Harvesting In Early Spring

Growing our own vegetables has become a passion. Who knew that the third millennium AD would find city people going back to the earth in droves, growing food in back yards? Way back in the olden days we thought it would bring only high tech, and cars that flew.  Well, it did bring much of this, but for a variety of reasons people are searching for safer, more nutritious food and the best place to start is in our own gardens.

One of the best ways to do this is to make your garden work all year long, not just in the summer. This past winter has seen more nutrition grown in my back yard than ever before. Winter? Yes, winter.

I’ve had chard, spinach, kale and purple sprouting broccoli to pick for months now. We finished the leeks in January. I showed you pictures of my winter crops during the snowfall in January, and harvest time is now at its peak. This is what my chard plants looked like just before the warmer days arrived.

Chard before spring burst of growth

Chard is almost a full year delicacy, as it can be planted now, eaten all summer, then go through the winter and give one final burst of growth before starting all over again next year with fresh plants. It’s now bigger and lush; I just keep cutting leaves off the outside, allowing the central new growth to put on size.

Kale was enjoyed all winter, and with the coming of spring it started forming flowers, leading of course to seed. The flowers are incredibly attractive to beneficial insects, so I’ll let some of them open up, but most are being harvested and given a light steaming……delicious!

Kale starting to flower

I usually grow Lacinato Kale, the black crinkly leaves being very nutritious and yummy as well. Did you know that Lacinato Kale is the original precursor to all of the cabbages? I have found many excellent recipes using kale, and this year I’ll grow other varieties as well.

I sowed spinach seed in September in a large plastic pot, and put the pot in my greenhouse just to see how they did there. I do keep the greenhouse just above freezing, since I store my Aeoniums in there for the winter, and they cannot tolerate frost. The spinach seeds kind of languished, as they were planted too late to show any growth before winter set in. However, as soon as the days started lengthening in February I noticed that the spinach was putting forth luscious growth of tender succulent leaves, and now I pick it weekly. This year I’ll start earlier and have a proper crop. One thing to know about spinach is that it sets seed according to day length, so no matter what you do it will bolt to seed in June.  This is another reason to grow it in the fall and winter.

Purple sprouting broccoli is an amazing plant. It’s a biennial, meaning that it starts growing one year, overwinters, then produces and goes to seed in the second year. We plant this in August, ensuring that it’s pretty much full size by Halloween; then it quietly overwinters. Some time in March it starts producing small purple broccoli heads along the sides of its main stem and all along side branches, and continues abundantly until about June, by which time you have had more than your fill of this health-giving vegetable. Like peas, it’s really good eaten raw, standing in the garden with a bit of mud on your boots!

Purple sprouting broccoli

But try steaming it like you do with regular broccoli; a little butter, salt and pepper, or lemon…..personally, I love it with a bit of Japanese seaweed paste…….divine. Yes, you do pick the sprouts when small; as with most garden veggies, small is good. Size matters.

While my picture, taken in March, is rather puny, apparently this wonderful crop will be waist-high by the time it’s finished. Wow!

Now that I have enjoyed the delightful and delicious crops grown during the winter months, I will never ever be without them.  I don’t have a lot of sunny real estate in my garden for veggie growing, so I have to make the most of what I have. One of the best ways is to make the garden produce crops all year, not just in the summer. Try it, and I promise you that you’ll never regret it, and never go back to summer-only harvests.

Note: for more complete information on growing winter vegetables, or any vegetables any time, check out Linda Gilkeson’s book Back Yard Bounty.

Late Winter In Dubai

Submitted by visiting roving reporter Lynne, and resident Leah

Near the south shores of the Arabian Gulf, the petunias are looking great!  The plant souk has boxes of them, plus gazanias and geraniums, ready to brighten up a container or a tired spot in the garden.  Two months from now, when Saanich Peninsula residents are contemplating the wisdom of putting out the petunias, due to cold nights, it will be close to the end of the line for the plants here, due to extreme heat.

