The return of the gardener/moodler

Hello, friends,

My summer break from Simple Moodlings is over, and I'm back again with a little garden video. I post these as much for myself as for you because I like to look back sometimes at previous years' garden reports, to remember how I've done things in the past, or what worked and what didn't. 

Cornelia Scarecrow is definitely working already this garden season, with a half dozen juvenile magpies and several baby crows around, waiting for her to look the other way (she doesn't). After I made this video, I realized that she needed a slight repair after standing out in the rain on Tuesday night, so she's in fine shape once again. It's just that the young magpies don't seem to be afraid of anything, even when I come after them for snapping the tops off my snow pea plants. You should see what they do to my pansies! I've tried to explain to them that bugs and worms are a much better diet for them, but they just laugh at me, HAA, HAA.

A simple reminder for my readers -- if you want a friendly email whenever I moodle about something, it really is easy peasy -- just put your email into the subscribe box on the right, and you'll get an email from Mail Chimp asking you to click if you agree to receive Simple Moodlings. You can easily unsubscribe at the bottom of those emails, too. I have a few regular readers, mostly family and friends, and I appreciate being able to share with you all.

I'll post highlights from this year's June vacation and other odds and ends soon, I promise. In the meantime, here's what my garden looks like on July 5, 2024. 

Happy Summer!

Blessing Earth on Earth Day

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day this year?

Aware, as we are, of the places on the planet that are suffering and struggling because of war and climate change, it seems like nothing we can do is enough to make a difference. 

But in reading Robin Wall Kimmerer's beautiful book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions 2013, ISBN978-1-57131-356-0), I was struck by her teaching that the Earth loves us by giving us everything we need for life -- not just the food we grow, but the air, water, soil and other beings with whom we share her abundance. 

So on Earth Day, though I can't personally do very much to slow the course of climate change or stop the war in Ukraine and other places, blessing the little patch of earth where I live -- in whatever ways I can -- makes sense to me.

Since it's a calm and somewhat sunny morning here, I carried out my annual ritual of scattering blessings around my garden. Using left over palms and dried cedar branches from Palm Sunday last year, some sage and tobacco, I made a little fire and sang El Senyor, a Taize song of thanksgiving, as it burned. This afternoon, I'll spread the ashes around the yard, using words like these:

Creator of all that is,

thank you for your abundant blessings

that come to us through Earth,

our Mother.

Thank you for all those who have lived here

over many centuries,

especially Indigenous Peoples

who lived in harmony

with all their relations,

and who have much to teach us.

Thank you for this soil,

which you have freely given

through the natural processes

of erosion and decomposition,

and for the seeds that only you can make to grow.

Bless this year's garden and help it to flourish:
bless the tomatoes and the berries,
the corn, beans, and squash,
and all other plant relations,
along with the birds, butterflies,
bees, spiders,
and others who visit
or live here.

Give us all enough warmth and sun, 
but not too much,
and rain when we need it.

Please protect this garden,
and all our gardens,
from drought or hail or damaging pests.

(And if you could keep the mosquito population to a dull roar,
I'd really appreciate it!)

Protect our trees from blight and strong winds,
and keep in your care the birds
who come to splash in the birdbath
or nibble the snow peas.

And if we should have one of THOSE storms,
may I be as gracious as Job and say,
"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away;
blessed be the name of the Lord."

Bless and help farmers with good weather conditions;
their gardens are so much bigger than mine!

I ask your special blessings on those who have had to flee

places where fertile earth is being pillaged by the ravages of war.

Please bring to us to a peace-filled harvest,
and help us to share our abundance with others who need it.

Break the hearts of the wealthy

so that they may do their part to share in the work

of adapting our world to climate change

and caring for those communities

and creatures that struggle most

because of it.

Thank you for all the life
that lives on this sacred planet.

Bless it,
and bless us,
and help us to remember
that your whole world
and all beings within it
form your beautiful and blessed garden
that deserves our love and care.

+Amen.

And then I'll give Mother Earth some sweet pea seeds so we can both delight in some fragrant summer flowers...

