... how to plant strawberries

Greetings everybody,

Sorry for the hiatus but I had dental surgery and have done pretty much nothing at all for the last 5 days as per doctor's orders.

To continue with the bad news, the last three broccoli plants are gone. Still have no idea what has eaten them. Very upsetting. I will start more seed for a fall crop and hope to solve the problem in the interim.

Despite feeling like crap after the whole dental thing, I managed to get the last 50 strawberry plants in the ground as they really needed to go in.

Here is how I plant strawberries. 

They look lovely and healthy, don't they?

 The first thing I do is to soak them for about 15 - 20 minutes in a bucket of water so the roots are nice and hydrated.

Then I trim the roots of the plants to about 5-6 inches long.

This particular variety I am planting are day neutrals so I will get a crop from them this year as they will continue to flower and bear fruit until the autumn.

I am planting in a modified matted row/hill system. I am planting them 18" apart down each side of the bed but they are offset so they are not directly opposite each other. When the plants form runners next year, I will keep one or two runners only from each mother plant to train into the opposite side of the bed. When the runners are well established in the second year, I will remove the mother plant (compost) and begin the whole thing all over again, this time going in the opposite direction.

I use a yardstick to measure out the correct spacing and simply poke my finger into the soil to make a planting mark. Easy peasy.

I then slide my hand down into the soil to create a trench for each plant.

I then spread out the roots of the plant into a fan shape and gently slip it into the trench, holding it against the front side of the trench with one hand while I gently tuck the soil firmly against the roots with the other hand. Sorry there is no picture of that last bit but I only have two hands and they were both occupied with the plant so no free hand for the camera.

One of the most important things about planting strawberries is that they must go in at the correct depth. Strawberries have a crown which is a fairly good size for you to see it. You want to plant it half way up that crown. If is is planted too deeply, the poor little plant will actually suffocate. If it is planted too shallowly, it will dry out and die also. So, halfway is what you want as you can see from this photo. I got right down on the ground to get this one.

So now we have all the beds planted out. Two of the rows are early and late season June bearing plants and the third row are the ones I just planted, the day neutrals. I still need to completely fill in the pathways with the pea stone on top of the landscape fabric. It will keep things nice and neat and clean and hopefully weed free.

Now, much as it will break my heart to do it, when the June bearing plants flower this year, I will remove all of the blossom from them. I will also remove any runners. I want these plants to develop good strong root systems so that next year they will produce a huge crop of berries.

There is some consolation as we should get some berries from the day neutrals this year. I will remove the blossoms from them for the month of June and then after that I will allow them to flower and produce fruit.

These plants are all in raised beds which have been filled with a mixture of topsoil, compost and rotted manure. That is a recipe for weed seeds as you can see in this rhubarb bed which was transplanted about 10 days ago or so.

What I do is to allow that first flush of weeds to appear, clear them all off carefully, water the plants well and then apply a mulch.

I will do the rhubarb beds this week and then the strawberries in about 10 days or so. Naturally we will mulch the strawberries with straw. Not only will it help to suppress the weeds but it will keep the roots moist and it will keep the berries nice and clean.

Well that is it for me for today. Hope you have a wonderful weekend planned. Thanks so much for visiting today. Cheers.

... good news and bad news

Hello everybody,

OK, the bad news first. Something, and I know not what, has eaten all of our kale, kohlrabi and broccoli plants, except for three of them, right down to the ground. No footprints at the scene of the crime, no slug trails left behind and I could not find anything when I checked in the soil where the plants should have been. It was like they simply vanished. Very upsetting when I grew all those plants from seed and was hoping for a great crop of broccoli this year.
If anyone knows what is the likely culprit, please do let me know.

Now that I am thoroughly depressed, here is the good news. It rained all day today and we badly needed it. Despite that fact, I managed to get out and plant 125 June bearing strawberry crowns. I went and bought myself some rain gear from the hardware store. Pants and a jacket with a hood, all for $17.99. Thought I would wear the pants since I would be kneeling down on the wet ground but would wear my net bug shirt instead of the jacket as the Black Flies are overwhelming because of the rain.

