A new flower I started from seed this year in my greenhouse is blooming. It is Alaska Salmon Nasturtium from Westcoast seeds (see above.) I have it in pots and root pouches all over my yard.
Thankfully I can retreat to my greenhouse when it is hot or hailing outside ( photo below.) Notice my new lettuce starts for planting outside this week. My zucchini is getting big and blooming behind me now as well.
So Excited And Then....
I am writing about Herbs and I am so excited because the publisher is a magazine distributed in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. And this means I can share the gardening good news far and wide - or at least to all the readers of IMPACT magazine.
Fantastic news. I receive the print magazine in the mail and I am on the masthead! And then... nothing.
No article and no mention of the page the article should be on. After some investigation I find out this article did not run in the Vancouver version and so it was only printed in Calgary and Toronto.
If you want more information on herbs but you do not live in Calgary or Toronto (where you can easily pick up the magazine free complete with my article until the end of June) then check out the online version HERE. It is available wherever internet is available! Haha. Just when you think you made it big you hit a speed bump!
PPS Check out my Susanna Cauliflower in the greenhouse this week (see below)! This crop is working out just fine - no speed bumps.
Weeds Are Wonderful (that is me practising gratitude)
The weeds are looking bad right now and if they survive another week each weed will become a million seedlings. So today is the day I need to pull out my tools and tackle this before the neighbours start complaining. But weeding is a bit like playing the lotto.
You have to keep at it if you want to win big. And speaking of lottos, I was checking my ticket the other day when I should have been weeding and I heard the machine start blinging. It is a sound I have never heard before. “You are a winner” the cashier said with a smile.... READ MORE HERE.
Weeds in Rocks.... Are Not Wonderful
A new client asks me to design a garden with rock. What she really wants to know is if I will design a "low maintenance garden" using gravel. So I take a photo of a neighbour's gravel garden, just two years old and already sprouting weeds, and I send it to her.
The newly landscaped yard is filled with weeds that are impossible to get out with any tool because they grab on tight to the landscape fabric beneath them and never let go. And by the way this yard has a full-time gardener who works to remove weeds every week.
So the answer is no. I can't design a low-maintenance garden with rock. I can only design a gravel-free low maintenance garden. Sorry about that. I want your garden maintenance to be easy, and not just in the first year.
Garden less than perfect...?
“ONE INDICATOR THAT SOIL IS GOING OUT OF BALANCE COMES WHEN SPECIES THAT ONCE GREW WELL NO LONGER DO” Steve Solomon, the intelligent gardener.
You mentioned a method to keep birds away from peas using straw. Sometimes straw is hard for urban people to find, and like me, when I had a vegetable garden, people are short on cash. A great aunt of mine years ago used sewing thread on the rows.
I am 71 years old so you can imagine how old this method is. She would leave the sticks at the ends of the rows after planting and string black thread along the row between the sticks. The string would remain until the plants were strong enough to handle birds. I used this method for many years and found it worked like a charm and was very inexpensive...the birds get confused when they try to pick out the seeds or steal the new plants and leave the garden alone. I always thought this was such a good idea. I thought I would share this method if you had not heard of it before.
Ruth
Hail in June on my back patio (above)
And what we really wanted was rain!
Farm To School- Teachers are Winners
I attended the National Farm to School Conference in May in Victoria and I found out something every teacher probably already knows. If you are a teacher wanting to explore gardening in your class you can get specialized training during a PD day.
What you may not know is that I can be your expert for this special training day. So let's talk! Turn the simple discussion about growing potatoes into a science experiment, an art class or a math class. Plus add some hands-on fun to grade 3 or grade 10. Let's plan a PD day in your district and really start growing!
I encourage folks to raise a potato crop in root bags, save and clean garden seed, or try their hand at growing micro-greens. So many ideas and so happy to share. Contact me via my web page or simply reply to this email to ask your questions about Teacher training. PS Ask about special deals for teachers wanting to buy my books.
Books and Bags to Give Away - Five Days Only
Big GIVEAWAY!!! I'm so excited to team up with Root Pouch for a giveaway! For those who don't know, they offer the best sustainable growing containers made from recycled water bottles plus natural fibres. Fun Fact! Did you know that Root Pouch has helped eliminate over 26.5 million water bottles from landfills and oceans?
2 lucky winners (US and Canada) will win a treasure trove of gardening goodness including root pouches and my newly released Three Year Gardener's Gratitude Journal to brighten your summer.
To Enter:
1) Follow me on instagram @donna_balzer or on facebook @noguffgardener
2) Follow @rootpouchon either instagram or facebook
3) Like the picture
4) Tag a friend in the comment who might appreciate the giveaway too
5) For every additional friend tagged in a new comment thread you will get an extra entry!
We will announce the lucky winners on June 18, 2019
Pass on the gardening good news
Thanks for reading and sharing this newsletter. I like to create these once a month to keep the gardening good news flowing.
As usual, Helping gardener's grow and beginner's blossom....
Donna
Do you need help from the "NO GUFF" Gardener?
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