Deck and Small Garden:

A friend filled the deck containers today. so soon, I will plant the flowers I have started indoors. This is an experiment as I have not started flowers from seed before, vegetables, sure.

The Small Garden will be cleaned and prepped next week.

Are You Food Secure?

Food prices are rising, and more and more people are turning to grow their own food to help keep the costs down. Unfortunately, far too many people do not have the room to grow much, and while growing something is better than growing nothing, very few of us can feed ourselves without going to a store and buying food.

So what happens when you have little or no land and your income is insufficient to feed your family? Food security is often discussed in terms of what we called the Developing countries. However, there are far too many people across North America who are a paycheque away from hunger.

Sure there are food banks and lunch and breakfast programs that can help but there is no guarantee they will always be there to help. The food banks depend upon people being able to give surplus food and what happens when the surplus dries up?

When would your food supply run out if you were unable to buy food anywhere? Do you ever think about how secure or perhaps, better put, insecure your food supply is? What is food security?

In 1996, the World Food Summit defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.

Generally speaking, food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences.

Food preferences include vegan and vegetarian choices as well as ethnic cuisine.

Food is a commodity. This means it is bought and sold in a marketplace. This is a good way to do business, as long as all the participants have the means to shop, and buy the food their bodies and minds demand. Unfortunately, many families cannot feed themselves on the income they receive each month, and the money often runs out before the month does.

What can we do? We can encourage the growth of local food growing and producing business by shopping local as often as we are able. We can encourage the development of community gardens, yard sharing and community shared agriculture projects.

Community gardens, such as the one in the accompanying picture in Campbellton New Brunswick, enable people without any other access to land, to grow some of their own food. This increases their ability to take care of themselves and fosters a sense of community among the gardeners.

Community Garden BBQ. Bob Ewing photo

Community gardens also provide a gardening education to those who need it, and new gardeners can learn about techniques such as starting seeds indoors in order to extend the gardening season.

These actions localize food production and can create jobs and incomes which means people have money to spend. This localization of food production is happening across the continent, but it needs support both consumer support and political support at the municipal, provincial or state and federal levels.

Food security is a political issue, besides finding ways to grow your own food and shopping local, talk with your political representatives and tell them to make food security a priority. Remind them food is a right, one they need to honour

My Small Garden, 2019, Year 1, Day 1

This is from last year. I plan to expand the Small Garden a bit, maybe a foot or 2. then add compost. The plot's purpose is to grow some food, have plants for seed and to do a small bean breeding project. There is ample room.

You Can Garden!

I garden in a small space because I have bad knees and recently had a triple bypass, but my Small Garden works wonders.

If you want to grow something, anything, be it fruit, flowers, herbs, or vegetables and have even the smallest space you can do so. It is all a matter of determination, knowledge and design.

A single pot of geraniums on the stairs leading up to your apartment, a community garden plot, a backyard, side yard or front yard garden; containers on balconies, decks and patios; all are ways people express their desire to grow plants.

Ingenuity will see you through.

Your first step is to get to know the space where your garden will be; in particular, how much natural sunlight does it get none, all day or somewhere in-between? Once you know that you can start to develop a plant list selecting plants that thrive in the amount of sunlight that yoru have available.

Now how big is that space; room for one container or can you set up a small backyard market garden?

Garden design is one of the places where it pays to be honest with yourself. You may have space to grow enough food for a family of four but are you actually going to invest the time that is required to do this or is a small kitchen herb or cut-flower garden more stable for your lifestyle?

If you have a small space and that is our focus here, then the process is easier, similar but also simpler? How much light does the space get; how big is it and once you know the answer to those two questions, what do you want to grow?

Containers are a highly effective means to grow your favourite plants in very tiny spaces. Fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, tomatoes, cut flowers and many, many vegetables will do well in a container. The main rules: 1- make sure the container is big enough for the plant tog row and 2- be sure that there is drainage so the plants' roots do not get overly wet and rot.

Be sure to place something under the container that will catch any runoff; this may be particularly important on balconies and stairs where there are other people living below you.

Anything can be a container; anything that can hold soil and some water that is. I have used a pair of old work boots to grow Johnny-jump-ups and put them out on my balcony. They brought more than a few favourable comments and drew peoples’ attention to what else was growing there.

