The Longest Month and a Beginners Guide to Groundhog Day.

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From Steinback.online Feb 2nd 2016. He is waving the Manitoban Flag

It's February. The longest month in the year.......It's only the 3rd of February 2016 but the month has been going on for weeks already. It's a cold crisp morning and of course the snow is still pretty out here in the country and the blue skies are filled with fluffy white clouds and the sun is shining brightly and everything is beautiful in its own way, and the sound of a little plane up in the air somewhere make it feel as if spring is just round the corner. And maybe it is! Here in Canada, yesterday was Groundhog Day. Sadly Winnipeg Willow (a real groundhog) died last week and so was unable to perform his/her yearly duty as far as predicting when spring would arrive. and all festivities were cancelled as a mark of respect.  Surprisingly, I am unable to ascertain what Brandon Bob predicted but I am able to tell you that Manitoba Merve from Oak Hammock Marsh, (North of Winnipeg and between the big Manitoban Lakes)  predicts just six more weeks of winter and thus an early spring. How do they predict the weather? Well when they are let out of their little cages early on Feb 2nd, or thereabouts, and if they see their shadow then it's a bad long winter still ahead but if they don't see their shadow it's only six weeks to go. I am hung up on the bit about seeing their shadow.....how do you know when a ground hog sees its own shadow? Apparently it's frightened when it sees its own shadow...ok....but how do you know it's frightened? Perhaps it's really pleased to see that shadow!  Bad enough when it's a real ground hog but perhaps Manitoba Merve can tell you what you want to hear as he is a puppet......yes.......only in North America. But wait! No......The origins of Groundhog day are lost in the midst of ancient times. Thousands of years ago as my Celtic ancestors celebrated the winter Cross Quarter Day (which later became the Christian Candlemas Day)  on about Feb 2nd they dug a good old British Badger out of its hole and predicted the weather from his/her reaction to his/her own shadow........It lies deep deep within us to need a little levity in the depth of winter and as groundhogs and badgers should all be keeping warm underground at this time, and are probably not happy at being forced out into the open on a cold February day,  perhaps Manitoba Merve the Puppet is no bad thing.

Getting through January........

So it's that time of year in Southern Manitoba when it's -20deg C before windchill and my Beloved is out womanning the snowblower to keep our paths clear so Molly the Dog can run a little bit without disappearing in the snow drifts and its a very grey day and will be again tomorrow and thoughts turn to planning for spring and there is an urgent need to tidy up the garden and plant something, anything!

But then look at it!

Back

Front

           

Not a lot of outdoor activity today and yesterday wasn't much better although it was sunnier and it's always easier to feel happier in sunshine even if the wind chill is below -30deg C. What can one do if one can't do it outside? Well there was a space in the growing room with nothing in it......it has been annoying me for months

The Space

I must digress a little in order to clarify the term "Growing Room" in the context of our little world. Just the other day someone asked me if we used it to grow tall, spiky leaved, interestingly perfumed plants, especially as we use a lot of lights at certain times of the year. When I eventually cottoned on to what I was being asked I not only recoiled in horror but wondered if other people were wondering the same thing. No, no, no! It was a small, dark, windowless,cold, miserable bit of our garage until it was transformed two years ago into a small,light filled,dry,insulated space with windows, lighting and a little heat to keep it at about 8-10 deg C, in winter. We use it for all sorts of thing including: starting off seeds and young plants for the veg and flower gardens so we can plant out as soon as the snow melts and the ground is defrozen (yes I know it's "defrosted" but "defrozen' gives a much better idea of reality) ; storing last years produce such as butternuts , onions,  potatoes; overwintering geraniums and herbs; pottering about in when desperate to see a bit of green and when the garden shed is surrounded by 6 ft snow drifts and several hundred yards away across snowy wastes

Back to The Space.


' We need more shelves!' I had exclaimed at some point.

We found a flatpack full of wonderful shelves and brought it home and looked at the box for weeks.Then we trundled it into the GR where it was in the way. Today was the day to unpack the box, read the instructions, apply the rubber hammer where necessary, and build a masterpeice. And so it was and Lo! 6 shelves on wheels appeared in The Space and all was well. And suddenly, there was on the shelves, a multitude of interesting and very useful objects which had been lying aimlessly about the place for months.

