Covered in poo and coming to a leaf near you

Coreopsis beetle whose host plants include ragweed though mine preferred the showy, native ornamentals. Sorry about the fuzzy image, the torrential rain we've been having prevented me from taking another shot.

Yes, I'm talking about the various bugs who lay their eggs on the leaves of their favourite host plant to hatch into a brood that uses being gross as a defence. They will cover themselves in their own excrement presumedly so the predator will be too icked out to eat it. Colorado potato beetle - CBE* - (Lepitinotarsa decemlineata) and lily beetle (Lilioceris lilii) being among the most well known. This year I also met the Coreopsis beetle (Calligrapha sp.). I have not had the honour of observing any of the latter's young so I'm not sure what their toileting habits are yet.


CBE young on clammy ground cherry (Physalis heterophylla). I usually only find them on this native, weedy perennial (with edible fruit FYI) so I consider it a trap crop. It is possible that this is a more narrow host leaf beetle that resembles CBE. 

In the family Chyrsolmelidae, the leaf beetles are some of your nearest and dearest aggravants including not only the infamous CBE (which, by the way, was previously an innocent little native munching away on buffalo burr out west), but asparagus beetle, bean weevils and even flea beetles such as the one that enjoys my cole crops.

I control the larger bugs (flea beetles in another post) by hand picking and tossing into a bowl of soapy water as I go along the rows. Place receptacle under the plant that you wish to unburden because these critters drop when disturbed. If I don't happen to have my bowl with me, I squish them between my fingers. Wear gloves if you can't handle bug guts. If you miss the adults, then many lay eggs on the undersides of leaves. CBE eggs are bright orange and very squishable. The young are gross as noted but will squish if you can stomach it or drop them in that same bucket of soapy water.


Eggs of CBE or related beetle on Clammy ground cherry.

On the first day of collecting Coreopsis beetle from the plant, I removed hundreds. The next day it was a few tens and the next day around six. You have to be diligent though and be prepared for multiple waves. For those with truly massive gardens, floating row cover is probably easier. My gardens are very, very big compared to typical sub/urban sizes but still manageable.

Speaking of leaf eating bugs, here's a picture of my earwig traps:


Mostly rainproof - not torrential rain proof - earwig (etc...) trap.

These are the kind of containers that dry nuts and fruit come in. After entry windows are cut, they are filled with about 0.5-1 inch of old cooking oil and soya sauce, closed and then placed near damage with a heavy rock on top to keep out animals. Think flattish to distribute weight and conceal it. Earwigs like cozy daytime hiding places. It is not a discriminating trap so best to use when there is heavy damage as it does trap ants and the odd earwig predator. Alternatively, you can use rolled up newspaper or corrugated cardboard. They feed at night then hide during the day. Throw paper traps into soapy water or give to the chickens.


Bug corpses in sauce.

Some people recommend gritty things like food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) or wood ash but I find trapping or loosing chickens into the garden more effective (though chickens like salad too).


Commercial slug/earwig trap. I bought one to see how it preformed but didn't like the bait as it moulded creating a solid skim on top - yes this post is full of gross stuff.

If you are not sure if you are getting earwig damage or something else is snacking on tender young growth and seedlings, go out at night with a flashlight. Other culprits include slugs or snails and their slimy trails and the snapped leaves and stems caused by cutworms.

Edited to add this great idea from a comment on Edible Ottawa Gardens Group FB: A commenter said that his father used to leave shop towels around the garden and would shake them out and the earwigs into a bucket of water in the morning. P.S. I started the above FB group as a way of getting together with other food plant geeks. It has more members than this blog has registered readers. So come and join us! (or follow this blog or heck do both)

* Henceforth in this post, I will lazily write CBE. I blame time.

