Five weeks after planting the ‘lasagna garden’ (April 26th) we have a plethora of fresh greens (and even a few baby carrots!)

When a few weeds started to germinate on one of the beds we simply added a layer of grass clippings and shredded leaves to smother them. That’s how easily organic weed and feed works!

Above: Peter’s Garden
Peter is one of the students in the ‘Twelve Steps to HomeGrown Food Production’ programme I am teaching this year. He decided to use his whole garden to feed his family (and to share extra food with his neighbours!) This is what his front garden looks like so far.

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Mother hen is taking good care of her chicks, and the rest of the flock is getting used to having juniors around.

The chicks are enjoying free ranging and exploring with mum every day. They seem to double in size daily, but are still cute and fun to watch.

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If you need a natural windbreak, or to provide shade from sun, sunchokes (Helianthus tuberosus) may be your answer!

These fast growing perennial vegetables grow to six feet by mid-summer. (They are also known as Jerusalem artichokes for reasons unbeknown to me). They spread rapidly by underground shoots that grow into tubers and will become a permanent fixture in the garden once planted. I grow two varieties, one with red tubers and one with white tubers which produce showy yellow sunflowers in October. The red variety is a lot more prolific than the white one.

Easy to grow, sunchokes thrive in any garden soil, but the best tubers are grown in good soil in full sun. Tubers should be planted early in the year in March or April, before they take root, and can be left to grow until harvested in late fall, once the tops die down. They are sweetest if left until after hard frosts, and can be harvested from the garden as needed throughout the winter.

Try eating them peeled and sliced with a veggie dip (crunchy and refreshing), or drizzled with olive oil and roasted for 25 minutes (sweet and nutty).

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Above: Leeks to seed

Longer and warmer days trigger the formation of seed.

Above: The ‘Siegfried Frost’ leeks that were enjoyed last fall and winter are now going to seed.

When plants go to seed they become tough and are no longer good to eat. This year I have planted ‘Durabel’ leeks, so that I can keep the seeds going from two different varieties.

Above: Silverbeet chard is also going to seed.

I must ensure there are no members of the Chenopodiaceae family nearby (chards, beets or spinach) for them to cross with.

Above: The ‘Red Russian’ kale seedpods are fattening up as they mature.

It is time to collect seeds when the pods turn brown, and the seeds inside turn black and harden, (before they disperse naturally). If birds appear to eat the seeds it may be necessary to harvest them before they get eaten. It is possible to cut kale for seed collection before the seeds have completely ripened on the plant. At a certain point of maturity, seedpods will continue to ripen, even when the plant has been removed from the ground.

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It’s not always smooth sailing in the garden, especially when it’s unseasonably wet and cool. This aggravates problems with slugs and rust, both of which thrive and spread in moist conditions.

Above: If rust establishes on plants (hollyhocks, garlic and onions are especially prone) it’s best to remove all affected leaves. Spore-borne diseases, such as rust, can be prevented by not allowing spores to spread around the garden.

Slugs can be more than a nuisance by doing a lot of damage. After noticing they had decimated half my potato patch, (Photo potatoes) I went out at dusk with a bucket to collect them. I removed 40 big black slimy slugs in two nights and saved the rest of the potatoes. Prevention is worth a pound of potatoes!

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This year I am especially grateful to have a greenhouse. Climate change brings unpredictable weather, and here on the west coast of Canada it means a longer cooler spring.

I left the sowing of these ‘heat lovers’ until mid-May. This is what they look like after three weeks. This timing will be perfect for planting them out in mid-June, when the soil is warmer and the weather hopefully more settled.

Above: The peppers and tomatoes are ready to be potted on from their 4” pots.

Above: The tomatoes go into one-gallon pots before they are hardened off and planted out in late-June.

Above: The peppers go into 2-gallon pots, in which they will be grown for the whole season.

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In the orchard pollination has been completed and it’s time to check the results! Considering the cool spring we have endured this year I am relieved to see good fruit set.

To get the cherries I will have to net the trees against the birds (but this year I’ll make sure not to net a bird inside!) The apple trees have lots of small fruits on them, as does the five-grafted pear tree. Some of this fruit will drop before maturing, and some may have to be thinned to get good-sized fruit.

Once the fruit has set, I check orchard trees to see if they need a light summer pruning. To keep fruit trees open to maximum light (to ripen fruit), I remove crossing any branches and those growing towards the centre of the tree. If they have fruit on I’ll wait until the winter pruning.

