Coyote Eating Apples

“Coyotes don’t eat apples!” That’s the usually response when we tell anyone about the coyote eating apples in our small orchard. Finally, after a year of fruitless stalking, pure serendipity landed us in the right place at the right time to photograph the coyote eating our windfall apples.

Over a year ago the Farmer told me about “a dog eating apples” in our orchard. We have had gourmet dogs who picked asparagus, or strawberries, but never apples. Later, we stumbled across an article in a respected Nature magazine where the author mentioned that coyotes are omnivorous and will regularly be seen eating apples in the fall and winter.

After that initial encounter, the hunt was on! Last winter the Farmer would catch fleeting glimpses of our quarry, but never enough to clearly identify it as dog, wolf or coyote. I personally never saw a thing, except the dog-like tracks and signs of intense digging in the snow. Every fresh snowfall brought new tracks but never a clear sign of the animal.

About a week ago, we noticed fresh tracks around the apple trees. The tracks circled our trees, reminiscent of some animal on a scouting expedition. The coyote was back and by pure chance we managed to photograph him through the hazy breezeway windows at the back of the house.

The day these photographs were taken was sunny and cold with temperatures of -13 °C (8.6 ºF). The coyote quickly and warily crunched on a couple of apples, and then less than a minute later, trotted off and disappeared behind the barn. Yes, it is a coyote and coyotes eat apples.

Annie Rose

P.S. Our coyote is not the only one who eats fruit. Here’s an interesting video called Coyotes don't climb trees, of a coyote actually climbing a tree to access the fruit.

Growing Your Own Christmas Trees

“It looks very bare” said my aunt when she first viewed our four acre property. Though we had a surplus of out-buildings, trees were practically non-existent. A few scrawny 20 foot cedars grew to the west of the house and they kept company with four sad lonely maple trees. Besides seven out-buildings and the house, all we really had were fields of grass.

That first spring, with the help of a close friend, the three of us planted 600 spindly little 6 inch trees. We planted the trees about 4 to 6 feet apart as we’d been assured that most would not survive the year. The following year we planted another 400 evergreen seedlings on the east and west sides of the property as wind buffers.

Now 12 years later, we can tell you with confidence that the predications on tree survival were wrong. Most of the trees survived. There is now a small forest in the northeast corner of our property, which is flanked by small evergreens to the east and to the west.

For the last couple of years now we have been cutting our evergreens and have used them as Christmas trees and decorations. Throughout the year, we trim the trees using our hedge trimmer. Trimming them makes the trees bushier and more compact. Its also a way to keep the trees down to a useable size, as trimming tends to cut back on the tree height. Outside the trees always seem to look small and narrow. Once we bring our chosen tree in, it is usually much wider and taller than it seemed to be outdoors. Branches for the stairwell and mantel are cut from low hanging pine branches. You cannot beat the price of using your own trees. Our trees are also super fresh; as they’re only cut on the day we plan to use them. Better yet, we can regularly replant little seedlings, insuring an almost free supply of trees for years to come.

Happy New Year to one and all!

Annie Rose

The Display Vegetable Garden in October

The first hard frost finally arrived in mid-October. That frost finished the growing season for the Black Beauty zucchini, the beans, the tomatoes and the squash vines. So sad to see the last remnants of the once-flourishing garden shrivelled beyond all recognition. With the bountiful harvest of squash, zucchini, tomatoes and beans we’ve been too busy freezing and processing to mourn the loss of our vegetable garden.

Successful Vegetables

The Anna Hubbard squash were the stars of the October vegetable garden. Seeds were sown directly into the soil at the end of May and produced four vigorous plants. A couple of weeks ago, under threat of a hard frost, we harvested 13 very fine looking squash. Each squash weighted in at about 3 to 5 lbs. The Anna Hubbard squash have a very dense flesh. Once baked in the oven for 30-40 minutes the squash becomes soft enough for eating or baking. This vegetable is really delicious when slathered with maple syrup.

Surprisingly the Black Beauty Zucchini continued to producing new zucchini despite the light frosts. The zucchini leaves showed damage but kept right on producing until the first really heavy frost in the second week of October. We harvested about a dozen zucchinis and stuck them in the crisper of our refrigerator. Black Beauty seems to be a very good “keeper” as the larger zucchini are still nice and firm though picked 2 weeks ago.

