Diary

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Thursday, May 02, 2024

More rain. We seem to get 2 to 4 mm each day, which keeps the ground sodden; too muddy to dig, to sieve, to till.

I spend part of today drafting notes for a Construction Mesh Garden , originally for the southern end of the shed, then an impressive 4:1 area gain on the raised bed.

I will probably start with a half-dozen vertical beds, four-foot long, and see how they cope with wind and moisture.

Sunday, May 05, 2024

This afternoon I was outside digging up the last of last year’s artichokes from the driveway bed.

But first O re-raked the shed bed (North)

The large rectangle outlines two paths raked across the top of the bed, with two small rectangles showing the resulting piles. The lower-left corner has part of the rakings from a week ago, rinsed a little by the rain.

These raked rocks can be tossed onto the propped rack laying flat, just a quick-sieve.

I set up the propped rack in the driveway bed with a sheet of galvanized iron hooked to the construction mesh behind the sieve mat of fine mesh.

I have outlined one s-hook, but can’t see the other.

A barrow of plucked stalks. Secateurs trimmed the dry stalks into 18-inch lengths to start a small bonfire, on which I burnt down limbs, branches and twigs from Kerry’s back yard.

A second curved sheet serves to slow down the artichoke tubers and prevent them rolling all over the bed as they chute down the mat.

I gained a half-barrow of tubers-and-soil; probably a bag of tubers. I noticed that many of them are already sprouting.

Monday, May 06, 2024

Bernard arrived late yesterday afternoon and wrestled the roto-tiller around two beds. Here is the driveway bed with the major part tilled, ready to be raked, after which I can plant out my gooseberry cuttings, some of which can be seen in the lower-right corner of this image.

IN theory each of the slotted white sticks represents TWO rooted gooseberry cuttings. I layered lower branches with slotted sticks last year. The sticks bend and break or bruise the branches which send out roots as a response.

I haven’t had fresh gooseberry pie since 1955; that’s almost seventy years!

Here is the raised bed, with all of last years grass clippings and saw dust mixed in; that gave the worms an awful scare.

The contents of the compost bins will be barrowed to the four-foot wide strip at this southern end, tilled in, and then be ready for seeds and seedlings.

In the far corner you can see the red stakes which protect my tiger-lilies and irises

Our first warm and sunny days in three? Weeks. The yellow crocus have responded, but the purples seem to have given up hope.

Tuesday, May 07, 2024

I determined to catalogue a new batch of seeds. The catalogue can be seen here .

I use old DVD cases labeled with a serial number. In this case is a reused envelope ( SUFE ) with a brief history of its source. In case 62 are Pumpkin seeds from a pumpkin re-used from a house porch last fall after Halloween.

Here is my set of updates prior to going into my seed cupboard.

The cupboard will now be full; I consider moving it out to the shed; it should not matter that the seeds are exposed to -20c temperatures. After all, I am interested only in seeds that can germinate after a winter (or two) in Newfoundland.

Jennifer potted half the plants from the gooseberry seedling patch. About 50 pots here on the table and on the ground.

Close-up of pots on the table.

Google images gives me a variety of names as guesses based on the photo above.

I think that last year I called this “Saxifraga cotyledon L. (Saxifragaceae)”, but I need a better method of identifying plants.

Google images?

PlantSnap?

LeafSnap?

The plot is only half emptied of the Alyssum? But that’s enough. Today I start transplanting gooseberry cuttings.

Friday, May 10, 2024

The Iris are now in their third year. I scavenged one small clump from the road works at the end of the street in 2022? And in 2023 we had about six blooms.

A rubber tyre has identified and protected them from the ravages of winter and rotary-hoeing and today I split the clump into fourteen pieces; thirteen are transplanted and one has gone to Kerry in the hopes that she will keep it alive as a backup clump.

We shall see … Now I am waiting for the Tiger Lily to present itself, then it too will be subdivided and planted out.

Thus begins a flower plot within my raised bed.

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Rain starts around 7am and continues …

Three packets of seeds arrive from Vesey’s. Jennifer ordered them. Jennifer can grow the coleus indoors, but I don’t know where she plans to plant the squash.

I am working my way through a packet of pitted dates and of course I come across a seed. On the left the seed is soaking in room-temperature (19c) rain water, replaced daily. Then I thought about the corn that grew last year, spread by the crow family. So I retained the too-hard-to-bite kernels from last night and am soaking those.

I doubt that corn will mature in time (although I might breed a strain if I went after it year by year), so the seeds on the right are there just to keep this date pit company.

Which of the two sets do you think will first sprout?

Monday, May 13, 2024

I planted out about twenty potato chits in a single row about 18 inches in from the north side of the raised bed. In most cases I think we were down to the old lawn level, so the grass sod and roots may inhibit the depth of any potato crop. I have about six chits left over; where to plant them?

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

The first tulip bulbs have appeared, scarlet, but no purples yet. Yesterday was sunny but today we are back to three days of chilly, cloudy, rainy weather.

Which is why I dug up my Tiger Lilly clump from two? three? years ago. Tiger Lilies grow from bulbs , although the clumps of bulbs look like corms to me.

I separated and planted out about eight bulbs, left two for my neighbour across the street.

The last one I planted in a hanging basket (the white with a green tape around it)