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| Amateur Vegetable Gardening... | ...in the Bulkley Valley, Part I | ||
| by Sara-Jane Brocklehurst |
| It is yet another rainy day. Janine grabs a head of lettuce and pulls it out of the dirt. She packs it in a plastic bag and hopes there is someone who can use it. She has more lettuce than she knows what to do with this year. It has been a perfect year for lettuce if the slugs didn't get at it! Janine Mackay is a first-time vegetable gardener and has learned through trial and error what she will and won't do next year. |
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| The Bulkley Valley and the Lakes District can be a difficult area to grow things because of its short growing season, with often only a little more than 60 frost-free days. This year was certainly a challenge with the rain and cooler
weather.Nothing is better than actual experience to guide new gardeners or those who have struggled in the past. This is a two-part feature covering a number of individual gardeners and their creative approaches to gardening in the valley.
I have gardened lots in the past but mostly in eastern Canada. My one attempt in the valley, a couple of summers ago, was less than successful. I had planted directly into the difficult local soil and had been inundated with slugs. So, this year, my husband, Dave, and I decided to build raised beds. We built 4 beds in total, all 4 feet by 16 feet. Two were 16 inches deep and two were 10 inches deep. |
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We used some local soil and mixed it with a load of topsoil. Janine and her husband, Scott, expressed an interest in doing a garden this year.Two boxes (one of each depth) went to the Mackays and two were for us. But that is where the similarities end. All that we planted in common was carrots, potatoes, lettuce, spinach and onions. Sounds like a lot but there is so much to choose from. |
