First two weeks of May photo album

Row covers assist with germination and protecting young seedlings.

The micro-climate created beneath row cover keeps the soil warmer and holds in more moisture than bare earth.

A daffodil whose stem was snapped by the wind, now flowering on the kitchen table

Rhubarb plants growing in a composted manure and sand mixture, ready for the market.

Plants ready for transplanting, propagated at home.

Red currants are one of the first plants to open their leaves and flower this spring.

Weeding the orchard is quite an undertaking. Why did I plant so many bushes? Why do I continue planting more?

A new addition to the Eden's Rise team, a man and his machete!

The garden slowly takes shape with a few hours of labour per day. And we're barely keeping up.

A spot for the workers to rest with a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Chairs and 'table' needing replacements. Keeping an eye on the roadside during spring cleaning season for hand-me-downs.

Garlic as of first week of May

Biodiversity in small spaces. This two foot wide patch of dirt between the house and the driveway is capable of providing support to many passing insects.

Haskaps

The greenhouse completed, beds being worked.

Rhubarb, a delicious perennial.

Paradise or Junkyard- the fine line

I don’t know if there’s a word for people like me. People who hate to see things wasted. People who recycle, upcycle, shop in charity shops, garage sales, flea markets, and who start and participate in clothing exchanges. People who unashamedly stop to pick up stuff from a stranger’s garbage that’s been put out to the curb.

Cheap?

Environmentally conscious?

Thrifty?

The word hoarder definitely does not apply to me as I love giving things away as much as I love collecting them. It is the knowledge that something that was destined for the trash has been rescued and given another life with someone who can appreciate the item’s worth that makes me happy.

What people who aren’t addicted to re-using don’t realise, is that it is actually quite a lot of hard work. You may call me ‘cheap’ because I was not willing to go out and spend $200 on a new computer chair, but you could also call me ‘patient’ for instead making do until one in my neighbourhood was put out for the trash. You may call me a ‘garbage picker’ for rescuing the shitty chair covered in chalk and paint, but you could also call me a ‘hard worker’ for spending over two hours cleaning it until it was a beautiful black computer chair. And you could call me ‘clever’ for then selling that chair many months later when I had to move.

Old tyres aren't widely recycled, but at Eden's Rise
they can live a second life as flower containers.

The problem with using the word cheap is that I am willing to spend large chunks of money on things I love. But when it comes to material goods, I know how much stuff is circulating in my rich country and how likely it is that what I want is sitting in someone’s basement somewhere waiting to be given a second life. Re-painting an old beige dresser, rescuing picture frames, getting a whole new wardrobe from the unloved clothes of a friend, these bring me so much joy and pride.

Eden’s Rise is an extension of this drive inside me. Raised beds made from old pallets, a flower bed made from old tyres, a rain barrel purchased second hand online, trellises made from the sides of an old crib found on the side of the road, mulch that was once a growing medium in a local greenhouse, and plastic mulch made from the growing bags. None of this is easier than just purchasing things new. Most worryingly, it is a fine line between a successful re-use and having the orchard look like a trash pile.

Old pallets used to make raised
beds for strawberries

Even the dead grass on Eden's Rise
gets a second life as 'straw'

The field itself is a prime example. Unused and vacant, now I am trying to give this little acre new life. Among my own trees and gardens are tall grasses, self-seeded trees, and weeds weeds weeds. Why don’t I just chop them all down? Good question. Partly because native wildlife depends on the little environment in the field, partly because I think if I removed all those distractions the wildlife would target my trees (which are still little more than twigs), and partly because I don’t think it’s necessary yet. I am looking for a second hand mower to keep the middle path trimmed down, but otherwise I keep a large enough circle of mulch around my trees and weed this diligently so that at least there is not competition for the water and nutrients at the base of my trees. I’ve also cut back the self-seeded tress that were shading my plants.

Asparagus hates competition-
here old grow bags are being
used as plastic mulch.

To come: the whole asparagus
patch will be framed with
recycled pallets. 

Ugly, or original beauty? Again comes the patience aspect of being a person like me. You don’t expect what you want to fall in your lap the second you conceive it. You wait. Now it looks like a disaster zone, but little by little I will transform it into a gem.

I want my orchard to be a beautiful paradise, fruit trees and bushes with an under story of wildflowers. 

