Welcome to Flowery Prose! Growing words about gardening, writing, and outdoor pursuits in Alberta, Canada.
More seedlings are popping up in my indoor garden! Can you guess what this little one is? (Hint: you can eat it. Edited to add: I’ve made this too difficult! Here are a couple more clues: It’s a common culinary herb. And I mention it in a post I made on December 27, 2020. I hope this helps!) 🙂
Share some of the happenings in your garden (indoors or out!) What plants are you growing right now?
More lettuce is happening in my kitchen! This heirloom variety is ‘Red Deer Tongue’.
The social media anxiety about seed shortages prompted me to order my seed potatoes yesterday from a local grower. It appears that the shortages are not completely unfounded; the supplier was already out of several cultivars. When you think that we don’t typically plant potatoes until May in this area, it’s incredible to see that many “sold out” labels this early in the year. The suppliers must be absolutely thrilled that their products are so high in demand. It’s truly exciting to see this surge in interest in gardening.
Have you placed any seed orders for spring planting? Or are you able to save most of your seed from your own garden?
Yesterday’s post about sowing seeds in a small space (indoor) garden is an excellent lead-in to my post today … in which I reveal the covers of the two latest books in The Guides for the Prairie Gardener series! (It’s almost as if I had planned it!) 😉 Janet Melrose and I spent the bulk of this year working hard on these two titles, which we are thrilled to add to the lineup consisting of The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Vegetables and The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Pests and Diseases. Once again, our publisher TouchWood Editions and our incredible editorial team have been crafting these books into something amazing and we’re super proud of the results!
Without further ado, here is The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Seeds!
And The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Small Spaces!
The books are set for release in early March. Of course, we’ll have a lot more details to share with you over the next few months, but we couldn’t wait any longer for you to feast your eyes on the covers! (A massive shout-out to Tree Abraham, our illustrator and designer, for the stellar work on these!). We are giddy with excitement!
We’re in a winter wonderland right now! Almost 30 centimetres (12 inches) of snow fell on December 21st and 22nd here in Calgary and we all spent a few days digging ourselves out (then we had a bit more snow the night before last, just to add some extra frosting to an already thoroughly iced cake). Once again, I am grateful that I walk to work, and I am keenly looking forward to the snowshoeing treks this beautiful white fluffy stuff promises …
Now that winter has officially arrived, it’s time to start some lettuce! Not for outdoor transplant, because our spring doesn’t truly show up until June sometime (I exaggerate, but just barely), and I direct sow lettuce anyway, but for something to grow in the apartment. I recently upgraded my indoor growing system from the cobbled-together elements I’ve been using. Both set-ups are comprised of the same types of simple equipment – a grow light and a frame to put containers in – but the new one has aesthetic value and an ease of use that the old one didn’t quite possess (as well as a proper reservoir for watering, with a capillary mat. Not necessary, but absolutely delightful to have). Accordingly, ‘Flashy Trout Back’ is happening in my kitchen right now:
I don’t have room for any sort of big indoor gardening initiative (my little set-up lives on top of my refrigerator!), but I’ll grow some baby lettuce and some basil for a few months, then start some onion and tomato seeds for spring planting. If you live in a small space, don’t let the lack of room deter you from growing some food – especially during the cold winter months, when things seem pretty bleak and lonely. Small is something, and it can give you the chance to be inspired and creative and nurturing, which are some of the reasons why we garden in the first place. Plus – there’s the whole eating part. My mouth is watering just looking at those little lettuce seedlings. Aren’t they the most lovely things?
Welcome to the fifth issue of The Guides for the Prairie Gardener Newsletter! Janet Melrose and I are keeping you up-to-date on everything related to our book series Guides for the Prairie Gardener, letting you know about what other Prairie gardening-related projects we’re working on, and throwing in some gardening trivia and newsy tidbits, just for fun! If you like what you see, please follow us on our social media and hit the subscribe button on Flowery Prose.
Book News and Events
Janet’s chat on CBC Radio’s Daybreak
On August 15, Janet did an amazing interview with Russell Bowers on CBC Radio’s Daybreak programme, talking about our books in the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series and what to watch out for in the garden in late summer! Take a listen to the interview here!
