COVID 19

2018 was a fantastic year in the garden topping out at 27 buckets including the first legal dope which M says provided a great crop. It was a big year at the cottage so I guess I was distracted. Our neighbours who are roofers and thus not afraid of climbing the ladder got a great haul of veg before we got home in mid -Sept

First legal dope!

2019 started off great with 27 buckets. Then we took off for the cottage. Our neighbours got some veg early in the season but by the time we got home, everything was looking very parched. Turns out there was a swollen peanut right at the start of the irrigation system that was blocking water and fertilizer :-(.

In the fall of 2019 we decided to shut the whole system down as we planned to be traveling more going forward. So, we got rid of nearly all our buckets (which would have needed replacing regardless - with that much heat, sun, cold etc they have a 2-3 year shelf life).

Then along comes COVID 19, meaning not as much travel as planned. So we have resurrected the garden albeit much smaller - only 7 buckets. We've kept it small as it's been harder to get seedlings and buckets (which I usually get at grocery store bakeries). So this year is 4 Early Girl Tomatoes, 1 Sheppard Pepper and 2 dope plants for M. We planted on May 24, 2020. I took pictures today and all the plants look great!

Small but mighty garden

2016 Results

Rooftop produced tonnes of tomatoes and peppers. Several pepper plants that I bought were mislabeled so rather than red peppers, they were banana peppers (tasty) etc.

As the tomato vines grew, the pots had a tendency to blow over - haven't had that problem before.

I had yellow shoulder on many tomatoes (most varieties were impacted). This is apparently a potassium deficiency. Lesson is to watch for how much fruit is being set and to fertilize more. I had been doing 1-2 Tbsp per week but we had i) more buckets and ii) loads of fruit being set at the same time.

I had some sort of wilt at ground level and the cucumbers died just as they were about to produce lots of bounty :-(.  Next year grow the zucchini and cucumbers in pots.

Possible the only 2 Zucchinis :-(

I grew beans from dried pods that stayed on plants over the winter. The beans were really late (August) but did okay.

So lessons...

- plant from seed to be sure of what you're getting
- I think I have wilt at ground level so will have to avoid things that are susceptible to wilt and/or plant in containers
- need to prune tomato vines harder and stake more aggressively and earlier
- fertilize more (especially in boom years) and plant tomatoes with epsom salts to increase magnesium.

My Path

Martin hurt his hand at the start of the work, so this really was my path. Proud as a peach to finally get this done! Bring Post but an easy way to keep track of landscaping work.

Install edging

Martin's ingenious levelling tool and my little helper Salta!

Level soil and tamp down w tamper

Add horticultural fabric, limestone screening, spread and level

Lay out stones

Laying the stones took a long time and was like doing a very heavy puzzle.

Backfill with pea gravel

Add large bark Mulch around evergreen

2016 What I Planted and When

Buckets 26
4 early girl
4 new girl (3 seed) 1 replaced w San marzano
4 roma
4 beefsteak (2)
1 green zebra
4 red peppers
4 green peppers
1 Sungold Tomato (moved to ground) replaced w Rose
1 Jalepenos
1 Tangerine Dream pepper
1 Oranos (seed)

Timeline
May 26: Plant container down to ground level, Soil dumped onto tarp, notify neighbours to p/u
May 27: clean yogurt containers and hoses in the kitchen sink w bleach
May 28: Water containers down, cleaned
May 29: Water containers back up, hoses hooked up system starts to settle
May 30: New soil in some containers, take up, adjust water level, plant some seedlings
May 31: New soil in more containers take up, adjust water level, plant more seedlings

2 bags of Promix HP (was a bit short so used compost and a different bag of soil but added Myke)

Planted May 29: (3)
1 roma
1 Orange Tomato
1 Jalepenos

Planted May 30: (8)
3 romas
4 early girl
1 Tangerine Dream pepper

Tangerine Dream, good producer, flavour just okay but pretty

June 1 & 2: Early girl, green peppers

June 3: Green Zebra and Oranos

June 25 added sweet red peppers

Ground

June 4: Thyme, dill, rosemary, purple beans, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers (2)

June 6: lettuce, carrots, swiss chard, purple mustard, kale, multiplier onions, Morning Glories

Planted in outdoor terrarium April 16 ’16, germination rate:

Zinnia (0%)
Gold Gem Marigold (0%)
Aster Needle mix (0%)
Basil (75%)
Kalinka (0%)
Black Plum (0%)
Jalepeno (0%)
cucumber (100%)
green zebra (25%)
oranoes (25%)
mount roma (0%)
arbol (0%)
northstar (0%)
orange sunshine (25%)
sweet pepper early (0%)
Squash (100%)
new girl (100%)

Orange Sunshine

The first of the Orange Sunshine was ripe today, so a took a photo with my iPhone and promptly ate it - the tomato, not the iPhone. It was not quite ripe enough but it'll be another few days before I venture up on the roof. The plant is laden with fruit so there'll be plenty more and I will be more patient next time to get them at peak flavour. Yum!