Visits to garage sales and flea markets can uncover some intriguing containers that may add a distinctive design touch. Make sure to match the container to the surrounding elements.

My favourite small space, single container garden consists of one Camp Joy Cherry tomato plants plus two basil plants. The Camp Joy is a heritage plant and a good producer. Tomatoes and basil are natural companions both growing in the same container or cooking in the same dish.

This combo is ideal for deck or patio and is be perfect on a backyard patio just near the kitchen door so the plants are right at hand when needed; as long as that spot get 6 hours of sunlight each day, they will provide you will tomatoes and basil to add fresh flavour to your meals.

Gardening Hand Tools

A gardener is only as good as the tools the gardener uses.

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When it comes to gardening, good tools make the job easier, just try and prune that shrub with your kitchen scissors, it may work, and you may break the scissors or hurt your hand. Using a properly, ergonomically designed pair of pruning shears.

Pruning shears are used on branches that are up to a one-half inch in diameter. If you use your pruning shears on anything larger you will harm the shears and possibly the plant. A poorly pruned branch is a wound waiting to be infected.

Which pruning tool you purchase will depend upon the pruning chores that need to be done. If you do not have trees or shrubs, including roses then you do not have a great need of pruning shears.

For example, Fiskars makes the PowerGear Pruner which maximizes leverage to reduce cutting effort, while the rotating handle minimizes strain and fatigue, especially during extended use.  To make this tool even more appealing it comes with a lifetime manufacturer's warranty.

Now most hedges require some level of pruning and buying a set of hedge shears that are easy to use and strong enough to do the job. There are companies that specialize in making ergonomic hand tools for gardeners and I suggest that regardless of yoru age or physical condition you give them a serious look, why make the job any harder than it need be.

Smith & Hawken is another company that makes ergonomic hand tools. Their hedge shears have High carbon steel blades, with s curved blades and adjustable tension settings as well as lightweight aluminum handles are covered with ergonomically sound grips.

If you are growing cut flower then a good sharp, be sure it is sharp, knife will do the job, like any tool, keep it clean.

Buy a pocket knife that has a lock back blade which won’t slip and cut you when pressure is applied. There are a number of companies that make knifes especially designed for the gardener; if you do not have a good pocket knife give one of these some thought.

My hand trowel is one of the most used tools in my small but busy tool kit. Much of my gardening these days is done in containers of one kind or another and the hand trowel is perfect for adding soil and compost to the containers. You can buy long-handled versions so that if you do not need to bend down or kneel to the garden.

I find the trowel also very useful for digging holes for bulbs, backfilling those holes or adding compost to the rose bed.

There are tools that are specially designed for container gardening and if you garden that way then these are worth the investment.

 NRG, for example, makes a hand trowel that has an ergonomic grip which makes the work easier.

Buy good quality tools and buy only what you need; the first step before spending any money is to assess your needs and buy the tools that make the job easier. Good tools are worth the money.

I can buy a hand trowel in the dollar store for a buck but the blade bends easily and the tool becomes useless fast. I am not eager to run to the store to buy a new one when I am gardening.

Take care of the tools you do buy clean them and keep them dry; they will last a very long time.

Favourite Fower Photos

I do not have one favourite when it comes to flowers, but many. This is one. Do you have a favourite Post a photo in the comment section.

Tomatoes: Growth Habit

Gardeners love tomatoes.

Growth Habit:

There are three basic choices, determinate, indeterminate and semi-determinate.

Determinate: varieties are often referred to as bush tomatoes. This is because the terminal (top and end) buds end in a flower cluster that produces fruit. The plant will stop growing when the terminal flowers develop. The fruit then develops and ripens over a short period of time, depending upon the weather. Tomatoes like heat so in cooler summers this process will slow down. The determinate varieties usually mature early and will produce small plants with generally smaller fruit. The small size means they do not need to be pruned or staked and can be great for a balcony or patio, especially if space is limited.

