Rounding Out the Entrance Beds

One of our Riel House neighbours provided us with three extra irises that had been shipped to her. They help to soften one of the hard edges and angles in the Entrance Beds.

JW - thanks!

Leaf Mulch, Soil, Future Mulch

At last, we have moved the remaining soil and sod from the Parking Lot Garden into Beds 29-30. It was a lot of work, but much better than Parks Canada just taking away that good material and dumping it somewhere. Now we have soil that we can use to mound potatoes next year along with sod that we can water, turn and slowly make into more soil and mulch for subsequent years. Left to right, leaf mulch from last year, soil for next year, sod starting to break down:

Leaf Mulch, Soil, Future Mulch

Here is the pile on the first day after we had moved about a third of it into Bed 29. You can see last year's leaves at the back in Bed 30:

Sod Pile on 6 June 2015

Nine feet high and rising

The Bloody Butcher corn in Bed 1 is now over nine feet tall. The warm weather and lots of rain are certainly contributing. If only it would produce tassels and cobs as does the Mandan Bride in Bed 3.

Here is the first Mandan Bride cob:

 

Rain Happens

Using data from the Environment Canada website, I track the prior day's temperature and precipitation in a spreadsheet.The comparisons to 1886 are off slightly since the location of the weather station has changed. In 1886, measurements were taken at a location called St. John's College which was at the corner of Main Street and St. John's Avenue.

Now, I have a choice of two locations in Winnipeg: the airport or the Forks. Because it is closer to Riel House, I use the Forks data. 

For example, last Thursday, the Forks experienced 24.7mm = 2.47cm = 1 inch of rain and that is what I recorded in my spreadsheet. HOWEVER, one of the neighbours at Riel House has a rain gauge. Below is what she recorded:

Weather: 1886 and Now

We may think it's hot today, but temperatures in 1886 were just as warm:

The real difference is moisture. Take a look below at what rain fell in 1886 compared to now:

Last year (blue dots) we had almost 300mm = 30cm = 12 inches of rain.
This year (red line) we have about 250mm = 10 inches of rain.

In 1886 (black dots), they had only received four inches of rain by now - July 27. We do know that crop failures occurred in 1886. People starved. How did they manage?

See References for monthly weather comparisons.