Welcome to my Channel. I garden in the Canadian prairies. I enjoy growing vegetables in raised beds for this. I also have a many flower beds and pots throughout my yard. I enjoy growing for the wildlife, including a front yard that I try to fill with mostly native plants and a specific area for pollinator plants in my backyard. This channel is about how I grow things in my climate. I am not an expert but have been gardening and growing since I was a child. My growing zone is 3B and I try to push that to Zone 4. We have fluctuations from -35C (-37F) to 35C (95F) in an average growing season. Those are extremes with our average lows being -15C (5F) and average highs being 20C (68F). My province is known for having the most hours of sunshine of any other in the country. My Average last frost date is May 24 and my average first frost date is September 12. A growing season of about 110 days.
I have a 2 year old Goodland and 1 year old Battleford. They got damaged by June 30th hail storm. I will cover next year. Love my choice in apple trees
Most years they seem to really move into my yard in mid August. I don’t know, but I assume they come in from the surrounding fields when harvest begins. It also coincides with an uptick in aphid activity. So they may just be following the food source. I love seeing them in every part of my yard! They congregate around rocks on cool nights.
Howdy, Prairie Plantgirl! Beautiful apples!👍 I never thought about growing apples for my folks.👩🏾🌾 I'm growing two trees from seeds I found sprouting in apples this year. I'm just growing them for fun little trees to keep in pots.😃 Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Maybe I'll purchase a couple of apple trees someday.🍎💕
That’s too bad. I thought I might have poor pollination because of the very cool weather we had when the trees were in flower. We must have had just enough warmth for the pollinators to be out here. I know areas around my city were not as lucky.
The trees do seem to be producing a lot of apples this year! I think this is a great variety. It took me a while to know when they were ready and really understand their flavour.
I find bigger onions tend to store longer with most varieties. I prefer a more medium sized onion to use in recipes. It is always fun to harvest large vegetables but they are not always the most practical to use.
Howdy, Prairie Plantgirl!👋 I can imagine the scent of your onions and celery! 😃 Thanksgiving here!😃 Beautiful onions and celery!👍 Thanks for another fun time with you in your great garden.😃💕
@PrairiePlantgirl Awww!😃 Your apples look great! You and your garden really are inspiring!👍 We just came through what should be the last heatwave. Heat indexes got up to 112.😰 This morning, I prepared my spot for fall sugar snap peas. This is the best time of year to grow them in our area. We get hot so quickly in the spring.
Did you notice any fungus on the onions? Especially seeing how your season was wet. My shallots always seem to struggle with some sort of issue where the bulbs start to get slimmy while I'm letting them dry in my shed.
I like Ailsa Craig onions. They don't keep past 6 months and are no good for turning to onion powder. So make sure you get them eaten before they sprout or rot.
In first half of July, I started harvesting very nice yellow bell peppers, before I went on a 2-week vacation. My reliable neighbour was in charge of watering my garden. The weather was quite rainy while we were gone, so he didn't need to do much watering. When we got back, none of the remaining peppers ever turned from green to yellow. Instead, they turned into soft mush that started falling, (going splat) on to the ground. Only the stem and the seed head stayed attached to the plant. I picked some of the green ones, which looked perfectly healthy on the outside, but when I cut them in half, I discovered dark, porous, patches of rot and creamy white wiggly maggots which are about 1 cm long and 2 mm fat. Has that ever happened to YOUR peppers? How do you prevent this infestation?
I have never experienced this. It sounds like an issue of too much water. Too much water can cause a soft rot of the peppers. My guess is that enabled something to lay eggs inside or on the peppers that developed into the pests you found.
More than once I have emptied my large green bin to retrieve my pruners. I also tend to leave them behind in whatever garden bed I was working in when interrupted. I keep meaning to paint the handles a bright colour. Recently I looked for them high and low only to find that I had hung them up where they belong in the garden shed! I take mine apart a couple of times a year to clean, lubricate, and sharpen. For that I have a sharpening stone I put in my drill for serious sharpening, but I also keep a simple file in the shed for quick touch ups.