Indeterminate: these varieties are very popular with home gardeners. The indeterminate varieties will they often produce high-quality, flavourful, desirable fruit; they do mature later in the season than the determinate varieties do. Indeterminate refers to the continual growth habit of the plant which will continue to grow and flower until a killing frost. These are tall plants and will require staking for best results. Pruning is also vital if you want to enhance quality. Both flowering and fruiting occur over a longer time period.

Semi-Indeterminate: the name says it all they have characteristics that are intermediate between determinate and indeterminate. Basically indeterminate in nature, they will need staking and pruning in order to improve quality, but this is not essential. The indeterminate varieties are also very popular with home gardeners as they can provide a fairly early and good-quality yield.

I generally grow Camp Joy Heritage Cherry Tomatoes. They have performed well for me over the years and I first grew them in containers on my balcony. I could sit on my chair watch the Lake and pick a tomato for a quick snack. Add some fresh beans and a bit of lettuce and an instant balcony salad was created.

I have also grown Camp Joy indoors with less success but one plant did continue to produce fruit for nearly eight months, mind you for the last few weeks it was one tomato at a time but when you consider that was in winter that was a gift.

How To Attract Butterflies

 There are two things that butterflies are seeking: one is nectar, the food that adult butterflies need, and the other, host plants, the place where the female will lay her eggs and the food that caterpillars need. Both are necessary to create a successful butterfly garden.

It does take some thought and a bit of planning but then so does any successful garden. You need to know which butterflies are native to your region. You need to know what they like to eat and where they sleep, in short, you need to know butterfly habitats and habits.

Your public library or nature-society can be a very useful source of this information.

Let's start with a look at the butterfly.

Adult butterflies and moths have mouthparts that are shaped into a long, coiled tube. Butterflies feed on liquids (nectar) and they get all their food through this tube.

Their offspring or larvae, on the other hand, have chewing mouthparts, which they use to devour leaves.

The eyes of the butterfly are large, rounded compound eyes. This allows them to see in all directions without turning their heads. Butterflies are nearsighted, like most insects, and are more attracted to large stands of a particular flower than those planted singly.

Butterflies do not see the colour red as well as we do, however, they are able to see polarized light (which tells the direction the sun is pointing) as well as ultraviolet light, which is present on many flowers. This helps guide them to nectar sources.

Butterflies use their antennae to smell and their sense of smell is well developed. All butterflies' antennae are club-shaped, as opposed to moths, which can be many shapes but often are feathery.

Nectar Preferences (food)

Different species of butterflies have different preferences of nectar, in both colors and tastes. If you want to encourage different butterflies to visit your yard then your best bet is to supply them with a wide range of nectar source or plants.

Diversity is the keyword here, ecosystems thrive on biodiversity. This is an opportunity to explore and have some fun and a chance to engage your imagination.

Consider a circular garden bed that is just off of centre in your front or back yard. You can use twine or even a garden hose to lay out the circle. It does not have to be a perfect circle. A diameter of 4 to 5 feet is sufficient to add beauty and function to the yard.

If you combine wild and cultivated plants and use plants with different blooming times of the day and year you will encourage a wider range of butterflies to stop by.

When you plant your flowers in groups of the same plants this will make it easier for butterflies to see the flowers than singly planted flowers would.

Housing:

If you want the butterflies to stay in your garden and raise a family then you need to provide them with food plants where the females can lay their eggs. Some females are pickier about which host to lay their eggs on than others.

The butterfly larvae are also distinctive. Some caterpillars have hairs or forked spines, which may be or may not sting (often the hairs are just for show).

Certain swallowtail caterpillars imitate snakes or bird droppings. Other caterpillars, like sulphurs, blend into their surroundings very well.

If caterpillars are eating excessive foliage from a prominent or desirable part of a plant and you want to place them elsewhere then use gloves to move them if they're hairy to the backside or another less noticeable portion of the plant.

All insects are cold-blooded and cannot internally regulate their body temperature. Butterflies will readily bask in the sun when it is warm out, but few are seen on cloudy days.

It is a good idea to leave open areas in a yard for butterflies to sun themselves, as well as partly shady areas like trees or shrubs, so they can hide when it's cloudy or cool off if it is very hot.

A flat rock placed in full sun will provide the spot that butterflies need to bask. Butterflies like puddles. Males of several species congregate at small rain pools, forming puddle clubs.

