From the Summer - Riel House Entrance Area

July 19 - Riel House Woodland Path

A quick walk down the Woodland Path. It is now time to start introducing native plants into this area.

From the Summer - Crickets in the Parking Lot Garden

This video was also shot on August 4 with my iPhone. 

You may have to turn up the volume to hear the crickets and general insect population. Everyone sounds happy in this video. 

From the Summer - Monarchs in the Parking Lot Garden

This video was taken on August 4 with my iPhone. 

Purple flowers are Meadow Blazing Star Liatris ligulistylis
Yellow flowers are False Sunflower Heliopsis helianthides scabra
White flowers are Pearly Everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea 

The Seed Harvest

Samples of Seeds from 2017

I was finally able to sort all the bags of seeds that I described in an an earlier post. As you can see above, I have created samples of the 27 plants from which we collected seeds this year. Here is the list of seeds and here is the link to the album of photographs of each seed. I plan to add a photograph of the actual plant in seed so that you can distinguish these when harvesting. 

FYI here are the photographs for Wild Iris (Iris versicolor):

Wild Iris - 2017

Wild Iris seeds 2017

Seed Collecting - Some Fundamental Advice

What's missing here?

What's missing here? How about some organization. 

Last Wednesday, KL, our provider of native plants took us on a tour of the Parking Lot Garden and Road Garden pointing out each plant, showing us how to tell when the seed was ripe and demonstrating how to remove the seed from the plants. 

Here is the list of seeds that we collected last week.

I now need to take a photograph of each seed sample. The bags are identified (thanks DH!) but I do not have photographs of what the plant looked like before we harvested the seed. Now, for some seeds, it's quite obvious what the source plant looks like e.g. coneflower, monarda, iris. However, that is the minority. So here is my advice when accompanying a plant expert on a plant id workshop:

1. bring a camera and take a picture of each plant when it is identified by the expert
2. bring a notebook and record and number each plant identified, or, in the case of seed collecting, number each bag in order along with the name of the plant identified
3. when reviewing your photographs after the workshop, add the number and plant identification to each photograph
4. and of course, with seeds, then take a picture of the individual seeds and add the number and plant identification to each photograph

The reason for this post is that I only remembered Step 1 with about three plants to go. The bags are identified (thanks DH!) but not numbered - so much for Step 2. I don't think I can match the photographs I took to any of the bags and I do not particularly remember what the original plants in their ripened state looked like - also no for Step 3.

I can do Step 4. Yippee!

Hidden Harvest

Hidden in Plain Sight

In the fall of 2016, HP, our newest volunteer, asked out loud if we collected seeds since the plants in the Road Garden and Parking Lot Garden were starting to ripen and she was concerned that the seed would be lost. Frankly, we had never thought about seed collecting as we were still focused on the summer production of ornamentals in the Entrance beds, nurturing the vegetable gardens, and generally weeding everywhere. HP proceeded to collect a few of the more obvious seeds from the Road Garden.

This year, KL, our provider of native plants, showed all the volunteers how to identify and collect seeds from the native beds. We spent two hours last Wednesday identifying and collecting seed samples from twenty-seven different plants, then storing them in paper lunch bags to dry. Here is the list of seeds that we collected.

Thank you KL for giving us excellent guidance in seed collecting. 

We now recognize that there is a second harvest at Riel House. Once the vegetables have been collected and donated, then it will be time to rigourously harvest the native plant seeds. We will require larger paper bags than the lunch bags we used last week, more patience than what is required to harvest vegetables, plus dry weather so that the seeds will not develop mould once they have been harvested. Our goal is to sow these seeds in other parts of Riel House so visitors may see what the property looked like before it was overwhelmed by non-native species.

HP has now moved to other volunteer opportunities. Thank you HP for inspiring us to gather this Hidden Harvest.

July: Growing towards Harvest

Tomatoes from the Past

Tomatoes hiding in the 2017 Produce Garden

Right at the top of this photograph, you can see tomatoes growing among the potatoes, borage and weeds. These tomato plants are from seeds of fruit abandoned in 2014.

