gardening
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One Month: Greenhouse Update
We passed the one-month mark since transplanting in the new greenhouse and the results are totally blowing our minds. It seems like each day we go in there you can see visible growth. The cherry toms are stretching up to their 3rd truss, the beefsteaks are setting fruit, the cucumbers have been trimmed and pruned… Continue reading
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Hot, Dry: Decision Making On The Fly
Well that was quite the couple weeks there, hitting 35C and 30C+ on multiple occasions. We’ve had, in total, approximately 25mm rain since the beginning of May, which isn’t much. And for us, 90% of what we grow is not under irrigation (or what is known as “dry farming”). So here’s an update on all… Continue reading
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Cover Crop Update:
It’s hot, real hot, record-setting hot, and tinderbox conditions have fires popping up everywhere from inside the city to our provincial parks, while the wind blows uncovered topsoil around enough to reduce visibility. This would be a good time to have an update on our cover crop situation, whose soil is not blowing away. For… Continue reading
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Greenhouse Full + Crazy Weather
July temps in early May is a bit scary, so the weather has accelerated all of the goings-on at the farm and we’ve entered Ludicrous Speed mode. That might not be the greatest thing for our spinach and broccoli, but it has meant that we’ve fired everything into the new greenhouse and we are, finally,… Continue reading
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New Greenhouse! Now What?
The weather finally aligned and with a bunch of people helping wrangle a massive piece of plastic, we got the plastic up, locked in and inflated. That felt like a really big moment. This has been a few years in the planning and with the plastic up, it all felt finished. And then we realized… Continue reading
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Greenhouse Rain Delay
Twice in a row we were thwarted by moisture trying to get the plastic up on the greenhouse. The tiniest bit of moisture on the ground would have made an absolute mess on the plastic, so we’ve had to punt for sunnier days. Cloudiness or rain can gum up the works sometimes. So the end… Continue reading
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Transplanting Patience
We finally have some photosynthesis going on in the greenhouse! It’s nice to see green while there is still snow outside. This year feels a bit boring so far to start, but that’s largely due to me continuously moving seeding dates up. Partly because of our improvements in germination. I used to give 7-10 days… Continue reading
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2 for 2: Overwintering Honeybees
Still in the first year of beekeeping here! It felt like a big test, to see if I could successfully overwinter the bees. On a nice day recently I went in for a check, removing the R10 and R20 insulation that was (hopefully) keeping the bees stable all winter. And right away we saw good… Continue reading
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Let’s Talk Weeds in No-Till Gardening
I’ll be giving a little talk tomorrow, Thursday March 20th, at Little Brown Jug in Winnipeg starting at 7pm. The topic is managing weeds in a no-till permanent bed system. Hoping that after this talk I will follow my own advice and finally get better at managing them weeds! Graham thanks for reading complimentary blueberry… Continue reading
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Toxic By Default
We received notice from our RM of all the wonderful chemicals that may be applied during the season, a run-of-the-mill PSA. It proceeds to list 9 different herbicides and 4 pesticides. At the bottom of the PSA comes the kicker: if you don’t agree, you have to write a physical letter to the provincial government… Continue reading
About Graham
Graham is an ecologist-farmer from Canada working on educating about the wonders and beauty of the natural world, and how we can design biodiverse food production systems.
Complimentary Blueberry Juice 