Editor's note: After many years of sharing her invaluable gardening information with readers of the Lake Cowichan Gazette, Mary Lowther informed us that this will be her final Dig In column. Over the years she has educated us all on everything from slug fighters and Naked Gardening Day to watering systems and recipes. We thank her (and her husband David) for her educational, funny, and interesting contributions and wish her well in her green thumb endeavours to come.
It is, as usual, all David’s fault.
He decided to enjoy an extended vacation in the Royal Jubilee cardiac unit, leaving his share of the garden work undone for months. It didn’t help that the “low glycemic” diet the hospital provided (dry toast, instant mashed potatoes and fruit juice) had him begging me to bring him his accustomed fresh picked veggies every day, so I couldn’t get my own work done either.
The good news is that he is recovering; the bad news is that all the neglected chores are still waiting. Routine tasks, such as path maintenance and weed control along the fence have been neglected long enough for the thistles to claim tenure, and the watering system I usually bring in over winter has frozen in places and needs a total refit.
David has recovered enough to finish the last of the 24 raised strawberry beds he enthusiastically began last September, but I still have to transplant the berries, lay out the soaker hoses and set the timers.
Of course, the potatoes need to be hilled by pulling up soil from the sides with a hoe to cover up stems (and some of the smaller leaves) to prevent the sun from turning them green and harmful. I once ate a green potato by accident and felt sick, so I’m now careful to cut off any green parts. Since potatoes grow out of their stems, not the roots, covering the stems with soil also encourages the growth of more potato tubers.
Warning: do not read the next sentence aloud.
I have purposely planted purple Peruvian potatoes. They may only be half the size of normal white varieties and more difficult to find in the dark ground come harvest time, but last year the wire worms completely ignored them. The purple potatoes are also more prolific than white ones but I still planted Norland potatoes (red skin, white inside) and sprinkled Baker’s “Bug and Thug” spray on them and look forward to new potatoes in a few weeks.
I have to make time to spray everything with compost tea again, including the peas and raspberries. Our early crop of asparagus is nearly finished and most of the spears have fronded out, but I think there’s one more picking to be had this week, and after that they’ll need weeding again.
Our nights haven’t been warm enough yet to transplant tomato seedlings so I’ve potted them into larger containers and got their bed ready for when the weather cooperates. By the time the peppers I seeded inside are ready to transplant, the tomatoes will have outgrown the Wall O’ Waters protection so I’ll transfer them to protect the peppers and leave them on all summer.
For some reason I’m late getting the carrots in, but they might still produce if I sow this week. I’m just going to make a small ditch along a bed I’ve spread manure and organic compost on and hand spray this every day until they sprout, at which time they’ll be watered by a soaker hose twice a week for half an hour. Corn seedlings and their accompanying vining acorn squash are ready to transplant so I hope varmints like raccoons can’t penetrate the squash to eat the cobs. Before planting the corn seedlings, I’ll lay down the soaker hoses, and after planting them I’ll cover the bed with Reemay to keep crows from pulling out the seedlings.
I feel tired just thinking about it all, but I think I may have discovered a substitute for sleep and I could use the Nobel Prize money to buy a self-driving tractor.
Does Roomba make a weed eater?
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.
