Raised beds and our long-term plan

Our first vegetable garden attempt more or less just consisted of us deciding on a location for our garden and then ripping up most of the grass, adding some peat, planting some seeds, and calling it a day.  Not surprisingly, aside from the potatoes, it was a pretty big disappointment.  Not only were there a few specific drainage problems, the overall soil quality was pretty poor (which we soon learned is common throughout the Regina region).

Part way through the first summer it became pretty clear that some sort of raised bed option would be required if we wanted soil and drainage that might lead to half-reasonable crop production.

We decided to go with a Lee Valley raised bed kit option that made for the pretty quick construction of our raised beds.  We were able to crank out three beds in an afternoon last year.  Of course, filling these guys with top soil probably took more time and effort than their construction.

After a relatively successful growing season last year we decided to expand our set up to include a fourth raised bed.  Again, the bed construction was quite quick.

Because we had only one raised bed to fill, instead of three, we decided to fill it with bagged topsoil and peat we purchased at local garden centres instead of having a load of topsoil delivered.  Several garden centre runs later this objective was completed.

Soon after we completed the fourth raised bed we realized that because much of the area between our raised beds was the same area that had been the site of our original garden site the grass we'd torn up had come back as weeds.  This looked really bad and probably wasn't helping our raised beds stay weed free.  

We decided that we would install a brick barrier and some weed barrier before dropping a few tonnes of rocks around the beds.

Turns out that rocks are heavy and hard to shovel.  We didn't manage to redistribute the rocks in a single session as I originally, overly optimistically, thought we would.  To make matters worse, immediately after our first rock moving session the garage, with all of our recently re-housed tools, became inaccessible because the garage door broke in the down position.

After some hand moving and also our garage door repair, I was finally to take a few more cracks at rock moving and finally finish up.

No we just have to work at getting grass to grow in the various bald patches and weeds to not grow everywhere else.  Maybe in a few years from now we might actually have a backyard that isn't most embarrassing (and because we don't have a garage or fence obscuring the view the entire alley can see our shame).

Looks aside, the great news is that all four raised beds seem to be doing quite well.  If all goes as planned by the end of the summer we will have the following crops: potatoes, green onions, celery, peas, edamame, peppers, cherry tomatoes, butter nut squash, pumpkins, green beans, carrots, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, radishes, and kohlrabi (as well as an assortment of herbs and berries).  

A Few Quick Notes 623

-As noted previously, today has been a fair bit cooler than forecast.  To the best of my knowledge, these cooler temperatures can all be attributed to the sun-blocking powers of massive quantities of throat and lung-irritating smoke.  It seems reasonable to assume that as long as the smoke sticks around the temperatures will stay down, which is nice because it's not really open window weather at the moment.

-We've finally started harvesting food from our garden.  So far we've managed to grab a few early kale leaves, some celery stalks, and quite a number of green onions.  I suspect that for the next few weeks, at least until the peas come in, we'll more or less be suck with these three vegetables.

-On the fruit front we've also managed to grab a few raspberries and a few handfuls of haskap.  While the haskap are likely just about done for the year, our real raspberry harvest is still probably a few weeks away.  Hopefully by next year, when all of our plants are a little more established, we should really have good production from both types of plants.  Sadly, our strawberries, now relocated to the front of the house, don't look as though they'll ever do all that much.

-Since some library school friends in town for a conference paid us a visit a few weeks ago Jeannette and I have been a little obsessed with tofu shish kebabs.  Prepared with the broiler or the barbecue, these things are really great.

Hazy shade of Summer

After a very dry Spring and early Summer, Saskatchewan (and its bordering provinces) has entered a very severe forest fire season.  While the fires are more or less limited to the Northern portion of the province, just about the entire province is suffering in one way or another.

Things took a turn for the worse in Regina late this morning when the smoke from the Northern fires finally began to drift into town.  By my brief lunch-hour walk about my building there was enough smoke that it was irritating my throat and had gone a fair way towards obscuring the sun (that it wasn't over 30 was the only consolation prize).  It wasn't long after the smoke began to move through town that you could even begin to smell it inside.

Of course, as the day/evening has progressed the situation hasn't improved.  Actually, it's bad enough that we are being discouraged from outdoor activities (including things like pet walking).

So kids, if anyone ever asks you can let them know that forest fires can be trouble for a much wider portion of the population than just those individuals put in harm's way by the fire.

Nasty hail storm in Regina

After weeks with no precipitation of consequence, we finally experienced a long-brewing summer storm in Regina.  After a few minutes of rain the hail began - and then really came down.


 

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We weren't quite a golf balls, but these marble size hail stones were still capable of doing damage.  By the end of brief hail shower our garden had really been hit hard.  Hopefully we'll be able to recover - though I'm sure many of the plants will be set back by at least a few weeks.

Then, almost as quickly as it all began, it stopped, reverted to rain, and then became sunny.  The whole interlude was maybe only 15 minutes.

Very weird.