Permanent puddles are very easy to make by burying a bucket to the rim, filling it with gravel or sand, and then pouring in liquids such as stale beer, sweet drinks or water. Butterflies love overripe fruit, that has been allowed to sit for a few days.

Garden Design Fundamentals

There are two things that you need to remember when designing a garden. Pay attention to both and you will create a space that you and your family can enjoy.

The first one is simple: It’s your garden. You do not have to please anyone else with your plant choices but yourself.

The second one is what I call the right plant right place rule or RPRP. When you place a plant where the conditions give it what it needs (water, soil, light) that plant will do well and reward you with fruit and flower throughout the season.

For RPRP to work you need to know three things:

One: what are the conditions where you are planning to garden, for example how much sunlight and/or shade?

Two: Be sure the plant gets the water it needs. If you are in a dry area, use plants that can tolerate the dry conditions, if the site is wet, use plants that like it wet.

Three: will the plant grow in your garden hardiness zone.

More on zones in a future hub,

Talk with the staff at the local plant nursery, ideally seek out the manager or owner when you have specific questions.

Now that you have the bare essentials we will move on to the other design elements that will help you create a garden that everyone can enjoy.

Basic Garden Design Elements:

· Line is likely the most important design element and certainly is the one you will most often use in your design. For an informal look use, a curved line, for a more formal one use straight lines..

· Texture is defined in 3 categories. 1-Coarse includes plants, structures and hardscapes that are bold and large. 2-Medium texture takes in many plants and smaller structures. 3-Fine includes plants such as ferns and grasses and structures that are thin and delicate.

· Form is the shape and structure of your plants, hardscapes or garden structures.

· Colour is the visual POP in your design. Blues, Purples and Greens are calming and seem to move away from you. Whereas warm colours like red, orange and yellow seem to bring things closer to you.

· Scale or proportion in the landscape is simply the size of your plants or structures and how they relate to each other and the area you are landscaping.

You now have the basics. It does not matter whether or garden is large, small or somewhere in-between if you follow RPRP and apply the five design principles you will enjoy the results. Happy gardening.

The Food Chain

If you want to understand an animal’s behaviour, the most effective way is to observe that animal in its natural habitat, its ecosystem. For example, watching what an animal or bird eats will give you important information about that animal.

The food chain, or what eats what is the living part of an ecosystem. A food chain shows how each living thing gets its food. Some animals eat plants and some animals eat other animals.

Al of this is possible because of the relationship between the Sun and the Earth. The Sun reaches the Earth and provides the energy that ecosystems need to produce the green leafy plants that form the basis of our food system. This process is called photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis converts light energy into chemical energy; the leaves of green plants receive energy from the sun and transform this into food that animals and humans, for example, can consume.

In photosynthesis, the energy absorbed by chlorophyll transforms carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen. Chlorophyll channels the energy of sunlight into chemical energy.

All the food that people eat is dependent upon plants for their basic energy source. This is true whether people consume plants, animals or both. The animals that we eat, eat the plants or derivatives of the plants, to produce the food (meat) that we turn into steaks, chops and burgers.

Vegetarians and carnivores may argue over what makes an acceptable meal but both rely on photosynthesis for supper.

Just where do human sit on the food chain? Well, food chains are composed of producers, consumers, which are broken down into herbivores and carnivores, and decomposers. All are essential for the circle to keep on turning.

Humans fit into the consumer category and humans are both herbivores and carnivores and some will say that humans are actually omnivores, because when faced with starvation, we will eat just about anything, including each other.

I often hear people refer to humans as being at the top of the food chain, but consider this; you are out walking along a forest or mountain trail when suddenly just up ahead there is a grizzly bear looking straight at you, who is higher on the food chain at that moment/

You are swimming in the ocean and are suddenly confronted by a shark, who is lunch?

Okay, these are extremes examples and properly trained and armed the human is likely to come out on tops in either encounter.

Let’s look at a smaller example, the mosquito, they feed off of us and other warm-blooded animals, sure we can slap them and spray them and coat ourselves in lotion to keep them at bay but should one get a good drink from us and we may become ill.

