Christmas 2014! Wow another year is nearly gone!

Sending to Christmas blessings to all who drop by. I hope to post a year end review of growing and harvesting here in our corer of the prairies! It has been good and not so good but we have been very blessed so what can I say!
Here is a Christmas winter blessing! Enjoy the season!

It's been very white here for a number of days both in the sky and on the trees!

 And some Christmas Day photos! Finally sun!

Grow Bags, transplants and snow!

Well I started digging Clematis to move and replant and they are in pots so far. Many more to go but these were in the way of the roto tilling so I did them first. Clematis are in the  larger pots in the front.

 This is a Blue Honeysuckle transplanted into a grow bag. Waiting for nicer weather to see if it will take. I transplanted out of a pot from winter so not sure if it lived or not.

 Some Clematis seeds which stayed on all winter!

This morning we woke up to more snow falling and it is still falling this afternoon. Although the day is brighter and the temperature is above freezing so it should go.

This is the view out our living room window this morning. And below are some pictures of the snow at about 7:30 am when I went to let the dogs out into their pen.

Plant Bags for spring

Well spring is coming sometime soon and I have been thinking of all the plants I need to transplant. Many will not go back into the ground so I started making plant bags to move them into,

 This roll of landscape cloth works well for this. The width is 36 inches and the cut is every 16 inches. When folded in half the finished bag is about 16 X 18.

And here is an Edible Blue Honeysuckle transplanted from a 3L pot into the new plant bag. Will be interesting to see how this works,

Here is a link to Larry Hall's Youtube channel where he talks about using plant bags as a money making project. Check out his video's on a few topics like Rain gutter growing.

A little history from Nipawin area

Picked up the book "Mossy Vale Lost Homesteads of the Pas Trail" by Brian Smith. This the story of an area east of Nipawin, Saskatchewan which became submerged when the Saskatchewan Power Corporation built a dam on the Saskatchewan River about 45 miles east of town. I am not sure of the total number of farms lost but it really was a sad thing and Sask Power did not compensate them very well for all they lost. I am quite curious about this area as a friend who grew up there told about picking an elongated berry similar in color to a blueberry but I am sure it was something from the Lonicera family like the Edible Blue Honeysuckle. Sadly I still have not found anyone who has picked the berries since.
Here is a little video also taken in the area about 1960 before the flood began.

Also a helpful site about the one room schools.

The author of the book is a partner in Articulate Eye here in Saskatoon.

And this is Brian's blog

And this is where the water over ran the land. Mossy Vale would have been under some of the south side of the lake.

The on going story ............. Apricot seedlings

Well today was the day to separate the seedlings and plant them up. I sterilized some old potting soil - 30 minutes in the oven at 180 F. First time really I have done this.I understand higher temperatures can cause toxins.

Aluminum tray with a tin fol cover.















So I put some paper on the kitchen counter and filled these 32 oz. drink glasses with holes drilled for drainage. Soil is about 1/2 to 1/3 depending on the root ball size. These are smaller so at least 1/2 and a little more.The picture story is here.

Well I did it again ....... more seeds set to germinate

Several weeks ago I found a small dish of plum like seeds on the kitchen counter and decided I would crack the pits and get the kernels out. I put them in a plastic bag with wet peat moss and left them on a shelf in my shop.

So last week there were sprouted stems coming up and this weeka nother has shown itself!

They were Apricot pits which my wife Marg planned to crack open and eat the kernels. They proved to hard and she only did one with the hammer but it made too many broken pieces.

So tonight I found another bunch of seeds I had put aside in the fall after we picked wild plums. Here is a pictorial story of how I dealt with them tonight.

The cracked pit of group number 1

 The cracked pit of group number 2

 Squeezed in the mouth of the bench vise. Note the cloth strung through the vise. I nearly lost the first seed because the pit opens with a pop and sends everything flying!

 So I pull the cloth up and around and put my hand on the cloth and turn the handle of the vise till there is a sharp pop. When you open it up the pit is split open and the seed exposed.

 So there are two groups of which the small ones are Wild plum! I have forgotten where the larger pits came from. Not good but I really did not plan to plant them. I think they are plums too!

 No 1

 No 2

These are the seeds of No 1 and you will notice there are two seeds with little holes. I meant to bring them in and check under a magnifier to see if they were worm holes but I planted them anyway so we will see what happens. I think it is not unusual for the worm to eat the germ and so they will not likely germinate. Who knows maybe non will germinate. But I wanted to try anyway.

Activities.................................

Well I promised myself I would not start any new seeds but I found some seed from Clematis fremontii so decided I would plant them in some peat pellets and see what happens. Just for fun,

Most of the activity has been in the workshop lately so slip on over to my bird blog for a look!

Winter scenes for January 12, 2014

Here are just a few scenes from around our yard today as the sun shines brightly on the snow. A very nice day but the wind is sharp!

A small group of Blue Honeysuckle from assorted sources.

 Clematis seedlings on Tomato cages under snow.

 More Clematis seedlings.

 Blue honeysuckles and assorted other shrubs and trees.

 My Beta Grape (?) under the snow. Needs more cover.

 Just a scene!

 Under attack by Jack Rabbits!

You might be interested in this!

The Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association meeting at the Saskatoon Inn.
Check out the Registration here.http://www.cropweek.com/agendas/fruit/