Looking really closely at Lamb's Quarters

I grow Chenopodium giganteum, also known as Magenta Spreen. It is a very useful spinach substitute, coming up when the weather warms and still useful when it starts to bolt where upon it will self seed prolifically. So much so that it will crowd out more annoying weeds like a certain annual grass that infests my beds. However, if you don't want it, it is very easy to remove or just weed whack and leave to enrich the soil. Yes, I am making the case for C. giganteum as a green manure.*


The bright pink one is C. gigantium and the silvery one is C. album.

Chenopodium album, also known as lamb's quarters, grows itself though I have to say I have less of the silvery stuff than my buddy the gaudy pink green. This is perhaps because I tend to pull out the latter.

And here is what I think is Chenopodium giganteum x album.** Perhaps it's a pale variant of Magenta Spreen or perhaps it's a true cross. I have a couple patches here and there. They are more vigorous - i.e., gigantic then lamb's quarters. I shall name it rosy quarters.


See the dusky rose in among the shouting magenta?

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Chenopods contain a number of food plants such as:

Good King Henry, Chenopodium bonus-henricus - perennial with edible shoots
Strawberry Spinach, Chenopodium capitatum - green with beet like 'berries'
Quinoa, Chenopodium quinoa - yummy grain
Huauzontle, Chenopodium nuttaliae- grown for its edible broccoli like flower heads
Magenta Spreen, Chenopodium giganteum - delicious and highly colourful spinach substitute.
Lamb's Quarter, Chenopodium album - the well known weed of disturbed soil and foraged or found green.



* Apparently I'm not the only one. The wiki article on tree spinach also mentions it as 'a high quality green manure.'
** Okay so according to the internet, C. giganteum is sometimes listed as a subspecies of C. album but then again sometimes not. As it is, I'm not entirely clear on the taxonomy. If you are really curious, you could wade through this Molecular differentiation of Cheopodium album complex and some related species using ISSR profiles and ITS sequences.

Weeding as art, science and meditation: a series

With less space and a more established garden, weeding was pretty straight forward in my old suburban location. A lot of the gardens were also started from scratch so no serious issues had festered.

Dandelion Demo Bed Before:

Here is a before shot of the dandelion demonstration garden*. Honest there are dandelions in there. No not the Taraxacum officinale that is so boldly blooming. Other ones too. P.S. I was unable to garden as much as I wanted to last summer due to paranoia about touching soil while pregnant.

All that's changed now!

I live on a large acreage with huge gardens, some of which I have started from scratch and others I inherited along with their problems. I am also trying to limit inputs to avoid importing pests, diseases, weeds and chemicals.

Loosening soil with shovel - quick and dirty:

Most of the weeds in here are annuals including a very prolific flanders poppy which I prefer in more moderation than it likes to grow. I removed the perennials with my trusty shovel then quickly went around loosening the dirt beneath the rest. It had recently rained so the soil was easy to work.

Weeding has become a whole new experience for me. I've learned to love both my little hoe and my large digging hand-plough like hoe. I've also been experimenting with growing mulch in situ and putting in gardens using a method I am calling 'rough beds' though it is more commonly known as the bastard bed. Speed is of the essence though when I can take the time to get down to ground level and hand weed, I remember the meditative and exploratory beauty of weeding. Yes really.

Raking away weeds - imperfect but pretty darn good:

Then I raked up the weeds. Okay so not all the weeds release their grip on the ground but most of them do at this stage. I then went in with my baby hoe and scratched up the rest leaving them there to dry up (poor things).

All this to say that I have been extremely busy putting in and maintaining gardens for our families needs and for my slowly developing business but instead of ignore this blog, this is the first in a series on weeding.

Dandelion Demo Bed After:

Then I re-mulched the paths as they had been in disarray from the chickens that attacked the earwig invasion last year (thank you chickens). Now you can see that there are two garden beds here. The front one is planted with some unusual dandelion varieties, some violas, rock cress and a few other things and the back garden has a small plum, zucchinis and more. P.S. Please don't look beyond because oh yes there is more to be done. Oh so, so, so, so much more. 

