In June I had the pleasure of visiting two permaculture-inspired farms. I’ve lived away from the farm and in a city for about 25 years now, but I still feel a strong connection to farming. Therefore, I love having a chance to spend a day at a farm once in a while.
 
My first visit was Stony Creek Farms near Rochester, about an hour north of the city. There was a call out to help with chores after one of the owners was injured. I carpooled with Stefan, and the two of us arrived just in time to feed and water the pigs, impressive Berkshire/Tamworth sows and cute piglets. I got the job of milling wheat and peas, then mixing that with water and some milk to create a healthy mash. It was dusty, noisy work, but I stuck Kleenex in my ears and was happy to grind away. Then I spent some time helping Stefan with building frames for a chicken coop – I love sawing and drilling to build useful stuff! Next came the sheep, as they needed some hoof trimming before being sold to a new owner. In teams of three, we managed to flip each sheep on its back and hold it while the more or less willing animal got a pedicure. Soon a few hours had slipped by and it was time for a nice roast, salad and some pasta. We were all dirty and tired, but happy to dig in and lend a helping hand.
Stony Creek Farms offers “beyond organic” meat and veggie shares, and you can learn more about the farm here: http://stoneycreekfarm.ca/
 
Another fascinating visit was an organized tour of Grassroots Family Farm. Takota Coen and his parents run this organic farm and CSA. Takota explained how permaculture is about creating connectivity to increase the health and productivity of people, plants and animals. We saw how the Jersey cow and her calf grazed under rows of fruit and nut trees, reducing competitive grasses and fertilizing the plants. Sophie’s milk is added to the pig mash as a pro-biotic and to pre-ferment it. The free roaming chickens get some of this healthy grain mix while cleaning up what the pigs drop or do not eat. Animal manure is composted right along with straw bedding in the spacious, wind-protected pig corral. Both pigs and chickens help this process and reduce pests with their natural tendency to dig and scratch.

Out in the fields, we also got a tour of an extensive water harvesting system and swales that provide moisture to long rows of fruit trees and berry bushes. Melt and rainwater collects at the lowest point of the farm in a dugout. Water is pumped to the highest point on the farm with a solar powered pump. A small pond at the top of the hill holds this transported water. Takota can lower a standing pipe in the pond to direct pond water into a series of swales. These are ditches that follow the contour lines on the hillsides. Water will spread out in the swales and then slowly percolate downhill, feeding the pasture grasses and growing food forest. A direct pipe from the pond also provides enough pressure for some direct irrigation of field crops and gardens closer to the farm buildings.

The Coen family has spent time learning about permaculture and from like-minded farmers, taking risks to experiment and making changes as needed. It was a pleasure learning about how they take pride in growing healthy animals, soil and plants for our benefit. You can learn more about this farm here: www.grassrootsfamilyfarm.ca

For a long list of other fabulous and fascinating Alberta farms that offer direct sales or CSA shares, you can visit http://www.csaalberta.com/

I’ve been fascinated with wild bees for a few years, and I have played around with creating pollinator homes and encouraging others to do the same.
 
This spring, I had a wonderful experience showing my garden club kids at Windsor Park School how to tie together dry sunflower stalks to make bundles and hang them in protected areas for the pollinators. While inspecting some older stick bundles back at home, I found one with two cells, presumably with wild bee larvae. I took this stick to the school and showed the children. A week later, I realized I had forgotten to put that stick with the larvae back in my yard, and it was still in my garden club box when I gathered the children for another session. To our surprise and delight, the bees had just hatched and two tiny, black bees were sitting on the stick and then flew away into the school garden.
 
If you want to make your own stick bundles for pollinators, you will need to save stalks in the fall from sunflowers or perennials that have thick stems. The sticks should be at least 6 inches long, tied together and hung under an overhang, ideally facing east. Wild bees will create cells to lay eggs, provision them with food and then seal them off for protection.
 
The same idea applies to deep holes drilled in wood. You can drill holes in stumps or untreated wood beams. The holes can range in size from 1/8" to 5/16" in diameter, and as deep as the drill bit will allow, but 6 inches would be ideal.
 
Another option is to roll paper around a thin stick and close off one end. Remove the stick, and place bundles of these paper tubes inside a water proof container, then secure it in an east-facing location that is protected from rain.
 
For information on more elaborate pollinator homes, you can visit the Edmonton and Area Land Trust website and download instructions and plans.
 
I have several pollinator homes in my yard, and I also have many kinds of native and non-native flowering plants that provide a source of nectar and pollen for the bees. The combination of flowers, a source of water and wooden homes or stick bundles create the right conditions for pollinators to stick around. The benefit is more beneficial insects and better plant pollination.

Every garden and edible landscape evolves and follows the patterns of succession, a natural change in the biological community over time. As trees and shrubs grow, the amount of light on the ground decreases. The herbaceous layer or ground cover plants may thin out or if they self-seed, the seedlings may pop up in sunnier spaces. More shade-loving species will start to grow more vigorously. The amount of rain and heat is also an important factor in how productive the plants are.