Request for reviews!
Do you have a copy of either of (or both of!) our books, The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Vegetables and The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Pests and Diseases? If you do, can you please help us out and take a couple of minutes to give us a rating and review on Amazon.ca/Amazon.com? Don’t worry about leaving a lengthy review…two or three words is honestly all Amazon requires. If you’re on GoodReads, leaving a rating over there would be wonderful, as well! Thank you so much! We are so grateful for your support and encouragement and we hope you are finding the books informative, useful, and fun!
In Our Gardens
Sheryl:
Well, the first frost has already happened here in Calgary and so I’ve been watching the forecast like a hawk and covering the tomatoes as required. I swear, my tomatoes have been covered nearly the whole growing season – first, to protect them against the threat of multiple hailstorms, and now this! I have already harvested a pleasantly sizeable yield of ripe and ready currant tomatoes and my husband and I have been enjoying them in salads and I’ve been taking them to work just to snack on. I’m still waiting on my precious ‘Black Krim’ tomatoes, though…they are still green and I’m waiting on a bit of a blush to happen. If you pick them when they are TOO green, they won’t ripen indoors…you have to reach that special threshold.
I have picked quite a few lovely zucchinis over the past several weeks and they’ve been cooked up in various ways in my kitchen. Did you know that you can shred zucchini, drain the excess water from it, then pack it into bags and freeze it for later use? It’s a good solution if you’re swimming in summer squash! I saw a great tip in the Alberta Gardening group on Facebook last week from a gardener who goes one step further and freezes the shredded zucchini after packing it into the cups of a muffin tin. When it’s ready, she just snaps out the iced zuke pops, bags them individually, and puts them back in the freezer. Nice and tidy and ready for that chocolate zucchini cake at a moment’s notice!
And I’ve been saving seeds…calendula, dill, nasturtiums, beans, and sweet peas so far. I can’t stress enough the importance of labelling the plants that you want to save seed from so that you can easily locate them later on when they’ve stopped blooming. This year, I just tucked in some old wooden skewers I had kicking around and fashioned a tag with a piece of coloured tape. I wrote the colour of the flowers on the tape – for example: a calendula with DBL (double flowers) with BRN CENT (brown centres). I planted several types of calendula this year and wanted to differentiate the doubles from the singles, and identify the colours. I also had several colours of nasturtiums, so I tagged them to remind myself where the red ones were in the sea of cream-coloured ones. You’ll be sure to come up with a labelling system of your own – just remember to do it in advance, as it makes seed saving much easier. I always think I am going to remember the exact location of everything but I never do….
If you’re planning to save seed from your sweet peas, I’ve done up a little video with some tips – check it out:
And I’m talking about saving dill seed here:
Floral Miscellany
Sheryl:
Did you know…that hawthorn berries are not really berries at all? They are pomes. (Apples and pears are pomes, too). Hawthorn berries are commonly called “haws”; rather reminiscent of the ‘’hips” from roses. (And, in fact, hawthorns are related to both apples and roses – they’re in the same family). Right now, you’ll be seeing the bright red fruit on hawthorn trees growing on the prairies – they look a bit like tiny ornamental crabapples or indeed, like oversized rose hips. I’ve been experimenting with making jelly from hawthorn berries…stay tuned for a blog post containing the recipe!
Get Social with Us!
Sheryl:
Janet:
Facebook: calgaryscottagegardener
Instagram: calgaryscottagegardener
‘Til later! ♥Sheryl and Janet
My onion harvest was grossly truncated by theft this year – aside from an earlier picking of smaller bulbs, the remainder of my onions (somewhere between 20 and 30 of them) were stolen from one of my community garden beds just over a week ago. The garden coordinator said that theft had been a huge issue this year (perhaps understandably, given our current global health crisis and high unemployment rates) and she was taking measures to try to mitigate the problem. Installing a trail cam to try to catch night-time prowlers was one first step, and she was considering new signage. I have had some minor theft from my beds in previous years (a few carrots there, an onion or garlic bulb or two), but this was the first time that an entire crop had been taken. I am always happy to help out anyone in need, so hopefully the thieves enjoyed some good meals from the plants. It made me chuckle a little when I noticed that they left my beets and kohlrabi alone – it appears the culprits had a refined palate and only wanted onions!
