whole plot with flowers and cover crops. Speaking of, @biodiverseed what happened to your etsy shop?