Lyme disease is another threat carried by very small beings and to get even smaller still what about the colds and flues that assault humans every year? Where do they sit on the food chain?

By studying food chains and the interconnected relationships between the various members of the chain we are able to gain an understanding of how Nature works.

Everything eats and this is the common ground that connects us all together. Everything plays a role and we do not really know what role anyone element plays until after it vanishes and things begin to change.

What we do know is that creature had someone for lunch and was someone else’s lunch? Who will go uneaten and who will go unfed if that creature is removed from the ecosystem?

What effects will these changes bring? These are questions that need to be answered before we shrug off a species’ disappearance from the Great Food Chain that is Earth.

Earth Day

On this 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, I am taking time to reflect on the society we have created. I say, we, it is correct to blame corporations and governments for the mess we are in, but, we elect the politicians and many of us work for corporations and consume their products.

If we really want to make a difference, shop local as often as you can. Encourage others to do so. Talk with local merchants, when you cam, and tell them you prefer local products.

In this vein grow as much of your food as you are able to, and buy from local sources when possible. These acts will make a difference. 

Consider taking a cooperative approach to meeting your basic needs. Talk with family, neighbours and friends about bulk buying, sharing space for growing, for example. I know you may not be able to act on this now but we can talk with each other and discover our common ground. The need for food, water and shelter are common to all who live.



#Earthday2020

Paw Paw Experiment

I am growing paw paw trees, for the first time, this year. Pawpaws are the largest edible fruit trees native to North America, specifically the temperate climes of the eastern parts of the United States, though you won't often find them near the coasts.
They should grow here.

 I have started two seeds out of the five I purchased. I will post updates, with photos, as this experiment moves along.

Planning a new or First Garden?

It is not difficult to grow your own vegetables, flowers and herbs. There are three things that you must consider if the garden is to be successful; the sun, soil and water. The garden will need six to eight hours of sunlight per day in order to produce vegetables or flowers.

Soil comes in three basic types, clay, sand or loan. The ideal soil is a sandy loam. There is a simple way to determine the type of soil in your garden. Pick up some soil with one hand, roll it into a ball. If it forms a ball that breaks apart readily it is loam. If a ball does not form, it is sand. If a ball forms but does not break apart easily, it is clay.

This primer will help you plan and design your first garden; it does not matter what you decide to grow, vegetables, flowers, herbs or all three, the steps are the same.

Step One:

There are two questions you need to answer at this point.

1- What do you want to grow?

2- How much time to you have to garden, each day, and week?

It is important to match your schedule to your interests; you do not want to start a garden that is too big, as it is likely to become a burden and that will take all the fun out of the project.

It is equally important not to put in a garden that is too small as your yield, what you get back for your labour, will be smaller than you expected and you will be disappointed and perhaps discouraged.

Step Two:

Now is the time for the garden plan. Don’t panic, this is simple; a plan helps you stay on track, makes maximum use of your gardening time, is fun and can be changed whenever you desire.

You now know what you want to grow and how much time you are willing to commit to the growing and maintenance. Now you must determine:

1- Where will your garden grow? The backyard most likely but were, well for most cut flowers, herbs and vegetables you want a spot that gets full sun for 5-6 hours a day, minimum.

2- How big will it be? The size depends upon what you want to grow and how much. A good cut flower garden can be fairly small in feet 6x6 will do; same for a herb garden. Now unless you are prepared to convert your whole backyard into a vegetable garden and even then, you are not going to grow all the food your family needs, so pick you 3-5 favourite vegetables and focus on them.

3- Homework time. You need to know the plants you plant to grow, the public library can be a great source of information as can the Internet. You can also visit a local plant nursery and have a chat with the manager.

4- Put the right plant in the right place and it will thrive.

Read this hub, for details on building the garden bed. Speaking of reading, if you are planting seeds read the seed package. The information there is meant to be followed, so do so. If you are using plants then read the tag that should be in the pot with the plant, the same story; If it is not then ask.

Gardening is a rewarding activity that does not have to be difficult or time-consuming, just be sure to build the garden that matches your needs, wants and schedule.

Consider keeping a journal. Record what you planted, how it fared and anything else that you notice. This information will be valuable when planning next year's garden.