A gardening friend just recently told me somewhat reproachfully that I am not keeping my blog updated. “Guilty as Charged!”
Not like I don’t have time. If everything I have thought about posting was here, the blog would be much fuller.
So..here goes.
It has been an very busy summer, with many “learning moments”
Working at Kingsbrae has been a good experience. It is serving to keep me humble, but more about that later. I have met many new, interesting people. The more people I meet, the more connections I discover back to BC, and even to Vancouver Island. I was chatting with a woman, who told me she has a place in Ladysmith, the next town south from Nanaimo. Turns out she knows, and has had visits from the young man who took over my job when I left the Parks Department. She even knew that the man he replaced had moved to New Brunswick…. Again, “Guilty as Charged”. Small World!!
I am finding that I am making more connections in Saint Andrews than in the Saint Stephen region though. Contacts with the various Garden Clubs helps moderate that.
Now, about Humble Pie. I find that, like many of the students who came to work at Parks, I have felt the need to challenge some of the practices at Kingsbrae, because they were not in my nearly 30-year long “Rule Book”. I have to reflect on the changes, sometimes almost daily. I realize that just as the students learned things “by the book” and didn’t understand why we didn’t do things that way, I have to review some practices of mine. Keeps life interesting, if nothing else.
The homestead is developing reasonably well. Spring was kind of chilly this year, and the blackflies came out in maddening force early on. This made planting a garden challenging here. Marie planted a number of plants in containers for her Straw Bale Gardens. These were planted out, with some losses to slugs. I planted seed for squashes and corn, later in the season, thinking in mynaivete that they would surely all grow anyway. Not so. We last many plants to a harsh frost in the first week in October. The pumpkins she planted did exceptionally well though. the Squashes I planted had a few good “fruit” but many died on the vine from the frost. The corn…well now, there was another big serving of Humble Pie. I set a lot of seeds, and planted the plants in different sections of the developing garden. I have NEVER had such an embarassing harvest of corn. Stunted, poorly developed, barely fit for the chickens. Clearly lacking a few things in the soil. Marie first asked me what army I was going to feed with the corn. I replied, that we could freeze what we didn’t eat right away and if it got too ripe, we could feed the chickens. HMM….
“There’s always next year”
We are working on plans for the 2012 season. I will be building a Sugar Shack down in the woods so we can cook off the Maple Syrup from the trees we have identified as tapping candidates for Spring.
I hope to have a functioning greenhouse soon so we can have a sun room to sit in on those sunny but bone-chilling winter days, and still get a tan. That will be fun. Then we can get a better start on the tender plants so they will have a jump on the weather, and get out sooner and give us more garden bounty!
Oh.. the German Butterball potatoes I mail ordered from Eagle Creek Seed Potato Farm did quite well for us. Delicious, and definitely worth ordering more for next season!
Marie has been crocheting sweaters for
Country Crafters Woolens in Saint Andrews since summer now. Very satisfying for her! She has started giving Crocheting Lessons at the Wool Emporium in Saint Stephen. That is going well for her. She gave a well-received talk on Herbs at the Social Gardeners Club in Saint Stephen yesterday (October 17). She has been invited for repeat performances at 2 other garden clubs. I am PROUD of her!