Though for now it does look a bit like a hoarder’s back garden.

 Have a lovely week!

Eden's Rise- weedy mess or young paradise? Here are the edges of the crib I found in front of a neighbour's house, now painted white and added to the top of Eden's Rise to give the illusion of open gates welcoming you in. Hopefully we'll have some Nasturtiums climbing up these someday soon. Also in the picture is the second hand rain barrel that's often used for emergency watering needs.

The Flowering spring

Eden’s Rise has gone from a low-maintenance uncultivated bit of land to an orchard screaming for attention. A week and a half without rain, grass growing through the mulch, vegetable gardens need to be prepared, the last raised bed box needs to be built and the flowers…

When transplanting bare-rooted trees, many roots are lost in the process. These little trees have a compromised root system and very little wood in their trunk. To compensate for the loss of root, I trimmed back the branches at planting time, being sure to leave only 50% or less of the wood (technically it should be closer to 30% but it was my first time and it’s scary hacking away at $50 trees!). Now the roots are able to adsorb enough water to support their remaining limbs.

This first year is a dance for life, if the roots don’t develop well enough this year, it will mean regular watering next year and the year after… it is better to encourage root development now and then have peace of mind next year that if it doesn’t rain for a week and a half, I don’t have to run over to the field with buckets of water every three days to help them out. I also want them to be developing a healthy thick trunk that will help them survive harsh winter temperatures.

How to do this?

You can imagine I gave my young trees a severe talking to this week when I walked into the field to find a dozen of them flowering! I quickly picked off all flower buds and open flowers but I know when I return today I will have more flowers to remove. Deflowering at three weeks! They are far too young!

The wood from these trees was originally a branch on a mature tree. They were cut off and grafted to a rootstock (most of mine I chose a semi-dwarfing rootstock) and shipped to me after the graft was properly healed. We can talk more about grafting in another post, but for now it’s just important as the trunk still thinks it’s a branch in a much larger tree system (plants don’t think in the sense humans do, but bear with me here guys, it’s artistic license).

When the tree flowers and a bee visits to introduces male pollen to the female flower’s stigma (the open end of a tunnel that will draw pollen into the ovary) it takes a lot of energy from the plant. By the time a fruitlet is visible, half of the energy required to make a fully ripened fruit has already been expended. This year I cannot allow/afford for the trees to bear a single fruit as it could come at the cost of losing the tree in the winter.

Simple as that.

Next year some of the smaller bushes will be allowed to fruit, like the blueberries, saskatoons, and currants. The apples, plums, and cherries will have to wait until year 3 at the earliest.

You don’t plant an orchard if you’re in a hurry!

Have a lovely week.

Two Sunny Sundays

Spring is the time for new beginnings and while I am anxiously awaiting my first trees, my brother anxiously awaits his first child. 

Obviously my thing is way more scary. 

My brother and my good friend offered their help to get me on track to have my field ready in time for planting. With Marilyn’s strong back all of the holes are prepared and mulched for my pommes, stones, and berries. My own back has been turning over soil to make raised beds for strawberries, trenches for asparagus, and a patch where I will sow native flowers. And with Jack's knowledge of carpentry the trellises are mostly done, now I only have to add the wire and the grape vines! 

This week should also be the last for frost (though I’ll make sure not to trust the weather forecast for a while longer) which means my vegetable and flower seedlings are beginning to think of moving outdoors. Full disclosure: my seedlings are the ugliest, weakest, and unhappiest plants I have ever seen. Those that managed to sprout and that haven’t died from damping off shrivel up as soon as I put them outside like the mere thought of a breeze is enough to make them faint. All and all it has started my adventure off on a bit of a minor key.

I can think of several reasons why the seedlings are struggling.I think the main issue is that I tried to start them in a 50/50 mix of potting soil and coconut coir. Skimping on the growing medium and trays has taught me my first important lesson in growing: if you’re going to do something, do it right. No more half-assed-ness going on here.

Speaking of asses, here are Eden’s Rise’s neighbours. These two horses come watch me as I work, then go back to their grazing when they get bored of that. They'll likely find me much less boring when I'm harvesting apples five years from now.

The big stuff is all happening this week, stay tuned for updates on the new life in Eden's Rise!