by Donna Balzer | Sep 3, 2020 | Food, Gadgets
If cantaloupes have to be tugged hard and yet will not give way from the plant they are not ripe. One reference said they will easily slip off the plant once ripe. I wasn’t sure how to define the word “easy” or “slip”. Melons will not continue to ripen fully once picked so it is important to pick them when they are really ripe and not a week before. Also, in Canada, there is only time to produce 3-4 melons per plant per year so anything picked unripe is a wasted melon.
by Donna Balzer | Aug 17, 2020 | Food, Gadgets, Soil
My sister was excited to eat her potatoes so she dug them all up. Yikes. Only a single baby potato appeared. If you have potatoes in pots or in the ground and you are wondering if they are ready to dig up feel the top of the soil first with your hands. If you can feel a potato, pull it out.
by Donna Balzer | Jun 8, 2020 | Bugs & Buggers, Food, GARDENING, Greenhouse
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.
by Donna Balzer | Jun 5, 2020 | Food
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.
by Donna Balzer | May 25, 2020 | GARDENING, Greenhouse, Soil
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.
by Donna Balzer | Apr 2, 2020 | Food, GARDENING, Greenhouse
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.