Carrots continue getting fatter and fatter. They are still producing nice looking and tasty carrots. The October frosts haven’t damaged the carrots at all, though we did cover them twice so far. At this time of year, we usually see some slug damage, but curiously, we haven’t seen any chewed up carrots this year.

Ironically, the parsley, which finally started sprouting in late August, is now lush, green and delicious. Parsley is frost-resistant, so it’s a great fall crop that will hopefully keep producing until November. Chard is still growing though very slowly. Since only one of the four chard plants bolted we still have a decent amount of fresh chard to add to our soups and salads.

October has turned out to be a lovely month with today’s temperatures reaching a unexpected high of 68 degrees (or 19 Celsius) . The color of the leaves was just magnificent this year providing this wobright colorful backdrop to the farm. Frosts have been light enough to allow the hardier vegetables to continue growing, so we’re still eating those fresh salads we’ve become addicted to. That won’t continue for long, so we’ll enjoy every minute while it lasts.

Happy Gardening!
Annie Rose

Footnote: Our Nikon D40 suffered “irreparable water damage” according to Nikon which apparently can happen simply by taking the camera into a “humid environment”. The pictures this month were taken with the Google Smart Phone, the Nexus HTC. It’s a wonderful phone, camera, personal organizer, compass, GPS, toy and in a pinch – like now – a real life-saver.

The Display Vegetable Garden in August

August was a perfect blend of heat and rain. The vegetable garden has flourished into a tangled jungle. The regular rains made it totally unnecessary to lug heavy hoses around. Since the garden was really overgrown, the weeds never had a chance. Basically all we do now is harvest our bounty of crops.

Successful Vegetables

Our plan to pick only the larger carrots and leave the little ones has worked out fabulously. The remaining carrots are now all a decent size. We pick a couple every day, and there still seem to be a good number of remaining carrots.
My Black Beauty zucchini have gone bionic. The main zucchini plant simply dominates the other two plants, but has steadily produced 5 to 6 zucchini each and every week. I’m very pleased with Black Beauty as even the larger zucchinis tend to be nice and tender .

The beans now have lovely big, fat, tasty and juicy pods. We love the mottled beige and brown color of the pods in salads. Because of the overcrowding the bean plants never reached their expected height, but with this years bounty, it hardly matters.

The first crop of lettuce has been purged from the garden. For our second crop we had planted only Romaine lettuce in early July which has done surprisingly well in the heat.

Vegetables with Issues

The second crop of parsley barely came up, probably due to a combination of too much shade, too much competition and the evil slugs. Lettuce has all bolted now, expect the latest crop of Romaine.

Happy Gardening

Annie Rose

The Display Vegetable Garden in July

What a difference a month has made. The 12 x 12 foot display garden is now producing quite nicely and has begun to look like a bit of a jungle. July has continued to be delightfully warm, with just-in-time rain showers. Though it’s probably a great exercise for me, not having to pull around those 100 foot hoses has been such a relief

Successful Vegetables
The couple of remaining radishes inter-planted among the carrots have now gone to seed to provide next year’s crop. The carrots have graduated to “baby carrot” size. The carrots are still pretty closely planted, but I regularly thin them and add the baby carrots to my salads.

The snow peas stand about 3 feet tall now, rapidly outgrowing their initial supports. The snow pea pods are a lovely yellow, and provide nice color in salads. The pods on shelling peas are starting to get nice and fat, and should be ready for picking any day now.

Zucchini plants do not seem to like transplanting. The untouched Black Beauty Zucchini is doing very well with 3 small fruits, whereas the transplanted zucchini has yet to bloom. The third zucchini, planted from old seed, looks like it’s picked up a powdery mildew problem and will have to be pulled. No beans, cucumbers or squash yet, but lots of leaves, flowers and hints of things to come.

The lettuce is fabulous. The three lettuce types chosen were brilliant and we’ve eaten salads every day since the middle of June. Surprisingly the Grand Rapids lettuce has retained its great taste though it’s just starting to bolt. The Iceberg lettuce still looks and tastes like a leaf lettuce and shows no inclination of bolting. The Romaine lettuce is now just starting to “close” into that lovely core of lettuce. We expect the Romaine lettuce to reach its prime in another week or so.