I got about 50 plants in the ground and, yes, you guessed it, it started to come down in buckets. I stuck it out and planted another 75 with the rain pouring down my back. There was no time to run to the house for the rain jacket so I just put my head down and kept going.

I have another 50 Day Neutral crowns left to plant and will likely get them done on Wednesday. I will get Frank to take some photos of the planting process.

Thanks a lot for stopping by. Have a great day. Cheers.

... the strawberry patch

Hello everybody,

We were back at it again today, working on the strawberry patch.

It was a horribly long day for both of us. The weather was hot and sunny for most of the day and unfortunately the Black Flies are still with us.

By the end of the day we had built all the 9 beds and almost completely filled them. We really have only a couple more wheelbarrows to go to finish the last bed. We wanted to finish up but we were both simply too exhausted.

If the weather cooperates we will be able to finish up tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting. Cheers.

... work has begun on the strawberry patch

Good evening everyone,

We began work in earnest today on the strawberry patch. Massive amount of work. 

I removed all the tarps and the cardboard underneath. A lot of the cardboard was badly rotting so we will just haul it away to the dump rather than try to reuse it. There was still some weeds growing underneath so I dug them out.

Frank began to build the raised beds. We chose to use hemlock that we bought from a local company who milled it for us. We were told that it would last for ages as it is very rot resistant. The wood is actual 2 x 8's as it has not been planed. It is also unbelievably heavy.

Frank cut all the wood and then we hauled it into the garden in the back of the pickup truck. We are making a series of beds in three rows. Two of them are 16 feet long and a smaller center bed is 6 feet long. All are 3 feet wide. There is a small one foot wide path between the beds. There will be a two foot wide path between the rows. We will grow a different variety of berry in each of the rows.

After Frank make each bed I lay down a couple layers of paper in the bottom, then a layer of landscape fabric. Strawberries are very shallow rooted plants so the landscape fabric will help to control the weeds that may try to make their way into the bed and since the beds are a full 8 inches deep it will never bother the strawberry plants. Then the beds were filled in with triple mix, right to the top, as the soil will settle to a lower level after a short while. 

We managed to get one full row of beds done and filled and got two additional beds built.

This was a completely exhausting day for us both and unfortunately there will be more of the same tomorrow. We are aiming to get the beds finished tomorrow and then we will plant them out on Monday, fingers crossed.

Thanks so much for visiting. Have a great weekend. Cheers.

... planting asparagus

Hello everyone,

My order from Vesey's has finally arrived and among the goodies were 48 beautiful asparagus crowns. The variety is Jersey Giant. We already have 50 of them growing very happily in the garden and these are the same ones that we have been eating this year.

Sadly the Martha Washington crowns that we planted in 2012 did not do well and only a handful of the 50 we planted survived. You have to wait so long to be able to harvest the spears that I did not want to take any chances so went with the sure thing, Jersey Giant.

I have been working quite hard to keep the asparagus beds weed free but I very thoroughly weeded the areas to be planted again this morning. I like to soak the crowns in warm water for about an hour before I plant them. These crowns were not dried out at all but I think the soaking helps get them off to a good start.

I used a hoe to create two furrows in the bed which made a nice little mound down the center.

I lay out the soaked crown on top of this mound, arranging their roots down both furrows.

Then I carefully backfill with triple mix so just the little shoots are peeking out. Asparagus like a really well drained soil but also need lots of organic matter. Our soil is very sandy so drainage is not a problem. Once they are growing strongly I will add another inch or so of triple mix on top and from them on they will be top dressed each fall with well rotted compost.

So now the waiting begins. Three years. That means we will be able to harvest from these new crowns in 2018! Remember what I said about patience.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great evening. Cheers.

...finally finished

Hello everyone,

People who heat their homes with wood and cut and split their own wood generally do so during the winter months.