However there are many other plants which will survive the summer, with the help of some water.  An interesting landscaping note is that cactus are frequently used in commercial plantings, which makes sense, given the climate.

A visit to the plant souk entails a drive via several miles on 6 – 12 lane highways which make the Pat Bay Highway look like a country road.  There, on one sandy corner of an intersection, are about 5 acres of land devoted to over a hundred cheek-by-jowl nurseries.

Shrubs and trees are the main offerings, with a sprinkling of ferns, grasses, perennials, herbs, and of course the boxes of bedding plants.  Space is at a premium so pots are packed close together – this is a market, not a retail nursery as we would know it.  Help from the very knowledgeable workers/managers/owners is essential, both in locating plants and discovering their habits.Some of the plants are recognizable as tender perennials in coastal British Columbia, such as Bougainvillea, Ficus, and Pennisetum rubrum.  However most of them wouldn’t stand a chance in our cool wet winters.  One  exception was the impressive ball and burlap specimens of olive trees (shown in the photo).  Obviously very mature, cut back very hard, there they were gamely putting out new spring growth.It’s an amazing and exciting learning curve, trying to figure it all out, when you’ve grown up in a temperate climate.

Spring Haircuts For Shrubs: Pruning To Avoid ‘Bad Hair Days’

I look back with horror on how I used to prune my shrubs. Akin to a “bowl cut” for hair, basically I just trimmed off the ends of branches to keep shrubs the size and shape I wanted, resulting in a “witches broom”, a scary hairstyle indeed.

Alternatively, I didn’t prune at all, favouring the wild and wooly look.  It’s embarrassing to think of the Buddleia that I had to support with  a complicated rigging of stakes and twine.

Then I took a 4-session pruning class with Patty Brown, at the Horticulture Center, and my gardening life changed.

Always ask yourself ‘Why do I want to prune this plant?’ Here are three of the main reasons.

Training—To direct the growth in a direction that you choose. Cut to a bud which faces in the direction you want the branch to go.

Maintenance —To enhance the health of the plant. Removing dead, diseased, or damaged wood (the famous DDD); removing branches that cross, rub, or otherwise impinge on the space of their fellow limbs; increase air circulation.

Rejuvenation—This is often drastic and requires experience. Don’t attempt to do this all in one year; the process may take several years, with some rejuvenation pruning done each year on an old, decrepit and suffering plant. Sometimes better to buy a new one.

The joke in the class was that we had to prune all of our deciduous shrubs on March 1 at 2pm; a rule meant to be broken, but a guideline to follow. The rationale is that the sap is about to flow, bringing food and energy gushing to the freshly cut branches, stimulating new growth.   Pruning in the dead of winter when it’s cold and wet can invite rot on the cut surfaces, so March 1^st gives the best of both worlds; the plant is dormant but growth is about to begin for the new season.

To prevent loss of the current year’s bloom, follow the adage “If it blooms before June, you don’t have to prune.”  Well, you do have to prune, but not now.  Wait until after flowering to prune your spring bloomers.

We learned that there are only two main types of pruning; heading back, and thinning.

That witches broom I mentioned is from heading back incorrectly.

This hydrangea will be both headed back, (cut to a fat bud on the bare stem) and thinned as well (by cutting out one quarter of the oldest branches to the ground).

Heading back is to shorten branches, direct growth, or maintain size, but is also used to keep some shrubs tidy and full, as in shearing hedges or small-leafed evergreens such as boxwood, heather, etc.  Remember that at any cut point, new growth will erupt, so you must decide whether you want a burst of new green, or just a more controlled response.  I have a Rose Glow Berberis right beside a pathway, and if you’ve ever crossed swords with one of these, you’ll understand the value of heading back in a responsible way, to keep it within bounds but not encourage rampant re-growth. I always shorten the branches by cutting to a smaller side branch that is aimed away from the path.

