A Gardener’s Faux Pas

I committed a gardener’s faux pas today. It was unintentional, I swear! When I mapped out my plans I did not calculate in the ‘unforgivable’.

Now, after I’ve eaten a delicious meal I am sitting here thinking about growing my garden and I regret my terrible omission.

Fellow gardeners forgive me, but I ran out of time. I was in Victoria and though I vacillated from Hillside to the Helmcken turn off, even asking the dogs for their opinion, I eventually kept driving and did not turn into View Royal and stop at Lee Valley! I regret it now. I could be reclining in my lazy boy looking at seed packets, a new trowel and the cloth plant holders I lusted after in the last catalog.

I left late. Then I ended up getting lost trying to find my daughter’s place and when we got to the beach, with the sun sparkling on the water, otter playing in the waves and dogs chasing each other in the sand we ended up staying longer then I had planned.

Of course, stopping for lunch at the Market on Yates was a mistake too, they have a lot of interesting food items!

By the time I was ready to leave the city I was two hours behind schedule.

Fellow gardeners, I guess the long and the short of this and the lesson to be learned is that sometimes, sometimes, there are other things more important than gardening: like spending time with your daughter!

It was a good day! I am forgiven.

Enjoy! www.leevalley.com

Gutter Talk….Again!

Beth's Gutter Garden

I am not handy. I can wield a hammer and a screwdriver but don’t expect a neat job. Give me two pieces of wood and I can’t envision anything other than two pieces of wood.

Just so you understand, handiness is not my forte. Fortunately, I’m also not a perfectionist, extra holes in the wall are covered with pictures and mitered corners that are not well mitered are crammed with putty and layered with paint.

During the renovation, much to the chagrin of the workers, I rummaged through left over pieces of wood, piping and paraphernalia picking out what I thought could be used for raised beds, window boxes, etc. including an 8’ x 1’ piece of water piping, a stack of 2 x 4 and 4 x 4 ends and our old gutters.

The latter joined the pile of junk/treasures stored to the side of the garden. I knew that one day I would figure out what to do with them. Well, yesterday was the day that figuring produced something substantial and I might add I don’t think it looks too bad either.

This was not my idea. I’m not that original. Some impressive innovative and ardent gardener created it several years ago. I saw a picture of it somewhere, sometime, as part of a vertical garden.

Gutter Garden, Raspberries and Blueberries

I have about 800 square feet of garden space that has sun approximately 6-8 hours a day between March/April and September/October. That space is accompanied by my passion and obsession for growing as much food as I can. The ground is used, but as any good gardener would agree, more growing space is a must, so I’m going up.

Thus my new Gutter Garden.

Yesterday I nailed the gutter to the top of my fence where the sun hits first thing in the spring and first thing in the morning. I’ll be filling it with lettuce and perhaps radish.

Lettuce Seedlings

I’ve started the lettuce seeds inside and in about three or four weeks I will set them out in the gutter. I am very proud of my job, not the greatest or the most attractive. I think I used double the nails I needed. But the garden has excellent drainage (thanks to my unintended lack of levelness), is easy to reach for harvesting and in the late summer, when it is hottest, will be shaded by the corn and squash I’ll be planting in front of them.

Voila, you don’t need to be handy…just passionate and determined!

Remember that large pipe I mentioned….stay tuned for pictures of my Strawberry Stack!

If you like my Gutter Garden please ‘like’ me! Please ‘like’ me anyways, just because you are a fellow gardener!

Wickedly Dirty

I finally did it. The stars were aligned just right so I took the chance and dug in. That’s right, I got the broad beans planted. Under the watchful eye of ‘Cocoa Puff’ so named by a neighbourhood 8 year old, Will, who kept flagging the Frisbee at me to throw and Nike, as barking happy as I was to be out in the rain digging in the dirt. You heard right, I chose the one day it rained to plant the beans. The next day of course the sun came out but what the heck I still wore a t-shirt and hey the broad beans got in before February!

Bonus? I got four beds of potatoes planted too. The soil was easy to dig with only a few bits of straw not yet decomposed. Nice rich soil made from chicken poop, kitchen waste and last years seaweed.

After getting both the beans and the tatties in the ground, I covered them up with a nice layer of fresh straw, blessed the divas of young plants, and added a wish that the forecasters be right and spring has arrived.

This weekend it’ll be peas going in and on Monday I’m heading over to Vancouver to visit mum and dad. In between mom’s house and the home where dad lives I’ll be taking a wee bit of a detour. West Coast Seed Store isn’t too far down the road. I’ve made my list, my friends made hers and I’ll have the car with me. Shivers of anticipation trickle down my spine! I feel wickedly dirty already.