You know the old saying "wood heats you when you cut it, when you split it, when you stack it and finally when you burn it". Very true. It is all very hard work.

Unfortunately for Frank, he is skiing all winter long. So he does not have time to deal with the wood during the cold months.

So he began to cut and split a full tandem load of wood in early April. Last week he finally finished with it. He did not work on it continuously or it would have been done long ago. Nevertheless, it is a huge job and one that he is very happy to be finished with.

We have a wonderful natural wood store underneath our solar array. Mike from Ottawa Solar suggested it to us and it was a brilliant suggestion. We just throw a tarp over the top of all of the wood to keep the snow off it.

The only unfortunate part is that a full tandem of wood will not all fit under the array. 

So we have several piles like these ones here and there on our property. A couple of piles are just at the back of the house. We will use those ones first since they are the closest and then start on the rest of it.

The majority of the wood is oak and maple. This will likely last us at least three years. The BTU value of the wood will be lessened by the third year but we use so little of it anyway that even if we need to throw on a couple more logs a night it will not matter. 

In 2013 we purchased three full (or bush) cords of wood. The last two winters here in eastern Ontario have been very very cold. But due to the beauty of passive solar, we have not used all of the wood yet. There is still a small pile left that we will keep to burn first in the autumn. 

Well that is it for me for tonight. Thanks so much for visiting. Cheers.

... the brassicas

Greetings everyone,

Another scorching hot day today here in eastern Ontario. 

We managed to clear out a section of the veggie garden and we got all the brassicas planted, namely the broccoli, kohlrabi and the kale. I also did a bit more work on the new strawberry patch and we finished transplanting the rhubarb into their new homes. There was a lot of grass roots in with them so I really had to pull them apart a bit to clean them up. Hope I got all of it.

We are having very high humidity today and we are now hearing on our radio a constant warning about a possible tornado. 

I have never heard one of these warnings before so we are not taking this too lightly. One storm has already passed over us. The skies were very very dark, we had buckets of rain and a bit of wind. We checked the Environment Canada radar and we can see a second storm coming. It is a big one. And it is heading our way.

As I write this, the sun has gone in and it is starting to get darker again. Just to be prudent, I will say goodbye for now and get the dogs into the house to keep them safe. Better go and find out where Frank is as he should come in also.

Thanks for visiting. Cheers.

... pay it forward

Hello everybody,

Some time ago I met a charming woman called Kelly through a knitting group that she organizes. I really enjoy knitting and this group meets at a coffee shop on Saturdays in a town not too far from where I live. I wish I could get out there more often but life and building the house and working the garden seems to get in the way.

When we met I explained that we had recently moved to the area, built a straw-bale house and we lived off the grid. Kelly was quite interested in the whole thing as she and her hubby are planning to build a new home themselves and want to be off the grid.

Last night they visited us at our home. Frank and I spent quite a bit of time explaining to them exactly how our system works and answering any questions they had. We also discussed straw bale building and the theories of passivhaus for having a tight building envelope for energy efficiency.

We are very happy to share any knowledge we have about how we live here. We believe that the more information that people have, the more likely they will be to chose to live this way. Perhaps they will not want to be completely off the grid as we are but maybe they will put up some solar panels to help to generate some of their hydro and feed back to the grid. Every little bit helps.

The other aspect is something that I have already blogged about. Building a very energy efficient home. Straw bale was our choice but there are other options out there.

I sometimes think that when we tell people we live in a straw bale house off the grid it conjures up images of a couple of old hippies without modern conveniences who light the house with candles. Nothing could be farther from the truth. 

Our home is just like any other house. Three bedrooms, living room, dining room and a nice big kitchen. The only modern conveniences that I do not have are a dishwasher and a clothes dryer. We have a fridge, a large chest freezer, washing machine and a microwave. I use a vacuum to suck up the vast amounts of hair that our two Labs shed for most of the year. The only difference is that I check on the state of our batteries before I vacuum or plug in my iron. 

