(Wild Colour on an Ancient Burial Mound, Orkney, UK)
This perennial wild colour on a burial mound (possibly 4,000 years old) seems fitting as a memorial to the elite dead buried there. Regular people were just buried or cremated – no coffins. These mounds dot the landscape in some areas of Orkney and especially in the Republic of Ireland (see “New Grange” or “Knowth” or “Dowth” – all three were covered in grasses but not wild colour because I believe they were “maintained” for the visiting public). Once again, nature, when free of interference, dresses in wild colour that changes with the seasons – never boring! As a former, all seasons, bush camper, I enjoyed beautiful vistas from either snowshoes, a canoe, a hiking trail, a hill/peak top, or the rim of a canyon. Wild, untamed landscapes can be both calming and visually stunning as we pause to observe, smell, and listen.
In an in-ground garden plot, gardeners generally waste a lot of time, money, and labour in watering, fertilizing, edging and weeding the unproductive areas of a plot – in a traditional plot of vegetable rows, 50% of the garden area is walkways which often get the same treatment as the planted areas! In a container you work only with the productive areas and if the container is tall enough, you save bending or crawling about on hands and knees. I have worked with plots, raised beds, cold frames, pots of various sizes, window boxes, elevated beds, and box beds.
Container gardening is a great idea for many reasons, reasons you might consider if you have either limited urban space or even a large area (e.g., Community Garden Plot) which could provide space enough for in-ground plots. A raised bed is a quasi container because it is an in-ground plot with wood borders 6 to 12 inches high, unless the bed is a “floating bed” which separates the bed from the ground soil with a gravel sandwich base (landscape fabric, medium gravel, landscape fabric) and for added depth you might add “castles” (wood frames on top of the wood borders, like the forecastle and aft castles of early warships – e.g. Henry VIII Mary Rose). Why the separation? Unless the ground soil has been tested for contaminants (e.g., oil, industrial waste, lead paint, chemicals, road salt, …) and then converted into garden soil (e.g. sharp sand and a considerable amount of organic matter added), then containers or floating beds + castles help gardeners to avoid contaminated soil and the large expense of having the soil tested. Even converting an in-ground plot into raised beds 4 feet wide and whatever length the space allows (no castles needed) can save a gardener time, money, and a lot of labour without reducing yields – a discussion for another time.
Containers save on watering, fertilizer, weeding, plot edging, and animal curiosity (not squirrels) and they are easier to protect than plots from pests, and climate concerns (e.g. sun scald, destructive wind, frost …). However, when it comes to containers, bigger is definitely better. Container choices include pots, window boxes, elevated beds (beds on stilts, cradles, or wheels), floating raised beds + castles, floating cold frames, and box beds.
The sun will eventually degrade plastic. The finish will turn dull and hazy and a finger nail can easily gouge out pieces from the softened surfaces. In Hong Kong, my rooftop patio furniture had to be covered with garbage bags before I sat down – my first experience was to feel my shirt stick to the chair back, and then to see the imprint of the fabric in the plastic. Do not wait until your plastic gets to this stage. Time for new pots. Terracotta, metal, and wood are UV resistant.
This colourful insect predator crawling along our vegetable sun screen aids in insect management in our organic gardens. I encourage spiders and wasps in the garden – I have watched both trap their food – since they help balance the insect population. I say “balance” because a hungry predator isn’t always particular which insect becomes food, so, yes, they may trap helpful insects as well.
If you wish to keep all insects away from plants that do not need pollination like salad greens, and any plants that will not produce seed for your collections, there are fine insect screens or “row covers” for that. However, pollination is necessary for plants that produce fruit and seed (e.g., squashes, cucumbers, eggplant, berries, …). While I do not want wasps to take up residence in a tree near me, under my garden chairs, in my composters, or attached to the shed (we have had all four), I leave the wasps alone and avoid setting out sweet, sugary items which attract them. There are many kinds of wasps and I have seen some snatch and paralyze their insect prey, and then fly off with their groceries. They are excellent in the garden; not so welcome at a picnic lunch. However, some thought and precautions beforehand helps us to live and work together for the benefit of all.
This meadow may not have caught your eye, but it would certainly have caught your nose! The meadow surrounds the “Ring of Broadgar,” an ancient gathering site of standing stones – still standing! The ring may have had religious significance 2,400 years ago – like stone henge but with far more modest sized stones. Still, these stones would take perhaps 80 people or more for each stone to quarry, transport (a distance of 50 km would not be uncommon), sculpt (slanted cut on top of each stone), and stand upright in its earthen pit. Orkney is breezy and the fragrance of this meadow was wonderful. Lovely spot for a meeting of neolithic peoples.
This meadow reminds me that white flowers tend to have a stronger fragrance than other flowers in order to attract night time pollinators when the air is still, and that the meadow, while appearing to be a monoculture of white flowering weeds, is actually highly diverse and productive, serving far more of nature’s living things than the grass path I am standing on.
This kind of serrated trowel was invented in Japan for the collection of young tree specimens destined for bonsai. Tree roots are very tough and some (e.g. black spruce) were used by early first nations peoples as ties for bindings and material for basket making. Tree roots from neighbouring trees invading a garden will stop a rake, a spade, or even a rototiller in its tracks. A sharp cutting tool is essential. However, I have used this knife (caution: sharp enough to slice bread) long before I had any tree root problems. Although it has reduced soil carrying capacity, it is an excellent tool for planting seedlings, weeding, and cutting out spent, diseased, or unwanted plants. It will even trim sod. It slices through roots with ease, and the tool is sturdy enough to dig through hard, dry, compacted soil in the ground or in a container. Standard trowels are excellent for what they were designed to do, but a serrated trowel is even better as a multipurpose trowel. Note: there are other more modestly priced serrated trowels on the market that are not Hori Hori Knives (I have 3 excellent ones of different weights and designs that we use regularly, but they won’t slice bread). If you want to keep costs down and the number of tools at a minimum, a serrated trowel is the only trowel you will need.
