New gardening season and videos!

So after an unusually long and weird winter, Spring is finally showing signs of it's arrival. This means gardening preparations and a new video season!
I'll post more stuff as we get into it but for now here's the link to my first video for 2017. Are you guys ready for gardening? What are your plans for this year!?

https://youtu.be/2t12fuQeBFg

New series of sowing videos!

Now much happening in the written world. But I am still posting my 2010 garden vlogs on Youtube. And right now I'm uploading new videos on how to sow seeds. Celery, tomatoes, peppers, onions, asparagus and more to come! ;)http://www.youtube.com/user/jihadacadien

Here's the first few gardening vlog

Here's a video about reusing stuff when sowing your seeds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtW7v1V1JgU

Me ordering my seeds....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDmxRa_2uAc

My hand built solar lamp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAevF0t75oU

and this one is about conservation of your vegetables

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNGPjShNesg

2010 planning!!!

It's been a few days now that the weather has been really wintery. Snow, wind and cold! So I've decided to start planning my many gardens for 2010. The more I do I realize that I'll have lots more cultivated space than in my first year. I'd say 3 to 4 times more. I hope it won't be too much. I guess I'll see!!! But just the planning part is new to me. I used to plant everything where it looked good. But with a little research I found some plants go well together. Even help each other out with bugs and nutrients. I used the resourses on the veseys website. It's one of the best canadian seed company and they are from the maritimes as I am. have a look if you want, lots of info. http://www.veseys.com/

Beware of rocks!!!

I don't have a picture for this entry because by the time I was finished there wasn't enough light. Late this afternoon I dug up a trench at the end of my yard for future asparagus plants. It's approximately 2 feet wide and 16 long. Since the seedling need to grow for 2-3 years before you can harvest.....you want a place out of the way so they'll grow quietly. Anyway......rocks! The spot where I dug was, like I said at the end of my yard. When my parents used to grow vegetable they threw all the rocks they found there. So today when I jumped on my shovel it didn't even go in! And I had a really bad time taking all those big rocks out. So what I want to say is throw your rock away for real. Not in a place you don't use. Because one day you may want to use it and will be really frustrated at yourself....or maybe your kids will be in the future =)

Oh and we are having really weird pre-winter weather. Normally there's snow and cold. But so far no snow, beautiful over freezing weather and just awsome Fall!

Compost your leaves

Yesterdays I finally got around raking the rest of the leaves. There was a lot and I placed them in my larger garden. They will add precious organic materials to the dirt for next year =) I also cleaned the garage so I can put my car in this winter. Now I only need to find some help and put mt small greenhouse in it =)

Have a great week everyone!

Here's the video I made that day..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Fvlj2GaL8

First snow!!!

Last night I had my first snow. Wasn't a lot of it but it did cover up everything with a thin layer of white. This afternoon when I came back from work I went have a look at my lettuce and spinach plants. The smaller leaves I left were still in perfect condition. Even after spending a whole night covered by snow. This is pretty amazing for a comestible plant! I'm gonna grow much more next Spring and Fall.

Last gardening days

Today I took my seasonal things back in the shed and garage. Winter is coming, I can feel it. I also harvested the last of my spinach and lettuces. I left the stems out just in case the weather get warmer. And finally I raked 4 big bags of leaves. Once I clean the ground of my main garden of rocks, I'll add those to the dirt. It will add desperatly needed organic material.

Climat differences

Last night there was a snow fall. All around here but not actually where I live. The same thing goes for frost. The main thing is that I live in a coastal town. And the humidity and warmth (I suppose) from so much water affects the climat. Plus the unstable maritime weather all year round can be a challenge for gardening of all kind. Especially for trees. Some winters can destroy much of the buds...or just be too humid....weird. The last two years, we had a lot of snow at once before the ground froze. In Spring the snow melted diffrently and broke everything that was under it. I don't know what kind of winter this will be but I hope it's cold with less snow. Anyway I'm babling on....have a good one!

Sumary of 2009 (pumpkins and zucchinis)

I've just posted a new video about what I learned on my first year of actual gardening in the earth. So I might as well share this knowledge here too.

First the pumpkins!
I started them inside the house I think it was in the middle of April. I didn't want the worms to eat my new sprouts so by the time they went in the garden they had a few leaves. The vines grew pretty fast. But by mid June I was starting to despair about the pumpkins actually growing. They had quite a few flowers, both male and female but they kept falling off. I though it was a watering problem...but now that I think of it I just think it was too early and the plant wasn't ready to grow pumpkins. By mid June I self polinated the flowers(it was always rainy and the bees were scarce) and they finally stayed on the vine. I had one pumpkin per plant and they grew really fast and took a LOT of space. Now they are all turning orange and will soon be harvested and brought in the house. They can keep for a long while just at room temperature, if you don't overheat your house. So I will have enough pumpkins for a while.

Now zucchinis!

Well again like the pumpkins I grew them in the house, because of the worms that like sprouts. Like pumpkins they grew fast and easily. They do need a constant moist soil. And you have to watch not to get the leaves wet for long time as they grow mildew pretty easily. With a few plants (6) I had more than I could eat, litterally! They do take some space, the vine doesn't travel as far as a pumpkin but the leaves are pretty big. One plant grew at least 4 feet long and was over 2 feet wide. They started dying down as the nights got colder. But since I build my greenhouses around them they started growing again. I will probably have a few zucchinis before winter =)

So this is mostly what I learned about those two squashes. Next year I'm gonna try some more squashes, buttercup and butternut. So if you have advice on those please do tell. I would really appreciate it =)

Here's the link to my video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L-hkzrlq0k

I may but you may not...

I may be taking a little homestead break but today I found someone hard at work for me...lady bugs! My prune trees were full of aphids not to long ago. But they ate everyone! The only thing left was a dirty dozen ladybugs and a few ants searchin for their lost friends. Now I hope they will stay here permenantly. And I can't wait to attract the predator of my radish and spinach eating green worms. And now let me ask you a question. Who is you favorite natural helper in your garden? Me it's the lady bug of course!

Proud parent feeling

This morning as I went to the garden to take a few pictures of my greenhouses for the previous entry...I couldn't stop taking pictures of my vegetables. And looking at those pictures I felt like I wanted to show the rest of the world what I was able to grow on my own. Almost like a parent getting his flip book out of his wallet to show his kids =) So enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Stretching Summer

Where I live, Summer starts ending in September....sadly. But tomorrow I am going to try to stretch my zucchini's life cycle. I'll build some simple mini greehouses over the plants in the garden. Now I have no idea how I'll do this. In fact I still haven't checked if I have plastic left in the garage. But it will be done tomorrow and I will post about it (probably even a video on Youtube). But in the meantime if you want to stretch Summer for your plants. I heard that to avoid freeze, you can simply put plastic over your plants at night.But you need to take it out in the morning or else they will steam during the day. Still some plants that need lots of heat might stop producing as the tempreture drops. I guess we will see if it's the case for my zucchinis =)