Well after an incredibly busy fall which brought many unexpected things outside of gardening, I’m finally getting back to the blog. I’ve yet to tally up the final numbers for everything, but we did really well on the Tomatoes with over 200lbs! There was lots of squash – zucchini, pumpkins, and spaghetti squash – totaled, these came in at over 100 pounds. I spent many days with the pressure canner putting away the tomatoes for the winter into various sauces.
Next month, after my next major exam at school, I’ll have some time to sit down and review what cultivars we’ll be using next season and will get those published with a full summary of what we learned this year.
We’ll be running the Camrose plot again next year and adding a second larger plot in Mundare. The challenges will be new at the Mundare plot since there is only well water at the site and what can be captured in rain barrels. We are going to experiment with a few different technologies to solve this issue and give our plants as much water as they need without tapping the well.
Efficiency and automation technology will be the name of the game since both Camrose and Mundare are an hour outside of Edmonton in different directions with an hour between them too. So getting to each garden more than twice per week will be hard at times. We’ll be using the landscape fabric again for sure to eliminate weeds, and building proper coldframes and vented, solar, mini-hothouses for much of the crops. we have alot of ideas going down on paper we need to sit down and work into a concrete plan of action.
I’m sure we’ll have a good number of weekends of building the hardware offsite at home during the winter since I want to be ready weeks before the last frost to get everything installed and warming the soil so we can have a much earlier start. If I want to grow things that need 120 days to mature, we really need to get the soil warmed in April!
I’ll be starting all the plants I can in the house under lights again and understand better the timings of when to start them so they are the right age to plant out. Everything should be easier this season! and I’ve so learned my lesson about hardening off the plants properly!
Currently I have several pepper plants growing in the house under the lights just to see how they do in a full cycle. One has a 3 inch long pepper on it and another plant is just starting to put out a pepper!
Well that’s it for now. A full report with all the missing pictures from the season end to come soon!
I just ran across your blog today – what a fabulous job on documenting everything! I must admit I didn’t read through everything as there was way to much information for one sitting. I can’t wait until you post the pictures of all the fruits of your labor! I’ll be sure to watch what happens in 2008.