If folks have different needs, ARS from Japan make a fruit harvesting very compact snip. The blades do not have pointed ends but have a slightly curved blade. I know this sounds very unusual as your choices have straight blades and pointed ends. I have found young helpers can dead head flowers or harvest things like peas or beans using them without "yanking" the vines and doing little collateral damage. Sorry for the l o n g note...💚😅
Love compost I do late season in a simple place on the garden soil and after about 6 inches of garden waste or leaves or grass clippings I simply toss on enough garden soil to help break it down adding layers until it's a mess then turning into a stack and adding some water and covering it up at times.My method take about till planting time usually dressing seedlings at planting time. If we're seeing worms we are doing something right is my thoughts. Feeding the soil then selecting the seeds/ seedlings and the soil feeds what I need it's a great system. I don't see mice ( can't say they have never been around.But just grass clippings can attract rodents.. I'm truly enjoying my Thourburg Terracotta in my salad and I usually just adding them without other dressings but not my wife's favorite but mine. We got Mrs.Wages brand ketchup mixture and will be making some with the Thourburg Terracotta and also with the Black Krim tomatoes.I believe the store ketchup will probably have more sugar and many ingredients so we'll expect to enjoy homemade ketchup as we do like or salsa better than the Mexican restaurants that was a very pleasant surprise. Thanks
I’ve been harvesting a few small cucumbers every day and fermenting them into pickles. I just keep adding them to a big jar. I’m getting lots of tomatoes now, and tomorrow I’m going to make tomato soup for the first time. I’m harvesting so many beans I have to give them away to friends and neighbours. I need to remember to stagger the planting next year. Good beets and carrots this year, parsnips as well. Everything started up a couple of weeks early this year but they are finishing a couple of weeks early as well. Nights are starting to feel cool.
Believe me, I know how much work that is! I made a new screen just like that and screened my compost about 2 weeks ago to top dress my empty garlic beds. Then I planted some quick-growing Asian vegetables to get a crop before I resow my garlic. I also cleaned out my cold frame, top dressed, and planted similar stuff there , including carrots and winter radish. The unfinished stuff gets tossed back in and I start over. I do that about twice a year. My temp never exceeds 100°F.
I find that the paper coffee filters and any type of tea bags take a long time do break down. I have to make myself a sifter like you have. I already have the wire mesh. All I need is to get some wood for the frame. I am waiting to see how the maple leaves will look like this Fall. Last year they were covered with powdery mildew so I didn't use them in my compost. When they look normal, I vacuum them with my leaf blower/vacuum which shreds them into little pieces which decompose pretty fast.
I don’t have much issue with coffee filters, but tea bags take a long time to break down. Those leaf vacuums that mulch are great for collecting leaves for compost. I used to go through all the extra bags of leaves that I’d get from people and run them through my leaf vacuum. It is a dusty job, and I’ve stopped going through that extra step. I still use it for my own leaves from my yard.
@@PrairiePlantgirl You never know what may be lurking in that bag or a garbage can of neighbour's leaves. Couple years ago, I accidently vacuumed up a piece of gravel, which made a hole through the barrel of my leaf blower/vacuum near the top. I had to use the duct tape and wrap it around the barrel a few times. So far, it's helping.
Yes, I’ve had a few bits of gravel and large mulch go through. I haven’t had damage yet. A few times I was sure something blew through the bag - but never found a hole!
Wow! Great job Prairie Plantgirl!👍 It's so hot here that I get hot compost from my trashcan method. I don't turn or stir it. And when I dig some out it's warm and beautifully broken down. We were at 103 today with a heat index of 108. Tomorrow we are supposed to hit 107. Great compost making weather.😄 Thanks for encouraging me to make my own compost...it really is fun and rewarding.👩🏾🌾💕
thanks for the video! I am newly getting into gardening, and just started a compost bin. Would a shredder like this be good for shredding up all the stuff that I pull out of my garden at the end of the season? Tomato plants , spent pepper plants, stuff like that?
