Canada Dreams

The Second Year

The second year in this garden has been busy. This year I have the Troy built roto-tiller and so the soil is lighter and fluffier to work with, but is still lacking in humous. The ground was prepared by spreading six bags of Legacy over the whole garden. I decide to plant in curving rows after a woman told me she planted in spirals. Spirals are hard to do with a roto-tiller. Wilhelm Riech would have been happy with my undulating aisles. Soon after I decided to develop the garden into the shape of a snake. I am new to gardening so I can only hope it will actually look like a snake, but it has a good Celtic and Jungian feel to it. The north side of the snake's head is protected by a semi-circle of sunflowers, ornamental corn, and potatoes in tires. This is done to protect from cold winds and to reflect the heat of the sun back to the melons and squashes. Here are some shots of the garden taken from the Black Spruce Tree behind the cabin.

This year I am planting my cucumbers in bales of straw. The bales were soaked in Nutrient tea and urine top dressed with Legacy and compost. The process seems to be working well although the bales need to be kept wet to keep the decomposition working. The reason for using this process is that this part of the garden is very shallow. I hope to add two inches of fertile soil to that area by fall with decomposition of the straw.(results) It also forms the mouth of the snake.

The predominate weed this year is buckwheat from last year. I am finding that it shelters the newly emerging plants from sun and frost. We had a killer frost June 15 and blistering hot dry weather before and after. When I finally pulled the buckwheat the carrots below were already well established.

July 21, I picked my first full sized cucumber from the bales. I was shocked because I was weeding and not expecting anything. We have been eating peas for two weeks and zuccinni's for one week. Tomatoes are ready to rippen. All of this is earlier than any of my neighbours.

The vegetables are sweeter than any I have ever tasted. My ten year old daughter agrees they are ALMOST as sweet as candy. I attribute this to CairnTech's minerals. This year I added six bags of legacy, one bag of calcium phosphate, and sprayed with humates and nutrient tea. Now, August 5'97 we are in the middle of a drought preceeded by three unusually heavy rains The early corn suffered the most from the drought. I tried side dressing with half decomposed horse manure for nitrogen and applied lots of water, but I think it may be too late for early corn.

Wrong the early corn may be short, but the Early Vee corn itself is 21 on the Brix scale and most of the cobs are a good size. Next year I will plant more rows of other crops between the corn rows to allow more light and nutrient for the corn and shade for plants like spinach and lettuce. My peas are 15 on the Brix test 14 is excellent. Beets are 11 where 12 is excellent.

Overall the garden has done very well. My carrots are 9 on the BRIX with other vegetables exceeding their normal values. The beans were as sweet as the peas. The egg plants looked good enough to eat, but I can't tell you how they tasted. The racoons stole them. Smart animals. I find that my taste buds tingle after I eat this food. I used one bag of legacy in late August to side dress the whole Garden. Now in late October I am surprised to find that my carrots are unaffected by six major frosts, one down to -10C. The lettuce refuses to die. The field peas are thriving between the corn rows.		One of the most pleasant things to discover was apples growning on trees that had refused to bear in ten years. These apples did more than just bear they were large and sweeter than anything I had ever tasted from a tree.
I planted potatoes three times. The potatoes I planted in May developed well and produced many good sized spuds. The ones planted in June and July produced less. I have left the latest potatoes in the ground covered with straw and I will dig them in April. The potatoes grown in tires were very small. They produced beautiful tops, but only a few little potatoes. Next year I will try varying the soil mixes.		I just walked down to the garden to make sure I was not lying. It is Oct 28. We have had very cold weather followed by a foot of snow. Today there was a melt. There in the garden is the lettuce and the spinach still eager to be eaten. By midwinter the carrots reach 15 Brix.

We also added cairns to the mix this years, thanks to one of our sponsors Cairn Tech. These cairns are to encourage moderation of the weather. I will be happy with a few weeks extra. The effects which take some years to develop,and resemble the weather of Camelot. The days are to be sunny and it rains at night, but a light drizzle rather than a downpour.		I can't vouch for the stones, but I can vouch for the man who gave them to me. You are welcome to come back over the years to see for your self.
	The cairns give a very Celtic air to the place. It also presents a small challenge when designing the garden. My son Liam really likes the smaller cairn by the house.

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