Hi gardeners, Our yard at home is small, in the middle of the city, and shaded by a big tree. So we were looking for somewhere to grow vegetables.
In the last three years we have had some space on public land that was contested over, puzzled over, dog-run over by our differing neighbourhood uses. We have put in years of meetings to secure this greenspace. We dug deeply through the sod and put in manure from the downtown farm (it used to be a zoo), turned over our little square, put in an apple tree and two grape vines... etc. Okay, the earth is pretty great. LOTS of worms and although in Toronto we surely have clay, not so bad, put the mulch in there for three years and it's starting to break up nicely. Okay, here's the deal. This is a public place, there are dogs, school kids and everyone else walking past the garden. I saw a guy walking away with a big grocery bag of my roma tomatoes. I say to him, "Hi, I hope you're enjoying my garden?" He says "Oh, I thought it was school-kids put this in." Like that would make it okay, humm, and he keeps walking. Interesting. So my daughter put up a sign: "Until we have dug a big enough garden to feed the whole neighbourhood, could you please leave the produce to the gardeners?" (She has a thing that if anyone would be so hungry as to take food from someone else's garden, it must be okay.) Guys, I'm thinkin', this is the way it's going to be. I feel cranky now. Our new sign, for next spring, is: "Here are 5 tomato seedlings. Plant and tend them and enjoy your gardening." I don't want to fence. I want straight-ahead. But I'm wondering what is coming. Thoughts? Jesse --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Appropriately, I spent a few hours on Thanksgiving > day clearing most of > the plant matter from the garden and putting it on > the compost pile. > > Robert, your recent posts have been an inspiration. > Thank you. > > Our garden did not fare as well this year as in past > years. Mostly due to > lack of attention on my part, although not enough > rain followed by too > much rain wasn't helping either. Still, we had more > tomatoes than we knew > what to do with, even after giving them away to > neighbours and taking them > to work for barbecues and so on. The yellow cherry > tomatoes were a > special success. So sweet. My son took away a good > haul of carrots, > which he is enjoying immensely. Enough beets to > make into baby food for > my grandson, several feeds of peas in the garden and > enough yellow beans > to even make it to the dinner table a couple of > times (after some serious > consumption in the yard first). Squash was a > disappointment - lots of > fruit, but none big enough to justify harvesting. > The radish and lettuce > either drowned or were scavenged by local fauna. > The spinach did not take > at all. The jalapenos were bountiful, and I had > been told I couldn't grow > those this far north. The raspberries did well in > the spring, but no > autumn crop to speak of. > > I think the squash needs more sun, which means I > need to find some > vegetables and fruits that can do with less sun for > certain parts of the > garden. I'm also going to have to trim back my > beautiful maple tree (a > rescued weed from years ago), to let more sun reach > the garden. Still, it > will continue to provide good shade over the park > bench we have outside > the fence so neighbours can sit and rest if they so > desire. After reading > Robert's posts, I wonder if I should have gone for a > fruit tree instead, > perhaps cherry. > > However, the responsbility for the failures is all > mine. The garden > simply did not get the time it needed, as I elected > to focus on other > things much of this year. (Perhaps more on those in > days to come - I have > already told you about the electric bicycle victory, > and a related > campaign has already been joined.) > > This year, I have been reading the Square Foot > Garden by Mel Bartholomew > (Rodale). So full of small truths, I think it will > transform how I garden > from now on. The line about typical residential > gardening just being > industrial gardening on a small scale really hit > home. I have not > finished the book yet (priorities again), but > already I feel comfortable > recommending it. As did the being overwhelmed by > harvest when it's ready, > but having nothing fresh to eat before and after. > > While I'm making compost, I'm still hauling it in by > the pick-up truck > load each year to continue amending the soil. And > at least two trips a > year go to gardens other than my own. At least the > truck is now running > on 20% biodiesel from a local supplier. > > This summer, we managed a vacation in Nova Scotia, > with a quick trip to > Prince Edward Island. We visited Vesey Seed, and I > have a whole array of > new seeds to experiment with for next year. > > Any recommendations on materials to build the raised > beds (4 feet square > and a foot high)? Cost and appearance are both > concerns. > > Too wet now to go out and finish the job, and rain > is predicted for the > next five days. Time to work on other things. Like > sending out overdue > e-mails. > > Darryl > > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list > archives (50,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
