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In My Greenhouse: Food and pests

by Donna Balzer | Jun 8, 2020 | Bugs & Buggers, Food, GARDENING, Greenhouse | 0 Comments

Pillbugs are so voracious, the wood in the planter is actually falling apart in some places. While Bob was filming I picked up a pillbug to show him and it started dropping live young. I was so shocked. I have never seen this before in my 40 years of gardening.

Foraging: Collecting and Eating Wild Food

by Donna Balzer | Jun 5, 2020 | Food | 0 Comments

That means trying to educate people first about the fact that it’s really easy to go to the supermarket and, for example, get some blueberries that have been cultivated in the Fraser Valley or in another place in Northern America. But, in terms of a possibility, on Vancouver Island, when you reach an 800 metre elevation it’s full of wild blueberries bushes.

Soil Matrix Biochar & Terra Pretta

by Donna Balzer | May 25, 2020 | GARDENING, Greenhouse, Soil | 0 Comments

That’s the real sort of clincher is that bio char, made properly, attracts and houses and protects and provides a dwelling place for the microbes. These work synergistically with plants. So you have all three of those things happening at the same time, and now you’ve got a material that goes into the soil and works positively with plants.

Grow Cole Crops: Broccoli and Caulflower to suit every garden

by Donna Balzer | Apr 2, 2020 | Food, GARDENING, Greenhouse | 0 Comments

While cole crops include the whole cabbage family COLD crops include so much more. You can try spinach, leaf lettuce, green onions and radish early in the garden or cool greenhouse as COLD crops as soon as the ground thaws enough to seed.

Grow Ordinary Food in Extraordinary Ways

by Donna Balzer | Mar 5, 2020 | Food, GARDENING, Greenhouse | 2 Comments

Khaled tells me during our podcast interview that the harvest from June bearing strawberries vrs day neutral strawberries is almost the same over the course of the season. The biggest difference – he says – is that you get your berries all at once with June bearing varieties and with day neutral types like Hecker, Eversweet or Albion you get them over a three or four month period from July through October…..

Growing my own food

by Donna Balzer | Feb 4, 2020 | Food, GARDENING, Greenhouse | 2 Comments

It’s February and I made the best-ever toasted tomato sandwiches from tomatoes I picked last fall. It has become a fun challenge to grow most of our own greens and vegetables for most of our meals year-round but this is the first time I have had tomatoes in February. Last week I made a Potato and Leek soup for lunch from our garden and last night we picked fresh arugula for a salad. It is no longer a matter of “poor me” Now it is a matter of “lucky me.”