UJ's Vegetable Garden

broccoli

2011-07-03T22:48:00.000-07:00

After our road trip of 12 days from Toronto to Vancouver we reached home on 12th June and spent some time to clean up our yard and check on some of the plants I planted a few weeks back. The broccoli were doing great and the cabbages are yet to show some productivity. The Red Russian Garlic is doing well but shows signs of stress as I didn't set up the drip irrigation timer till yesterday. Fortunately we had an extended spring with lots of rain and cool weather which didn't do much damage. Yesterday and today we spent some time planting some vegetables from the nursery and building trellis for the beans.

2011 update

2011-05-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

After an extended hiatus on posts I am hoping to catch up again. Since October last year I have been travelling on work to Toronto. Once a month I have been home and have been looking forward to get my hands in the dirt! It won't be until June that I'll be home to put in more plants. However on a short trip this time I have been able to clean up my yard, mow the lawn, plant bulbs and have been glad to see the tulips blooming. This year I wasn't able to start anything from seed. Today I planted some nursery bought Cayenne Peppers and Zucchini. It might be a little early as temperatures are still cool but I am taking a chance.
The potatoes which I sowed a couple of weeks back are beginning to come up.

The Red Russian Garlic bulbs which my wife planted last fall are growing. This time we switched the beds by planting them in the beds where Tomatoes were planted last year.

Two weeks ago when I was home I threw in a few Pole Beans seeds in the beds and planted Cabbage and Broccoli seedlings.

End of 2010

2011-01-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

I was out of town on work at a project site for more than 2 months. Just arrived before Christmas.A lot had taken place in the yard with all the plants pulled up and my in-laws departing for home. Most of the flowering plants had died due to frost and the front yard is due for a clean up one of these days. The temperatures are freezing now a days and this shot of the back yard beds were taken on 29th Dec 2010. I'll leave again on work and hope to come back in Spring and I fear I'll be unable to plant in time. However my better half has planted the Red Russian Garlic in November for harvesting next summer.

Today's harvest

2010-10-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Today we had a decent harvest of peppers, zucchini pole beans & scarlet runner beans. The beans have been continuously producing without sign of stopping! We anticipate a few more weeks of harvest before they drop. The zucchini is doing good for the cooler weather below 20 deg C.

veggies in the front

2010-10-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

I am back after travelling on work across a couple of cities. While I was away my parent's in law tended to the garden. We had lots of tomatoes but the rain in the last couple of weeks did the damage. Most of the tomato leaves turned brown and black and we had to pull them off. The other veggies are doing fine so far. Temperatures are dipping down. The garden in the front of the house is a mix of flowers and veggies in between.
I tried to use of as much available space as possible.

The top picture is self explanatory. In the second one we have broccoli, peppers and pink cabbage in the fore ground and zucchini and peppers in the back ground. We've had a good number of cabbages but they are prone to attacks by snails and slugs after a rain. So they need to be checked every now and then. Also there were nasturtiums which were attacked by aphids and we had to pull them out.

Garden progress

2010-09-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

We have been harvesting beans, tomatoes, lettuce and herbs almost every other day for the kitchen. Here are some pictures of the plants:

Tomatoes: Roma

Tomatoes: Sasha's Pride

Eggplant: Dusky

Pickling Cucumber

Hot Peppers

Cabbage: Early Copenhagen

This one was planted in front of the house beside the driveway. We planted a few cabbages, tomatoes, Broccoli, Bell Peppers and Hot Peppers amongst flowering plants - this was a little experiment to see how it would work for an edible landscape! More pictures to follow in the next post.

We have been trying to grow some Indian vegetables such as Bottle Gourd, Ridge Gourd, Bitter Melon (also called Bitter Gourd) but this had little success. I am not sure if anyone tried these in the Vancouver, BC area. Here the summer temperature hovers around 32 degrees, except for a week or ten days when it jumps to 35 -37 degrees. Also this year we had a long cool spring which didn't help the heat loving vegetables. We don't expect much progress beyond what we see here but anticipate they'll grow a little more.

