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.

Closing Out 2016

The blog now has a new tab, Photo Gallery, showing all our photographs from 2014, 2015 and 2016. Starting in 2017, we will load photographs to the blog as we take them.

Under Weather, all the monthly weather reports for 2016 have been added.

Under Documents, I have added our Riel House 2016 Year End Report.

And finally, a big thank you to our Secret Santa and her Elf who delivered flax straw with which we will smother the weeds in Beds 29-30 next year.

Best wishes to everyone for the coming year. Only thirteen weeks until we start again!

Secret Santa assisted by Elf-Driver-Photographer

Harvest 2016

12 Boxes of Potatoes plus Beets, Carrots, Onions, Squash, Pumpkins.

This morning, Parks Canada took our harvest to Winnipeg Harvest.  We contributed 122 pounds of beets, carrots, onions, squash and pumpkins plus 629 pounds of potatoes for a total of 751 pounds. Our best ever year:

       2013      265.0 pounds
       2014      501.0 pounds
       2015      455.5 pounds
       2016      751.0 pounds!

Here's a quick summary of what worked and what needs improvement:

Kitchen Garden 

• Our Danvers Half Long carrots were ~okay but somewhat on the small size. Next year, perhaps we will plant a larger variety. As you know, the problem with carrots is planting and thinning the small seeds - the issue being that we are bounded by the patience of our volunteers.
• The heritage tomatoes were also ~okay. Not as prolific as prior years - could be the weather. Tomatoes were picked during the summer for visitors and staff. Consequently, we did not send any to Winnipeg Harvest this year.
• Potatoes in the Kitchen Garden were sparse. Could be the soil; could be the shade.
• Asparagus is slow. We cut perhaps five spears in the spring. We added more crowns this year. Perhaps next year is when the asparagus will flourish.

Produce Garden

• Mangels were a bust. Probably rabbits finished them off. We found only one plant and there was no root.
• Beets were ~fine. I suspect that rabbits ate the majority. What we were able to harvest looked good. Next year we can plant them more densely.
• We tried eggplant, but rabbits decimated all plants and our seeds should have been started in pots earlier. We changed those beds over to potatoes straight away. No, we will not plant eggplants next year. Also, eggplants are not 1886-heritage.
• White onions did quite well. I expect we will plant more beds and space the onions closer together. Very good, onions. Thanks.
• Multiplier onions, frankly, I just do not understand. They looked the same in the fall as when we planted them in spring. More, but the same size. It seems very labour intensive to peel these little things in order to make pickled onions. Not for next year.
• Our wheat looks good; we will cut it and bind it in sheaves but only for decoration.
• Corn has been a bust this year. The four beds of sweet corn were decimated by raccoons about two weeks ago - we harvested perhaps three cobs of corn from all four sweet corn beds. The heritage corn has yet to change colour. Also It looks like birds or squirrels were culprits in all the corn beds. There will be very few heritage cobs this year for decoration.
• The Scarlet Runner Beans and Acorn Squash that partner with corn in the Three Sisters plantings also under performed. Need to keep trying here. Better luck next year.
• Potatoes. Yes! Potatoes did very well. We planted three fifty pound bags and harvested 629 pounds of potatoes - a one to four ratio. In addition, we rejected three five-gallon pails of potatoes damaged by slugs(?), wire worms and/or voles(?). Also, our heritage Pink Fir potatoes did very well in the Produce Garden despite under performing in the Kitchen Garden. 
• Pickling cucumbers did fine. These were harvested throughout the summer so none went to Winnipeg Harvest. It would be interesting to have a pickling demonstration at Riel House where attendees could pickle cucumbers straight from the garden.
• Some squashes and pumpkins in the wild Bed 29 did very well. But typically only one fruit per vine. I suspect some potatoes may still be lurking in Bed 29.

Next year, we may consider multiple harvests during the summer instead of focusing on a single event. 

Next year. There is always next year.