Garden Workshop Series

The BNRC is hosting a series of garden related workshops this spring and summer. The first one - Gardening 101 - is coming up quickly! Details are in the poster (click on it to see a larger file). This will be a crash course on how to garden in Western Manitoba's climate.

The second workshop is coming up on April 12 - Introduction to Organics, for those of us that are new to using organic methods of growing veggies without chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

There will be more topics coming. I'll post details as I know about them. If you are on the garden e-mail list you should also watch your inbox!

Garden Season is starting!

Hummingbird Garden's season officially started with our gardeners meeting yesterday evening. Many of the gardeners met at a nearby school with the Healthy Brandon Coordinator and Brandon's Garden Coordinator. We had a few snacks, talked about what went well and not so well at the garden, and most importantly got excited about the new garden season!

We have filled the existing plots to capacity, and have a waiting list already. We had to make a tough choice - cut back on the space alloted to each person, or expand the garden space. OK, it wasn't really a very tough choice! We have some very able gardeners and some good connections to equipment and materials. So of course we will be expanding the plots to welcome more gardeners.

We also formed a garden committee to look after some of the day to day stuff at the garden. Neither of the coordinators is at the garden often enough to keep an eye on things, so we thought it would work best to look after it as a group. With a few of us working together, we should be able to keep things going all summer, even when some are away. So far the garden committee consists of Brian, Doug, Melissa, Terry, Fiona and Dana. We are open to having more as well.

The plan for expansion is to till a new plot area on the higher ground near last year's new plots. There are about 20 new people on the list so this will allow us to give everyone some space. Brian had already checked out the soil in that area to make sure it was going to be good enough soil. Of course the bricks are still free!

The first meeting of the garden committee will be in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Big carrots

I had an interesting time with my carrots this year. The first batch I planted didn't germinate. Not even one seed. I don't know what I did - wrong phase of the moon, too cold, too warm, too dry, too wet? Maybe even seed too old. After a couple of weeks it was clear that nothing was coming. So I got some seeds in seed tape, and planted those.

I companion planted them in between green beans. I have read that they go well together, so I decided to try. Once the beans got big, I could barely even tell whether there were any carrots there! Then once the beans were done, I started poking between the leaves to look for carrots.
They hadn't come up that well, but there were a few carrots, maybe once every 6 inches or so. And this is how big they were! Big, solid carrots, with lots of root and only a small amount of leaf. They're nicely formed as they weren't touching each other.

They tasted great, too. Nice and sweet. Don't ask me what variety, I can't remember. I didn't keep very good records this year.

Gardening Lessons from my Grandfather

If my grandfather were still alive, he would be 100 years old today. He was a man from another time and place, but his life had a profound impact on mine, and he continues to influence me to this day.

Granddad was born in London, a true cockney and shopkeeper's son. I don't know when he learned to garden, or where, as I can't imagine his family growing radishes and raspberries in the concrete jungle. Perhaps he only began to cultivate as a war measure, along with thousands of other Britons (and others) who grew Victory Gardens. Just before WWII, he moved his new family to the commuter suburbs of London, to a semi-detached home with a back garden. He planted a fruit and vegetable garden there that grew to occupy most of the back garden, and enlisted his family's help to look after it.

My mother recalls spending hot summer afternoons there as a child. Weeding and harvesting were chores for her and her sister after school during the week. On weekends, Granddad would lead the work party, and gardening became fun! Together they grew much of the food they ate during the war and the decade of rationing that followed during the post-war rebuilding period.

After all that back-breaking labour, Mum was pretty much done with Victory Gardens. When I was growing up in Canada, there were always flowers and shrubs in the garden, but not much in the way of veg or fruit. Maybe some rhubarb, and a tomato in a pot.

So, where did I get my interest in gardening? Maybe it's a recessive gene! I spent a few summers with my Granddad, when he visited us in Canada, or we visited him in England. This gave me the chance to learn a few things from him directly.

Lesson #1: always put a way your tools when you are done. I have not internalized this lesson very well. Gardening at Hummingbird Community Garden helps, as I pack all my tools into the car to bring them home.

Lesson #2: How to air-layer a Schefflera. I won't go into detail. Suffice it to say that it's not really necessary as you can throw a Schefflera cutting near a pot of soil and it will root.

There may have been more lessons he threw my way, but I was a teenager and not listening very carefully. By then I probably thought I knew better.

This summer I brought my Mum to see how my garden was growing. I gave her a quick tour and then left her to visit the rest of the plots while I caught up with weeds and water. After a few minutes, she called out, "Your lettuces need thinning." "I'm sure they do", I replied, "but I never have the heart to thin them properly."

"Here, let me show you," said Mum. "You just reach in here above the soil, grasp one by the stem, and gently pull it out. That way you leave the rest with more room to grow, and you don't disturb their roots much. That's how your Granddad always taught us." So Mum and I thinned the lettuces a little, just until we had enough baby lettuce for a salad.

