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June 26, 2020
The AgriPost
Wind an Obstacle for Gardeners
By Joan Airey Manitoba seems to be having the year of the wind. For gardeners it has been trying to keep bedding plants whether flowers or vegetables safe. One gardener suggested putting mineral bags over tomato cages to protect tomato and pepper plants while another gardener living on the farm suggested chicken feed bags and dog or cat food bags would work. My sister tried a type of plastic bag around her tomato cages but her tomato plants still have wind damage. Another gardening friend’s husband cut the bottom out of five gallon pails to put around her tomato plants. The 2020 The Prairie Garden is available to purchase on-line and at numerous greenhouses and garden centres. Tiffany Grenkow has an excellent article in the most recent issue on ‘The Secrets to Three Seasons of Easy Greens’. I tried a new variety of spinach this year called Seaside that was purchased from Veseys Seeds. So far it has produced a great supply of spinach for salads. Last year Tiffany introduced me to Ruby Red Orach which I grew in the greenhouse and some volunteer plants this year have provided us with a few feeds. One pail of Norland potatoes in my cold room were sprouting badly by April 26. While on the way out to the compost bin with them I decided maybe I’d plant them in my greenhouse. They have been flowering for a week so I think we are going to check on Father’s Day to see if they are big enough to eat. I use my greenhouse for
early salad greens and to grow my bedding plants once it doesn’t require heat. Most years I grow tomatoes, peppers and herbs in the ground in the greenhouse this year also managed to find room for cucumbers, cantaloupe and onions in it. Overnight the wind snapped a flowering plum off in our yard and damaged our mountain ash more. It took over twenty years to grow these trees and a wind storm can destroy them in minutes. I’ve just read an article by Shauna Dobbie on slow gardening. She suggests spreading out your gardening chores instead of overloading yourself trying to complete all garden chores in one day. Personally I like to work in the garden early in the morning or during the evening as I can’t tolerate too much heat. She quoted senior garden editor Steve
Bender for Southern Living magazine, “Maybe you can’t change the whole world but by slightly modifying the way you garden, you can change your own back yard. That’s a start.” For those wondering when is the best time to plant certain plants one of the easiest on-line resources to help figure out the last frost dates, I just learnt is the National Gardening Association Planting Calendar at garden.org/apps/ calendar. Last summer our son built a patio on the north side of our house and during this pandemic it’s been used constantly. Granddaughter Blake helped plant several planters of veggies and flowers which we put around the patio this spring. The vegetables there will more than likely produce sooner as they are protected from the elements even more than our garden. Enjoy your gardens.
The latest copy of The Prairie Garden western Canada’s only gardening annual.
Potatoes growing in a greenhouse ready for use by late June.
Photos by Joan Airey