A week or so after moving into our new home it was a joy to dig in the new vegetable garden for a few hours and plant garlic for next summer. This is the first time in our historic multitude of moves we have a home which already has a vegetable garden with raspberries, strawberries and a blueberry bush as well as an old favourite, a gooseberry bush. There are also a couple of dwarf fruit trees – a multi variety apple and an Italian plum – as well as parsley, oregano and sorrel. And lots more to discover in time.
Neighbourhood wildlife
The previous owners tell us that deer are often seen in the heavily treed green belt behind the property and last summer there was a cougar in the area. Another neighbour mentioned that he has seen a bobcat in the green belt – so obviously I am going to have keep my camera handy.
New Vegetable Garden “Work” to be done
… or winter exercise
- Prune the fruit and berry canes / bushes already established (after learning how to do so). My grandpa was a orchardist so perhaps it’s in my genes!
- Identify a Mongolian Goji Berry bush and learn all about it!
- Plant more herbs from rosemary, sage and thyme and seed parsley for next spring (an experiment)
- If time, try some polytunnel gardening – mostly for greens (after locating box of seeds)
- Transplant rhubarb and plant more
- Decide where to plant the Meyer Lemon, the fig trees and the Kiwi bushes in the Spring
- Bring in lots of organic chicken manure to enrich the soil and feed the worms
- Find space for two more compost bins
- And of course, plan next years garden!
Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.
Rudyard Kipling
Unscheduled visitors
As always, there seems to be a few concerns and tasks in new situations and hopefully these should be easy to overcome. We were told that the week before we moved in a bear managed to make a mess of the compost bins. Additional wildlife which frequent the property are a family of raccoons and at least one mole both of which can be pesky, damaging little critters. So I will once again be trying out my own raccoon advice, but the bear might be a little more of a challenge than I am ready to take on.
It is so good to have a garden already made, with high raised beds with easy access and plants we all enjoy, such as raspberry and blueberry so I am looking forward to planning our next year’s garden. Thank you to the previous owners of our new home. In time the moving boxes will be unpacked!
Happy winter gardening and planning.
Happy New Year to all,
and, best wishes for
a safe and healthy 2014
Links & References
Links to a few of my favourite gardening articles :
- Kale – a few growing tips
- Gardening with our grandson – have fun and pass it on !
- How to grow Strawberry plants – organic only please
- Espalier fruit trees are great to grow in a small space
- How to enrich your vegetable garden soil by composting
- How to grow superfood blueberries in your home garden
- Growing organic garlic
- Follow up article on garlic and its health benefits
- A fig tree in a container – why not ?
- And what else but how to grow Parsley from Caramel and Parsley
- Moles – funny looking except perhaps to another mole
- Cougar awareness and safety
- If deer are a concern in your garden
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
Well almost! ~ Liz
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