Happy New Year to you all. The 11th of January was a nice bright day, the kind of day for a winter walk with a pace slightly quickened by the cold air. The Botanical Garden at UBC is one of Vancouver’s ideal spots for such a walk, with lots of [...]]]>

The quintessential winter salad garden!

Happy New Year to you all. The 11th of January was a nice bright day, the kind of day for a winter walk with a pace slightly quickened by the cold air. The Botanical Garden at UBC is one of Vancouver’s ideal spots for such a walk, with lots of points of interest throughout the year. We’ve had a couple of frosty nights since then, but it was nice to actually find some plants in bloom. And they’re still harvesting vegetables out of the food garden, with some over-winter cover crops placed here and there in unused beds.

Elsewhere there are Brussels sprouts, chard, celeriac, kohlrabi, mizuna, arugula, mustard, spinach, garlic, sprouting broccoli, mesclun mixes, and several types of kale. In short, lots of food plants are still growing, destined for the food bank. There are fava beans and winter peas pumping nitrogen into the beds, and winter wheat chugging along despite the cold, ready for tilling masses of carbon into the soil in the spring. Nothing short of inspiring.

We are so happy to work with Brendan Fisher, who manages the Food Garden, and looking forward to a new year of West Coast Seeds varieties on display at the garden. You will see more here, of course.

The Food Garden is quiet, but far from empty.

Cold hardy mizuna and red mustard.

Red Ball Brussels sprouts add a touch of colour.

Lacinato kale insulated with some straw mulch.

Winter wheat just looks like grass - but it's still growing!

Winter field peas add nitrogen and organic matter to the beds.

Mizuna, having bolted, in bloom in January. Now that's hardy.

Keep a sharp eye out for the tiny flowers still visible around the garden.

A bit worse for wear, but yarrow is still open.

This stuff is in bloom in the Garry oak meadow.

I am pretty pleased with some of the improvements we’ve made and some glorious new photography that we’ve managed to add. The project goes to press [...]]]> I must apologize for the lack of recent updates, but we are now about neck-deep in the 2012 catalogue project, so my time is limited and my focus is absolute.

I am pretty pleased with some of the improvements we’ve made and some glorious new photography that we’ve managed to add. The project goes to press in mid-November, and will be printed before Xmas. The first mailings will begin shortly after that and continue into January. We can’t manage all of the mailings at once due to cost, but it will turn up in your post eventually, with lots of time before planting.

While I’m away from this blog, please trust that I’m working with a small team of very dedicated people who want to bring you the good, better, and best of what we have to offer in terms of quality product and information. We love our fans!

Back soon,

Mark @ West Coast Seeds

Mr. Singh lives up the street from me. I would pass his yard in the summer, and see over his fence that some extraordinary things were going on back there. Pumpkin plants and other vines being trellised up to the [...]]]>

These unusual squashes were volunteers, he tells me, so we don't know what they are.

Mr. Singh lives up the street from me. I would pass his yard in the summer, and see over his fence that some extraordinary things were going on back there. Pumpkin plants and other vines being trellised up to the second floor patio… Unusual materials for trellising, like ladders and chain link fence… Horticultural curiosity finally got the better of me, and we made introductions. Mr. Singh was extremely pleased that anyone would take interest in his vegetable garden, and he is rightly proud of a pretty amazing job done.

Mr. Singh’s yard is a typical suburban size, but entirely converted to growing food plants. You can immediately tell that he’s got a good sense of humour. I share his enthusiasm for plants that do extraordinary things, but not quite like he does. Last year, for instance, he grew a spaghetti squash inside a glass bottle. He grew full sized jack o’ lantern pumpkins up a trellis so that the large fruits hung ominously into space. This year, he’s growing the Italian Tromboncino squash, and has fruits over five feet long!

He tells me that his health really improved after he discovered gardening, and I believe him. “I can’t chew the food, so I put it in my Magic Bullet,” he says. But he can do the work. He shifted another 8 yards of new soil this summer, one shovel at a time – a task that I no doubt have me in traction. And he also has managed to grow a number of food plants from India, including tinda and kerrala. How can you not share his enthusiasm?

Spaghetti in a jar?

Don't bonk your head!

Proof that kerrala (bitter melon) can be grown here.

The mighty Tromboncino!

Jeanette and Mr. Singh in front of the Elliott Street store with a five footer!

The final product at Elliott Street

This little fellow is quite likely Harpaphe haydeniana, a kind of millipede that was out in [...]]]> I’ve become a real geek when it comes to tiny animals. I spend so much time in gardens, in their territory, that I kind of feel obliged to know who I’m dealing with. Having a macro lens helps, of course.

This little fellow is quite likely Harpaphe haydeniana, a kind of millipede that was out in abundant numbers today at the UBC Botanical Garden. He’s only about 25mm long. Many millipedes employ defense systems such as releasing chemicals when they’re threatened. If you pick Harpaphe up, he’ll probably release a liquid that will stain your skin a bit like mercurochrome.

Although they are not insects, millipedes are garden allies that feed on plant debris, fungi, and algae, and leave behind droppings that help build humus and improve soil structure. They tend to go unseen, living beneath fallen leaves or under other decaying material. The sprinklers had been turned on at the botanical garden, so several of these millipedes had been flushed out from their hiding spots. All millipedes are grouped under the class Diploda, but the order Polydesmida only includes millipedes with this flattened body structure. They have 20 body segments, and each segment has 2 pairs of legs, except for the segments at either end, which are legless. Despite having 36 pairs of legs, they move very slowly, feeling their path with their antennae, and without the benefit of eyesight.

