Today - a radio spot!

Join me this morning at 11 am Atlantic (10 am EST) when I join Rob Howard on The Home & Garden Show on AM900 CHML for a 1/2 hour radio chat! We'll cover year round veggie gardening and (I believe) we'll be taking questions! Listen live online a twww.900chml.com. You can find Rob and his weekly show on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RobInTheGarden



Should be fun!! :)

An Excerpt from The Year Round Vegetable Gardener

Wow, I just learned that one of my favourite magazines, Mother Earth News has published an excerpt of The Year Round Vegetable Gardener - woo woo! To read it, click here!

Gardens East Love

I've got to give some love to Gardens East! My latest issue just arrived a few days ago, but because of impending deadlines (cue dark, booming music), I've not yet had a chance to flip through it.. well, now that I'm finishing up writing a garden profile for the Feb issue of the magazine (a very cool moss-hosta garden just outside Halifax), I decided to procrastinate a bit and brewed some tea and grabbed the issue you see in the photo.



I typically write two articles per issue - one is always a garden profile on a Maritime gardener (Tom Hall in PEI in this issue) and the other article is on another aspect of gardening.. from sweet peas to winter veggies and everything in between. (got ideas? Just make a comment below, I always want to hear suggestions from gardeners!) I also love that Gardens East employes some of my favourite Canadian garden writers - Larry Hodgson (seriously, the king of perennials! In the new issue he covers Garden Myth Truths), Brian Minter (Winter Baskets for the Holiday Season) and Ward Teulon, another veggie lover (Storing Vegetables).



As a gardener, I am so glad we have such a detailed resource - for the Maritimes.. and as a writer, I grateful for the opportunity to work for such fun folks. You can check out their website here. And a 1 year subscription is 33% off!! Hello holiday season!



Please let me know if you have any suggestions on NS, NB, PEI or NFLD gardens that should be included in the magazine - just comment below. And, Gardens East welcomes and encourages you to e-mail, snail mail, tweet, facebook your garden questions/photos/adventures which may end up in the next issue!! (e-mail - talkback@gardenswest.com) Tell them Niki sent you! :)

Fall Greens and Autumn Thoughts

Well, I think today is it. After this day is done, the 'real' November weather should be arriving and I better get the mini hoop tunnels set up and ready to go before the sun sets at 5 pm (thanks SO much time change) today. We've been very lucky with only a few lights frosts and one hard frost so far - it's Nov 4th for goodness sake - but after today, our lovely 12 C weather is sinking to just above freezing and I want to make sure our beds of hardy greens are protected and ready for winter. 

Speaking of beds of greens, these hardy plants have been thriving in the mild Oct and Nov weather.. I started none of them from seed or transplant - at least not on purpose. They're all reseeded (aka, volunteer) babies that I dug up and moved as they popped up in the beds in September. Some of them were moved in hot, dry weather, but they all took. Another reason to love these resilient edibles. Talk about easy gardening! Now, we have 3 cold frames full of crops for winter and about six 4 by 10 foot beds overflowing with hardy greens and root crops. I also late seeded a few more beds with assorted greens that will overwinter and be ready for harvest from mid March until mid-May when the 'real' garden takes over once again.

As for now, here's a few photos I took this morning as the most beautiful golden autumn light bathed the garden.. mind you, once I snapped the first photo, clouds appeared and that light was gone, but nevertheless, here is a glimpse of our garden.. 

Mixed Asian greens and baby kale in the fleeting light.

Asian greens just LOVE this weather!

Some of my new-to-me kales.. Lacinato Rainbow, a cross of

Lacinato (aka, Dinosaur kale) with Redbor, a curly-leafed red variety.

More Lacinato Rainbow with Winterbor in the

background.

Baby Pixie cabbage from Renee's Garden with

Lacinato Rainbow kale. 

Winterbor kale with sweet alyssum - still

going strong!

Curly parsley and sweet alyssum.

Glossy green Asian veggies

Look closely and you'll see the bolted mizuna

in the middle.. no worries, the flowerbuds and blooms

also take great!

Ruby Streaks mustard from Greta's Organic Garden in

Ontario.

Say cheese, Lacinato Rainbow! Not quite as

colourful as I had thought, but maybe that is a

natural variation or my seed source.. 

Collecting my Bean Seeds

I must admit that I'm not a 'super keen' seed saver. Well, maybe I should say that it's not that I'm not 'super keen', but rather 'super unorganized'. It's true that there aren't many occasions when I don't come back from a stroll through the garden without some bit of seed in my pockets. Occasionally, they even make it to the washing machine because I've completely forgotten that I had a pocketful of nasturtium seeds! Oops! I refuse to admit just how many times I've done that, but let's just say, it happens more often that I would like! :)



Now that we've had a few light frosts and one hard frost, I've begun collecting the seeds of my pole beans. This year we grew 4 varieties - Purple Podded Pole, Emerite, Fortex and Lazy Housewife.. Having just been up in the garden planting another 100 cloves of garlic and moving around a few kale babies, I took a quick peek at the drying bean vines still clinging to the A-frame trellis and decided to collect a few handfuls of the Purple Podded Pole since the pods were crisp and dry in the warm autumn weather. Here are some photos:

They've lost their distinctive purple colour,
but these dried pods are ready to harvest.

If they're still pliable or succulent, leave them
another week or two. The best quality mature
seeds come from comepletely dried pods. 

The dried pods pop open when you run your finger
down the seam. Careful, or the beans will spill out.

Each Purple Podded Pole bean has about 7 to 10
seeds.

A handful from 3 beans - enough for about 25 plants
next year!! The seed from about 20 beans will yield
more than enough for our garden as well as extra to share.

Hard Frost

Garden sage.. so pretty when frosted

It's finally happened, the first hard frost. We've had a few light frosts, but this morning, even the deck was covered in a frosty glaze.. Obviously, I had to run up to the garden and snap some photos (tea in hand), so here are a few shots of the frosted garden with the warm autumn light..



On a side note, if you haven't started closing or mostly closing your cold frames at night, now is the time.. It got down to -2 C last night and so starting tonight (forgot last night!) I will begin closing them at night, but I will probably still leave them propped open a few inches if it's not going to be below freezing. Then, in the morning, they can be opened wide - or fully on rainy days to capture that moisture.

One of the last calendulas.. hardy and tasty annual flowers

I'm always surprised at sweet alyssum's hardiness. Under a mini
hoop tunnel it can bloom until January! Here it is after last
night's hard frost.

Mixed Asian greens shaking off the cold

Hello tatsoi!

Dinosaur kale - my favourite frosted green

Check out these ice crystals on the dinosaur kale! 

and more...

Lacinato rainbow kale.. new for me, loving it!

More Asian greens.. hardy and tasty

So manyAsian greens just thrive in autumn!

Autumn Glory!

On my way home from Shelburne yesterday - where I gave a talk on year round veggie gardening to the most delightful group of gardeners - I passed this incredible sight.. I had to turn around and snap a few photos.. Happy Autumn!