So we are very happy to explain the process to anyone who is interested in this sort of lifestyle. The more people who know, the better.

Thanks for stopping by. Cheers.

... all good things must come to an end

Good evening everyone.

Well it had to happen. We have had a very good run at it but we are not cutting any more asparagus. Since this is the first year that we have cut it we did not want to be too greedy and take too much and stress the plants. 

I got an email from Veseys to say that my plant order has been shipped and should be here shortly. That will give me several days yet to get the strawberry beds ready. I can easily keep the plants safely in the house for a few days if necessary before they get planted out. 

Short post tonight but will be back, likely tomorrow, with photos of the rhubarb in it's new home. Have a great evening. Cheers.

... an additional new blog

Hello everyone,

I have decided to start an additional blog to run along with this one. The new one is at diaryofamodernhomesteader.blogspot.com

For the past few years I have kept a written journal of the work we did here with regards to building the house, starting the garden, etc. 

I think that keeping records on the new blog will make things easier for me. It will be easy to reference things done previously and I can compare garden results from past years.

We are finally getting some badly needed rain today and it is supposed to rain more tonight. I will be back out in the garden tomorrow attacking the couch grass again. Nice respite today though.

Thanks for visiting. Cheers.

... and a little more of the same

Hello everybody,

The warm weather is continuing here and I decided to give myself a day off from garden work. Ran some errands, did some grocery shopping, that kind of thing.

However, even though I am not on my knees weeding, there is always still something that absolutely must be done. 

The asparagus must be cut.

You cannot let it get out of control and get too big.

We have had a lovely asparagus and mushroom omelet with a big bunch of it and last nights dinner was a "clean out the fridge" kind of stir fry with, you guessed it, fresh asparagus.

Since we only eat Ontario asparagus, we eat a lot of it over a fairly short period of time. And by that I mean we eat it pretty much every day. 

It is very easy to get bored of it, especially if it was only just boiled or steamed every time. We wait all year for the taste of that first perfect green spear so we must never take it for granted. There are probably thousands of ways to prepare it. Use your imagination and delight in it while it is here 'cause it is gone all too quickly and it is a long wait until next year.

Have a wonderful weekend and a very Happy Mom's Day to all you mummys out there. Cheers.

... strawberries & rhubarb

Hello everyone,

Strawberries and rhubarb. Makes you think of pie, doesn't it? Me too. :)

When we first fenced in the kitchen garden back in 2011, we planted 4 rhubarb plants. They have never done well here. We have never harvested a single piece of rhubarb from any of them. 

And after some research, I now know why.

They do not like our soil.

So this year I decided to do something about that. This is in conjunction with the idea I had last year about putting in a strawberry patch. I do believe that we are back where we started. You know ... pie.

As I have noted in previous posts the area that is now our kitchen garden was once a lovely hay field. It sat unused and uncut for over 30 years before we bought the land. In that time it ceased to be hay and turned into weeds. Lots of perennial wildflowers and LOTS of COUCH GRASS. So last spring I decided to try to save myself some labour and we covered a large part of what would be the strawberry patch with cardboard and tarps in the hopes of killing the weeds. They tarps are still in place now. I am almost afraid to look under them.

The rest of the strawberry patch was left and would have to be dealt with this year since we ran out of tarps and cardboard.

This picture will show you what I am dealing with. Couch grass. It has other names but basically it is just plain old bad news. Very hard to dig out. I have tried a couple of different methods and finally settled on kneeling or sitting on the ground and digging like someone demented with a two prong hand fork. This seems to work best for me. I can get down about 12" with two passes and I get my hand in there to feel for the roots which I gleefully yank out. You really need to try to get all of it or back it will come.

The entire area that needed to be cleared is about 14 feet wide and close to 20 feet long. I have been at it now for 3 days. I am about 1/3 done. 