Our community garden actually has several beds in the garden that have been set aside and planted by students from one of the schools in the area for anyone in the community (not garden members) to harvest whenever they want to, but our garden coordinator noted that these aren’t the beds that are mysteriously losing produce in the middle of the night.
If you’re on Facebook, the Calgary Horticultural Society held a Facebook Live session earlier in the year to discuss theft and vandalism in community gardens – you can view the archived video here. (It’s public, so you don’t have to be a member of the page to watch it). This sort of thing is fairly common in community gardens and you just have to be aware of it and try not to get too upset when you’re at the receiving end. Gardeners do love to share, after all…I just kind of wish that the thieves would have left me a couple of onions. 🙂
Nasturtiums are always tucked into my vegetable garden. They are bountiful seed producers, and although I give away plenty, I still always have huge envelopes stuffed with seeds…so I’m a bit free with the sowing. I love how they bloom abundantly and beautifully right up until frost takes them.
You can eat the green seeds, if you’re so inclined – they are fabulous pickled if you’re into their unique peppery taste. The flowers have the same flavour, albeit milder, and are often used in green salads. This year, I was keen on making an infused vinegar with them, along the lines of the one I make from chive flowers.
All you need are two ingredients and a clean, sterilized jar with a tightly fitting lid and you’re good to go. Wash the nasturtium blossoms to get rid of all the insects and soil and other assorted things we don’t want to eat, then pack them tightly into a mason jar. Add white wine vinegar (my recommendation) or plain white vinegar and seal the jar. Place it in a cool, dark cupboard for about two weeks, then strain the flowers from the vinegar and discard them. Label the vinegar and keep it in the fridge. Aim to use it up within two to three months.
Do you grow nasturtiums in your garden? Do you eat them?
I’m a bit late in putting this up as I filmed it two weeks ago, but here is a short plant profile on ‘Candyland Red’ currant tomatoes. They’re a bit of a novelty, but I really love the size of the fruit for use in fresh green salads – they’re perfect!
I am delighted to announce that I have another guest on the blog! If you’ve been following this series on Flowery Prose, you’ll know that I’ve been posing a few questions to Prairie gardeners, inquiring about their experiences gardening in such a unique, challenging climate. I want to find out what they love about gardening in Alberta, what they find difficult, and what inspires them about growing. Whether you live on the Canadian Prairies or you’re much further afield, I’m sure you’ll find ideas and solutions to consider for your own gardening endeavours.
Please allow me to introduce Krista Green!
Where do you garden in Alberta?
My husband, our 3 children and I live on 4 acres south of Calgary near Black Diamond. We were able to move out of town to this small piece of land 4 years ago. Having a big backyard with lots of space to garden has been so amazing! I am loving it so much!
As a child I grew up in the country where we always had large vegetable gardens. Helping out in the garden and learning to weed was a part of my childhood. I lived in Vernon, B.C. until I was 14 (such an easier growing climate!) and really fell in love with gardening when I was around 10. That year I planted some pumpkin seeds, starting them indoors. I remember transplanting them into our garden there. They ended up a huge pumpkin patch growing so many pumpkins! I was hooked. I want our children to have this same opportunity to experience gardening, growing from seed and its reward.
What challenges do you think we face as gardeners in this province?
As Albertan gardeners we face so many challenges! Working within a very short growing season, cool weather, chinooks that can be so hard on perennial plants, deer and rabbits eating our plants, along with alkaline soil and water in much of the province to name a few.
I am always so encouraged when I am able to talk with other Albertan gardeners who grow successful vegetables, herbs and fruit and who understand these challenges.
It was for this reason I decided to start my blog with gardening tips specifically for our climate. This May I began my blog Zone 3 Vegetable Gardening with the goal of encouraging and helping other gardeners who desire to grow their own food in the cooler gardening zones. When looking for gardening tips and help, almost all of it seemed to come out of the warmer zones and it was difficult to know how to adapt for our Alberta climate. I have so many ideas and plans that I want to share with you to make your gardening more fun, successful and organized! Subcribe to my blog and be the first to find out what these are!