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day this year?

The green wall

For the last few years, I've been puzzling about how to have fresh tomatoes in winter without buying the tasteless greenhouse varieties that travel long distances -- and use more energy calories in the fossil fuels that transport them to me than my body could ever derive from them. A first world problem, to be sure, but I can't help it that I love tomatoes all year round. That's why I can and freeze as many as possible every autumn -- but even so, nothing beats a fresh, homegrown tomato!

So this year, we're trying an experiment. We cleared out the corner of our basement nearest to our furnace and moved our grow lights in from the greenhouse (which doesn't get enough sun or heat to grow anything in these darkest wintry days). Lee put up a few shelves on brackets, and I set 18 little tomato plants on them, curious to see how they will grow.

October 18

It's been over 40 days since this picture was taken, and things have been progressing. At first, we had issues with fungus gnats because tomato plants need good moisture or the fruit ends up with blossom end rot, and maybe I was overdoing the watering. Now I'm watering from the bottom, thanks to the recycled lasagna trays under each pot, and the gnats, which come from the top inch or so of the soil, have died down. 

Then, there was the issue of pollination -- which I have been handling with a small water colour paint brush, pretending to be a happy little bumblebee. And last week, I discovered that some of the plants were developing bad cases of powdery mildew fungus, which I spray treated with 1 part milk to 4 parts water solution. A good trick, that. I'm thinking to use it on my rose bushes next summer. 

These tomato plants aren't quite as hearty as I would hope -- maybe I planted the wrong varieties, their roots can't reach down through 3 meters of good soil, and I'm not fertilizing enough (my vermicomposters are just getting going again after being outdoors all summer, so there's no worm casting fertilizer yet, and I refuse to buy chemicals). The bone meal stuff we have leftover from the days before we got wise to more organic means simply isn't soluble. 

At least our plants get stalk thickening breezes from a couple of fans we've set on timers, and they are flowering and fruiting, so we should have a few edible tomatoes somewhere down the road. It's an experiment, and if there's a yield, that will be wonderful. 

Of course, I've already reaped the bonuses of keeping my fingers in the dirt in spite of winter, and of watching things grow!

Garden tour 2020

It's a warm week, and the garden is loving it! So am I, hoping that the slugs dry up and the mosquitoes diminish. Though my dying camera gives everything a blue tinge, I took one last video with it and thought I would post it here for my readers' enjoyment and my own records. Hope you're enjoying these summer days!

A gardener's vocation

Once upon a time there was a lawn...
but now it's a garden.

Thinning the delphiniums (delphinia?) in my messy front yard yesterday, I decided that being a gardener and nurturing earthy growing things is a definite vocation. It seems that not everyone is called to be a gardener, anymore than everyone is called to be an accountant, lawyer, or parent...

So what is the gardener's vocation all about?

Gardeners are called to participate in creation through providing positive conditions for life to bloom and flourish.

Gardeners are called to plan their plots and pots with hope for the future, though they live fully in the present moment, tending what is before their eyes.

Gardeners are called to embrace the physical labour required to change landscapes from barren to bountiful.

Gardeners are called to work within nature's plan to spread beauty and productivity, sometimes moving things around a wee bit.

Gardeners are often called to bring order out of chaos, or chaos out of order (our formerly mono-culture front lawn is a pretty chaotic but happy place for pollinators these days).

Gardeners are called to create pleasing habitat for others to enjoy, especially bees, birds, butterflies, other bugs, bacteria, (and bunnies, in my yard).

Gardeners are called to reduce waste and conserve resources by using available organic materials for compost or mulch, and saving seeds when plants offer them. 

Gardeners are called to teach friends, neighbours, passersby, and especially, young people and children, about how to green our world, our lives, and our plates with nature's good gifts.

Gardeners are called to notice and appreciate the littlest things: the light on a bumble bee's wings, the sudden appearance of a bud or fruit, the detail in markings on a leaf, the change in light as a cloud goes by, the tiny chirps of new life in nearby nests...

Everything is planted. June 3, 2020.

