709-218-7927 The Landfall Garden House 60 Canon Bayley Road Bonavista, Newfoundland CANADA A0C 1B0 CPRGreaves@gmail.com Home

Diary

Back to Diary_2025_10

Wednesday, November 05, 2025

We had strong winds yesterday, with rain. The rain shows up on the weather data as 32 millimetres, but the wind shows as "Missing".

The view from my bedroom window shows that the leaves have been stripped from my now-naked Jerusalem Artichoke stalks.

Thursday, November 06, 2025

Indoor gardening; there is something to do every day.

The four-litre plastic pail has a broken handle, probably broken by my enthusiasm in suddenly lifting the pail after it had had a good soaking in water.

Now I am in the shed with (in the foreground) a scrap of nylon rope I picked up on the roadside six years ago (Second Use For Everything) and a yellow propane torch which will melt the nylon rope with a push of a button.

I cut a suitable length of nylon rope and after drilling two holes through the rim of the pail, seal the ends of the rope with the torch, push them through the hole, tie a simple half-hitch at each end – to prevent the rope slipping out – and then seal the half-hitch with the torch – to stop the knot from unravelling.

Saturday, November 08, 2025

I planted the remains of this summers harvest of bulbs. In the SE corner of the raised bed a plot of twelve Lilac-coloured crocus bulbs and then a frame of twelve hyacinth bulbs.

Next summer I must weed the driveway beds as the bulbs sprout, AND harvest every second plant of the five species of bulbs.

Wednesday, November 19, 2025

What a surprise! After the strong winds of the past fortnight, a brave dandelion clock smiles at me!

Two packets of seeds have arrived from Whimsy & Wonder of Saskatoon,Canada S7K5P4 sales@wonderseeds.ca Tel: 306.361.3259

Giant Venus Fly Trap C$16.99

Venus Fly Trap C$14.99

Venus Fly Traps - Mixed C$14.99

Bigfoot Vine C$18.99

Thursday, November 27, 2025

I continue to harvest artichokes, a small batch whenever I get outside.

I gradually work my way through the dead stalks, one or two clumps at a time. The roots fall out onto an area of soil, I pick off the tubers by hand and lay them out in the green trolley where the next day's rain will remove most of the soil.

Then in a seed-tray indoors, placed about a pound at a time in the orange plastic mesh bags that brought onions into my house, tied off with scraps of string, and as "delicates" into the washing machine.

I am storing the bags dry in a carton, in the guest room or the pantry as a cold cellar.

Friday, November 28, 2025

About those artichokes …

Here is the next batch, separated and freely rinsed with a pail of rainwater from just three feet away. The raionwater pail is handy for washing stuff outside, once nmy reservoir is full.

I rinsed a batch yesterday, but left them in the washing machine overnight. They had been "spun dry", but by this morning most of them had developed black gunge.

I have set the bags to dry on my warming shelf – a baking tray that perches between the window sill and the bench; it gains heat that carries upward from the baseboard heater.

Moral: remove and s[read out to dry as soon as the machine cycle is finished.

For comparison, here is a batch of blackened bananas destined to make fruit patties, along with a batch of pears, later today.