Here are the parent tomato plants in the Produce Garden in 2014:

2014 tomatoes protected by gravel in the Produce Garden

2014 tomatoes sitting in bare soil in the Produce Garden

In 2014, we planted twenty heritage tomato plants in several clumps in the Produce Garden across a wide expanse of bare soil. As 2014 was also a very dry year, we struggled to water consistently and eventually most plants perished, either by lack of water or because we broke the plants as a result of dragging the watering hoses across the Produce Garden.

The tomatoes just dried out in the garden.What we are seeing this year are the seeds that were dormant in 2015 and 2016. 

In 2015, we decided to create formal beds and paths, raising the beds in the Produce Garden specifically to retain moisture in the garden. The raised beds and lowered paths have helped to retain water; however, as you can read in our post regarding Small and Misshapen Potatoes, we still struggle to keep sufficient moisture in the beds. 

Small and Misshapen Potatoes

This year, we have started early to harvest the potatoes in spite of our "scheduled" date of September 16. The results are - uh - how shall I say - challenging.

The soil is very hard. It takes a lot of strength to push the garden fork into the soil which then comes up in large clumps. The potatoes - russet burbanks this year - are quite small and misshapen. We may struggle to get 300 pounds. This is well short of the 629 pounds of potatoes that we harvested last year.

On the positive, there is no slug damage. The potatoes are smooth and look great.

Some thoughts about this crop. Misshapen potatoes are a result of potatoes under stress - It has been very dry this year and so we'll put that aspect down to lack of moisture. The small size may be a result of the hard soil. We do not disturb the soil once it has been planted and so the tubers may struggle with this condition. Next year we will plan to have sufficient much so that we can mulch the beds as the growing season progresses,

In gardening, there is always next year.

Straw Glorious Straw

Thirty Bales of Wheat Straw

Today, we had thirty bales of wheat straw delivered. Once we harvest the beds, we will mulch all the paths of the Produce Garden with wheat straw. The wheat straw will smother any weeds in the paths. Later, we will mulch the beds with leaves. 

As you know, we mulched Beds 29-30 this spring with flax straw. The flax straw did its job in minimizing weeds in those two beds and keeping the soil moist. However, it has not rotted as much as we had anticipated. Wheat straw will work much better.

Garden Tour 2017 - 15 July 2017

Riel House was one of nine stops on the 2017 Garden Tour of the Manitoba Master Gardeners Association. There were 160 visitors, but frankly, we lost count as there were several "entrances" to the property. If the visitor did not pass by our table, they just merged into the great group of folks that enjoy gardening. 

The tour started at 9 am and was scheduled to end at 4 pm. The last group of visitors  at Riel House finished at almost 5 pm. Our tables and chairs set up in the Entrance Area moved at least three times during the day in order to stay in the shade and out of the direct sun. There were seven volunteers, each with their own vision of the property, who guided visitors around the site. I know that if you toured again, there would still be more things to discuss.

It was a great day people-wise and weather-wise. 

Click here to see photographs of the 2017 tour activity.

You can take the online tour here to get a sense what each visitor saw and heard. 

Irises

Irises

Thanks to our neighbour, we have some colourful irises to add to the Entrance Beds and The Berm:

• Endless Moments - Intermediate Bearded - 25"
• Little Episode - Standard Dwarfed Bearded - 12"
• Sugar Maple - Standard Dwarfed Bearded - 12"
• Whee - Standard Dwarfed Bearded - 12"

These have been planted west Entrance Bed and on the west end of The Berm. 

As you can see from the above photograph, they are in excellent shape and should do very well next. Watch for next spring's photographs.

Thankyou J the Gardener!

Seasonal Interest with Native Plants

Parking Lot Garden - 31 July 2017

Every month there is something new to see in the areas that we have planted at Riel House. Regarding the Road Garden and the Parking Lot Garden, our native plants endeavour to grow, flower, produce seeds and prepare themselves for winter. 

To keep you up to date, we have added a new tab called "Seasonal Interest" that shows the typical blossom times for our native plants. This information has been taken from the website of Prairie Originals who provided us with the plants for these two gardens. The inspiration for the document's format comes from Planting: A New Perspective by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury.