Gardeners are called to leave room for creation to "do its thing," recognizing that the value of all growing things depends upon a certain point of view. A weed can have its good qualities, and every bug has a purpose and place in the food chain.

Gardeners are called to see themselves and all creatures as small but positive parts of the great web of life.

Gardeners are called to welcome both sun and rain, and forgive hail and damaging winds... eventually.

Gardeners are called to practice patience. And to rejoice when it is rewarded.

Gardeners are called to enjoy the bounty that nature provides and share it, knowing that all things are gifts from the universe, meant to be shared by all.

Gardeners are, quite simply, an extension of the Creator's hand. As are we all.

What's going on in the front yard...

How I love spring, and seeing things grow! I'm always amazed how one day, there's a little green plant, and the next, the same plant suddenly offers a little flower! Or at least, that's how it seems. On this May 8th, there are blue scilla, purple violas, little yellow anemones, and a few assorted tulips making an appearance.

Three years ago, I decided to take a picture a day of the front yard, thinking that I'd put them all together like a time lapse film and see things grow frame by frame. I took about 3 dozen pictures out my front window, trying to take it from the same spot with the same angle every time. The pictures aren't bad, but it would have been better if I could have had my camera on a stationary tripod, and if I could have done it at the same time of day and only one kind of weather.

This week during the rainy periods, I put the pictures together as best I could with my photo program, and the result is the little amateur video below. When I look out today, I think our yard has reached the 26 second mark or thereabouts. I wish I had taken more daily pictures between the tulips and the lupins, but that's always planting season in our back yard, so the picture-a-day project was forgotten. The video is what it is, and it's kind of neat to see how things progress. Next time I'll use a tripod. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/ETEO2yNG79s

A full greenhouse

Here's what my greenhouse looks like on this rainy Monday afternoon. I've run out of space to plant anything else indoors, so I'm glad that it will soon be time to move all these plants outside...

Once again, I have more tomato plants than I can grow.

Want some?

Dahlias are up in the pots against the window,

and squashes that I might get to plant in my friend Lidia's garden.

The peppers started blooming this weekend! 

Tomatoes won't be far behind.

And the petunias are ready for flower beds.

Lavatera, marigolds, clarkia and snapdragons are up, too.

But what makes me happiest is how the garden has reacted

to the 3 cm of rain we received in the last 24 hours.

My strawberry plants are looking much happier

than when I transplanted them last week!

(And I'm so glad I got to spread the straw 

before it rained so the mud stays put!)

Our tank was empty yesterday.

It's a million dollar rain, in my books.

Watching things grow is my favourite 

antidote to coronavirus worries.

And the pear tree is almost ready to blossom. 

Isn't spring grand??!!

2019 garden report

You know it's been a busy summer

 when there haven't been regular garden updates in my moodlings. 

So to make up for it, here's my single 2019 garden report, 

posted on a rainy Friday morning with pictures from earlier in the week.

2019 has definitely been a year for flowers.

I've never had dahlias like these, or sweetpeas. 

Our "sunrise" rosebush hasn't stopped blooming!

It seems they all like cool and rainy weather,

and we've had no shortage of either in 2019.

It also helped that the feet of our sweetpeas 

are shaded by carrots that seem to have done very well this year.

Unfortunately, 2019 has also been the year of slugs and voles.

My poor kohlrabi and some beets look like lace,

and between the slugs and the sparrows, 

our peas didn't amount to more than two feeds (out of 30 sq ft).

The lettuces and chard went to pieces, pretty much.

I'm afraid that next year I'll have to put up a scarecrow 

and spend my beer on the slugs, 

much as I'd rather drink it myself!

(They'll die very happy!)

I had a dozen cabbages to start with, 

but voles ate out the roots of five of them

before I understood what was going on.

Thanks to serious vigilance with BTK,

a yeast-based organic treatment

for dealing with cabbage moths,

I still have seven cabbages left, 

and managed to freeze 18 500 mL servings

of cauliflower. We ate our broccoli as it matured,

and when I didn't pull out the rest of the plants,

they went to flower, much to the joy of local bees!