I still wanted to plant something but what? I sparingly watered everything green and growing and chatted to Wilfred. Wilfred has been around. He started life as a Factory Gnome and then became a Shelf Gnome in a British supermarket. He soon became a Garden Gnome in Surrey UK where he was very happy but circumstances meant that he had to emigrate to Canada where he became a Step Gnome looking after containers of flowers on the front steps of his new home. There was a tragic accident and Wilfred sustained a terrible head injury. Although he recovered somewhat he has never been able to resume his former duties so now he is a Windowsill Gnome in the GR and he is currently supervising  Siberian Iris(es) which may or may not bloom soon.

Wilfred wasn't much help but I remembered a small packet of 20 Anenome de Caen which was left over from a failed planting last year. I found a small green trough and used our own seed compost which I had rescued from the compost heap before it froze in November and filled a big container in the GR for just this very purpose......planting something in the depths of winter when desperate.


Satisfied at last and with the daylight beginning to fade I retreated into the depths of the lounge where the seed catalogues live, and with curtains closed, the fire on, a cup of tea and the last of the Christmas biscuits I resumed dreaming of spring flowers, and long hot lazy summer days in the garden.

Is it?

Thursday: I woke up three nights ago in a terrible state, moaning and crying  with a severe pain in my arm. In the dark I established I was probably not dying but what was it? Well, I must have rolled onto a cat who probably also woke up rather squashed and surprised and a bit angry and who must have  proceeded to defend herself by scratching my inside forearm, leaving a 5 inch sore and bleeding mark. Then yesterday I developed a cold sore  as big as a plate in spite of Cold-fx, aycyclovir, and polysporin, and to make number three injury I have just stabbed myself with the sharp end of a pencil as I was organising myself to write some seed labels. Hopefully that is it for the week as far as injuries go.




On the plus side: the temperature has soared above zero for the past few days so the  snow is melting; the WIGs are totally exposed; and the additional excitement is that  the geese have arrived early,  I always get  a cold sore as the seasons change from Winter to Spring and Summer to Autumn so it's a sign and another sign was Suzanna finding a baby pansy growing in the driveway. It's +9 degrees C outside and I have just heard and seen the first honey bee.

The Canada Geese announced their arrival very loudly and we gave them a rousing cheer and a chorus of Welcome Home. I will spare you the photo of the one straggler I managed to photograph as it takes skill and imagination to actually see the bird. It's not characteristic to see just one. They tend to come over in groups of 30-50 flying in what I like to call a "V" but they are far too busy chatting and telling each other the "goss" to keep a perfect flying formation but, they are obviously quite good at the flying thing as I haven't noticed many of them plummeting to the ground after bumping into each other.

Saturday: And now its already two days later and the thaw is continuing......we had breakfast on the deck this morning and we are out for  the first BBQ of the year in an hour or so. The little flower bed (The Eye) above the big flower bed (BFB) is slowly melting revealing shrubs a bit battered and bent by the snow and wind, but full of buds.It would be so nice if the snow just melted away leaving lovely cleanness and fresh green grass and little budlets bursting into the glory of crocuses and daffodils and tulips but alas the melting snow reveals loads of last years oak leaves and plant stems and stuff we didn't get to clear before the frosts and snows came and above all the stuff that has accumulated over the past four months of winter that used to belong to dogs and of course as the snow melts all is revealed, almost as fresh as the day it was deposited. Poopy patrols have to be carried out.


The BBQ was fun but anxiety provoking. Conversation with two proper gardeners revealed they already have started seeds which are spouting and I/we am/are falling way behind and will never catch up, and they will have growing rooms full of wonderful plants to plant out any minute now, and by the time we get going the first frosts will be back. I have planted broad beans (They call them fava beans here)  in egg shell pots. They don't seem to do broad beans much  but I like them so grow a few each year. These are "Broad Windsor" which is about the only variety commonly available here. We use the egg shells as it's a happy way of recycling and a good source of calcium for the beans and for the soil in general and may prevent blossom end rot in our tomatoes and their rellies. (Relatives!)

Sunday: It has been hotter here than in most of the UK. We had 18 deg C for a while and a warm strong wind. Lots more of the snow has gone but there is still a bit of a mountain behind the deck and in the veg patch. We have to keep telling ourselves this probably is a false start to Spring and the forecast for this week is back to about zero temperatures and snow flurries and freezing rain so I would hate to get too excited about the end of winter yet.

