Renewal

Second week of January...already!  Barry started pruning our rather large, old apple tree on Tuesday and is now celebrating...the job is complete.  Not only is the apple tree feeling renewed, but we now have a nicely stacked pile of kindling and firewood for next year.  The actual pruning only took two days; the rest of the time was clean up.  All of this had to be accomplished inbetween rain, showers, and howling winds.  Right at this moment it is 9 degrees celsius and overcast but not raining (wait a minute or so and it may).  Unfortunately, The Weather Network is predicting more of the same until Friday.  I'm not sure when to expect an end to this dreary, wintery, wet weather...I have no prior experience to base it on. 

I spotted a few snowdrops hiding under the fall mums yesterday.  Buds are swelling on the climbing hydrangea, some of the irises are showing new growth, and a very small purple primula is flowering.  I am eager to believe that spring is 'just around the corner'...foolish, eh?

Using the Planting Chart for Coastal BC provided by West Coast Seeds, I plan to get our peas (we saved our own pea seed) sown outdoors by mid February.   I also plan to sow a second crop of peas for fall and winter eating in mid to late June.  We can't get enough fresh peas!  Last season we planted a second crop of carrots in a large container for fall and winter eating and are still enjoying fresh carrots.  The carrots we harvested in the fall currently are being stored in a wooden box filled with sand on our covered deck.  This method of storing carrots was new to us but we will definitely use it again.  This helpful tip came from Mother Earth News - a great magazine, kindly subscribed for us by my daughter, Vanessa.  The Powell River Library also subscribes to this wonderful magazine.

Here's a picture of our carrots before the next layer of sand covered them. 

On Tuesday we received our seed order from Salt Spring Seeds.  We are eager to try some new crops this year.  Since we both love split pea soup, we have decided to grow Darlaine Peas, a creamy tan pea.  Again, with soup in mind, we are going to grow purple barley.   Apparently it has pretty purple heads on three foot tall stalks.  In addition to Dragon Tongue, we are going to try a heritage bean mix and Brita's, which is a foot long pole bean.  We can't believe how prolific Dragon Tongue is!  We don't mind, though...Barry has perfected his recipe of beans with black bean sauce and garlic.