No One Expected a Global Pandemic

And yet here we are! After 3.5 months of lockdown, gardening is pretty much the only thing keeping me occupied. Normally at this time of year I'd be in full festival mode with work and the gardens would be a tad neglected. this year they have my undivided attention which has allowed us to catch up on some previous plans and add some additional elements.

First up- the Pollinator bed! With the grant from the Parkdale and Toronto Horticultural Society last year we purchased some native pollinators and then hastily stuck them in the ground when we realized that the neighbour wasn't going to work on the property line after all. So it didn't end up looking much like a garden, more just a pit dug into the existing gravel driveway. With time on our hands for a change, Anthony and I were able to create an edge for it using scrap lumber we had on hand and we dug a trench around the perimeter to dig it in, then topped it up with the leftover bags of compost we got from the city last year. Good thing we took extra bags last year since there will be no Environmental Days this year to acquire more. Most of the plants we purchased last year seem to have survived the winter and we look forward to seeing it fill in this year. Our beloved Juliette cherry shrub also lives here and although she flowered beautifully this year, it occurred right at the same time we had a late freeze. We covered her nightly to keep her from freezing in temps below zero and all of the blossoms survived but without pollinators visiting  we got exactly one tiny cherry. Hopefully she'll grow a few new branches instead of putting energy into fruit this year at least.




Both Janis and I have been accessing online gardening webinars and doing research on various techniques. We have both become fascinated with perennial vegetables since realizing that many of the crops we added last year were already up and growing this year much earlier than we can plant annuals. Janis also did quite a bit or researching into permaculture and square foot gardening so we decided to modify one of the raised beds with this technique. This bed also has issues with roots from nearby trees taking hold so we adapted by using square buckets for some of vegetables we are growing in this spot. The various veggies seem to be doing well with this and we are excited to be trying some new things including salsify, a root crop also known as oyster plant.





We are still trying to increase our growing space by making use of vertical space. There was room for some containers on the back of our composter but it doesn't get a lot of sun until later in the afternoon. So  we are attempting to grow climbing vines like cucumbers which we hope will get tall enough to reach more light as the sun angles change. The concrete blocks also absorb heat and reflect it back and so far they seem to be happy there but whether they get enough light to produce fruit remains to be seen.




Along that same cinderblock wall we have a lot of unused space that's home to a bunch of  'weed trees" -manitoba and norway maples. It was another pile of tangled roots and broken concrete that we hadn't bothered doing anything with because it gets almost no light and was very unlevel. Earlier this year I had the idea to turn it into a spot to try to propagate wild mushrooms so I came up with a plan to create the optimal conditions. First we had to find a way to level it - the tree roots had grown around debris and it was quite a bit higher than  he rest of the area. So I decided to build a wattle fence using some excess 1 x 2" and cut branches from bushes and weed trees nearby to weave the fencing with. Once that was accomplished we started filling the are with wood chips, soil, sand and ashes. After doing more  research I  realized that my dream of growing morels there is at best a longshot so we are now looking at other options like growing easy to cultivate species in buckets. Janis had stumbled onto a website for perennial vegetables called Fiddlehead Nursery and we both realized that our new growing space would actually be ideal for some shade loving plants that are also edible. So now we are planning to plant it with ferns and hostas and searching for other possibilities to grow there.

 

Probably the most exciting thing in our garden is the fedge. This is its third year now and everything has started to fill out and produce fruit. The haskaps were such a delight and so early- our Cinderella variety was ripe at the end of May!The Aurora bush is just ripening now, still well ahead of the strawberries. We also have gooseberries and red raspberries coming but the most prolific looks like it will be the black raspberry - can't wait for those! We also finally have a sign.