It will work well for woodier stems like sunflowers. Dried stalks of plants works fine. Anything wet or very green tends to gum it up. It doesn’t have a large opening for sending leaves through.
PPG, that’s some beautiful compost that you have created. I have the same compost bin that you are storing your finished compost in, I use it to do my composting. I have a small yard her in Southern California so it takes a long time to fill it completely. Happy Gardening 🧑🌾
Your hard work with your seed starting, has paid off. Your yard is looking very colorful. You have some nice healthy Lilies growing. You haven't been plagued with the Red Lily Beetle yet ? I pulled out all of my Lilies last week. They had destroyed so many plants and I couldn’t keep up with them anymore. So heartbreaking. I hope they pass you by. It looks like you will have a good potato harvest. Happy gardening
@PrairiePlantgirl I just spotted them on mine last year. I tried to keep up with them, but they can reproduce faster than a cabbage worm ! If you go to grab one..they are quick to fall on the ground. They turn upside down so they are the same color the dirt and you can't find them. Sneaky. Watch your lilies for ANY holes on the leaves. They lay their eggs under the leaves, covered in their own p**p. So gross 😝 After that..have a great day !
Just last week talked to 2 neighbors and one had picked 1 tomato and the other still waiting. I asked if they were raised their own seedlings and they hadn't . I've had tomatoes since June 29 for Black Krim so yeah getting tomatoes a month ahead of the mass of people who don't raise their own seedlings. I'm keeping with my raising seedlings. Had good cucumbers and a new batch about 2 ft tall growing good. Expect to see your good results you know your gardening. Got my first canolope today should eat it Monday hopefully it's Should you prune the melons? Thanks for helping.
You can prune melons. I’ve been waiting to see that I have watermelons actually developing, then I’ll prune back to each melon. The cantaloupe don’t have a lot of growth in the plants so I’m leaving it all to support the fruit growth.
I pulled a ton of caterpillars of the nasturtiums this year, it's been many years since I grew them, but they filled a pot and spread 2 foot around to create a joyous display. I took seed, they will feature in the garden next year.
Howdy, Prairie Plantgirl!👋 Sweet garden tour.👍 It is lovely to see your summer crops have come through after the cold start.😃 Yummy looking onions!😋 Your potted plant combinations and cut flowerbeds are beautiful.👍 Yummy looking cherries!😋 It's always a joy to be invited into your enchanting garden!😃 I gave the basil a haircut yesterday and made two batches of pesto. I'm harvesting okra and black-eyed peas daily.😋 Your peppers are great. I will be picking a few next week to make pickles for my eldest sister's 80th b-day party.🥳 I'm also going to pickle some okra. Continued happy gardening! 💕 Hopefully, y'all's forest fire will be out soon.
Okra and black eyed peas! I’ve thought about trying to grow both but have never added them to the garden plan. Maybe one year. Happy birthday to your sister!
Your apples and cherries are looking super! Our garden pretty much died in July when I wasn’t permitted to water anything outdoors and right at that time our area had 2 weeks of very high temperatures. I may get a few tomatoes,and oddly, my zucchini plant managed to survive and has some flowers. I’m going to replant a few fast growers like peas,lettuce,and spinach.🤔 I too had carrots go to seed this year that I planted in spring. I wonder if the weather has been so stressful for them that they just gave up.🤣 we live around calgary. Tons of smoke here as well.
That water ban would have been very damaging. It sounds like everything is back up and running now (water wise). Hopefully you can get some late crops going now.
Nice video. Im sittin on my porch having my morning cup of joe and just kind of seeing other peoples setup and production amounts. Its mid August in SE Louisiana so every day I'm out watering, sometime twice a day. I use buckets for a lot of my plants because the soil is clay and dont get the nutrients needed. Thanks again. Have a wonderful rest of the summer.
lovely bouquet. Yesterday I plucked some flowers and am trying to dry them, hanging and with silica. Will continue to dry more flowers, so I can play with them in the winter haha. Hoping for the best.