Vegetables with Issues

It’s tough being green. We lost round one of the tatsoi versus flea beetle battle. Beetles: one – gardener: zero. We’ve brewed up a batch of garlic/hot pepper spray and will let the beetles have it. We are going to try surrounding the new plants with coffee grounds as well, to see if this makes any difference.

Replanting the peanuts was in vain. Some critter dug up all my freshly planted seeds and ate the whole lot. We give up – no peanuts this year.

July has been just lovely, sunny and warm – a great year for the garden and one to remember for years to come.

Happy Gardening to you all.

Annie Rose

Related posts:

The Display Garden in June
The Display Garden in August

What’s Up : Spring Flowers in the May Garden

With the mild winter up here in Ottawa, Ontario, it seems that most of our plants have survived this year. The current dry spell is a bit of a challenge to new growth. Seedlings, with their shallow root systems, are really struggling. Here in the valley, it keeps looking like rain, but at the end of the day our accumulation is less than 1/8 inch of water over the last week. Time to connect the hoses and start watering, me thinks.

One of my favorite flowers, the Virginia Bluebell, is now out in all its glory. Most spring flowers tend to be yellow, which contrasts beautifully with the blue of these flowers. We split the main plant apart last fall. Because of the mild winter, the new Bluebell plants have really taken off. I’m just fascinated with how the flowers start off as a delicate pink, and then change to a delightful shade of blue as they mature. I’ve seen this transformation a thousand times, and it still captivates me every spring.

A plant that never ceases to amaze me, Corydalis Noblilis, is now in full bloom. With delicate stems,

fragile foliage and delightful yellow flowers, speckled with black, this plant is one of the first bloomers every spring. This delicate plant is a lady of iron, pushing through layers of leaves that would choke and stifle lesser plants (and hopefully weeds). We acquired the moist packed seeds from Gardens North about 8 years ago, and managed to get three plants to grow. Now, with an abundance of seeds and wet summers, I have another dozen baby plants pushing up all over my shade garden. The lovely golden blossoms brighten up a normally dark corner of the yard.
Sadly, the cherry bushes are just about finished blooming. Delicate pink flowers fill our two bushes late each April. The larger of the two bushes is now about 6 feet or two meters high and provides a nice landscape impact when fully in bloom. The branches make lovely and elegant cut-flowers that I usually place in a tall dark colored vase. The pink flowers also work well with my Ikebana arrangements by providing structure for delicate white daffodils.

The shade is keeping the flowers blooming a bit longer than usual. The daffodils and tulips are both up, and I’ll cover those in the next article.

Happy Spring to you all!
Annie Rose

Grow Your Vegetable Garden Inside

Choose Appropriate Vegetables

Different plants have different requirements and with indoor gardens the major restrictions tend to be available space and available light. Salad greens like lettuce, miniature cabbages, swiss chard, and spinach do well indoors.

Check out this cool video:

The size of your pots will determine your choice of plant, choose containers big enough for the plants full growth. Small root crops such as radishes and onions are great choices, and there are even small root carrots available. Herbs are a popular choice because they are compact and do not need much space. Miniature varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant can also thrive inside when given the proper care.

Find the Perfect Spot for Growing

Lighting is an important consideration for any indoor vegetable garden. A bright south-facing window is your best bet, but any spot that gets a minimum of 5 hours of continuous light can be used. In addition to natural light, you can set up supplemental artificial lighting if you are really serious about growing healthy plants.

Traffic flow is also another important factor to think about. Vegetables in general bruise easily so you want to choose fairly quiet spots so minimize accidental human contact. If you have small children or pets at home, you may want to locate your garden well out of their reach. It is also important to think about proximity to your gardening tools and easy clean-up if things get messy.

Optimize the Microclimate

Plants grow best in high humidity and moderate temperatures. Indoor gardens usually suffer from low humidity. Container grown plants tend to dry out faster and will require more frequent watering. However, it is important not to let the plants get waterlogged as this may cause root rot. Make sure that there is good drainage by raising pots with a pan of gravel underneath. Evaporation from these dishes also improves humidity so they serve a dual purpose.

Another great way to optimize your microclimate, is to group your plants together. You can mix your vegetables with more decorative houseplants to create groupings that are not only beautiful but also functional. Temperature is actually easier to control inside the house, as it is easy to provide more shade by simply drawing the curtains. Just make sure plants are protected from drafts.