By the way.....we turned the sweet potato upside down in the water and there is one rootlet visible.
The flower rocket seems to be stalling but there are a few seeds germinating.
More daffs are on the way.

Monday 8 am and my goodness it's snowing.....................Bah! Spring is probably over.If you look closely the WIGs now have a slightly startled expression as they experience an unexpected sprinkle of the white stuff.

Four Down, Max Two to Go

Hooray! February has disappeared at last after what seemed like an 8 week month and it's March already. Looking forward to 18th/19th March when the first geese will arrive honking away, looking for food and heralding Spring even if it does take another 6-8 weeks to actually arrive.
It's definitely not quite there (Spring that is....) with the temperature still -17deg C with a few less degrees minused on for wind chill but "They" are promising -4 deg C tomorrow and even +4 deg C next week but it may be a ploy to try to cheer us up, and spur us onto, and into the Great Gardening Adventure that will be 2015!








The WIGs look almost the same as last time except that the prairie winds have blown more snow on top of them so only the  tip of one hat is showing. They also had their own adventure this week when the( possibly) 30kg Molly the Dog got excited and was bounding about and sat on top of them They appear to have recovered but who knows what is going on under that lot. They are very brave.

Due to increasingly itchy and frustrated gardening fingers  I used the last of last year's multipurpose compost to plant the Flower Rocket Suzanna found in one of the local shops. The box assures me that there are 1000 seeds on a roll of felted stuff and I will have flowers all Spring, all Summer, and beyond.  I have planted according to instructions and am awaiting results. Nothing has emerged yet. Note I did plant the felty thing in the soil. So far I am very unimpressed but it has only been four days.

As much as I like looking through gorgeous seed catalogues I like going to choose seeds even more, so on Monday I went to Winnipeg (Or Winterpeg, as some like to call it) with an urgent need to buy seeds. There are Garden Centres here, but not as we know them Jim (Alas poor Leonard.....a moment's silence please) . Most Garden Centres shut up and dig in for the Winter by August and re-open at Easter. There are a few exceptions and one very posh one with a coffee shop and clothes and high end things........that's where I found the Borlotti Bean seeds and the tomatoes I wanted and had a nice cup of coffee and a healthy salad (Except for the bacon and the Mayo and the salt therein.)   but for the rest I went to the explosive sounding T&T seeds and had a very happy time wandering around picking up little packets of seeds and shaking them and putting some of them back again.  Driving home the temperature was falling, the snow was blowing across the road and the sun was setting pretty much in my eyes but it was all worth while. I had pastel pansies, zinnias, a candy stripped cosmos, and a whole field of veggies and other goodies on the back seat of the car.



However, one thing lacked of course.  No more multipurpose compost! So today I went and rectified the situation by buying a compressed block of 107litres of the stuff most places round here use for seeds and potting on. Of course not only is it compressed but it is also frozen as it's been outside at the nursery, so it's now in the growing room thawing out before use. Hopefully this will give us time to get everything ready ........music, lights, water, more heating to get everything started in the next few weeks so everything be planted out before the end of May.






I cleaned up the potatoes which have overwintered very well in a container, in the growing room which has been kept at 10-14 deg C with a small oil heater. This contrasts favourably with last year when I lovingly cleaned, and carefully packed, every potato in dry sand in containers so they were in the dark and then the winter came. The temperature in the garage, where they were, dropped to -15 deg in November and they froze and all had to be thrown away and I cried and cried as all my Summer hard work ended up at the local composting dump..........anyway it's a different story this year! We haven't got a lot left and they have been very yummy.




                                                     


 ( yes I know the thing in the middle is a carrot.)

There were three varieties of potato:
Pontiac......Red;
Yukon Gold.......Yellow;
Viking................Red with very white flesh, stores well and was bred here in Morden MB for the climate.

I don't think they do Earlie's, Second Earlies and Maincrops here.......just small and big potatoes but my goodness Manitoba Potatoes are The Best!

Morden has a world famous Research Centre which has bred Roses and Potatoes and other veggies and grains for the prairies and now concentrates mainly on breeding and testing crops like Canola. (I think but I may be wrong)






And talking about potatoes I know its not going to work but I cannot help myself hoping that it will.
I am going to try to grow sweet potatoes again. Last year I managed a lot of leaves but this year will be different . I bought the potato from a local shop, stuck skewers in it and balanced it on a yogurt pot full of water, put it on a heating pad  and now am waiting to see if anything happens.  