Why does everything and anything in the bug world go for the brassicas, is what I wanna know lol. I transplanted my fall brassicas earlier this month, and have netted them, but am wary of the aphids, which usually have a population boost in the late summer and early fall. I have a few kale and spring broccoli I've let grow and not netted so they can be a sacrificial crop. Hopefully that works, I've put in some time and $ investment for the fall garden so want to have some success!
We have the same issues and I’m Z5a. I use netting on brassicas but those aphids were a problem on Brussels this year. It was toward the end for the Brussels and never remember that happening before and probably because lady bugs couldn’t get at them. We try to protect from one bug and get others. I started cauliflower awhile ago for fall. Set them outside and something was eating the leaves. I normally don’t have slugs ever, but we’ve had a lot of rain this summer and suspect that was the problem. DE doesn’t work after it gets wet so that wouldn’t work with all this rain. I thought the leaves would grow back and don’t think that’s happening. Like you our growing season ends about the same and timing is everything. Having seedlings not pull through can put a kabash on planting. I had peas growing and something seems to eat most of them so I replanted-we will see. Lettuce is a tuff go unless I start seedlings inside and same issues you have with kohlrabi. Will probably need to use insecticidal soap to get things started. Good luck with fall crops.
Pests and weather do keep us gardeners on alert. There always seems to be something to try to work around or deal with. I hope you find success with your fall plantings.
Darn bugs. Aphids are some of the worst. They covered my Lupins this year with their nastiness. No choice but to cut them down. This time of year seems to attract all kinds of unwanted bugs. Good luck with your fall crops. Your brassica plants are HUGE !
Yes the August weather always seems to bring out the troublesome pests in the garden. I find cutting out large aphid infested plants very helpful. Some plants work well to just hose off. I felt like all the large, close spaced leaves on the brassicas might make the hose method less effective.
Howdy, Prairie Plantgirl!👋 I hope your new plants grow well and give y'all delish cauliflower.😋 Nice looking turnips!👍 It's probably the heatwave that allowed your aphid colonytoo grow so large. We have aphids throughout the hot summer in Central Texas.🙄 I use tape to remove them. Sometimes, I kill them with soapy water or insecticide soap. My fall popcorn is growing well.😃 I sowed a second round of sunflower seeds...for more fall blooms.🌻 The garden is looking good; however, I'm watering ever morning. It seems our cooler summer weather has passed...we are back to normal August temperatures. I enjoyed the cool break while it lasted.😃 Continued fun times!💕
I got ants in my compost bin, they built a lovely pyramid in there, so I dumped a double scoop of diatomaceous in there. They had tried to get in my refuse bin too, but I did the same there and they abandoned that idea. I've yet to check the compost bin to give it a turn because of the rain, I think there will be yet another pyramid to be honest, but I have more DE waiting to deal with it.
Just seconds ago I cut into one and it was the Worst Bitter taste and immediately spit it out. I picked them yesterday, well, they actually seem to be off the vine. I had just checked them days before and didn’t see any yellow and then all of a sudden several were detached. I’m baffled as to what went wrong. I’ve never had cantaloupe taste bitter before on normal sized varieties. It’s a bummer as they look great and smelled great, but oh so bitter.
Living Traditions Homestead posted a video about their aphid infestation over a month ago. They sprayed their plants with milk and it was hugely successful
Interesting. I’ve been spraying many of my crops with milk to help ward off powdery mildew. Maybe that process is pushing the aphids to crops not sprayed with milk. I could see the stickiness of milk being too much for aphids.
Good job starting fall crops! I always seem to procrastinate and run out of time (I'm in MB). 🤦♀️ My plan is to try to grow a cover crop where my potatoes are and do another round of sugar snap peas. We'll see! 😆🫣
