Zone bending!

After a cold spring, like the one we had this year, where we wonder whether even one pepper will mature past green. I can't help but feel a little jealous of the warmer climates. To curb some of the envy, I have bought a few of the more hardy warm climate plants, I suppose you can call it Zone bending. All of these live outside in the sunny half of the year, and inside for the cloudy bit of it.

My Olive Tree. Its tiny, and these trees grow oh so slowly, but given the very right conditions, most likely against a south facing wall with very well draining soil, some olives trees have and do fruit in Southern BC. Don't believe me? Check out http://olivetrees.ca/

 The Meyer Lemon. I watched a man who worked at a reputable garden centre essentially call a lady stupid because she was curious about growing citrus here. I'm shy, but if I wasn't I would have sent her here aGrowingTradition a top notch garden blog based out of snowy New England. My humble tree needs a bit of love before it gets there, but don't think it can't happen.

 The Tea plant of course, which actually prefers shade and moisture, but cannot tolerate cold. Hopefully more people in BC will try growing this, so that we'll have more inspiring photos to refer to. Til then, about.com it is growing tea at home

Wasabi! Another one that prefers cool, shady and damp, but not cold. I found this cool pdf put out in the states that was trying to guide farmers in how to grow Wasabi for market, check it out here Growing Wasabi in the Pacific Northwest

Lemongrass. This one is new, and truly lovely. My baby shreds it to pieces every once in awhile, and it just keeps growing back strong and fragrant. I keep it moist all summer long, but in the winter I will cut the leaves right back (makes a lovely tea) and keep it almost bone dry in a nice dormant state.

I don't expect to stop here, I saw this great video on growing ginger and I have a cardamom plant that my camera just keeps neglecting. I've seen cocoa trees with pods (growing out of the trunks) at the Vancouver Aquarium, Coffee with cherries at the Bloedel Conservatory, Banana trees with Bananas at the Calgary Zoo and my partner and Love of my life sprouts Avocados compulsively. An Orangery was a common site in the mansions of the rich not to long ago (but before our food system was globalized to the minute.) But possibly what I'm after is more what this lovely family who live in an Earthship in Ontario have, PINEAPPLES!

The Garlic Harvest

I like growing Garlic! This was my first year, so I'm likely benefitting from so much beginners luck, but I found it so easy. I also like the cycle, how it needs to be harvested in the middle of summer, leaving space in the garden to plant your winter crop. 

So, to catch you up, I planted the garlic on October 10th, in plenty of compost and leaf mulch. It started growing in february and got pretty big by mid June, when...

The garlic scapes began to emerge out of the center of the stalks. These are flowers, or plantlets, but I was advised to just clip and eat them, to help make my bulbs bigger. 

They are delicious, and were abundant. The first veg we got to eat out of the garden this season.

Fully a month later, after digging up one bulb per week to see if they were ready to harvest yet I decided they were.

I decided because the cloves were seperate from each other, and big. But they were not bursting out of the skins, which really reduces the amount of time they can be stored for.

Satisfied that it was time to roll I used a pitchfork and dug up all the bulbs, and left them out to dry flat, in the shade for a few days.

Then I removed the outer leaves, and much of the dirt in the process. Then the bulbs were hung to dry out of the way in my cool bike storage room.

About a month later they were dry enough to try braiding. Not easy, at least for me, but I finally got the hang of it right at the end.

But still, this is my best braid, and as you can see, its a little messy. What an art form, next year I'll have to grow lots more garlic to practice this on.

These are some of my seed bulbs, they are the biggest ones I got, and the ones in the best condition. They look like the nicest garlic you can get at the farmers market and I love them so much they are currently hanging up in my living room. I look forward to planting them in October and starting the cycle again.

The Experiments Continue...

Way back in May, I went to VanDusen's Plant sale, where I found a very special plant...

Originating in China, a country who for years held the monopoly on this plant, which quickly became a global commodity, rumoured to have been responsible for the creation of the British empire, the dried leaves, pressed into a brick have been used as currency.

Of course, China lost its monopoly on Camellia sinensis, once a variety was discovered that grew well in Assam India. Since then a few other strains have emerged, the one I bought does well in Russia, so hopefully here as well.

Most tea growers wait until there plants are three years old before they harvest. I got really excited after seeing this documentary All in this Tea ...

...and I also figured, based on the size of my plant, that it was at least two and a half years old. So, a few weeks ago, once small leaf buds started to emerge, I started plucking them off.

 

I got an alright handful,...

 Into the steamer I put them

 then onto a rack to dry in the oven, at 250 degrees F for 20 minutes

At this point they were looking and smelling like green tea, I was hopeful.

But the results were weak, tasteless with sad colour. 

Oh well, thats why it was an experiment. 

Tea is the stuff of ceremony for a reason, it is hard to perfect. The bug has bitten and I think I will keep trying to get my own, nice cup of garden grown caffeine.

Up-potting, and my new mini Greenhouse

Well my little tiny sprouts got big, too big for their pots (it seems to happen faster every year!) Time to pot up, or up-pot.

These little nubs on the bottom of the tomato trunks are rootlets, I always make sure to put these under the dirt, so they can form into roots, making my plants sturdy and strong.

Since space in my apartment is limited, and I have a south facing balcony, and I hope to grow many, many plants this year, I thought it was time to build myself a mini greenhouse. 