Bottle Gourd

Bitter Gourd

Today harvest - Cabbage & Zucchini

Vacation pictures,...

2010-08-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our road trip to Saskatoon, Jasper and Banff.

Mount Robson, BC:
The highest peak in BC.

Canola fields of Saskatchewan:
Most of the landscape in Saskatchewan in bathed in yellow with Canola in summer.

Angel Glacier at Mt. Edith Cavell, Jasper:
(if you can zoom in you can see a person near the cave at the center of the picture, 1/3rd from bottom!)

Lake Louise, Banff:
It wasn't the best day to be there as the sun played hide 'n' seek but I could snap some decent pictures.

Athabasca Glacier at The Columbia Icefields:
You can see tourists approaching the mouth of the glacier by foot but we took the buggy where it takes you to a point of turnaround where the glacier is 1000 ft deep. Sad to see the glacier receding with time but it is majestic and a not to be missed sight.

Harvest after vacation...

2010-08-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

oWe came back after our 14 day road trip to Saskatoon and visited Jasper and Banff. The Rocky mountains have one of the most stunning views your could ever see. I'll post some pictures in the next post. We had to prune our over grown tomato plants. The cabbages were infested with aphids and I had to pull them out. We harvested potatoes, lettuce, garlic and beans. We are just waiting for the tomatoes and egg plants to be harvested.

Cauliflower

2010-07-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

After waiting patiently I harvested the Cauliflower yesterday. Out of the 3 flowers only two were 'okay' - the other one was partly feasted on by snails! It didn't turn out like the one's you see in the grocery stores white in color and compact.

Garlic & Potatoes

2010-07-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while I was laying the drip pipeline a little potato plant was in the way. More curious to see the potato development than work around it, I pulled out the potato plant and dug out four medium sized Red Russet Potatoes.

Today evening I harvested the Red Russian Garlic (from West Coast Seeds) which we planted last fall. I am more than satisfied with the harvest. Except for a few bulbs most of them were more than 3" in diameter. My wife braided them together and hung it in the patio to air dry it. For this fall we plan to prepare a bed beside the fence and sow more of them.

There's more Garlic which I plan to harvest in a couple of weeks. I think this fall we might try a few more varieties of Garlic and more in quantity.

Broccoli

2010-07-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

We have been having some good warm weather of late but last week's heat wave was good for the tomatoes and eggplants but not for the Broccoli. It bolted and shot up flowers. However this was only with one plant which is the senior most. The others are doing well and I hope they don't bolt!

Saturday harvest

2010-07-17T23:28:00.000-07:00

Here's today's harvest - Zucchini and Red Onions. The Onions didn't grow well as I hoped for but it wasn't bad as I planted them in the bed near the fence which wasn't fertile. This was my first attempt but the next time I plan to sow them in the raised beds along with other vegetables. The Zucchini is doing good and there are more growing!

More Tomato beds

2010-07-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

It's been some time I updated this blog. Two weeks back I transplanted more tomato plants in the new raised beds beside the garden shed. Also I added a drip irrigation line to irrigate them with a soaker hose and covered with straw as mulch. The varieties are Beefsteak and Sasha's pride. Today morning when I checked the bed I noticed more tomato saplings growing! This was from the compost which I added and this compost had tomato seeds from the kitchen waste which we throw it in the composter. There are seven tomato plants growing in the 20 gallon pails and I moved them near this bed today. I am still connecting the pipes to drip irrigate them and I am hoping to finish it tomorrow. This is to take care of them when we are gone on a two week holiday in the last week of July.

Broccoli & Zucchini

2010-07-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome GoodEarth! Thanks for following our blog.
This year we have had the longest spring with cool weather extending into July. This is unusual with temperatures at six degrees C below normal. This is good for the brassicaceae we are growing but I suspect the hot weather vegetables like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants may be delay fruit setting. We just checked the Broccoli & Zucchini starting to form. The other day I hand pollinated the Zucchini so I expect it to form into a full sized Zucchini. Also we transplanted more tomatoes in two new raised beds beds which I'll post later in the day.