Did I fail to mention that the temperatures have soared here in eastern Ontario. It was 30 degrees today. I may have also forgot to mention the Black Flies. Yes, it is that time again. So there I was, in my bug shirt, digging like a madwoman with the sweat running down my face like a tap and stinging my eyes. I finally could not take it any longer and took off the net bug shirt and gave up caring whether the little beggars bit me or not. I do not think I have any bites. I think it is even too hot for the Black Flies.

When I look at the patch that I have cleared, I know that all this hard graft is worth it. The rhubarb will have a new tailor make home in which to grow and with luck, we may even get to eat some next spring.

I have 150 strawberry plants ordered and they should be here in a week or two. That should give me enough time to finish up and create the beds for them. I have heard this heat wave is to end in a couple of days and the temperature is to drop quite a bit. Sounds absolutely wonderful to me. I will just keep on digging with a mental picture of a lovely pie in my mind.

Thanks a lot for stopping by. Have a wonderful day. Cheers.

... a bit more about asparagus

Good evening everybody,

We have been having amazingly hot weather here in eastern Ontario. Today felt more like a day in July than early May. 

Our fruit trees are seriously thinking of bursting into bloom and I really wish that they would not. If we get a cold spell, then that will be the end of the fruit. I really hate it when we do not get a proper Spring. Winter ends only to have us leap directly into Summer weather. But enough about that.

If you are considering putting in a new veggie garden, I would strongly suggest that you consider asparagus, obviously only if you like it or course. 
It is a long term commitment but the benefits make the time well worth while. I will have a blog post about planting the crowns shortly when my plant order arrives as we are putting in an additional 48 crowns to replace the dead ones.

Tonight I harvested two pounds of it. We eat tons of the stuff when it is in season that then that is it. No more until next year. tomorrow we will have an asparagus omelet for breakfast. Tonight we had roasted asparagus and pasta with clam sauce.

Roasting it is so incredibly easy. I wash them to get all the sand and dirt off. Dry them off well and lay out on a cookie sheet. I drizzle extra virgin olive oil over them and then add some salt and pepper. Toss them around so they are evenly coated. Into a 400F degree oven they go but they only take a few minutes. You definitely do not want to over cook them. Absolutely delicious.

Well that is it for me for tonight. Hope you are enjoying this sunny weather. Personally, I have my fingers crossed for rain. Cheers.

... patience

Hello everyone,

I know that posts have been few and far between these days but the gardening season has arrived here in eastern Ontario and with it, lots and lots of work. I will try my best to post at least once a week.

And now, on to the topic of my blog post.

Patience.

I do not have a whole lot of it for a great many things in my life. However, I am a gardener. And generally speaking, gardeners have all the patience in the world. We have to. And most of the time our patience is rewarded. And mine was tonight.

My friends, I am talking about ASPARAGUS!!!

When we bought this land, the very first thing we did in our kitchen garden was to put in an asparagus bed. We planted two different varieties, namely "Jersey Giant" and "Martha Washington". We planted 50 one year old crowns of each. Sadly we lost almost all of the Martha Washington plants after one year. I have ordered another batch of crowns and they will be planted as soon as they arrive. 

Happily, the Jersey Giants are mostly doing really well. We planted the first crowns in 2011. We waited the required three years and were all set to enjoy that first taste of our own asparagus last year but this entire area was flooded in the Spring, as were my asparagus beds. We thought it was prudent not to harvest anything to allow the crowns to recover from being underwater for so long.

So this year I spent an entire week weeding all the beds, watering them since this has been a very dry spring and waiting, patiently.

And then a couple of days ago .... there it was ... an asparagus spear poking it's little head up out of the soil. And then another ... and another.

And tonight, there were enough of those beautiful little darlings that I picked a half pound of them and we had them for dinner. They were sublime. I absolutely adore asparagus. I do not buy the stuff in the grocery store that has traveled here all the way from Mexico or Peru. I only eat Ontario grown, and now I can eat my own. 

My patience has been amply rewarded.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful week. Cheers.