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| Garden Sweet (pickling) & Chelsea Prize (slicer) are two long-time favourites while the Tasty Treat Slicer is a new-to-me variety |
This year, just like last, the grow lights are nowhere near as cramped as usual. The main reason for this is that we are revamping the side yard vegetable garden which contains 8 of our raised beds (Area #1). The original plan was to redo that area last year...and then we had a pandemic and most plans, including that one, flew out the window.
So 2021 is the year. All the beds (old and new) in that area will be out of commission for most, if not all, of the season. While the actual building of the beds is a relatively quick process, everything else that goes along with that (such as filling them, mulching the paths and redoing the drip irrigation) takes much more time. And just like last year, I'm planning on doing this at my own pace & not stressing myself out with deadlines. I spoke about my New Approach to the garden last July and I intend to stay the course on that - more enjoyment & less pressure is the name of the game.
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| Lettuce will be on the hilltop this year - a little less convenient, but you gotta do what you gotta do |
A couple of weeks ago I spoke about the basil varieties that I'll be growing, namely Profumo di Genovese, Dolly, Lemon, Thai and the Botanical Interests Custom Blend. When it comes to growing basil in my area, you don't technically have to start seeds indoors. If I sow directly in mid-late May, which is a couple of weeks after our last frost date, I could start harvesting by the end of July. But we all want our harvests earlier, don't we? And that means that I'm starting my basil indoors about 5 weeks before our last frost date.
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| 12 day old basil seedlings |
Last year, I went a bit hog-wild when I was finally able to go to the garden centre after the initial lockdown. All that pent up plant-shopping energy came out with a bang and I reverted back to type. Instead of having a plan and a list to go by, I spent over 3 hours browsing and anything that caught my eye ended up in my cart (which quickly turned into two carts - #noguilt 😜). After the stress of those first few months of the pandemic, I truly reveled in a good old fashioned plant shopping spree.
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| Puschkinia libanotica with Iris reticulata in the background |
With the work being done in the garden this year, I am once again cutting back on what I'm growing to the essentials. Well, the essentials according to me 😉.
"Regular" & lemon basil are always on the grow list. I started growing lemon basil several years ago and I wouldn't be without it. It's absolutely delicious mixed with Greek yoghurt - one of our favourite veggie dips.
When it comes to regular basil, I enjoy trying new varieties. About 7 years ago, I had a very bad basil year when the entire crop was infected with basil downy mildew (BDM). The following year, I grew Eleanora, a BDM resistant variety, and it was a success - the basil patch was mildew-free.
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| I always plant basil in the the tomato beds, usually with a marigold or two |
I don't do very much garden cleanup in the fall which is good in a number of ways. Firstly, it allows beneficial insects plenty of nooks and crannies to settle in for the winter. Then there are the birds which are very grateful for the seedheads that continue to feed them through most of the winter. Lastly, there is the winter interest that the plants provide - I, for one, prefer to see swaying grasses and seed heads covered with snow rather than a white, flat landscape, devoid of any plant material save for shrubs and evergreens. And truth be told, by the time fall rolls around, I'm pretty much ready for a break, so the less I need to do the better.
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| Icy sedum heads are magical |
