Wonders from the garden

Another magnificent day, and we should all be outside enjoying it. Far too soon we’ll be enduring rainy and windy days, and blaming the weather for everything nasty that happens. “Some of my apples are rotting, it’s this darned rain”, or “The winter pears are all over the ground, it’s this blamed wind” (maybe I should have picked them yesterday when it was sunny — Oh well, too late now.) My back aches. I know. It’s the weather!

Our editor has forwarded a message from a Mr. W.M.R. who this year grew some fantastic sweet potatoes in his Central Saanich garden. I want to know what he used as fertilizer, it must have included some magic potion to make them so huge. The largest weighed nearly two pounds (938 grams). A number of years ago I tried to grow a few in the vegetable garden, with zero success. Sweet potatoes grow on long underground stalks, one following another. Mine (much anticipated, I love them) were miserable, skinny little efforts, not worthwhile baking, a waste of garden space, and oven heat. I decided they were a crop that needed more heat than our zone usually provides, and gave up. Once again I was wrong, mind you this was an unusually glorious and warm summer. (Excuses, excuses!)

Something interesting happened in the kitchen. I keep a large basket of fruit on the counter. In it are a nunber of apples, oranges, bananas, peaches and nectarines. Just to add to the look of the collection I added two whole garlic bulbs, and guess what? The combination of apples and garlic destroyed the garlic. I was going to make garlic butter and to my disgust found that all the garlic corms had shrivelled up, no juice left in them at all. Live and learn!

This reminds me that now is a great time to plant garlic. Separate the cloves and plant them four to five inches apart, pointed end up, just below the surface of the soil. Some bone meal in the planting holes would be a good idea. Actually, I usually start off by putting separated corms in a shallow bowl with water in the bottom. In an amazingly short time roots appear. No chance of planting them up-side down this way.

From now on it is bulb planting time, and I urge you to visit the nurseries to make your selections, before all the biggest and best are gone. Pick unblemished tulip bulbs, the larger the better. Daffodil bulbs may come in clumps. These will have smaller flowers, but likely more of them. Do buy some of those miniature daffodils that multipy so satisfactorly, forming delightful clumps of bloom wherever you can find a spot to put them in. I like to plant them in unexpected places, it is such a thrill to come upon them where you’d not expect such beauty.

Do plant a few anemones, they are so lovely, but if you’ll visit a nursery you’ll find dozens of different bulbs that will flower from February (snowdrops) until July (lilies).

A good many years ago I sold bulbs out of our garage, and it has been a lasting love affair ever since. I dealt with Van Noort bulb company and when the boxes arrived it was all I could do not to dance in the street, singing a paean of happiness. I think it worried Himself. I believe he secretly wondered if I’d finally “lost it” completely. But to think such glorious flowers can come from those unlikely brown lumps. It’s a marvel, it really is!

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