Our Parking Lot Garden looks similar to the gardens described in the book. Mr. Oudolf is the designer of New York's High Line, a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above Manhattan's West Side.

As well, we will endeavour to take monthly observations of our native plants. Since we are just starting, our first observation is for August 2017. We will also place our observations on the Seasonal Interest page. Please check on our site periodically for the best times to come and photograph our native plants and the birds and insects that are attracted to them.

The Berm

We finally started on the Berm. 

The Berm after planting irises at the top - 31 July 2017

We planted iris corms at the top of the Berm, then added a thin layer of chipper/shredder mulch on top. The idea is that when the irises sprout, then we will weed between them and add more mulch around the irises. This is an alternative to when we planted irises around the outside of the Entrance Area. In that case, we dug out the existing sod, added 5-way soil and planted iris corms with their leaves and then mulched around them. It was a lot of work. 

In the case of the Berm, we did not want to disturb the grass as it is on a slope and we have become quite sensitive to erosion issues. The bottom of the Berm will be planted with day lilies that we can retrieve from other areas and, of course, mulched immediately.

Notice the virginia creeper and its stakes next to the cement wall. The vines have been thriving since the first day we planted them.

The Berm will become another area that the Parks Canada staff will no longer need to maintain.

Here's a photograph of our volunteers taken during the planting:

Planting irises at the top of the Berm

The photograph reminds me of a Georges Seurat painting from 1884 "Un dimanche après-midi à la Grande Jatte". Georges Seurat was a French impressionist painter known for the style of pointillism, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image (Wikipedia). Perhaps the Riel family may have seen a copy of that painting:

Un dimanche après-midi à la Grande Jatte

Here's the Georges Seurat version of our volunteers:

Un vendredi après-midi à la Grande Berme

The Parking Lot Garden is Buzzing

The Parking Lot Garden is absolutely humming with insects. Today, there were morning cloaks, monarchs and other butterflies along with dozens of little flies, beetles, etc. It's amazing how much our native plants have attracted insects. 

Here are a couple of videos that are stored in Google Photos. If you turn up your sound on both the video and your computer, you can hear the buzzing, humming and "cricketing". Once you click on the link, then please click on the video itself so that it plays with sound. Thanks.

Parking Lot Garden and Crickets 

             I am walking from near the Centre to the East side of the Parking Lot Garden. You can see what is planted in this area by going to our pdf Native Plants for Parking Lot Garden.

Parking Lot Garden and Monarchs 

             The Monarchs are attracted to the pink Dotted Blazing Star Liatris punctata. The yellow flowers on the left are Coneflower Ratibida columnifera. The white flowers at the end of the video are Pearly Everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea.

Compost

Despite not paying any attention this year to the compost bin, we have compost. 

The middle bin contains the remains of grass and sandy soil that we collected when we scraped away the grass that had been growing between the paving stones on the walkway from the road to the Riel House entrance. The bin on the right contains the corn husks from last August's end of year corn roast. Neither pile was turned, aerated or watered after their creation last summer.

Today, we added compost from the middle bin into the right hand bin, mixed it around with a shovel, tossed any big bits back into the left hand bin, then spread it on our onion beds. 

Our goal is to have the two bins empty and ready to accept the husks from this year's corn roast on Saturday August 26.

A Plateau

The Produce Garden - 28 July 2017

Today, we realized that, for this year, we have reached a plateau. There is little more to do until harvest other than monitor the growth of weeds and eliminate the more contentious ones. The weather was very pleasant, we watered the more remote areas of the property, and speculated on next steps. There is so much more that can be done at Riel House while supporting the Parks Canada goals for this property. 

Stay tuned as we start to put into words our next steps.

The Parking Lot Garden in Bloom - 24 July 2017

New Tab called "Links"

An article regarding our work at Riel House was published in today's Canstar Community News publication. You can get to the link from our new "Links" tab located next to our Photo Gallery on the second line of our blog.