Many of our favourite shrubs benefit from being totally cut back every year, in a technique called coppicing, which is a fancy word for cutting off all the branches just above ground level (a severe form of heading back). This encourages strong new growth, and bountiful bloom on the ones that flower on new wood such as Lavaterra, Buddleia, Leycesteria Formosa (Himalayan Honeysuckle), Hydrangea arborescens eg Annabelle,  Hydrangea paniculata eg Limelight.

Think of how much energy this Buddleia has wasted putting on these leaves. The pruning should have been done a few weeks ago.

All ready to start growing.

The very popular red-twigged dogwood, Cornus stolonifera, is another candidate for coppicing, as the new growth is always much redder and more vibrant. A newly coppiced Cornus will sprout new red growth quickly and make a much more stunning specimen in the following winter.

Thinning cuts are exactly that; meant to thin an overcrowded shrub by removing branches at their point of origin —either at the ground, from a larger branch, or from a Y-joint junction.  Entire shrubs can be gradually renewed by taking out one quarter of the oldest branches, to the ground, each year.

Broadleaf evergreens can also be pruned now unless flowering is an issue. This is usually done by heading back, ie. as in maintaining a hedge, or with thinning cuts to eliminate crowding.  The burst of new spring growth will cover up any stumps or stubs.

Pruning at this time of year gives us the gardening fix that we so need, and only ‘good hair days’ for our shrubs.

Cotinus before coppicing

Cotinus being pruned

Coppiced cotinus.

Late Winter In The Garden; Hellebores And Epimediums

It’s very tempting to call this Early Spring, but let’s not risk jinxing it.  CBC even threatened possible snow for next weekend, so I’ll be careful what I say.  Was it my thought of starting some seeding that brought back the cold weather??

It’s still very wet and muddy out there, so there shouldn’t be a lot of stomping around on the soil yet. However, there are a few tasks that should be done before the warmth progresses much further.

If you read my blog last year at this time about cutting back ferns,  you’ll remember how important it is to cut evergreen plants back before the new growth emerges, lest you cut off the new with the old.

Epimediums are a particularly useful ground cover; they thrive in dry shade, deer find them unappetizing, and they are evergreen.  What’s not to love? The dainty leaves take on a burnished bronze in winter, then just before spring they need to be lopped off in preparation for new growth. The key is to cut it all back just before the delicate little flower stems reach up into the canopy of leaves. The emerging stems unfurl, not unlike the way fern fronds uncoil, from a crouching position to standing  tall; well about 8” tall, anyway.  This seems to happen all of a sudden, and if the leaves aren’t already cut back, it’s impossible to separate the two, resulting in flower buds lying sadly on the ground with last year’s leaves.

Epimedium With Bud

In the dark days of February the light isn’t conducive to great photo shoots in my garden, but here you can just see the first little brave bud starting its journey skyward, after the leaves had been shorn. Within a few days, many more buds will follow.

Is there any more welcome sight in winter than the charming faces of Hellebore blooms? Modern hybrids offer not only a vast assortment of colours from pink to yellow to purplish black to pure white, but the outward facing blooms on sturdy upright stems make these gems irresistible.  They are very drought tolerant once established, do well in shade as well as sun, and the deer don’t eat them.

They don’t like being divided, are a low maintenance perennial with few pests. The one thing you do need to do at this time of year however, is to cut off the ratty leaves when the plant is blooming, as this is when the new foliage is emerging.   The old leaves become leathery and lay on the ground at this time, making it easy to see what to cut.   Don’t put the hellebore leaves in your compost, as a precaution against the black spot fungus that hellebores often get on old foliage.

Hellebores Needing Cutting

The picture shows the big glossy leaves surrounding all the new growth. Cut off all the big leaves, as hard as this may be to do!

By keeping your perennials cut back at the right time of year, you are refreshing and renewing the life of your garden, and giving yourself the much needed boost of a little time in the garden at a very dark time of year.

