What to do with your old bike …. make art! A great addition to your front yard.
Monthly Archives: July 2013
Freshsheet
The Okanagan Institute and the Okanagan Media Alliance publish Freshsheet which looks at local issues, including food. Here is the latest issue:
Tour Shaping Up
Everything is beginning to take shape. Originally, we had wanted to have two tours – one in south central Kelowna and one in Rutland. It looks like for this year, we’re going to narrow it to one and focus on making it one great tour. This year, we are offering up south central Kelowna. Maybe Rutland next summer?
I’ve had such pleasure talking with the home owners and viewing their gardens. Everyone is so enthusiastic and passionate about what they have created. I’ve learned a lot of tips about gardening too. Many of the folks I’ve talked with are enthusiastic cyclists too. Gardening and cycling seem to go hand in hand.
With the high heat we’ve been having in the interior of BC, I’ve been thinking about reducing water for vegetable gardens. Here’s a blog I found by Ramon Gonzales that addresses this issue: Bountiful water-saving garden. It addresses soil, watering techniques, planting techniques and more. Here’s a list of drought resistant vegetables that he suggests growing on his site:
“This is by no means a complete list of vegetables and herbs that will tolerate drought, but the list can serve as a place to start.
1. Low prickly pear cactus-edible fruits and leaf pads of O. humifusa
2. Rhubarb-once mature is drought resistant.
3. Swiss Chard
4. ‘Hopi Pink’ corn
5. Asparagus-once established
6. Jerusalem artichoke
7. Legumes: Chickpea, Tepary beans, Moth bean, Cowpea, ‘Jackson Wonder’ lima bean.
8. Green Striped Cushaw squash
9. ‘Iroquois’ cantaloupe
10. Okra
11. Peppers
12. Armenian cucumber
13. Sage
14. Oregano
15. Thyme
16. Lavender
17. Amaranth-green leafed varieties
18. Rosemary
19. ‘Pineapple’ tomato
20. Chiltepines-wild chiles”
Given his inclusion of veg such as cactus, chiles and okra, I thought Gonzales lives in the southern US but I checked – he’s from Chicago, Illinois. If these vegetables do well in the mid-west US, they may thrive here too, but you’ll have to try that for yourself.
Here’s some suggestions for northern gardens from The Veggie Patch Re-imagined.
Turf the Turf 