April 21 SPEC Cambie Garden

More planting, last week cabbage, this week beets (Red Ace and Early Wonder Tall Top) and kale

The peas, lettuce greens and potatoes have sprouted (Russian Blue and Yukon Gold) time to start hilling up

And our harvest this week, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Bright Lights Chard and Red Russian Kale - both leaves and flower buds

Cambie Garden Spring Cleaning - April 14

The weather cooperated, and we were able to do some spring cleaning, trellis prep and compost bin area clean up

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Red Russian Kale continue to provide a bountiful harvest - here is a website with some great ideas for using all those early spring greens

http://whistlingtrainfarm.com/rapini%E2%80%94its-all-in-the-name/

 

Almost Forgot!!

Our harvest from April 7th

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Russian Red kale - great for kale chips!!

Cambie SPEC Garden - April 7

A productive day in the garden today .........

Cleared out the raspberry runners from Bed 1 and block-planted 3 types of lettuce (Amish Deer Tongue, Red Salad Bowl, Rouge d'Hiver) and some mescluns

Yukon Gold and Russian Blue potatoes were planted in Bed 8 two weeks ago, and because we all love home-grown potatoes,  the rest were planted in Bed 3 today.  Trench method was used.

We also planted peas, both Homesteader (aka Lincoln) and Oregon Sugar Pod II on each side of the trellis

The garden is looking lush and healthly, thanks to both the soil and the wonderful, almost summer-like weather we enjoyed during the Easter weekend.  We decided to keep the flowering broccoli to feed the pollinators and the garlic is thriving.  Ah, Spring, such a wonderful time of the year!

 

SPEC Cambie Garden - Mar 17

Some wonderful sunshine for St Paddy's Day and a great way to kick off our first garden session of the year .......

Focus was on garden clean up, dividing overgrown perennials, moving blueberries, and cutting back the raspberries ......... we also discussed soil/compost needs for the year and browsed through our seed stash  .........

Due to the cold wet weather we thought it best to wait on the potato planting and the peas .....

Garlic is looking good, chard plants made it through our winter and are putting on new growth and the kale is thriving ..........

SPEC Cambie garden- October 14

Well, that's it for our fabulous fall weather, and now the garden clean up begins, including unplugging a clogged drain!!

Plenty of green still in the garden, including calabrese sprouting broccoli, radishes and corn salad

Garlic was planted, Susan Delafield is a beauty

Last of the fall harvest, including Painted Lady runner beans and tomatillos

"The Crew" braving the weather

So that just about wraps up our garden report for 2012, with perhaps a few more visits to check on our fall planted crops

Cambie Garden - Sept. 23

One more week til the harvest moon and the bounty continues

 

A beautiful and tasty truss of Medovaya Kaplya tomatoes

Our white icicle radishes are up, and time to save arugula seed

the fall flowers are putting on a show

and we continue with our fall seeding - corn salad, lettuce and more spinach under the hoop house

Cambie Garden - Sept. 16

Unbelievable weather for mid September - temperatures have been reaching mid 20s with sunny skies - and the tomatoes are loving it - Green Zebra Cherry is finally starting to ripen and we even harvested fall raspberries - yum!!

Time to move the finished compost to garden bed 1 - lots of worm cocoons ......

After adding compost we broadcast spicy and mild mesclun mix, microgreens, Tah Tsai and Toy Choi in bed 1 - the sprinkler system is now operating, so hopefully we will get good germination and lots of fall cut and come again greens.  We also planted a row of Samish spinach in the hoop house, harvested a handful of late-planted purple climbing beans and one lovely Diva cucumber.

Medovya Kaplya - such a productive and tasty cherry tomato - time to save some seed!!

Cambie Garden - Sept. 9

Late summer and the weather of late has more than made up for the slow start this spring ...

Lots of tomatoes are now ripening - Sungold, Galina, Medovaya Kaplya, not Gurnsey Blush and Kimberley.  Arugula, Red Russia Kale, nasturtium flowers, basil, sprouting brocolli and Poona Keera cucumbers are also providing a colourful harvest ......

Green Zebra Cherry tomatoes are the last of the cherries to ripen and the first to show signs of powdery mildew ...... and the last of our dahlias - removed from garden due to powdery mildew

 the first of our Calabrese sprouting broccoli is looking good

We planted a new bed of fall veggies - three rows of radishes - including Watermelon radish and two rows of corn salad -

Fingers crossed these Brussels Sprouts will be ready for Thanksgiving dinner ........

Cambie Garden - August 26

Well, the last Sunday in August - hard to believe summer is on its way out ....... but we did get a good harvest of Galina and Kimberley cherry tomatoes at the garden, along with a nice bunch of yellow beans ........

Cambie Garden - August 18

Quite the busy time at the garden today - we watered, trimmed and harvested and then watered again - this has been the hottest week of the summer and the garden was very dry ........ but all that sun has provided the beans and cherry tomatoes with the boost they needed to begin ripening.  Unfortunately all the heat has prevented our lettuce, frisee and onions from sprouting - just not enough water

first ripe tomatoes - Galina (yellow), Kimberley (red) Rose Quartz (pink) and Golden Child beans (planted June 24!!) - very prolific; and the basil is loving the hoop house

  have a look at the wonderful shape of the Medovaya Kaplya tomatoes (still green on the vine)

and more beans - this one is a runner bean - Painted Lady - a very old variety - we'll keep these for fresh seed

and a big thank you to Itzia for keeping our hedge trimmed to provide more light for our Brussels Sprouts

the dahlias are blooming and more greens (chives, kale, sorrel and chard) are ready for picking - late summer is on the horizon ........... next week we hope to sow more seeds for our fall/winter crops