How soon until we can safely call this Early Spring? One thing we can do without harm, I think, is get our seeding trays washed and check our supply of seeds from last year, buy some choice new ones…..…next week, seeding indoors. 

A Quicker Way To Clean Mason Bee Cocoons

Have you opened and cleaned your mason bee condos yet?  If not, you should be planning to do this soon, and then get the cocoons into the fridge, in a ziplock bag, to delay emergence until the timing is right for pollination.  I opened and cleaned my condos a few days ago and I tried a different method for cleaning the cocoons, using fine sand to scour them, a bit like using Vim on your countertops.

Using sand worked a lot faster and resulted in much cleaner cocoons than the “multiple rinse” system, and I’ll be using it from now on.   I have a garbage can of coarse builder’s sand that I use on my driveway when it’s icy, and I made use of that, but sifted it first (with one of those handy kitchen sieves) so that in a small bucket I ended up with a few cups of fine sand.  The photo shows everything you need for this project.

Tools of the Trade

After the cocoons are scraped out of the channels into a bucket, add enough water to moisten everything, let it soak for 5 minutes and then scoop out perhaps 40 or 50 cocoons at a time with your trusty sieve and quickly rinse away most if the dirt, leftover pollen, mites or mite eggs (lots this year because of the wet Spring) and mite feces (the yellow stuff in compartments that don’t have a cocoon in them).

Cleaning With Sand

With the cocoons still in the sieve, and working above a bucket, sprinkle enough sand onto the moist cocoons until they are thoroughly covered in a sandy paste. Then swirl and swish this mixture around for a minute or two. The polishing action of the sand quickly removes any remaining detritus and a quick rinse shows very clean cocoons.  I repeated the process one more time, rinsed thoroughly, and then placed them on Scott towels to dry.  Clean cocoons leave almost no trace of yellow on the paper and I was able to achieve, with two quick sand washes, what used to take four or five long soakings and rinses.  Be sure to let the cocoons dry thoroughly, in a cool place, and then get them into the fridge.  I put mine in a small paper bag and then inside a sealed ziplock bag.

A word of caution about this system: sand is a great blocker of drains, so I worked and rinsed entirely into buckets and tossed the residue outside, and so should you. Lastly, go quickly now into the kitchen and replace your (spotlessly clean) sieve before anyone notices what you’ve been up to.

Mason Bees And Veggies In January

With our gardens under a beautiful white blanket at the moment, it’s a pleasure to think ahead of warmer months outside.  While the nursery is now closed until February, we have been busy planning, ordering, and generally looking forward to a wonderful new season ahead.

Veggies In Winter

Are you poring over seed catalogues? That always feels to me like the first step in the wonderful cycle of life that is gardening, and one of the best parts of winter.  With seeds coming in to the nursery in early February, it’s not too early to be drawing up plans for what you want to grow, and where to plant, being careful to rotate crops when you can.

Are you enjoying winter harvests?  The leeks that we just finished were plant starts in April, and the delicious kale and chard that we are eating now were mere seeds in August.  Here they are now in the great Canadian refrigerator!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

This is my first time growing Purple Sprouting Broccoli, but I’m expecting a bountiful crop of nutritious, crunchy side shoots that will keep on giving……and giving…….and apparently giving until we’ve had more than our fill!

Even under the snow, the plants are impressive.

Have you washed your Mason Bee cocoons?  This morning, mid January, I washed my cocoons. Previous article.

While my earlier blogs describe the method I use, Brian has a New and Improved Method, which he’ll be writing about in a coming post. As long as you get the cocoons washed, dried and put into plastic bags in the fridge before the weather warms up, you’ll be fine.