I started my onions from seed back in March,

and they've done very well -- the slugs don't like them! 

We also have some really nice leeks, 

even though my seed packet said 2005 on the back 

and I didn't think they'd come up at all.

Also grew some hard neck garlic for the first time, 

and it did very well. I'll be sure to plant more this fall.

I wish I had planted more pepper and pansy pots.

(Maybe that could be turned into a tongue twister...)

On Mother's Day weekend, Lee rebuilt our cold frame, 

and as I'd already planted lettuce elsewhere, 

I put the three sisters in it. We've had two lovely feeds of corn,

but, as you can see, the scarlet runner and purple peacock beans

 got so heavy, they pulled the corn down!

 I'm not sure what happened to the 2000-year-old squash plants,

 but I'm guessing the slugs got them too, sigh.

Fortunately, a few spaghetti squash have their own space elsewhere.

There will be lots of fava (broad) beans if it doesn't freeze too soon,

but my snow peas seem to have gotten lost in them somehow.

I had thought they'd do well climbing the walls, but they kept climbing

into the beans. Next year the snow peas will get their very own dedicated boxes.

Or maybe I'll just plant more broad beans because my family really loves them!

Should have taken this picture BEFORE I picked. 

Our bush beans turned out really well this year 

in spite of slug bites here and there. My best friend

gave me a bean mix that included Kentucky blue,

yellow wax, and these purple ones.

I love colourful produce!

Including these black cherry tomatoes. 

(Forgot to take a picture of the red and gold ones!)

I spent a fair bit of time with my 94-year-old friend, Ralph, this summer,

and he gave me several pointers on how to grow tomatoes,

but I'm afraid I didn't listen to some of what he told me. 

With our weather being so unpredictable in this era

of climate emergencies, I decided not to prune anything 

so that in the event of a hailstorm, at least 

some of the fruit will be sheltered by foliage.

These two strawberry beds were transplanted just this spring, 

and I'm delighted how well they've filled out.

I'm hoping frost will hold off, as they're flowering like mad right now,

and producing the odd humungous strawberry.

I'd also like the cucumbers to have a bit more time, 

as they've been really slow thanks to the chilly weather,

and they're loaded with the possibility of pickles at the moment.

Everything has been a bit slow this year -- I've never found myself 

still picking raspberries at the end of August before!

I am grateful that so much of my knowledge about gardening

 has come to me from family members and friends like Ralph

 Even the internet is helpful on occasion. 

But I suspect more of what I know has come from trial and error. 

Next year, I will definitely be doing some things differently. 

But in the meantime, our freezers are filling

with good things from the back yard, 

so I won't complain too much about my mistakes with our 2019 garden. 

I'll just put in an order for a little more sunshine next year!

This week's garden tableau

Here's the garden tableau this week... always something to be picked, so it's no wonder my moodling is all happening in the backyard instead of at my laptop these days.

We've been feasting on corn this week, yum. There are plenty of tomatoes, scarlet runner beans, cucumbers and kohlrabi. The snow peas and wax beans are blanched and in the freezer. And the squash! It made me laugh out loud. I saw some in among the corn plants, but one runner took off behind our greenhouse, and there were two more back there (I've left one to ripen a bit more).

Unfortunately, a miserable summer cold arrived last night, so the harvesting of onions, kale and chard will have to wait. And I have a box of my 91-year-old neighbour's wonderful Italian prune plums to turn into a yummy loaf. All in good time.

Gardens are a good time, in my books!

Anybody need some free kohlrabi?

August garden update

It's getting to that time of year when the garden is at its peak, the sun is shifting in the sky, and the evenings are a little bit cooler. Harvest is beginning, and I've been a pretty busy woman for the last several days. Today, I spent my time on kale chips, cherry kuchen, and broad beans. Also picked a half pail of cukes and pulled some weeds (a never ending job!!!) So you could say I'm a little tuckered, but oh so grateful for the garden and all the wonderful organic food it gives us.



