Potager Palaver ( crop rotation, hedges, storage)

This has somehow been the slowest week and yet has gone by in the blink of an eye. We had a few lovely, sunny moments in amongst all that thick fog when I would rush out with the doggies to sit out front gathering Vitamin D. Soaking up the moments, literally. 

Today is a rain day, just perfect for reading, lounging, poking through seed catalogues, tv watching, and garden planning....     

Here are some of the fun and informative things I found this week. 

Easy to follow crop rotation information for the home gardener ... Plan this year's crop rotation - The English Garden

Check this out. I found a  link to a Canadian seed company that sells a kit of popular veggie seeds for shorter, cooler growing seasons. They give you 9 packages of seeds, everything one mostly grows in their garden, for a really great price and the shipping price is great, too. Chatham Gardens Seeds . If these items are some of the ones on your list, might be worth your while to pick up the kit and then add a few other items from other sources. If you try them, let me know what you think of the germination and the product : ) 

This is a good article about how to store your veggies over winter. Now is the perfect time to browse through it while you are ordering and starting seeds. Here are some of my adjustments/thoughts about winter storage here on the island and in other temperate areas. 

Carrots - store in the ground, no need to harvest them till you need them. I never mulch mine but you certainly can if you have extra straw or leaves to toss on them. That will protect the very tippy tops in case we get a hard frost which may cause the top to go mushy when they thaw out. If you don't mulch, the rest of the carrot is just fine, just chop off the tip bit, so not to worry. It only matters if you are taking insta pics ; )

Onions - not all onions are storage onions. Stick to yellow or red onions if you want them to keep well in your pantry. Sweet onions (like Walla Walla) do not store for very long, nor do white ones. That said, I have some lovely white Snowball onions in my pantry that have outlasted the red ones! The key to good storage is curing them well, just as you do with your garlic.     

Potatoes - tend to keep really well in the garage/shed in a cardboard box. The box works well because it breathes and keeps things a bit humid/moist but allows the extra moisture to escape. 

Hubby tossed out all my lovely boxes while he was cleaning out his garage last fall. So, we had no place to store the spuds. We thought, hey, why not try the old cooler that we have sitting in the store room? So, we tossed all our spuds into the cooler... they were all mouldy and rotten about a month later. I was gutted. We grew one whole bed of storage potatoes and lost them all within just a matter of weeks. Lesson learned. They are fine in the unheated garage (as long as they do not freeze, of course) as long as they are in a box or bin that breathes and allows the moisture to escape. My auntie (in Finland) use to keep her potatoes in a wooden bin in the cow and sheep barn with just a bit of straw.  

A small blurb into citrus fruits that you can grow in your heated greenhouse or in a cool, bright room in the house. Citrus trees (orange, lemon, lime): Plant profile - The English Garden

Pic from Pinterest 

Why you should consider putting in a hedge... but not just a boring hedge! Check out the cool ideas ; ) 

 

Have a greenhouse and wondering what to grow in it? Here are some ideas.  19 Vegetables to Grow in a Greenhouse - Gardening Channel

On a personal note, thank you all for your caring words and prayers. Mom is holding her own in hospice, for the moment. Besides the cancer, she also has dementia so only sometimes knows who we (my brother and I) are, which adds to my sorrow. She knows that she knows us but not who we are, maybe assumes that we are caregivers? Anyway, all is okay-ish this week. My heart is so very heavy but she is still with us and has a few lucid moments now and again. That helps. 

Oh, and if you live close by and are annoyed by the puppy barking at the fence, we are working on it as it annoys us, as well. Berkeley just turned 7 months old yesterday, has hit that naughty teenager phase where she listens on occasion, when she wants to. She is not aggressive though, not to worry. She is just a noisy, naughty puppy wanting some attention... and to let you know that you are walking on her street, or in her park ; ) 

Till next time... I am summertime dreaming ~ Tanja