I have some good news and some bad news on the bee front.  The good news is that my bees were very active last year in spite of the poor spring.  The condo obviously had been filled very well, but as you can see in the pictures, whole chambers were plundered and the cocoons themselves eaten.  I discovered THREE wasps, fat and still sleepy but alive, sheltered inside, where there had once been happily maturing mason bees.

Plundered Bee Condo

The chambers with only yellow dots are filled with mites, which devoured the cocoons.

It’s a cruel world out there if you are a Mason Bee, all the more reason why we must encourage these little creatures who do so much for us. Their life cycle is entwined with our own; let’s help them thrive as we embark on another year in our own journey with the garden.

We all wish you Happy Growing for another year and may 2012 bring you the best of health and happiness.

Christmas For Gardeners

A few weeks ago, I received one of those forwarded messages, the sort of thing we all dread finding in our Inbox. If I ever get another one of those things that tells me how wonderful I am, how needed and how ‘special’ I am, I think I will gag.  And don’t ever think I’ll “forward it to ten women that I think are special” too!  (Sorry to any friends who have done this to me, but just tell me to my face that you love me, not in something you send to your entire mailing list.)

However, this one made me sit up and think, because first of all, it didn’t wax eloquent about my positive attributes.  It was about starting a new Christmas tradition that entailed giving the gift of either your own time, or that of a local merchant or service provider, bought and paid for with your own locally earned dollars.

It led me to think of ways we gardeners can give to each other, whether to fully grown tillers of the soil, or the little ones just cutting their shovel blades on their very first plot.

As a person who loves my garden but rarely has enough time to accomplish the magnificence that dwells only in my head, I know that I would love to receive a gift certificate for labour.  There are many young landscapers starting out who would appreciate the business as well, so a call to Glendale Gardens might lead to a match made in heaven; hire one of the graduates for a few hours to help your favourite gardener with Spring cleanup.

How about hiring the boy down the street to cut the lawn for your good friend who works all the time?

Be honest now, can you imagine a more thrilling gift than a truckload of really good soil, rock, or that delicious triple mix of soil/compost/manure? Be still my beating heart…

A photo of a vegetable garden, and a promise to “Help you plant your vegetables” perhaps with a gift certificate for the seeds would be a gift that keeps on giving, all year long.

If you can splurge on a special gift that really would make a lifelong difference to anyone who wants to grow vegetables, I can’t think of anything more wonderful than Linda Gilkeson’s class Year Around Harvest, at Glendale Gardens.  If this is a bit beyond your budget, then Linda’s book Backyard Bounty would be the next best thing, and it’s available at the nursery.

If Mom or Dad loves roses (or Japanese Maples, or whatever), how about a gift certificate (to Russell Nursery, of course) for one of the chosen favourites with the best part being that you will help plant the gift.

Are you good at photography? How about pictures of your loved one’s garden? One of my daughters-in-law took seasonal pictures of flowers in my garden one year and framed them into four separate collections, one for each season. It is still one of my most treasured possessions.

If the gardener on your gift list happens to be a wee one, perhaps starting them out with a selection of easy seeds, hand tools, garden gloves, and their very own little plot of garden space, would spark a life-long love that will never be forgotten.  You can’t imagine how often we hear gardeners of all ages talk about what their grandparents taught them early on in their gardening lives.  What one package of sunflower seeds can lead to…

Many little girls are enchanted with fairies. A “fairy garden” either in a container or planted in a secret corner of your yard, is pure magic. Wondrous things can be imagined with just the right tiny accessories, plants with “fairy” in their name, flowers that invite the fairies to alight. Create a special place for the two of you to make memories that will endure forever.

We all wish you a very happy Christmas; may you give and receive the warm gifts of time, growth, and good gardening…and not too many of those sappy emails!

Brian’s Travels In New Zealand – Part Two

We’re in the North part of the North Island now for the last leg of our trip.  When you arrive in New Zealand you are cautioned repeatedly against bringing in fruits or vegetables (instant $400 fine) or any plant or bio-hazard, to the point that they may even check the soles of your shoes for soil.

