Beautiful Permaculture Garden at The AREA in Inglewood Calgary

Posted on August 7, 2012 by calskin

Hey everyone. I wanted to share a video I posted on YouTube showing a great permaculture urban garden.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

how to control pest insects in your garden using your garden

Posted on June 6, 2012 by calskin

How frustrating is it when you put so much work and effort into a garden, and then like out of nowhere, your plants are nearly ruined from insects munching on them? I’m going to explain how you can control the insects that feed on your precious crops.

blossom!

The key to controlling insects is not pesticide. Pesticide will kill all the beneficial insects and microbes as well. The key is flowers. The effect of the flowers is at least three fold. They confuses insects that will attack your plants, they attract predatory insects, which are also pollinators.

diversify!

The important thing is variety. Scatter your flowers throughout your garden. When I say that, obviously you want to plan so they will be good companions to your other plants, but you want flowers growing along with your vegitables.

Here’s some flowers and plants I would recommend planting:

A few marigolds (which are good with tomatoes)
Borage is amazing for attracting bees (give it some space it will spread)
Sunflowers and bird houses and feeders will attract birds (a bad thing if you have seeds starting, but a great thing if your plants are semi-established (birds will eat the bugs too)
Herbs like basil, bee balm, catnip, dill, Echinacea, evening primrose, fennel, lavender, parsley, poppy, thyme and sage will all attract pollinators too.
Check out this site too. It has some great information for specific insects.

The cool thing too is that everything I’ve suggested is edible! However, be warned that not every part of the plants I’ve suggested are edible. Do your research. There’s tons of info out there.

bee houses!

Some other things you could try is making a bee block. This will help support the bee population and give them a home right beside your garden!

They’re as easy as drilling some holes in a block of wood.

http://www.instructables.com/id/mason-bee-hotel/

Let me know what you do to control insects. Also let me know if you’ve tried any of these suggestions before and how they worked for you.

Thanks for reading!

Caleb

my seeds are sprouting!

Posted on March 28, 2012 by calskin

I’m pretty stoked right now because my seeds are sprouting! I know these plants might not make it because I planted them too early, but I’m very happy to see green in my house!

I’m two weeks away from starting seeds using phase two which will be newspaper pots. I’m really looking forward to that.

I thought I’d give a rundown of what I’m going to be planting, and I would love your comments and ideas on where I should plant the different plants. I don’t know nearly enough about guilds so I guess this year is going to be a watch and learn year so I see what does well beside one another. I will also be staggering where the plants are and what they’re next to.

I would also love your tips on when to plant them (or if I just plant them all together) if you have any experience with that.

the list of plants (all organic)

Rainbow Chard – Neon Glow
Italian Heirloom Kale – Lacinato
Jewel – Toned Beets – Red, Gold and Candystripe
Rainbow Radishes – Easter Egg II
Tricolor Carrots – Circus Circus
Royal Burgundy Beans
Heirloom Pole Beans – Rattlesnake and Purple Pole
Ornamental Sunflowers – Sun Samba
Dill – Just Dill
Snap Peas
Exhibition Sweet Peas – Blue Celeste
Dark Green Zucchini
Italian Pesto Basil
Cilantro
Thyme
Chives
Orange Cherry Tomatoes
Parsley – Moss Curled
Red Calabash Tomato
Purple Tomatillo
Brandywine Tomato
Lavender
Heirloom Flowering Vines – Cathedral Bells
Lettus Outredgeous – Lactuca Sativa
Arugula – Eruca Sativa
Carrot Royal Chantenay – Daucus Carota Sativus
Happy Bee Blend -Buckwheat, Phacelia, Dragon’s Head and Dill

I would have to say I’m most looking forward to the tomatoes, beans, peas and herbs. I’m also going to try and talk my dad into letting me build a herb spiral too!

Please leave me any questions, comments and ideas.

Thanks for reading.

Caleb

Starting seeds

Posted on March 22, 2012 by calskin

So I’ll be the first to admit that I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m fully shooting from the hip on most of my endeavors as far as gardening is concerned and because of that, I fully expect to make lots of mistakes. To try and minimize my losses though, I’m hitching my bets as much as possible. I’ll be using at least three different techniques to start my seeds this season with hopes that at least one will work well.

seed starting tray

I purchased a coconut husk seed starting tray from Plantation Garden Centre (very nice people, please support them if you need anything) in the NW of Calgary, and yesterday I used the whole thing to plant basil, thyme, lavender, 4 types of tomatoes, parsley and cilantro. I’d love to hear comments from you on whether this was a good move or not.

I also purchased a grow light from a local hydroponics store called Quick Grow (also very nice people and really helpful), and I figured out that under my desk is the perfect spot to start seeds. The light will sits just above the tray because it’s mounted under the drawers. I loved this idea because it’s not in the way at all!

Picture below: Planting seeds

After mounting the light, I put the seed tray under there.

Picture below: Mounting brackets

Picture below: Under my desk where it’s completely out of the way.

Picture below: Under the light

pots and soil

My second technique to starting seeds will be to use old fashioned organic potting soil. I purchased some soil from Plantation Garden Centre, and I’ll probably be using old yogurt containers and whatnot to house the soil and seeds. I’ve also heard of using newspaper folded into a cup, egg shells (which seems like an awesome idea), toilet paper rolls, etc. I don’t really care, but I’ll be starting some seeds in soil also.

hydroponic media

My third technique will be to start seeds in this weird seed starting media I got at Quick Grow. It’s fluffy and I have no idea how it works. These seeds will not be going into the garden. Instead they’ll be going into a window farm that I’m building.