The bunny is back

My bunny is back and this morning he clipped a branch off a high-bush blueberry and enjoyed the leaves, this I don't mind just stay out of my vegetable garden and so far that is just what he has done, no garden damage yet.

We had a week of fairly wet weather, 2.5 inches of rain, so I wasn't able to do any compost tea watering this week. I'm pleased with the progress of most things in the garden, so far the only food from the garden has been parsley, lettuce and radish but several other crops are starting to grow nicely now and it won't be long before kale, chard ans zucchini will be ready to eat and preserve.

I took this little clip at Rugosa Rose Alpaca Farm earlier in the week.

Chianti, bred by David Austin, England 1967

Chianti, bred by David Austin, England 1967, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.

I took some footage of this rose in this weeks update but I just had to show you this photo too, it is really putting on a show right now.

As you can see from the video things are progressing along quite nicely in the vegetable garden. I've had a meal of garlic scapes and I'm using my own lettuce regularly now, some time this week I will pick the first crop of French Breakfast Radish I ate one in the garden this week but they weren't full size yet. The weather has improved much warmer now and not so much rain in the past week we only had a half inch of rain, but the forecast calls for showers for the next couple of days so that should give everything a good watering.

I'm still very pleased with the results that I'm getting with compost tea and of course it has the added bonus of being completely organic.

I planted a Plum tree today and in the process dug up a nest of earwigs so I suppose they will be the next curse to hit the garden, my neighbor has made traps which he say work so maybe I should build some too. He filled a 2 inch piece of black plastic pipe with drinking straws, the earwigs hide in there you tap it on the ground and they come out so you can spray them with soap and water which kills the.

After I had taken the video and posted it one of the Blue Podded Peas bloomed. It is every bite as nice as a sweet pea it just doesn't have the nice fragrance.

June 15, 2010 Weekly Square Foot Garden and Compost Tea update

Most of the garden has had two compost tea applications, the first one was kind of lite because the ground was already very wet after a weeks worth of rain. But the past week was rain free except for a shower last night so the second application was a real watering. I'm seeing good results within a few days of first using it plants that had been kind of yellow and limp were standing at attention and getting greener. The tomatoes in the greenhouse still aren't as green as the ones in the garden but there is a big improvement and they have grown several inches this week. I think there are a couple of factors at work here just a few days before the rain started I gave all of the established plants a feeding of a slow release organic fertilizer then the rain would have leached a lot of that into the soil and from what I've been able to read on the internet the compost tea both feeds the plant and enables it to better use nutrients that are already in the soil. So I guess it was lucky that I put the fertilizer on when I did. I've seen real improvement in beets, fennel, chard, lettuce and tomatoes.

My Ground Cherries in the grow bag greenhouse are in bloom, first time I've grown these and I have never tasted one so I'm kind of excited.

SFG up-date and Compost Tea

Things are progressing in the garden as well as could be expected after a week of wet weather. I've been seeing a lot on the internet about the benefits of the new method compost tea. In stead of just steeping a bag of compost in water as people have done for many years the new method says to add two tablespoons of molasses, a crushed 1000 milligram vitamin C tablet and some seaweed or fish emulsion to five gallons of water and to bubble air through this for 24 hours. The resulting tea is applied both to the foliage and soil in your garden and must be used immediately as it has a very short shelf life. From what I've been able to learn from the internet the enzymes, bacteria and fungi that develop in the tea are both a nutrient to the plant and help the plant to process the nutrients that are already in the soil.

Well I bought an aquarium air pump and some material to make compost tea bags from and I have made my first batch. I didn't add any seaweed or fish emulsion but the compost that I'm using is Seafood Compost. The first batch has been applied and the next batch is brewing. It is recommended that you reapply the tea every seven to ten days, with the size of my gardens that means I will likely always have a batch on the go, because by the time I finish one application it will be time to start over again.

Lakeland's Easy Scones

Lakeland's Easy Scones, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.

Lakeland's Easy Scones

ingredients

* 375g self-raising flour
* 1 tbsp caster sugar
* ¼ tsp salt
* 30g butter
* 180ml milk
* 125ml water

method

1. Prepare a flat baking sheet. Sift flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl, rub in butter with fingertips.
2. Using a spatula, stir in the milk and enough water to make a sticky dough.
3. Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead quickly and lightly until smooth.
4. Use hand to press dough out evenly to 2cm (¾") thickness, cut into 5cm (2") rounds. Gently knead scraps of dough together and repeat pressing and cutting out of dough. Place rounds on baking sheet, brush with a little extra milk, if desired. Bake in a very hot oven for about 15 minutes. (I baked mine at 450F for ten minutes)
Lakeland recipe link.

Look who visited my garden today

Square Foot Garden weekly update June 1, 2010

Now that the garden has been planted and most things are up and growing I've decided to do a weekly video update for the remainder of the summer. This will let anyone who is following the blog know what is happening and it will give me a video record to refer back to in future years.

My timing couldn't have been better this morning just as I was finishing this video it started to rain and has been raining all day.