Layout of Kitchen Garden for 2017

We added parsnips (a great root crop) to this year's Kitchen Garden. Because it takes a long time to germinate, the parsnip bed (Bed 3 just beyond the asparagus and short stakes) looks quite "underwhelming".

Here's the 2017 Kitchen Garden.

Layout Of Produce Garden for 2017

Supervisor of Bed 7 of the Produce Garden

This year we made a major commitment to Russet Burbank potatoes, also onions. See 2017 Produce Garden for this year's list.

Garden Tour 2017

On July 15, Riel House will be one of the gardens highlighted in this year's Garden Tour sponsored by the Manitoba Master Gardener Association. Fantastic. We're very pleased to participate in this year's event and, frankly, it has encouraged us to talk about what a great horticultural opportunity we have at Riel House. Please click on the Garden Tour tab on the top left hand corner and then walk yourself about the property.

An Idyllic Day

Last Friday, the day was warm with no wind and no mosquitoes. An idyllic day. Each of us chose a separate task and worked away diligently and silently. At the end of the day, the grass in the Produce Garden was gone; there were new full-sized stakes defining each bed; last winters debris from the Entrance Area had been removed.

An idyllic day. 

Please check out our Photo Gallery

Please check out our Photo Gallery at http://rhgardening.blogspot.ca/p/photo-gallery.html as we usually take a few pictures during each volunteer day (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). Double clicking on a picture will then show the "Info" button attached to each picture.

Weeds be gone

Yesterday, we attended a presentation regarding weeds that are typical to Manitoba - and many are specific to Riel House. Motherwort and Common Burdock are our two worst offenders because their burs are difficult to remove from one's clothing, work gloves, dogs, etc.

Motherwort - 27 April 2017

Common Burdock - 27 April 2017

Below is the list of weeds that we reviewed last night. You can find further information at the Province of Manitoba website at https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/weeds/:

• Motherwort
• Common Burdock
• CanadaThistle
• PerennialSowthistle
• Annual Sowthistle
• CommonGroundsel
• Goosefoot Family – Lamb’s Quarters, Oak-leaved Goosefoot, Maple-leaved Goosefoot
• Smartweed
• Chickweed
• Red RootPigweed
• BarnyardGrass

Also, three beautiful but very invasive weeds: Himalayan Balsam, Creeping Bellflower and 

Dame’s Rocket; the "Three Barbarians". Fortunately, at Riel House House, we have some Creeping Bellflower, but not the other two.

Although we are keen to remove all weeds and discard them (not in the compost), the presenter recommended that for the sake of biodiversity, we should set aside an area to keep some weeds as long as we minimize them going to seed. Looks like we have our work cut out for us. 

Thank you IK for your presentation and recommendations.

2017 Opportunity? If so, then when?

We have discovered that Parks Canada replaced the single flagpole which was too short and very rusted with two new flagpoles. Two trees whose canopies interfered with the previous flagpole have been removed.  This year, the native plants of the Road Garden will explode with new growth thanks to full sun from the east, south and most of the west.

Now the question:

Do we leave the Road Garden with its current dimensions? Or do we expand it by planting native plants in all of the green space except for the area to the right of the snowbank which is part of the street's walking path? I must admit that the current back edge of the native plants now looks quite arbitrary.

Here's an alternative photo of the current area.

Gardening at this level always turns into project administration, bounded by time, money and resources. 

• Do we have the time? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
• The money? Uh, not exactly. Our budget is set for 2017 and the number of native plants to cover the green area would consume the entire 2017 budget. 
• Resources? Volunteers? Perhaps. But we recall the substantial efforts in 2015 with the Parking Lot Garden and original Road Garden. Our volunteers were worn out by the time we were done. This is going to take further thought.

FYI, here's what the Road Garden looked like in prior years.

2014 - the old flagpole between tree and sign

2015 - starting to plant. Plant plugs next to flagpole.

2016 - July 1. Canada flag to left of tree.

A Mighty Wind: Welcome to 2017

In early March of 2017, a major windstorm blew in from the northwest. Had it been from the southeast, our metal gardening shed would have been flattened.