Organic Gardener Course - in Tofino and on-line!

This spring, Gaia College is again offering its Organic Master Gardener Course in Tofino. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in gardening. Much as I'd love to go, I don't think I can swing two weeks off work, so I was excited to find - after snooping around Gaia's website - that you can also take the course on-line. Hmmmm, perhaps the beginnings of my birthday/Christmas gift?

Plant Your Garlic

I am probably about a month late for this, but I finally got my garlic in the garden two days ago during a brief respite in the storms that have been pummelling the coast. (Thanks to Josie O. for the fabulous Red Russian garlic bulbs!) I had added some well-rotted compost to the bed a couple of weeks ago and gave it a little fluff with the pitchfork. Even though the bed is in one of the lowest parts of the yard (read, wettest), the 12" high raised bed meant the soil had good texture and wasn't waterlogged. As per Ms. O's instructions, I planted the cloves about 3" deep, 8" apart and then covered the bed in a nice mulch quilt of alder leaves. In the back of my mind I had this niggling thought about New Moon and planting garlic. I was just updating my journal and, smarty-pants me, I planted on the New Moon!

Not so fast smarty-pants. It turns out you should not, actually plant on the New Moon, rather in the lead up to the New Moon. I've no idea why and whether it really does matter. I'm just glad I got the bulbs in the ground at all. (Small victories you know.)

Google New Moon + garlic and you'll find lots of posts. Here's one.

Seed Savers

It seemed like an unlikely day to get stoked about my garden again (and to get my butt in gear to rejuvenate the blog), but I putzed about in the sleet and freezing rain for quite a long time today. I was excited to finally install a new composter — take that, Mr. Rat — and then raked leaves and mulched my garden, watered my lemons (yes, 3 of them, still happy in the greenhouse) and cut out a Provencal haystack's worth of blackberry and honeysuckle vines. I even unearthed some Jerusalem artichokes that volunteered in the garden. Now, what to do with those babies. More on that later.

For now, here's a crafty idea if you are a seed saver.