Still waiting......................................................................
I think I need to have more of it in the water so off to do that now.............................................                          

So it's next year already!

Things got complicated and we ended up having far too much to do in the garden to actually write about it so we are going to give it another go this year.

Helloo! I'm Peggy and Suzanna is my Beautiful Wife (Who set up this blog last year) and Gardening Partner.......she does landscaping and the  pretty flower things and I do veggies. I also do weeding, talking to plants, gazing into space and generally coming to grips with the realities of being totally clueless about this prairie environment we find ourselves in. We know we are gardening on top of an  ancient beach of an ancient lake that formed after the glaciers of the last ice age retreated and dumped all their boulders in our back yard. We know about the beach as under the beautiful clayey loamy stuff and rocks there is sand......so drainage is good; we know about the prairie winds as we didn't get up the day after we moved here three and a half years ago and plant a shelter belt of trees (Bad Mistake!); we are learning about the true meaning of winter which is learning to appreciate and embrace the ice and snow and the wind and the blowing snow because although there's just the trees to watch waving about, the birdies to feed and the dof to walk there is plenty of time to dream about the green grass and the colours, tastes and textures of Summer.

So it's February 12th 2015. The day is bright and sunny with blue skies, pristine, deep and very white snow is covering the veg patch and flower beds and our weather watching gnomes are a bit out of their depths. This afternoon it has warmed up to -12 deg C. with very little wind.

The Veg Patch is inaccessible. It looks just like last year's photo so have a look in the archives. You can just see the Garden Shed way up on the right hand side poking above the swimming pool of snow. The snow fence round the patch gathers snow in winter and stops veggies escaping in summer. (Yes it's too low and too flimsy to keep out deer but having a dog helps. Everything else seems to burrow under it including a truly amazing Manitoba Salamander.........pictures too exciting to publish)

So what's going on while the snow is busy lying around being obstructive? Well away in our little growing room come workshop come veg store we have had created in our garage things are stirring.

We have oyster mushrooms bursting out of their bag.

Then there is the world's smallest garlic farm trying to stay cool but not frozen

The daffs are in for a shock when they get outside but who wants daffs in June?

The thyme has been happy in here all Winter and is still growing strong

And although holly doesn't do well here My Suzanna brought home some berries from Vancouver and yesterday I got them ready for stratifying and now they are in the fridge for the next few months.

Putting them outside in -16 deg C would probably be a bit too much.

The bag asks for " Shhhhhhhh! Quiet, Holly Tree seeds Stratifying." 11/2/2015. Yes the date is written that way round where I come from.

Today I must go off and plant some cat grass seeds. The cats have devastated the last lot.

...and to finish today here is yesterday's sunset featuring Mr Sun with one of  his Sun Dogs and Mrs Moon together with the shelterbelt next door that they very wisely planted before they even moved there!

Blanket of Snow

We set out on an expedition to the top of the property where the vegetable garden is situated. Dressed up to the eyeballs in snow suits and snow shoes we trekked out to make an inspection of our beloved veg patch. We had fenced it all round last year, ironically with wooden snow fences, - and my, did they work! The whole patch looks like a huge swimming pool filled with snow. We're thinking that at least it will be watered well when it all melts. We simply walked over the top of the fence. What a surreal experience. It feels crazy knowing that we're walking several feet up in the "air"!

Winter Garden

It's been a really long, cold winter. Everyone, even the hardest, gnarliest Manitoba farmer is grumbling about the cold. The weather statistics say it's the coldest winter here since 1896. And we feel it. Each and every icy day we watch the temperature as it either plummets down to -25 with a windchill factor of -38 (or something of the like), or hover around a bone-chilling -32 in the sun.

There has been snow on the ground since early November (2013). And we've had a lot of it! We bravely and enthusiastically put up some snow fences hoping that our courageous (if naive) attempts would drive somehow miraculously drive the snow away from our house. We were miserably mistaken of course! We have been watching our snow mountain grow to an impressive height of around 9 ft!! This is our snow drift almost the whole length of the house. I keep saying, "It's coming for us!" It gets closer and closer and it feels like its going to totally engulf the house and all its inhabitants for good...

Our 9ft Snow Bank                                                            Deck bedecked with Snow!