How can we overcome those challenges?
As an Albertan gardener I find it necessary to start things like flowers, tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers indoors early in the spring to offset our short growing season. I direct seed many vegetables such as carrots, peas, green onions, spinach, potatoes, beets and radishes at the end of April or beginning of May. This means these will be covered in snow a few times but I have found I have stronger plants that mature earlier by doing this. If I do lose some of the plants to the cold I just re-plant, but most years everything pulls through. I wait until after the May long weekend to plant the remainder of my vegetables such as beans and even into June to transplant my sensitive plants like my cucumber and squash. Some years my last frost is around mid June so I need to keep an eye out. I often end up covering parts of my garden during frost warnings in late May and early June. To read more about how I protect my plants from frost you can read my article Protecting Your Plants During Frost.
What inspires you about gardening?
Gardening feeds my soul. In the garden I feel at peace, I pray, I hear the joyful songs of the birds, I notice and am thankful for the buzzing of the bee. The breeze feels as though it blows life’s worries away. In the garden life is simple. Seeing the miracle of the growth of those tiny seeds I planted never ceases to amaze me. Feeding my family healthy and organic produce from my efforts is so satisfying! The smells, the sounds, the feels, the sights of gardening, they all inspire me! It is difficult to put into words how it fills me up and grounds me.
What types of plants are you most passionate about growing?
Definitely vegetables! And herbs. And fruit. Well I guess you could say anything you can eat. I enjoy growing flowers as well but personally don’t find them nearly as satisfying to grow. I am passionate about creating a lifestyle less dependent on others. I love growing our own food and learning all about sustainabillity! We have twenty-two chickens and plans to do fencing for sheep and possibly goats one day soon.
What gardening (or gardening-related) projects do you have on the go this year?
My biggest gardening related project this year has been my blog and my Instagram account. Computers are not my thing at all so there is a huge learning curve there! We also redid our deer fence this spring (I say we but that was really all my husband who did that). We switched from mesh netting to wire as the netting was torn. My husband built me a raspberry bed as well this spring. I hope to add another each year until I have a large raspberry patch. I would like to lay down cardboard this fall and top with a thick layer of compost to create a new perennial flower bed for next year as well as a large in ground potato garden. I am also hoping to experiment with growing herbs and veggies indoors under grow lights through the winter. We will see how that goes!
Did you set out with any gardening goals in mind for the growing season?
Some of my goals this season were to help my children plant and maintain their own little vegetable gardens. Having them home more due to COVID has allowed them more time to work alongside me in the garden, which I love! Another goal was growing brassicas. Something fairly new to me. I harvested some small broccoli and my first small cauliflower and am still waiting on the cabbage. Trying a few new things, experimenting and learning are always goals for every growing season.
If so, have you been able to accomplish them?
I would say yes. My children each have a beautiful veggie patch and are enjoying eating carrots, lettuce and peas from them daily. My eldest is getting better at recognizing weeds. (I’m thinking she doesn’t realize the weeding chores that will likely go along with this skill!) I tried growing okra for the first time. That was a big fail. I’m going to try again next year but in the greenhouse.
What are your plans for your garden for the future?
I hope to continue to improve my soil each year. I have very alkaline soil and that is always a battle for me. I want to build a cover for at least one of my raised garden beds to grow my brassicas under. To expand my garden! Can you ever have enough gardening space?
Thank you so much for this opportunity to do an interview with you Sheryl! You inspire and encourage me in my own gardening experience. I hope I will do the same for others.
Krista, it’s been a huge pleasure to interview you for Flowery Prose! Thank you so much for your insight and ideas – I know you’ve offered a ton of wisdom and support to many gardeners through your blog (Zone 3 Vegetable Gardening) and social media and I wish you continued success!
First harvest of beans today! These are ‘Dragon Tongue’, a popular, easy-to-grow heirloom bush bean from the Netherlands. Gotta love those purple streaks – so pretty! I highly recommend this cultivar for prairie gardens and beyond.
What are your favourite beans to grow?
