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Earth friendly gardening in the Kootenays region of British Columbia, Canada |
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Sustaining connection between people and plants |
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In my Garden:
July
August
September |
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In the garden, Autumn is indeed the crowning glory of the year,
bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And
at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb
colour effects as from August to November.
- Rose G. Kingsley |
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In my Garden
September
2009 |
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I garden in the West Kootenay, British Columbia,
Canada, in
the plant hardiness zone 5a, in the area known before as "that dry
desert".
It is undoubtedly dry here, but it doesn't mean
it has to be a desert.
My soil is sandy and acidic. The drainage is
almost too good. Summers are very hot and dry here, winters are very
snowy and seemingly without end. Very often a thick blanket of snow
covers the ground since the middle of November through the middle of
April. I have about four months frost free, usually since the middle
of May through the middle of September.
In my gardening I try to follow Nature's ways of
doing things. This kind of approach is called biomimicry.
I don't use synthetic fertilizers and don't use herbicides and
pesticides.
During dry weather I water my gardens about once
a week. During heavy production of fruit I may water every five or
six days. I try to mulch as much as I can to ensure that the soil is
cool and moist all the time and the soil temperature even and to
provide food and home for soil
organisms. It is the soil organisms that make soil fertile.
In my garden I grow vegetables, flowers, fruit
trees and berries, especially those not grown commercially.
I value my garden not only as a source of beauty
and healthy food but also as an opportunity for a health restoring,
whole-body exercise in fresh air and sun. |
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At front on the left of course my Indian Summer Rudbeckia.
You can see images of it on the July and August pages. This picture
was taken on 28th of September. It looks like
it will never cease to bloom. In the background Goldenrod
(Solidago)
Golden Wings well loved by bees and me, too. It is about 7 ft tall this year.
At the bottom of the picture
Calendulas. I should do some dead-heading there before taking this photo, but I didn't. |
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Harvesting - early September |
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Matronly stature of
Kale Redbor. Kale, being biennial, is frost hardy. It is the
last green vegetable that I pick in my garden before winter covers
the plants with a thick layer of snow and makes access to the garden impossible. |
Pears Clapp's Favourite. The fruit is huge, up to 1/2 kg each,
sweet and juicy, with a buttery texture. Unfortunately the pears do not store well,
about three weeks is the maximum, after that they get mushy.
They are great for eating raw but can also be canned, used to
make pear chutney or pickled. |
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Swiss Chard. Packed
with vitamins and minerals. |
Strawberries Hecker and blackberries Triple Crown.
I stop picking my strawberries only after they get frozen by a
really
hard frost. |
Ripening
Sunflowers |
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Second half of September |
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Young beets, blood purifiers and liver cleansers, with leaves, straight from the garden.
Great for borsch. |
Kale Lacinato Rainbow.
According to some sources Kale has powerful
anti-cancer and antioxidant compounds that help cleanse the body of
harmful substances. It is also high in fiber, which helps cleanse
the intestinal tract. |
Wild mushrooms Boletus family grow at this time of year under young
Pine trees on my property. They are great for soups or pickled. I
also love them cooked with onions in butter and sour cream and served with rice or potatoes.
Mushrooms are powerful immune stimulants. |
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