The bounty begins

First of the shallots

Back up on the roof today to inspect, fertilize, tie up branches, pinch off suckers and harvest some shallots.

Busy bee working its magic!

All is looking quite good, some fruit set (orange sunshine and roma) and lots of blossoms coming. Thanks to the very busy bee that was up fertilizing blossoms

At ground level I had my first green bean, my third harvest of rhubarb and my first carrot, purple on the outside orange on the inside and delicious all around!

Racoon Held Hostage by Hawk on the Roof

We decided to add another row of containers because i) we have the space, ii) we had spare containers and iii) the more tomatoes the better right? So we now have three rows and a total of 27 containers. We even got the styrofoam for under the containers for free - plucked out of a neighbours garbage on the way home one evening.

Buckets looking very empty

1 Month later (June 12)

I planted the seedlings early this year because of a trip to the UK & Iceland. Although some were small, I was concerned that there might not be enough time to harden them off once we returned (May 28). As a result, I lost a few seedlings - some Orange Sunshine, Roma, Kalinka and ALL the New Girls :-( . No worries, will try the New Girls next year. I'm not sure if they died or birds yanked them out. Our neighbour told us that a hawk grabbed a baby racoon and held it hostage on our roof for a few days - interestingly, there was no sign of carnage.

On the upside, I was very successful in starting from seeds (indoors tomatoes and sweet red peppers) so much so I passed along extras to neighbours as well. Some plants are huge and some tiny (even the same breed).

Long Red Cayenne Pepper in Bloom (June 13)

Rose Tomato courtesy of Emily (and her Mom)

Orange Sunshine in Bloom (June13)

Teepee for beans, cucumbers

I'm trying to go really vertical in the garden at the ground level and have built a teepee structure from limbs cut in last fall from our Mulberry tree which we keep pruned. Climbing on the frame are pole beens (back), cucumbers front and Zucchini on the twirly side posts. Under the teepee are things I've read are shade tolerant (lettuce, radish, swiss chard, kale, and carrots). Things are doing really well in both gardens but I must REMEMBER to plant my peas and beans early in the season (April not May).

I've got a lovely bunch of purple mustard and spinach....waiting for dinner in a bowl!

Tis the Season...

...to get creative with zucchini, great recipe for baked eggplant, zucchini & tomato gratin and an excellent zucchini bread (courtesy of Canadian Living). I found another 3 pound zucchini hiding in my garden...what now?!

Happy Fruit

I'm still at the cottage in PEI but Martin wanted to show me the haul from the garden yesterday. He titled the email " Happy Fruit". Wonderful!

Happy Fruit on Table, 2014

Cornucopia of Tomatoes - Yum

I made it up to the roof this afternoon, after my conference call and before the thunder storm started. I can safely say, tomato season has officially begun on the roof. A have a lovely variety of tomatoes including a Beef Master (top right), Early Girl (left of that), San Marzano (some with blossom end rot) and lovely little Orange Sunshines. I am delighted with the Orange Sunshine which are pretty and sweet and plentiful. I made a mistake this year and planted Tiny Tims instead of Sweet Millions at ground level garden - the Tiny Tims are flavourless so I'm glad I have the Orange Sunshine to make up for it! I haven't tasted the Beef Master yet so will report on that variety later.

The Zucchini Monster Strikes Again

Everything on the roof is going great guns, loads of tomatoes & blossoms and pepper plants laden with peppers.

That said, we lost the first few ripe tomatoes since they had blossom end rot due to problems getting the water level right earlier in the season. The new fruit all looks fine though so we should have tonnes of tomatoes in August - yum!

And at ground level the zucchini monster has struck again!

Intensive Container Gardening

In an effort to keep Salta and her canine pals out of the ground level veggie garden I decided to plant in containers and put a temporary fence in place. It's been pretty effective,  although last week Salta snuck into the enclosure through a whole in the fence and then wasn't sure what to do to get out.

I had another motive for using containers which is to try out intensive gardening in our small urban backyard. After quite a lot of research on containers I came up with the design outlined below. Although the rooftop garden has an irrigation system and self-watering reservoirs I didn't bother with that at ground level. I have planted most things in containers but have put the zucchini, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes right in the ground and will need to water - likely every day. We have a timer for our hose so it shouldn't be a big deal when we're away for extended periods.

Growing holes cut in the sides

I've used a mix of containers, some clay pots, some plastic tubs from a grocery store bakery (again free!). I drilled drain holes in the bottom and drilled some 1.5" holes in the sides. The filled the container to the side holes with Pro-Mix HP and a slow release organic fertilizer to start things off.