Get Good Potting Soil

Potting soil for indoor gardens should drain well and contain the nutrients required to support growth and development. You can purchase premixed potting soil that already incorporates the proper amount of fertilizer. If you prefer to go organic, you can get organic potting mixes from your local garden store. Add nutrients with caution, as fertilizer buildup is quite common in containers.

Planting vegetable gardens indoors can be incredibly rewarding, so do not be afraid to give it a try. You may even end up growing enough produce to give to family and friends.

 

Tips For Taking Care of Your Indoor Plants

Overwatering kills most houseplants. Looks can be deceptive, so to see if your soil is dry enough to water, try the finger test. Insert your index finger up to the first joint into the soil. If the soil is damp, don’t water it.

2. Feeding

Foliage plants usually have high nitrogen needs, while flowering plants, K2O is needed. Slow release fertilizers can be mixed with the compost. However, certain plants like cacti and orchids need special fertilizer. Feed plants during their most active growth period.

3. Lighting

Plants like Sanseveria and Aspidistra require no sun. They can be placed away from a window. Spider plants need semi-shade. You can put plants like these near a window that does or does not get sunlight. Check the label to see what your plant needs.

4. Temperature

Houseplants can survive in cool or warm temperatures, but drastic fluctuations of temperature may not be good for them. One thing that most plants cannot survive is gas heating. If you have a plant that likes warm conditions, don’t put it near an air conditioner in the summer.

5. Humidity

Some houseplants require a humid environment. One tip to maximize humidity is to put the pot inside a larger pot and fill in the gaps with stones or compost to keep in the moisture. Grouping plants together often creates a microclimate that they will benefit from. If you want, you can spray them with water once or twice a day depending on the temperature.

6. Re-potting

Some plants require re-potting for optimum growth but there are others that resent having their roots disturbed. Or their roots system may be small enough that they don’t require re-potting. One way to check if your plant needs re-potting is to turn it upside down. Tap the pot to release the plant and check its roots. If roots are all you see, then re-pot. Sometimes the roots will come out of the pot. You should either cut them off or re-pot the plant.

You just need to have a little care for your plants and in turn, you’ll reap the benefits. Indoor plants not only add to the beauty of your décor, but also give much pleasure to the indoor gardener.

The Basics of Planting Vegetable Gardens

First of all soil preparation is very important. This is one of the most basic things that any new gardener will have to learn. Whether you choose a spot in your backyard or start a vegetable garden in plant boxes, soil preparation plays an important role in whether your vegetable garden will survive or not. There are three types of soil that you need to be familiar with; sand, clay and loam. Sandy soil provides good drainage but dries out quickly. Clay soil retains water but turns rock hard when it dries out. Loam is a mixture of sand and clay particles and is the prefered combination for a good vegetable garden.

When preparing the soil for your vegetable garden, dig up the soil and break up the lumps. Take out the rocks, roots, and weeds while you’re at it. Loam should contain about 40% sand, and 20% clay, to provide ideal growing conditions and good drainage. One good way to test whether the composition of your soil is good is by scooping out a handful and forming a ball with it. The soil should hold the shape of a ball without too much difficulty. If the soil cannot hold the shape, you might have too much sand in the mixture. If the soil holds the shape but does not crumble easily when you poke it, it might have too much clay in it which you need to balance out with a little sand.

Now that you have finished cultivating the soil, select the variety of vegetable to grow. Keep in mind that some vegetables don’t grow well when you plant them too close to certain types of other vegetables. Potatoes, for example, shouldn’t be planted too close to squash or tomatoes because it inhibits their growth. They can be planted in the same garden, just don’t plant them beside each other.

After you have decided on the kind of vegetables you want and planted them you’ll have to learn about how to water them properly. Vegetables need to be watered consistently. When planting vegetable gardens in a big space, you might want to consider using a soaker hose. A soaker hose has many holes along its body that waters your garden by letting the water seep through its holes.

Planting vegetable gardens require manual labor and a lot of patience. Make sure your first vegetable garden is not too big in your first year as it can get out of contol in a hurry. Very important, you will have to keep a real good contol of the weeds to give your plants the best chance of survival.
 

Planning a Vegetable Garden

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