All summer I kept reaching into the densest clumps of lettuce to pull out a few little lettuces for dinner. By mid-summer I had only a dozen or so lettuces left in my row, huge heads, just beginning to think about bolting. These last few I cut for a couple of weeks of nothing but salad.

So this summer I got the chance to learn one more gardening lesson from my Granddad, even though he passed away 14 years ago. Happy Birthday, Granddad!

What do gardeners do in the winter?

We had a long fall gardening season this year - summer was slow to get started and then we had warm weather as the days were shortening. I had a number of long season vegetables that I was still harvesting well into October. I finally cleaned everything out as we were about to get frosts, just before Halloween!!!

Once the harvesting got busy I got behind on posting, but I took lots of pictures so I plan to catch up over the winter. That will prevent me from starting seeds in my basement too early! Watch this space for more memories of summer flavours!

Swiss Chard Update

Earlier I complained that I had spinach coming out my ears. Now the Swiss Chard has officially caught up! I planted two packages of seeds, some in the raised bed and some in the ground plot. Both are doing well.

As usual I planted them too close together. Some time I will get wise enough not to do that! The seeds are just so small! I always think some of them won't come up. Then they all do!

I always plant the variety called "Bright Lights". They come in all the colours of the rainbow - mostly green leaves, with some streaked with red, and a few dark burgundy. Then contrasting stems in red, orange, pink, yellow, white... The most striking one so far has a burgundy leaf, with a fine line of green around the stem and ribs, and a broad bright orange stem.

I've noticed they seem to come in different sizes, too. No matter how much room they have (or don't have), some grow large leaves and broad stems, and some are small with pencil thin stems and a modest leaf. The largest ones all seem to have red or pink stems, and the yellow ones all seem to be small. This must be a byproduct of all the genetic variety that gives them such diverse colouring!

The best part is, no matter what they look like, they taste great! Swiss Chard is one of those vegetables that I used to hate, but now that I am not a "youth" anymore, I just love. When I was 19 I used to work at a market garden, where we sold every kind of fruit and vegetable known to local growers. I used to shake my head at the crazy people (mostly with a few gray hairs) who bought greens like Swiss Chard. Once I had gray hairs of my own I tried Swiss Chard from the Farmers Market and discovered how delicious it is. I think taste buds have to mature before they can appreciate chard, spinach and other greens with their faintly bitter flavours.

We have been making Chard Cheese Pie (see last year's archive for a recipe), and this year we discovered the joys of chard steamed in foil packets over a campfire. It also works on the BBQ. For extra flavour, a bit of onion or herb is also welcome. I put the stems in a layer on the bottom and the leaves on top. The edges singe a little and this gives a great caramelized flavour to the rest of the chard. It turns out a little different every time but it's always good!

Stone Soup

Is everyone ready for a big pot of stone soup? Last time I saw Brian he asked me to let everyone know it was just about time to get together and make a big pot of stone soup to share.

You know the story... A traveller shows up in town late at night, and the suspicious villagers won't give him anything to eat. "Nope," they say, "we don't have any food here." So he says "No problem, I'll make my stone soup, out of this magic stone here." And he puts his stone in a big pot of water.

All the villagers gather round. "Is it ready yet?" they ask. "Is it good?"

"Just about ready," says the stranger. "It'll be fine soup. My magic stone is working. It will be even better with a carrot, though. Too bad I don't have a carrot."

"Hmm... I think I might have one small carrot left" says First Villager. And she scurries off to get a carrot. The villagers crowd around and watch the carrot go in.

"Great!" says the traveller. "Now it's just about perfect. The stone is working its magic. The only thing missing is a potato."

"Wait, I have one potato left!" says Second Villager. And she runs to her cellar for a potato. Plop - in goes the potato.

And the villagers look curiously at the soup. And wait. Then the stranger says, "I can smell the magic working. It is nearly ready. All it needs now is a bit of bone for some flavour."

Third Villager slips off to her cupboard and brings out a ham bone. "Here is a bone, it still has a little meat left." In it goes, along with the potato and the carrot and the magic stone.

The stranger stirs the soup and says, "Good thing I brought this magic stone along. We'll all have soup soon. What fine soup it will be. If only there was a little bit of celery, it would be just perfect." The villagers all look at each other, and Fourth Villager says quietly, "Well, I have a piece of celery. If it will help the magic work, I could spare it." So he goes to get his last piece of celery and throws it in the soup.

The traveller stirs the soup again and they all wait. After a little while, the magic works, and the stone turns a pot of water into a big pot of soup. With only a little help from all the villagers and their cupboards.

So Brian thinks it is time for a little stone soup at the Hummingbird Garden. There are plenty of magic stones in the earth, and each of us villagers has one or two vegetables we could throw in the pot to help the magic along.

Maybe it will even be this weekend! Watch for magic happening at the garden...