Tomatoes, Cauliflowers & Green Chillies

2010-06-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

While working in the yard my wife spotted the first Tomatoes, Cauliflowers & Green Chillies. Too glad to see them grow!

Zucchini update

2010-06-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I mentioned about the Vine borer/Stem borer on the Zucchini which wrapped with Aluminum foil and also treated with dilute milk for the powdery mildew. It seems to be working although the Yellow Zucchini didn't survive. A good lesson learned on the Zucchini problem!

Transplants, Onions,...

2010-06-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

It's almost two weeks since I updated this blog. My wife and I were busy painting our main floor and in between did some gardening work. We had installed a drip irrigation system in front of the house where we have the flower beds. Today we partially finished the drip irrigation system for the vegetable raised beds in the back yard. Although we were in the garden weeding, we transplanted eggplants and more tomatoes. We have been continuously harvesting lettuce and I sowed more in a planter box on the patio. The Red Onions which we planted along the fence is doing fairly well. There was a bush earlier in this place which we got rid of. The soil is not good enough for them but it was a gamble to grow them here. In the fall I plan to plant onions in the raised beds.

We transplanted the Eggplants in between the Garlic. Since we'll be able to harvest Garlic next month the Eggplants would have more room to grow. The Garlic Scapes are ready to be picked but I have figure out to use it in a dish.

Blueberries

2010-06-11T00:28:00.000-07:00

Oblivious to us, with all the attention on the veggies and the raised beds, there were lots of blooms on the Blueberries a few weeks back. I see Blueberries forming and they should ripen in a couple of weeks. Although they are not many - just 7 of them in 5 gallon buckets - we use them in Yogurt and Cereal and also they attract bees which aid in pollination.

Vine borer on Zucchini

2010-06-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

Alabama Gardener - Welcome and thanks for checking out our blog!
I tried to check what could be done on the almost eaten up stem on the Zucchini. I was late in detecting this and sprayed Neem Oil yesterday to deter the stem borer/vine borer. I slit open the stem a little but couldn't find the borer. I checked online that foil could work; so wrapped Aluminum foil around the stem of the affected Zucchini and also the undamaged one. Also covered one of the branches with soil to propagate roots and I'll see how it goes.

There's some powdery mildew on one of the plants. I have to give it a shower with diluted milk which I'll do it when it stops raining (hopefully by tomorrow).

More Seed Sowing,...

2010-06-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

Since our raised beds would run out of space we thought of growing in the beds along the fence. Although it isn't a dedicated veggie gardening space ( I had already planted a few of Pole Beans, Scarlett Runner Beans, Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, and Cabbages) we thought of making the best use of space. Also a few Tomatoes and Peppers were planted in front of the house in between flowering plants. It could be a little late for some of these but I decided to give it a shot; so sowed more seeds of - Bottle gourd, Ridge gourd, Sponge gourd, Zucchini, Malabar Spinach, Red Stemmed Gongura (Hibiscus sabdariffa), Cucumber, Butterhead Lettuce and Argula.

Tomatoes, Brassicaceae, Garlic

2010-06-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

I was busy with work and also we have been waiting for the temperatures to warm up. We transplanted tomatoes, in the raised beds and planted marigolds in between them. The cabbages and cauliflowers are growing inspite being eaten by the snails and slugs. Every time there was a shower I went out to pick the snails & slugs which can eat all the leaves in one night. I had more cabbage saplings so I planted in front of the house between other taller plants. This would shield them from the direct sunlight. The Red Russian Garlic which we planted in the fall is doing great. I have to check the bulb formation - maybe I'll pull up one sometime next week as the shoots are over two feet high.

Today we harvested Romaine Lettuce which was outgrowing the planter box. There's more coming up in the second planter box and also in the raised beds but I plan to sow more for a continuous supply.