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Stats

Size of garden beds: two beds 3x9 feet more or less with a 1foot wide utility path
Tools: shovel, rake, wheel barrow
Level of weediness: 3 out of 5, lots of annual weeds but still small**
Time: Approx. 1hour and most of that in hauling mulch.
Number of Gardens to go: Well, considering this is one half of one garden out of around 12, there is more though I have done some work no them already.

Next Time: Getting to Know You: a primer on weedy ways


*No I'm not being sarcastic. There are some cool plants in there!
** Though one thing I have noticed is that weeds have a way of thinning themselves out. If you ignore baby weeds for awhile, often I find that when you go back there are fewer big weeds rather than a whole mass of stunted ones. Lots of self weeding going on. Depending on the weed (some are obnoxious if left to get too big), I sometimes wait until there are less of them to deal with then I can pull out a whole swathe of green weediness in one yank.

Flowering Fruit

The fruit of the garden has burst into bloom.

Among the first to break bud are the nanking cherry and the haskap.


Haskap - an edible honeysuckle with very early fruit.

Plums were frilly with blossoms though there are starting to fade now. Same with the serviceberry. Not sure where to find these treasures in the wilds? This is a good time of year to spot them sticking out in their white finery often while the tree leaves are just unfurling.


Serviceberry blossoms are falling.

Ribes has burst into its pale green blossoms such as the flat faced flowers of currants cascading. (say that five times fast)


Prolific red currant.

Pears break out before apples have left the pink stage.


Pink bud stage in apple tree

Strawberries are blooming and grape is nearly there.


Drought (of 2012) tolerant grape

Also in bloom are strawberries both wild and cultivated. Tonight we have frost. As buds swell and open in spring they become less frost tolerant so we'll see how they all do.

Red leafed apple baby

Geneva Crab Apple 2010

Gardening is an exercise in optimism: that things will be better, that visions of the delights of a gentle earth can become manifest, that tomorrow will happen. Like many a person has said, you plant a tree not only for yourself but for the a future you may never see: for the creatures, for shade, for fruit, for children to dare to climb up to a strong limb and dangle their feet into the thrilling air below.


Seedling tree roots

Nearly three years ago, my daughters and I were walking in the Arboretum at the Experimental Farm when we found a tree with unblemished apples. Picking one from the ground, we opened it to find red flesh. I brought another home and extracted the seeds. Some of these sprouted and now I have one with bright red leaves.


Digging it into its permanent home, I discovered what look to be the remains of an old compost pile with egg shells and squash seeds.

I don't know whether or not it will have the tasty red fleshed cider fruit of its parent Geneva or be what is unfortunately called a spitter but I hope to find out one day. Now it is a small seedling planted at the back of the old greenhouse demo garden. As I was placing its roots into the soil, I imagined it growing gnarled and craggy like crabapples do. I saw it covered in pinkish blossoms in the spring, red leaves in the summer and fruit in the fall. I saw its bare limbs covered in snow. I imagined a future of plenty.


The leaves remained red all summer last year.

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Some other things that are going on:

If you follow me on Facebook, then you'll know we like to hold Tree Thursday. Ephemeral walk coming up soon.

I've been helping out at the Canadian Organic Growers Demonstration Garden at the Experimental Farm. If you are interested, let me know.

Also, Aster Lane Edible's first workshop 'The roots go down (mostly): A veggie garden workshop for the complete beginner' will be held May 16.

Paper Pots for Winter Sowing

Wouldn't you know it, I tried something new and it worked great!

In my wintersown box this year, I used origami paper pots * to separate varieties in large plastic containers.


Red russian kale so the package says. I grow different types including red ursa (my fav) and more but this is the first that I've noticed that has slightly hairy leaves at least as seedlings.

I prefer the larger, reusable plastic container rather than many smaller 'milk bottle' type because of the ease that I can move it around.


An adventurous root.

Despite my very tentative removal, the paper pot that had been sitting outside since Jan/Feb did not fall immediately apart as I feared. And though roots could go through, they were mostly contained so there was no tangling between boxes. The seedlings were still small though.


Eek, my roots are showing!