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This lasagna garden was made with soil, maple leaves collected last fall, homemade compost, and dried grass clippings from the local no-herbicide park.

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Currants and Gooseberries (above photo) belong to the genus Ribes. They are excellent for jams, jellies, and wine making. They will grow in full sun to partial shade. Avoid low-lying frost pockets. Space 5 feet apart. Mulch to retain moisture with straw, compost or manure twice a year. This feeds to boost fruit production, and helps prevent weed growth.

Jostaberry (Worcester Berry) (above) is a hybrid berry resulting from a cross between a gooseberry and blackcurrant. It forms a stout gooseberry-like bush, with large purplish-blue juicy grape-like berries. A hardy plant which is a prolific cropper, it should be pruned and cultivated in the same way as the gooseberry.

Blackcurrants (above) produce fruit on 1-year old wood. In spring remove old wood and weak canes leaving 6 to 9 strong ones. Redcurrants and gooseberries produce on spurs on 2 and 3 year-old wood. Wood older than 3 years should be removed each year. Allow only 8 or 9 strong canes to remain on bush after pruning Shorten any long canes for side branching and fruit spur development

The currant fruit fly is a pest; the larvae decimate leaves on the bush and cause small white maggots in fruit. If this becomes a regular problem prevent it by spraying bushes after flowering with bacillus thuriengensis. (Bt)

Blueberries (above) need an acid soil pH 5.0. A sawdust mulch 5” thick will lower the pH. They prefer soil rich in organic matter and well drained, where they get at least 6 hours of sunlight a day. Set plants 6 feet apart. It takes two years for plants to establish and start fruiting. Six blueberry bushes will provide for a family once mature, which takes several years. Choose early, mid-season and late varieties to extend the season of harvest. It’s best to have more than one variety for pollination.

Prune to encourage thick branches to develop. The best berries are produced from 2 to 3-year old wood. Bushes produce for several years then peter out. To reinvigorate your blueberry patch remove 20% of the oldest wood every year, and cut declining branches off at ground level.

Watch for birds as blueberries become ripe. Use netting to cover the bushes. Wait 2 to 3 weeks after they turn rich blue for truly ripe berries. Taste test for sweetness before harvesting. These plants provide year round interest from red leaves in fall and red stems in winter.

Hybrid Berries

Train a trailing cane fruit with a showy clematis to liven up an arbour or fence (below).

There are many types of delicious hybrid berries to grow in the garden, and they all make the best pies!

Boysenberry (Introduced in 1930)
These are a cross of blackberry, loganberry and raspberry.

Loganberry (1897)
A cross of blackberry and raspberry.

Tayberry
A cross raised in Scotland in recent times, this is a cross of loganberry and raspberry.

Rhubarb, (above) Rheum rhaponticum, is a long-lived hardy perennial, virtually pest and disease free. It’s easy to grow if you remember that it is a heavy feeder, and feed with manure in spring and fall. Leaves contain toxic levels of oxalic acid and should not be eaten, but can be added to the compost pile. Harvest stalks between one to two feet long by pulling off the crown with a twisting motion rather than cutting.

Stop harvesting by mid-summer to leave foliage to feed roots. To keep crowns producing divide every three years. Fall is the best time (but can also be done in early spring). Replant root sections (with two to three buds) three feet apart with crowns planted three inches deep. Harvest lightly the first year to help plants re-establish. Remove seed heads when they appear to direct energy back to the roots.

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Above: Kitsilano front yard lasagna garden, installed third week of May.

Everything is growing about three times faster than in my veggie beds in the back yard. Perhaps it's the two wheelbarrows full of compost, plus a bunch of dried maple leaves, and new soil as well - the chard particularly has produced large leaves in very short time.

The tomato plants are much bigger than the backyard ones, and appear to be much more skookum - not leggy, producing 'suckers' like mad. They seem to have a different green colour too - softer, and even a bit grayish.

There's a tendency for the veggies to lean towards the south; huge & looming Norway maples cause this, but the little lasagna garden receives light and sun (when we get it) from sunrise at about 6 a.m. until 3 pm, and then late afternoon and evening as well, at least for the month of June.

So far so good in terms of animals or human marauders; luckily, the rest of my front yard is such a hodge-podge of daisies and "one of everything" that passers-by are unable to focus their eyes. Tidy gardeners tend to look the other way as they pass by. That may be a good thing esp. when tomatoes start to ripen....

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