You see, NZ has a long history of unwelcome transplants and they are understandably very cautious.  There have been home-sick Scots here too, and it wasn’t  just for the tossin’ o’ the haggis,  as you can see vast areas of Scotch Broom in bloom right now and it’s even worse than on Vancouver Island. Gorse is a big problem here as well.

Nice to be here in (their) mid-Spring.  The rhodos are in bloom and they love this climate. They can grow all the sub-tropical ones we can’t get away with.  The roses are just starting to bloom as well.

Do you have Corokia in your garden?  At home, we’re lucky to see it a foot or two high, and it never seems to have more than about six or eight tiny little grey-green leaves on it at any given time.

Well, that’s not the case here.   Corokia is a NZ native and the photo shows one about six feet tall and as dense and bushy as a boxwood.  I poked and prodded and pondered over this plant for a long time before I finally recognized it.

Sometimes, though, a NZ native doesn’t look a whole lot different here than at home and I would have to say this is the case with the Phormiums, AKA New Zealand Flax.

You know how they always look squashed, unkempt, tattered and half brown, especially after the last few winters?  See the photo for how they look right here, and I can tell you it’s not a lot better.    I really don’t think there’s any hope for this plant.  You should seriously consider using something else.

You can grow practically anything here.  All the stuff we know, plus a bewildering array of tender plants.  They have rich, volcanic soil and ample rain, and only light frosts (at least on the North Island) and the growing season is very long.  If you love plants, New Zealand will be an eye-opener for you.  It certainly has been for me.  See you soon!

Brian’s Travels in New Zealand

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with my Dad today walking through Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. “Park” is too modest a description for this century old and world-class Botanical Gardens, situated on 20 hectares just a short walk from the center of the city.  How lucky are the residents of this small city to have such a gem in their midst.  There is a wonderful Victorian Fernery, an extensive Begonia House, several beautiful lakes, extensive pathways, a lovely tearoom and, everywhere you look, TREE FERNS.  Victoria gardeners try the hardier of these lovely plants, but the last two winters have shown most of us that ours is not the climate for them.  Here they grow into massive and majestic specimens, some as much as four stories high, and the individual fronds can be ten or twelve feet long.  They are at once elegant and prehistoric, and they’re like nothing you’ve ever seen.

New Zealand is a good country to visit if you think you are able to identify a few plants as it very quickly teaches you humility.  There are familiar faces here, but much of what I see here on the warmer North Island is new to me.  This is a special and curious climate.  It has a Winter of sorts and it is just barely cold enough to provide a dormant season so that so that they can grow many deciduous trees and shrubs that we know.  Their so-called Winter is nothing like we have on Vancouver Island, though, just the odd light frost and cool night.  Last year to everyone’s consternation they had snow, of all things.  It was the first time in a hundred years, and it melted as soon as it hit the ground.  These extremely mild winters allow them to grow a wide range of tropical and semi tropical plants and it makes for some very interesting plant combinations.  In the garden behind our very charming B&B (Issey Manor, give yourself a treat some day and stay here www.isseymanor.co.nz )  there is a large Japanese Maple planted between a huge  Dracaena palm and an even larger tree fern.  All of this is flanked on one side by a weeping silver-leaf pear and a flowering cherry on the other.   The under-plantings are camellias, Choisya and Pieris!  Not something you see every day at home.
Oh, did I mention it’s late Spring here now?  The  Rhodos and Camellias are in bloom and Cherries and Magnolias have just finished flowering.  See you soon!

Amending Your Soil For Winter

We are all used to a blanket making us cozy and warm in the cold days of winter, but feeding us too? Well that’s what winter mulch can do for your garden; nourish the soil and protect it from rain and freezing temperatures.