Sides were easily torn down. It probably helped that the container was moist.

These were planted out today having been well hardened off as they were never inside to begin with and the lid has been off these days with the warmer weather.


Here they are residing with some leek offsets. This is the third year going for these leeks.

The toilet rolls cut in half are cutworm collars - i.e. cutworm exclusion devices. I used to use bottomless cups but they were messy to clean up and last year, earwigs thought they made excellent nurseries.



I love winter sowing and all its variations:

sowing seeds that either require or withstand some amount of cold or oscillating temperature in the fall in the ground

sowing into a nursery bed in fall or very early spring

sowing under a season extension device as simple as a pop bottle cloche to something as fancy as a greenhouse.

sowing seeds in pots but leaving pots outside in a place sheltered from flooding, wild winds and other pot demolishing forces. Snow would anchor them down of course.

* I used a slightly different technique to make the larger pots but this is instructive

Invasivore

For my biz website,* I'm writing up a list of plants I won't sell but are useful edibles if you happen to have the mixed luck of already growing them. And chances are one of these will be on the list. Here is a selection:

Alliaria petiolata - Garlic Mustard

A native across the pond, this potherb's prolific seeding can overwhelm shady areas quickly. They are allelopathic to mycorrhizal fungi partners of certain native trees so can harm their growth and are poisonous to certain butterflies.

Uses: Turn the pest into pesto says it all really. Like many other flavourful greens, it can be used as a spinach substitute in quiche, pies, salads, pastas and more.

Aegopodium podograria - Goutweed, Bishop's weed 

The variegated variety is often seen peeping out along the foundation or under plants. This very tough ground cover does exactly what it promises and covers ground.

Uses: A carrot relative, it is often compared to celery. You will also be amused/amazed to know that this is one of the forgotten vegetables. Yes people planted it to eat on purpose. Oh wait, people still plant this on purpose. They just forgot to eat it. Eat the Weeds tells all.

Campanula rampunculoides -  Creeping Bellflower

Once upon a time, in a garden long ago, I was about to pull a weed when someone stayed my hand saying, "Don't pull that, it's a pretty wildflower." They must not have liked me. Another transplant from across the water, once established, it is difficult to eradicate. It has a clever trick to make you think you have pulled it all out. See, shoots with weak root systems form away from the main, bulky taproot. You pull these and think, ha ha, got it. It laughs back.

Uses: Perfectly passable as an edible, the taproots and greens can be eaten. I experiment with them here. Just remember to get those juicy taproots.

Fallopia japonica - Japanese Knotweed

I have this conversation a lot. "Wouldn't it be great if there was a hardy bamboo that grew in Ottawa." "Oh I have one/ have seen one." "Really?" "Yes, but you have to be careful because they're invasive you know." "Perchance would it have plumes of white flowers in the summer?" "Why do you ask?"

Because it's Japanese Knotweed! However, if you do have an interesting, hardy bamboo, I'm all ears. The jointed stems or knots are what make it look like bamboo. Another common name is fleece flower, also a good description. I often see it growing in damp conditions such as ditches. You may still encounter a variegated variety sold as a decorative perennial.

Uses: The spring shoots are a rhubarb like plant. More from well known forager Steve Brill.

Ranunculus ficaria - Lesser Celandine

The Marsh Menace hails from Europe and is outcompeting natives in wet areas and moist woodlands

Uses: This plant is not edible raw as it contains a toxin that is destroyed by cooking. Funnily enough, I was really surprised to see that it was considered edible at all given that it is in the buttercup family. I have no experience with this plant so I'll refer to someone who does.

Enjoy.

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* No time for photos. Spring clean, bed making, website designing, plant growing. However, I do post to my Facebook account if you are really starved for monotonous seedling pics. Look for Ottawa Gardener.

If you google invasivore, you may be surprised that many animals are on the list. Okay, not necessarily surprised that there are invasive animals, but foraging culture often leaves out the meaty side. Get it, leaves... out... I'll stop.