Other Entries: August 2007 September 2007 January 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008

Early this month, someone decided that they deserved the tops of thirteen of our winter Kale plants, so they brought a knife and a bag to the roadside demonstration garden. Had they harvested the lower leaves, rather than decapitating the plants, the setback would have been much less severe, as the growing tips would have been able to keep forming new leaves. Needless to say, plant physiology is most likely not this persons specialty, and the plants suffered not only the stress of losing their shoots, but also the misfortune of having to meet an unpleasant, antisocial thief. Fortunately, the cut plants all grew new vegetative shoots the following week, and are now making new flushes of growth. I've decided to feel sorry for, rather than angry at, whoever demonstrated their greed that fateful day. It can't possibly be a good feeling to eat pound after pound of someone else's sweat and toil.

It was inevitable that the roadside garden be harvested-from by passers-by at some point, and we certainly don't get upset when people help themselves to a discreet couple of raspberries, tomatoes, or peas. Indeed, it happens fairly frequently. When bags and knives are brought-out for wholesale produce-removal, however, our feelings shift slightly. I've managed to use this first major theft as motivation to accelerate the pace of my new project, which involves relocation to rural BC sometime in the next decade. I'll no doubt be farming North Vancouver for a number of years before I move, however. I still like it here, kale-theft or not.

The first ripe tomato of the season was harvested on the seventh day of July this year. "Latah" is one of my favourite tomato varieties: It is an open-pollinated, early, flavourful, productive, determinate variety. I'd love to have a greenhouse or a warmer climate to garden in, but until that happens, I'll continue to use earliness as one of my main deciding factors in which tomatoes to grow. Unfortunately, many of the early tomatoes available on the market are relatively flavourless, often with undesirable textures, which fail to strike a balance between dates-to-maturity and culinary usefulness. For this reason, I trial several new types each year, and have been gradually building a repertoire of desirable tomatoes. Favourites so far include Latah, Tumbler, Stupice, Sweet One Hundred, Sweet Million, Tigerella, and Chiapis Wild. New varieties being trialed this year include Taxi, Sweet Gold, Crimson Carmello, Czech's Excellent Yellow, and Kootenai. Stay tuned for results in the August and September Garden Log updates.

In some of the land recently vacated by the early summer's pea crop, I have been sowing oats and buckwheat. Buckwheat is a remarkable crop, and I intend to keep planting it well into August this year, as an attractant for bees and other beneficial insects, as well as a soil-builder, erosion-control crop, and ornamental. The seeds are edible and nutritious, as well, though I've yet to grow enough for a full meal. The insect activity around a stand of buckwheat in full bloom is more than enough reason to grow this most versatile of crops. Over the past several years, I have been cover crops more often, as I find them to be one of the most interesting labour-saving and soil-building techniques available to vegetable gardeners. I encourage everyone to experiment with the great variety available. A partial list of covers I've used includes Oats, Buckwheat, Rye, Field Peas, and Vetch. White Clover, Crimson Clover, and Phacelia will be experimented-with next year.

On the fifteenth of this month, I planted the last of the fall/winter kale, carrots, lettuce, and beets. At this time of year, when the weather is warm and clear, I water newly-seeded beds every morning until germination occurs. More than once, I've made the mistake of neglecting the summer water-needs of newly-seeded land. It only takes a day for a seed bed to go from nearly-saturated to bone dry when the humidity is low and the temperature climbs into the thirties by mid-afternoon. Deep soil rich in organic material holds water for much longer than marginal land, but both require frequent attention for successful mid-summer seeding.

The tying and suckering of staked indeterminate tomatoes is an important task during the entire month of July: At this time of year, tomatoes grow very quickly, and a missed sucker can produce flowers and fruits at a startling speed, throwing-off the entire training system. Though this certainly a big problem in the grand scheme of things, it does make for a less efficient use of space, particularly in narrow beds. The bulk of our indeterminate tomato crop this year is growing in a narrow bed against the south side of our house, where efficient production depends on the effective use of vertical, rather than lateral, space.

One of most important, and pleasurable, tasks in July is the harvesting and eating of crops: Potatoes, Raspberries, Strawberries, Kale, Lettuce, Collards, Parsley, Peas, Gooseberries, Lentils, Rhubarb, Onions, Tomatoes, and other crops are all enjoyed. One of my most anticipated harvests of the season, garlic, ocurred on the last day of July this year: Planting this years' crop with generous spacing, in rich soil, and under a heavy mulch of Alder leaves really paid off: I managed to produce bulbs larger than anything I've grown to date. Unfortunately, I'm saving almost all of them to plant again this fall. Deferring homegrown garlic consumption for an entire year has been a difficult decision to make, but I'll be glad I made it next July.

I wish everyone reading this a happy, worry-free, kale-filled summer.