Here's a picture of a funny little Peter Pan squash like the one growing in the three sisters' corner. We ate one last week, roasted, and it wasn't bad. Julia thought it looked like a hat and wore it on her head for a few minutes.


I've taken plenty of pictures of the garden, which is my favourite place on the planet -- so lucky to have it just outside the back door, where I can take my morning coffee and sit and watch the birds nibbling at the chard or chasing each other through the sunflowers. Last week as I sifted compost, a sparrow bathed in the birdbath right beside me, sheltered by a pumpkin leaf so he didn't see me watching. Our 500 or so sq. feet (45 sq. metres) of growing space don't just give us food, but also our own little nature sanctuary and plenty of good exercise for mind and soul.

Instead of posting a dozen pictures for my garden update this week, here's a five minute tour. Have a lovely weekend!

2000-year-old squash and other stories

Lee and I were marveling this weekend at how many garden renos we've completed already this year. Sometimes, April and May are a write-off when it comes to gardening, but June 1st has arrived with everything in the ground this year. I guess you could call this my earliest garden report ever!

We've been eating some pretty colourful lettuce of late...

With the real water (rain) that finally came down on the weekend, 

purple carrots are starting to make an appearance. I've never

grown them before, and they're up sooner than their orange mates.

Our cucumbers are showing up, too. 

Lee mounted some old trellis for them to climb...

Broad beans...

potatoes... with a mound of dirt in the middle, ready for when

they need to be hilled. We had to do a bit of research on

how to hill potatoes grown in raised bed boxes.

This year I'm managing to keep ahead of the cut worms that love my onions.

My neighbour is having a harder time with her cut bunny, 

a local jackrabbit who loves her unfenced garden. 

Brings Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit to mind, 

though Olga isn't nearly as scary as Mr McGregor!

Here come the pumpkins! Half Moons and Sweetie Pies.

I think they'll be happy in their double deep box, 

especially since it got a big share of compost.

The strawberries have thrown their flowers up in the air 

in exaltation ever since we got rain Saturday night!

I learned an important lesson about growing seedlings this year. 

Thought I'd be smart and use my own compost enriched soil, 

which worked well enough until the seedlings reached a certain size 

and started to look a little sickly, probably because there's so much clay in our soil. 

Now I understand why my super-gardener aunt uses potting mix 

to start her seedlings -- they look healthier by garden transplant time.

These plants are recuperating just fine now that they're in full garden soil.

I'm guessing this will be the first oxheart tomato that we eat in 2015.

Saskatoon berries and raspberries are coming along just fine...

and on Saturday, Lee and I installed six new blueberry bushes 

where we removed the dead mugo pine and other half-dead looking shrubs.

I love the idea of having shrubs that will provide food as well as beauty.

The stepping stones make it so easy to water my planter box, which holds

some of my Dad-in-law's baby marigolds that grew from seed. 

Can't wait to see them flower!

My goal to always have something interesting blooming in the front yard

might just come true this year. The tulips have been going steady since April 29th,

and now the perennials are kicking in -- cornflowers, anemones, and day lilies.

And my birthday dahlia, thanks to Stan and Charleen!

I'm posting this picture and planning to take updates on the first of each month.

Watch this space grow!

What about the 2000-year-old squash, you ask? Well, last fall, my daughter and her boyfriend attended a workshop on small scale farms, local food, and the importance of seed-saving to preserve genetic diversity. One of the presenters told how some squash seed had been discovered in an earthenware jug that had been buried some 2000 years ago. The archaeologists who found it were delighted to discover that the seed was still viable -- and the presenter offered workshop participants some seeds taken from squash grown from the 2000-year-old seed. Christina and Landon brought home two "great-grandchildren" seeds of the orginal for me, and wouldn't you know it, of all the squash seeds I planted this year, the 2000-year-old variety were the first two up! Here's one below. I have no idea what the fruit will be like, but God- and weather-willing, we'll see! (And if they're good, I'll have seeds to share...)

If I'm missing in action when it comes to these moodlings, you know where to find me! Happy gardening!