Zucchini

2010-05-31T22:57:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks was busy at work but managed to transplant a few plants on the weekend. The Yellow Zucchini which was being tended indoors flowered. Since pollination was not possible with the only flower I left it to wilt but transplanted it over the weekend. Also transplanted a few Tomatoes and gourds. Next weekend would be more transplants as the weather improves to over 20 degrees.

Lettuce and Mint

2010-05-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

I am still waiting to transplant the tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and the gourds. The weather is still cool for these heat loving plants. I was busy throughout the week and today noticed the larger leaves of the lettuce in the planter box on the patio. So is the mint which has over 4" leaves! This the first time we had mint with such large leaves. Probably this was due to the compost tea and fish fertilizer-that's my straight forward interpretation.

Meanwhile the butternut squash has sprouted. Two of the four seedlings died. This was due to exposure to cold as I kept them on the patio on a sunny day but it was the cold wind which did the damage.

Copper collars for cabbage

2010-05-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

Looks like it is getting warm but some mild weather is expected the next week. Today weeded the raised beds, sowed some pole beans and runner beans along the fence. Checked the cabbages and broccoli. Although I didn't find and snails or slugs I thought of adding a barrier. Since the copper mesh is expensive I thought of getting a few strips of copper sheet from the guy who soldered our copper bird bath. He gave away a 2" strip of copper of about 3' length. I made a collar and inserted around the cabbage plants.

Butternut squash

2010-05-11T23:15:00.000-07:00

Seems like four of them would be too much for us. Probably we might transplant only the healthiest two or maybe all of them - space permitting and later give away excess squashes! As with any plant of the squash family they need supports to take the vertical route. So shoved in some wooden coffee stirrers into the peat pots.

Bottlegourd/Doodhi/Lauki/Sorakaya,..

2010-05-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today was day five for the Bottlegourd seedling. In the last two days it grew four inches! Of the four seeds I sowed, only one germinated. Yesterday sowed a few more. I'll see how many grow well and will transplant the healthiest one.

Composting

2010-05-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Manjula - thanks for checking my blog!

We have been composting in these bins. We bought one from Home Depot which is a simple arrangement but the problem is with turning it over. It was hard to turn the compost over with a pitch fork and I decided to make one. So I brought a few pallets, stripped them and nailed them to make this open bin. We use this for grass clippings, stems, leaves and other waste from the yard.

Since the HD composter was full and we needed one more, we decided to make a composter which is easy to turn it over. After some good research I found one here. I found the plastic barrel on craigslist, followed the simple steps with some modifications for the height and made one. It works great! The best part is the internal aeration system. I didn't take any pictures when I was building it! Anyways, I hope this link describes all that is needed.

Apart from grass clippings from the lawn (we sometimes leave it), green & brown leaves we add the kitchen scraps to it which we collect in a little bucket on the counter. Most of the fruit peelings, vegetable trimmings, egg shells (of late we have been saving it for the tomatoes), tea leaves, egg cartons,... all go into the composter. Usually we trim into small pieces so it composts faster.

If it starts smelling (if it's on the counter too long) or to avoid any smell we throw in a piece of charcoal.

Waiting to transplant

2010-05-05T22:40:00.000-07:00

The wait for the weather to improve is agonizing. Meanwhile the seedlings have sprouted and standing tall indoors and in the seedling tray greenhouse. Most of them are Zucchini, Indian Cucumber(Keera), English Cucumber, Peppers, Egg plants & Tomatoes. The Ridge Gourd has sprouted and so is the Round Yellow Cucumber (Dosakaya). I'd wait till it gets warm enough. I have been feeding diluted organic fish fertilizer and they seem to be lapping it up!

Snails feeding on my broccoli,...

2010-05-04T23:50:00.000-07:00

Since I sowed the Brassicaceae- Cabbage, Cauliflower & Broccoli I have been checking them for snails & slugs. After last year's experience I bought Copper wire netting from Lee Valley and nailed it to the sides of the bed. Since it is expensive I tried this for only one bed. I nailed some left over wire to a side of the second bed where I sowed Broccoli. The plan was to thin them after they grew a few inches high. It's here the leaves have been eaten.