This is such a painful topic! I hate for anyone to have to deal with blight, but it’s a reality on the Coast, particularly at this time of year, as evidenced below. Our new allotment garden here in Ladner is host to several first-time gardeners. Some of these folks naturally [...]]]>

The tomato grower's worst nightmare!

This is such a painful topic! I hate for anyone to have to deal with blight, but it’s a reality on the Coast, particularly at this time of year, as evidenced below. Our new allotment garden here in Ladner is host to several first-time gardeners. Some of these folks naturally wanted to try growing tomatoes in their plots, and, unsurprisingly, are seeing the arrival of late blight. So to really spin this in a positive way, at least it has provided me with an opportunity to photograph blight, and to offer some advice on how to avoid it.

Late blight is a kind of fungus that goes by the formal name of Phytopthora infestans. Technically, it’s not a real fungus, but an oomycete, but it is fungus-like enough that we can think of them as such here. Like other forms of fungus, blight spreads itself by airborne spores. In places like south coastal British Columbia, where blight is present, it’s just one type of particle that can be found in our air – like pollen or dust. Now if these spores happen to come to rest on the right type of plant, with the right level of moisture present, they send out root-like filaments into the plant’s tissues, and begin to multiply and grow.

The first signs of blight are easy to miss. They begin as spots on the leaves. Within a day, the damage to the leaves spread down the petiole (leaf stalk) and onto the stems. These become brown and withered looking. The fruits take on a bruised look, and even a fishy smell. The whole plant will collapse in a period of a few days.

The nastiest thing about blight is that it tends to strike at the peak of the season, just when the plants look most promising, most heavy with fruit. Once it’s on (and in) your plant, there is nothing you can do to stop its terrible course. You CAN, however, take steps to prevent it…

1. If you live in an area where late blight is present – including south coastal BC, the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the San Juans, Oregon, and Washington – do not allow the foliage of your tomato plants to get wet, even from rain. Keep them covered under awnings, cloches, or in greenhouses.

2. Choose early-maturing tomato varieties like Glacier or Stupice, and aim for a mid-summer crop. Harvest what you can and pull out the plants before they get blight.

3. Never water with a sprinkler.

4. In greenhouses, be sure to ventilate as increased humidity can be just as harmful as rain. Foliage that is allowed to press against glass or plastic is particularly susceptible.

5. Using copper sulfate such as Bordo will create a film over the foliage that will interfere with blight’s ability to send out roots. It’s useful in stalling the onset of blight, even in greenhouses, but it requires regular applications.

6. Dispose of affected plants by throwing them in the garbage (not the compost) or burning them. Once blight is established on a plant, it will do nothing but reproduce and spread more spores into the soil and into the air. So as soon as you can identify it, get rid of the whole plant and carefully wash any equipment or gloves you use in the process.

Because blight also affects potatoes, we are morally obliged to do what we can to prevent the spread of blight. Our inaction puts a very important crop at risk. And in areas like Ladner, which is surrounded by potato fields, this is a serious consideration. I really hope anyone who has been dealt the punishing blow of blight can learn from their mistake and grow better tomatoes next year. As always, you can click on the photos to get a better look at them.

Spots on the leaves are usually the first signs.

Blight spreads very quickly to stems.

Affected plants cannot be rescued.

Dispose of all affected plants with a sense of urgency.

The squash plants are getting bigger and bigger. Some of them have stretched out onto the lawn, making mowing a little trickier. Below you can see two images of the “west beds,” one taken exactly a month ago, and the other taken this morning. I’m not actually sure which of the acorn [...]]]>

This morning's haul

The squash plants are getting bigger and bigger. Some of them have stretched out onto the lawn, making mowing a little trickier. Below you can see two images of the “west beds,” one taken exactly a month ago, and the other taken this morning. I’m not actually sure which of the acorn varieties it is that has stretched so far outside of the box, but it’s making fruits along the whole length of these vines. With some naivete I tagged the plants with our small West Coast Seeds plant makers at the head of each bed. But it’s now quite an effort to get close enough to identify some of them. It’s a shame these plants get so bloomin’ big, as many types are simply impractical for the back yard garden. Two years back I grew a Rouge Vif d’Etampes plant in my backyard that was ultimately 30 feet across!

Many of the plants now have powdery mildew showing up on their leaves. This is somewhat unavoidable, particularly after the rain we had last week. I may have made things worse for these plants by allowing them to get so crowded, as good air movement around the plants is one method of reducing the effects of mildew. Either way, some varieties are more prone to it than others. And growing so many types side by side is kind of interesting too. Our red kuri squash called Uchiki is already finished. I picked the last ripe fruits this morning, and the plants are dying back. In another bed, the more generic Red Kuri is bearing fruits that are just about ready to pick. Sunburst scallopini, which is such a productive and tasty hybrid, is also more prone to powdery mildew than its neighbours Starship and Benning’s Green Tint. Jack Be Little, the pumpkin-like acorn squash didn’t show any signs of fruit formation for weeks after the others did, but now it’s covered in fruit – there are scores of fruits coming from four plants. We shall see how this turns out!

July 27th

August 28th - that wheelbarrow's in trouble