Newsprint to stop the soil from failing out

I used a piece of newsprint with an x cut into it to keep the seedling in and soil in place and then filled the container to the tope once I had planted the seedlings on the sides. Then added another plant in the top, generally something that would be a companion to the ones in the sides.

 

Swiss Chard Seedling peeking through Newspaper

So the seedlings peek out the sides of the containers and when they're settled in the start going up - reaching for the sun.













Here's one container fully planted. It should be quite pretty when it fills in with greenery.
















.....and to add some colour to this otherwise somewhat bland posting, here's Mister Cardinal who visits our garden regularly. Also, I was up on the roof this morning and all the plants are doing extremely well, I can't believe how much the tomatoes have grow already and I saw the first signs of buds starting!

May 2-4 Planting

Officially it's The May 24 weekend even though it's only May 17th. Oddly, we in Canada celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday although they don't in England. The May 2-4 is an important date in Canada as it is usually the date when people "open their cottages" for the season, youngster buy and consume a 2-4 (case of 24 bottles of beer) and gardeners can usually safely plant their gardens without fear of frost. Although it was 3C in Toronto last night, I think it's time to start planting if for no other reason than the tomato seedlings I started indoors in March are now too tall for the soil they're standing in. I have had them out in the sun (and rain, lots of rain) for the last 10 days to harden off the seedlings.

Beefmaster tomatoes on the top right planted March 3'14

Martin and I have been repairing containers, replacing the soil. Some of the grow buckets have been on the roof for 3 years and the plastic is getting brittle from all that exposure to the elements. We've had to get a few more buckets from our local Loblaws (thank you very much!) and replaced those that are cracked and broken. Also,  this year I made sure I used PRO-MIX HP (High Porosity) which is supposed to have better water retention properties. Last year I bought BX by mistake. The containers are ready to go and connected to the irrigation system. 

Spinach in homemade Terrarium

The terrarium has worked extremely well for starting seedlings! I started spinach indoors under the grow lamp as well as outdoors in the homemade terrarium. Although they were both planted at the same time, those planted outdoors are larger. No electricity required - just sunshine and a little water.

Spinach seedlings from Indoor (Fluorescent Light)

Overall, the seedling have done very well, both those started under grow lights and those in the homemade terraria. I have only started my own seedlings once and so am pleased with the results and will do this again. 

I'll post some photos from the roof this weekend. Happy May 2-4, one rule though, I have to save the beer for after my final trip up the ladder!

Seedlings and our pup Salta!

It's been a very long winter in Toronto. I was wearing my skidoo boots from early December right through to Early April. It's sometimes hard to contemplate that gardening weather will ever come when there's two feet of snow in the back yard but I kept busy reading seed catalogues and  new ways of sowing seedlings without grow lights.

The tomatoes coming along very well inside under grow lights. (San Marzano, Early Girl, Beefmaster, Delicious and Orange Sunshine).

In-door Seedings

Outdoors I planted beets, bush beans, mustard greens and spinach in whatever containers I could find (i.e. 2 litre vinegar & soya sauce containers). These are essentially mini greenhouses for the seedlings. I put in some soiless mixture and the seeds with a light watering and some drain holes in the containers. The bean and mustard have already sprouted (within 2 weeks).  If I was doing a proper experiment, I would have planted two of the same seeds to verify the success with both methods but  I'm trying to getting my garden ready, not do a science experiment.  I think you can start them very early but I started mine in early April when the night time (and sometimes the day time) temperatures are cold (-7C). The heat and moisture is kept in the greenhouse and they get loads of natural light. Apparently this method produces sturdier seedlings. My inspiration for the greenhouses came from here and there's a very good description of how to make them.  http://www.gardendesign.com/seed-sowing-snow?pnid=122085#gallery-content.

Outdoor Seedlings

Another change this year will be how I plant things at ground level. Usually I put things right in the garden but we have a new puppy who loves to run fast through the garden, pounce on things and dig! So this year, I will plant several things in containers to keep curious a curious puppy at bay. It's a small price to pay to have Salta running around the garden :-).

Salta

Zucchini - Rooftop 0, Garden 4

I still don't know why, maybe wind, maybe excessive heat but the zucchini and cucumbers do not thrive on the roof. They do thrive in a traditional ( in the soil on the ground). I have no viable zucchini or cucumbers on the rooftop but after two weeks away, I have lots from my garden on the ground. Zucchini bread anyone?

Strawberry Fact or Fiction?

I heard recently that strawberries taste sweeter when served on a white plate rather than a black plate. I actually have no idea whether it's true but I can attest to the fact that these beauties from my own garden tasted delicious with my cereal!

Mmm mmm good!