Here are three siblings that will eventually be kicked out of the home burrow to forage and live on their own. They are very good at digging – as you can see – and will spy a deck, a shed, or a cold frame as an opportunity for a fine homestead (we have had problems with all three). They are also very good at climbing – although they may not look it. Groundhogs climbed over my chicken wire fence around a plot, broke into our cold frame twice, and climbed up a box bed and over the chicken wire fence on top of a box bed at Carleton University. Naturally the exertion made them hungry, and they ate very well! Drat! To manage them use wire barriers, either hardware cloth or chicken wire, but above ground make it a full enclosure – no way in or over – not a fence! Below ground, ring a deck or shed with galvanized chicken wire. Staple the top of the wire to the deck or shed, and bury the wire down at least a foot with the bottom bent out towards you, away from the deck/shed. Backfill the trench.
Live trapping is not recommended as traps are not particular in what they catch, and you may catch other critters (years ago, I caught rabbits & birds; my neighbour caught a skunk), and poison is a terrible, unforgivable thing to use for a great many reasons – think wretched pain and suffering on an animal that was just trying to do what comes naturally, think curious children, innocent pets, carrion eaters… Besides, some sick and dying animals go into hiding; you may not see the poisoned corpse, but you will nose it for some time after.
If you do decide to live trap, remember that the law requires you to transport the critters no further than 1 kilometre from the site of capture. Also, we are cautioned that the possible side effects of live trapping are creating orphans without a parent/teacher, and possibly signing the captive’s death warrant: strange area with no home, unfamiliar foods, different territorial boundaries, and unknown friends and enemies.
This perennial, invasive plant is good to have in your organic garden, but you must control it. Dead plants give back some of the plant food they took from the soil. Comfrey is excellent at gathering NPK as well as many trace elements that plants need. To control it and reap the benefits, harvest the plant about 3 inches above ground. A retired bread knife works very well and you can cut all the comfrey at once (gloves are recommended). Put the hairy, sticky leaves in your compost. If you do not have a composter, then spread the leaves like mulch anywhere and everywhere in your food and flower gardens or containers (Mark Cullen, of “Mark’s Choice,” used the comfrey leaves as mulch around his tomatoes). The comfrey will start to regrow noticeably within a week or two and you will have a minimum of two cuttings a season. You can let it flower, but do not let it go to seed.
Some bonsai are raised for their seasonal flowers as well as their attractive miniature stature. Most probably this tree was designed to take the shape we are now presented with – an artistic achievement. Branches were wired to grow in certain directions, errant branches were cut out, leaves and roots were trimmed, bark was deliberately scarred – and this activity goes on if a particular look is to be maintained. Perhaps bonsai are the quintessential examples of our attempts to control nature and make it behave as we would want. “ Beauty” is in the eye of the beholder and around the planet, there are gardens highly tamed and sculptured with topiary and espaliered plantings (plants/trees trained to grow flat against a wall or fence, or along a cable – e.g.flowering fruit trees), and then there are laissez-fair (hands-off) “gardens” of nature’s choice. Of course there are many gardens that lie somewhere between these two poles of highly sculptured gardens and wild nature. What would you choose as a calming sanctuary from the challenges of a hectic day?
Our white currants were sweeter than the red or black. Whenever I passed, I could not resist a handful – nice reward for tending to garden chores! Our Gooseberries, as they start to blush pink, were the same! The bird netting draped over the bush meant that there were currants and gooseberries available at preserving time; later in the season we let the birds feast.
This currant bush was transplanted from our community garden to our backyard and it produced even more currants. But then we lost the bush to aphids and Mosaic Virus. Sap sucking insects can transfer plant viruses (not transferrable to gardeners!) and unfortunately there is no cure.
Vigilance in the garden and managing aphids with sacrifice plants like calendula, nasturtiums, or borage; sprays of water to dislodge them; or running your fingers along the stems to squish them will help. If mosaic virus takes hold (unusual variations in colours and weird structural anomalies in the leaves), remove the entire plant, roots and all, as well as any fallen debris. Put all in the green bin or yard waste – do not compost.
Note – Ants use aphids the way we use dairy cows and if you look closely, you may see ants moving the aphids to better locations. Ants stroke the backs of the aphids to “milk” them for a sweet, sticky secretion. If they are not “milked,” the sticky secretions can fall from trees and coat whatever is underneath. In Winnipeg I had to walk around very sticky patches on the sidewalk; in Orleans and at Ottawa U, aphids in neighbouring trees coated vegetables, flowers, and fences in these sticky secretions and that attracted a fungus which turned every sticky patch a very ugly, sooty black! While ants and their aphid ranches can be a nuisance, you need those ants if you grow peonies. Ants eat the wax off the peony buds to release the flower from its casing. It’s just Nature’s teeter totter in action!
Past DTE “how to” articles on organic urban food gardening can be found in the resource section of the Senior Organic Gardener’s website: https://seniororganicgardeners.ca/
⟾➤ Happy Gardening! ⟾➤