This was actually my first frame building experience, and it is really not straight, but anchored on the corners with big pots and covered with clear plastic, it actually works.

The hope is that the thermal mass of the big pots and all the soil will keep the little plants warm at night. I can easily begin hardening them off starting in a week, by lifting the roof off for a few hours at a time.

I'm excited, I think this is the beginning of a long relationship between greenhouses and myself.

Burdock Root

I've been making an effort lately to push myself to try new things. A fear of new foods is natural, but so is diversity in our diet, and I personally want to benefit from all the nutrients available from many different sources. So, when I saw this humungous burdock root (1lb) for sale at the farmers market, I had to jump at the chance to go on a culinary adventure.

I decided to pair it with another relatively new food to me, Oyster mushrooms, also bought from the farmers market, they had always scared  me off for looking so much like a fungus. Thankfully they have a mild flavour and a pleasing, tender texture. With all this new food, I had to add something familiar... green beans.

 I made this delicious stir fry, I challenge you to try it yourself. The sauce is worth it.

1 part washed and peeled Burdock root

1 part chopped Oyster mushrooms

1 part trimmed Green beans

Sautee, in enough oil to cover pan, with 

1 part maple syrup (maybe 3tbs)

and 

1 part soy sauce (same as the syrup, balance it)

Serve over rice, 

Enjoy!

Daffodils for Spring!

There is something about a bouquet of Daffodils that screams EASTER at me. I know we still have another week, but after buying these amazing Daffodils at the Farmers Market yesterday I've been in a mood to decorate eggs and create a brunch menu.

This is the floral shelf I just put up, to help brighten up the space above the table.

Here's a simple drink to try if you want to luxuriate over brunch next sunday (and won't be driving.)

Champagne Orange Spritzer

1 part White Bubbly wine

1 part Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

1 piece fruit to garnish

ice

Mix drink, toss over ice is glass, garnish

Enjoy!

Thinning!

Maybe I'm a bleeding heart, but I always find myself resisting to do any thinning. It just seems counter intuitive, after working so hard to provide seedlings with proper soil, light and water, to then kill almost half of what responded to your care and sprouted. But I have learned over the seasons that the plants given enough growing room will be the healthiest and most productive. Over crowding often results in diseases, pests, stunted twisted growth and no fruiting at all, not to mention that they become very dependent on heavy water and fertilizer treatments. And so...

I've sowed three to four seeds per pot, usually two come up per pot, so I choose the weaker ones, the ones with the bent stems, small leaves etc. and then I simply pinch them off with my nails.

They look so much happier already

I sowed the peppers in bigger pots so that I may not have to pot them up at all before they get put into their summer home, thinning is really important for allowing me to do this.

Its tough, I love all babies, but I try to keep in mind that this is all part of the path to loads of home grown vegetables!

The Wonder of Sprouts!

I love seeds. It is amazing that something so small has the potential to create a plant with fruit that contains so many more seeds. I sprouted some of my saved tomato seeds last month, now I am enjoying watching this tender early growth.

Sprouts are weak, small and needy. The seed (and this is an important consideration with especially small seeds like tomato) only has enough energy stored within it to germinate, burst from the casing of the seed, form roots and send leaflets towards the light.

I say leaflets because these first few leaves do not photosynthesize, so they don't feed the plant, they seem instead to serve as a light sensor, directing the seedling towards the light...

...then, when the true leaves begin emerging they are facing the right way. Isn't it cute that tomato seedlings are fuzzy just like their larger plants?

Once the true leaves emerge, the roots start feeding, the stalk gets thicker and the seedling works its way to becoming a large fruit producing plant. This is the case with tomatoes and peppers at least.

These Pea seedlings on my balcony have emerged with true leaves and begin photosynthesizing immediately, and grasses like corn are also way different, but that'll be another post.

A Garlic update

This is how my garlic bed was looking yesterday. There is a little bit of frost damage on the outer leaves but good new growth emanating from their centre (sounds pretty new age, but its true.)

The goal with garlic this time of year is to try to get them to grow as much green tops as possible before they start bulbing, the bigger the tops, the bigger the bulbs, so this is the best time to fertilize with a high N goody, like compost or manure (I did both.) 

When garlic starts bulbing is determined by the variety you grew, so its always good to try to grow local garlic, as its already proven itself to succeed in your area

It's Time!

The Daffodils are finally blooming! They've come up a month later this year than last, but now that they are here everything is ready to burst with growth.

And so are my sprouts, I started my pepper sprouts (I'm trying 8 different varieties of pepper this year) March 5th, and it took them awhile to sprout, Ancho took 17 days, but now they are making true leaves! 

I always started my tomatoes on the Spring Equinox, Basil too, and they have just sprouted as well.

I like to keep my sprouts under lights to keep them from getting leggy, which means long, sprawling and weak. I use 4ft shop lights that I bought at Home Depot for $17, I am using plant bulbs, but I've successfully grown tomatoes using normal fluorescent bulbs before too.

And look what came in the mail yesterday! Seed Potatoes. Last year I planted my potatoes on April 5th, I'm aiming for the same timing this year, I'm just waiting for a dry spell so that the soil isn't so wet when they go in. 

Yay! I love the Spring.