It may seem mysterious, but really all you need to do is provide lots of organic matter to feed the millions of microorganisms that will convert nutrients to usable food for the plants.  These little organisms will slow down for the winter, but by putting the mulch down in the fall, it’s already broken down by spring when the warmth wakes the little critters up and they can get to work right away. Usually we also have to correct the pH here, as our winter rains tend to make the soil more acid. With the exception of strawberries and potatoes, most veggies need a higher pH so the addition of dolomite lime in the fall is a good thing to do.  Of course the ericaceous plants (acid-loving) such as rhododendrons, camellias, heathers, pieris, and conifers are happier without the lime.

The easiest, cheapest, and most effective form of organic amendment is right there in your yard already; falling leaves need only be raked and layered in the beds; ideally, mow them on the lawn and dump onto the garden beds, both ornamental and veggie, but even just dumping them on in a 6” layer is fine, as long as they are nice and fluffy and not likely to pack down. Oak leaves are especially wonderful for the acid-lovers.  The practice in our culture of placing autumn leaves in a pile or plastic bag for the municipality to gather and sell back to us as compost is bizarre. Do you ever see forests needing fertilizing? Of course not, the leaves fall, they decompose, and return their nutrients to the soil, which feeds the trees and the cycle is repeated.  While you’re at it with the leaves, bag some up and save for spring and summer, when the “brown” part of composting is in short supply. You’ll be happy to have these crispy crunchies to add to your mostly-green compost, and the microorganisms in your soil will thank you.

By leaving the leaves in your garden beds, not only do you feed the soil and suppress weeds, you provide a haven for beneficial insects.  The lovely bumble bee nests in fallen leaf litter in garden beds.  One of the many pleasures of spring is seeing the groggy bumbles stumbling around when first awakening from their winter naps, going from crocus and heather to sarcococca, feasting on nectar and pollen

Leaf Mulch On Vegetable Beds

Here is a photo of Linda Gilkeson’s veggie garden, freshly topped with autumn leaves. As the queen of vegetable gardening on the coast, Linda offers her wisdom and practical experience in her book Backyard Bounty.  I really don’t think there is a better Christmas gift for anyone on your list who wants to grow food; talk about a gift that will keep on giving!

Another form of organic wealth I like to feed my garden is seaweed. As I live near several beaches, I am able to visit the local shoreline after a big November storm, and gather the seaweed that has washed up on the beach, detached from any living ocean plants. I don’t bother to rinse the seaweed as we have a lot of rain, nor do I even chop it up, I just pile it onto the garden beds to decompose, it seems to melt right into the soil, providing many important benefits; increased hardiness, resistance to disease, and better fruit production for many favourite crops. (Local biologists recommend rinsing the seaweed at the beach to make sure you are leaving all living creatures behind. If you are using a lot of seaweed it is probably worth freshwater rinsing, the salt in the seaweed will deter slugs but also the beneficial earthworms .) You will never find a more valuable resource for your garden! In the absence of a nearby beach, or if you aren’t comfortable hauling buckets and buckets of slimy kelp in your car, we do sell bags of kelp meal, as well as a powdered form of seaweed that can be diluted and makes an almost endless supply of seaweed elixir to foliar feed or root drench.

If you’ve been following my blogs at all, you will know that I’m a strong believer in the wonders of straw as mulch too. Straw improves the tilth of the soil, and as it breaks down, it provides carbon for the nitrogen-carbon ratio that we seek for our composts.  Its texture keeps the soil open, allowing the rains to drain through but not pummel the soil throughout winter.  Make sure it’s straw that you buy, not hay which is inclined to be full of weed seeds.

The ultimate treat for gardens is of course compost, but the recommendation is to leave the compost covered and in the bin for winter, staying relatively dry and warm.  Save it for spring mulching, preserving the nutrients that would be washed away by the winter rains.  The same is true for fertilizers; wait until spring, whether you choose organic blends or synthetic additives.

Such a combination will ensure a happy and well-fed soil, awaiting the warmth of spring. Bring on the seed catalogues!