Sunday, July 11, 2010

Calgary and Alberta Gardening Blogs

This reference page will include some other gardening blogs I have encountered and occasionally revisit. The geographic range will extend to garden locations primarily in Alberta, but may also include some from Saskatchewan (the homeland) since the climate is somewhat similar.

I should mention that Cold Climate Gardening has an excellent gardening blog directory covering much of North America. This directory includes some good blog summaries, organized alphabetically by state or province. I will be much more brief.

Calgary Gardening Blogs

Teresa's Garden Blog

Balcony Gardener

Red Deer Gardening Blogs

Alberta Home Gardening

Edmonton Gardening Blogs

The Far North Garden
Gardening and edible landscaping in cold climates.

Gardening with Latitude
Reviving a forgotten garden at the 53rd Parallel.

Gardening Zone 3b
An exploration of naturalistic gardening. Gardening for the appreciation and encouragement of nature's diversity.

The Home Bug Garden
A rumination on backyard biodiversity.

Kevin Kossowan
From the: Cellar, Wild, Garden, Local Farm

Saskatchewan Gardening Blogs

A Prairie Journal In Saskatchewan

If I have left someone out it is not because I do not enjoy your blog, but rather because time limits me from keeping up with too many. Please do not take offense!

This page will be updated as I encounter new local gardening blogs.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

June Garden Update

Most plants, especially those planted directly in the garden this spring, are a week or two behind due to some cool wet weather from end of May to mid-June. But with some recent hot weather, some are picking up the pace.

Unknown variety of Potatoes (above). This is what they looked like before planted (below).

They were received from friends of family in a small town in Saskatchewan who have been growing them for years. They have no scab and looked healthy, so thought we'd give them a try.

The R158 Amaranth seems to be growing very slow most likely due to poor soil conditions. In hindsight I should have dug out some of the heavy clay and planted the seedlings in a planting soil mix within the clay. I did not spread much compost this year due to short supply (it's amazing how much the volume reduces as it digests!). This section of garden was recently overturned sod that has a high clay content and likely low soil nutrients.

The Temuco Quinoa is also growing slow, most likely due to poor soil conditions.

The amaranth and quinoa seeds are from the last Seedy Saturday exchange table. Interestly, they were left at the table by a local garden blogger, whom I asked last year about where to obtain some amaranth and quinoa seeds! There are some excellent posts on Teresa's blog on how to harvest the amaranth and quinoa seeds I plan to reference.

Approximately from bottom to top of above photo: volunteer Chervil forest, Peas, Beans, volunteer Dill, experimental bird scaring device (some seedlings have been disappearing), Potatoes...

... Dill, volunteer Carrot, Potatoes...

... Brussels Sprouts, volunteer Spinach, Utrecht Blue Wheat, Quinoa (left of wheat)...

Delphinium (left), volunteer Oregano and Strawberries (behind).

Volunteer Chervil thriving where even the dandelions hardly survive.

Volunteer Chervil "forest". Chervil has a pleasant licorice flavour.