Found the culprits - two snails. I crushed some egg shells, which I have been saving for my Tomato transplants, and spread around the seedlings & covered with milk cans. Will check to see if it's effective.
Later in the evening went to Rona & Home Depot to find diatomaceous earth. Seems they have no clue what it is and I had to explain the purpose. Both stores assured they'd procure this product. Probably I might have to check at a local nursery if the egg shells doesn't work.

More herbs,...

2010-05-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some more herbs which we are growing - Bay leaf

Since Bay leaf prefers well drained and moist soil I transplanted it in a ceramic pot adding a few pebbles at the bottom, home made compost, peat moss & garden soil. I inserted a watering bulb to keep the soil moist. Here's some good information which I found at http://theherbgardener.blogspot.com/ .

The Mint was gifted to us last year from a family friend who are avid gardeners themselves. Since Mint spreads wild on ground it was planted in a planter box. During the winter we didn't bother to take care of it as it is cold hardy and in spring a little tilling of the soil and a few teaspoons of blood meal did wonders to the plant. Since blood meal contains Nitrogen it helps in building green foliage.

Lastly we have Oregano and Thyme both of which are cold hardy. Since Thyme prefers alkaline soil I mixed garden soil, peat moss and wood ash (from the fire place).

Curry Leaf plant

2010-05-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

Herbs are an important ingredient in any dish. The curry leaf (Murraya Koenigii) plays an important role in East Indian cooking. Since my wife wanted to have a curry leaf plant at home I tried searching for it online. I was amazed to see some long discussions on it, especially here http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/seed/msg0715445929720.html. It was difficult to get a sapling in Canada but after a few searches it was possible to find one at flora exotica in Montreal. It is a couple of weeks that the plant arrived in good shape. It is doing well except for a little brown patch on a leaf. I suspect it is due to inadequate sunlight as the plant was indoors due to cold weather. It usually thrives in warm weather.The plant was transplanted in a bigger ceramic pot in well drained soil with a good amount of organic matter. I added few servings of organic fish fertilizer and it seems to be doing good as can be seen with growth of new leaves. However I'll keep my fingers crossed till warm weather picks up.

Garlic

2010-04-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

We set Red Russian Organic Garlic cloves (from West Coast Seeds) last October in the bed which we had harvested bell peppers earlier. Instead of adding compost we dug up the bed, added kitchen waste (no greasy or meaty products) and shredded brown cardboard (which the earthworms love) and covered it with top soil topping it off with coffee grounds from Starbucks. The waste soon would be rich compost in a few months. Seems the Garlic is doing well with the stalks more than a foot tall! After I spotted yellowing of some of the leaves I thought this was due to lack of nutrients and added organic fish emulsion diluted in water. It's doing better now. In between Spinach was sowed. The spinach seedlings have sprouted but they are less than an inch high today!

Transplants,...

2010-04-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

Last week I transplanted Beefsteak tomatoes (in umbrella greenhouses in the foreground), bell peppers and hot peppers (in milk can greenhouses). Also transplanted cauliflowers which I bought from a local nursery in Abbotsford. In the umbrella greenhouse in the background is an Indian Cucumber (Keera) which grew real fast after sowing in a peat pellet. So I had no option but to transplant it with protection. These days the temperature is hovering around 10 deg C which is a bit cooler for this time of the year.

more raised beds

2010-04-15T12:50:00.001-07:00

Last year we had four raised beds. We added four more this year. We built them in the fall and added kitchen scraps, brown cardboard, shredded paper at the bottom. This would turn into a great 'on site' compost! The hay was added a couple of weeks back to retain the heat and also to prevent weeds. Red Russian Garlic which was planted last fall is doing well. A few days back Pink Cabbage and Broccoli were sown and the milk jugs seen in the picture act as mini greenhouses for them