What I love about a natural and edible landscape is the experimentation it allows us to do and the observation, learning and pleasure we derive from interacting with an evolving ecosystem. When you spend some time observing the changes and taking stock of what’s happening in your yard, you can make some interesting discoveries. Here are some things that have captured my interest in my yard this summer.
 
Arctic Beauty Kiwi is Growing Fruit!
I purchased a pot with a male and female kiwi and planted it in a fairly dry spot in almost full sun about 7 years ago. Some sources recommend that it be grown in part shade, in well-drained soil that should not be allowed to completely dry out. My kiwi certainly does not have the benefit of perfect conditions and while it has grown a little bit every year, it’s still only about 4 feet high. It now receives a little bit more shade from spruce trees in the area, and in April the temperature barely dipped below freezing. These conditions were favourable and for the first time, the vine is growing a few kiwis. They are still very small and I don't think there is more than a handful, but it’s exciting to see this exotic fruit develop into a berry-sized treat in our cold climate! Scroll down for a photo.
 
Wild Strawberry Bounty
Another sweet little treat is the wild strawberries that have been producing with abundance this early summer. I dug them up in a quarter of land that was being developed. Over the years, they have spread to cover bare soil, moving to sunnier spots but also doing well under the apple tree and other partially shaded areas. For many years, I rarely saw any fruit, especially in very dry areas. However, in the last couple of years, maybe due to warmer weather in April, I have been able to pick small handfuls of what I call “edible sunshine”.
 
Sea Kale Here to Stay?
Permaculture aficionados love to find unusual edible plants, especially when they are a perennial, reducing the amount of work it takes to plant every year. Sea Kale is an edible perennial listed in “Perennial Vegetables” by Eric Toensmeier and other sources. Many years ago, I met some friendly folks from the Devonian Botanic Garden who were selling seeds, and I was excited to discover sea kale. I planted the seeds but only a couple of them grew. Outdoors, they did not thrive and I lost one to a pest. After moving the remaining plant once, it seemed to be doing better, but the plant was small and I almost forgot about it. However, to my delight, it has almost doubled in size this year! Sea kale is listed in some sources as a Zone 5 or Zone 4 plant. So that’s a bit of a stretch for our gardens, but with a warming climate, we should be able to grow it in Edmonton. My spot in my Edmonton front yard is proving to be pretty good. It receives almost full sun and in winter, the plant is under a pile of snow from the driveway. I have renewed hope that it’s here to stay, and next year I may be able to harvest some leaves in early spring. For more info, visit this online info.

To grow your own sea kale, you can contact a local garden centre to ask if seeds or plants can be ordered in. Apache Seeds had some seeds this spring from Sutton (UK), but you’ll have to put this on the list and make some calls for 2017. If you want to order your own, this Canadian company has it listed.

Cutworms
I grew some lovely pink zinnias from seed and planted one out in the garden before the rain. A few days ago, I noticed it was “cut” and lying limp on the ground. With a little careful digging, I found the culprit – a cutworm. The adult cutworm moths lay eggs in August and September. A hot, dry August gives the moths a chance to feed and lay eggs in loose, dry soil surfaces. The eggs hatch in the following May, and also do really well in dry and warm, rather than cool, wet soil.
So if you find a plant with the stem cut off at ground level, gently dig around the stub of the plant and you may find the greyish, caterpillar-like cutworm larva (I squish it). Some pretty good lifecycle info and photos can be found here.
How to Deal with Cutworms
Cut plants can’t be saved, but it’s a good idea to check around your other plants that have not been cut (yet), and install a plastic, cardboard or plastic collar (toilet paper roll, paper cups with bottom cut off, small pop bottle, etc) around the stem, pushing the collar about 2 cm into the ground so that the cutworm can’t get to the stem. Other methods can be found online, such as sprinkling crushed eggshells or diatomaceous earth around the plant. Two nails or toothpicks inserted very closely to the plant stem are also supposed to prevent the cutworm from wrapping around the stem and cutting it. I tend to favour the most direct barrier, a paper collar to be safe.
Cutworms have natural enemies, such as parasitic wasps and ground beetles. It is therefore important to avoid using herbicides or pesticides in the garden and include brush piles, logs and mulch to provide shelter for these beneficial species, as well as native wildflowers as a food source.
 
Slugs
Yes, I found one, just after the rain. It was going after my newly planted Butterfly Salvia. In a dry year, slugs are not that much of a problem, but we had some wet summers that allowed them to lay eggs and stick around.
When slugs make an appearance, spending a few minutes picking every day works best for me:
I pour about 1 litre of water in a plastic container, add approx. 1 Tbsp of salt and a few drops of dish soap. Then I gently stir the mixture. I put a latex glove on my dominant hand and go out. I gently coax each slug into my cupped hand, then quickly plop it into the salt-water mix. I flush the mix in the toilet.
I have also read that gardeners are having success with corn meal or bran as a slug bait. Apparently, the corn meal or bran kills the slugs because once consumed it swells up in their body. Put some in a jar and lay the jar on its side so the slugs can get in. They’ll eat some, leave, and die. I am planning to try it this year.
 
Flea Beetles
These critters love the mustard family and other plants. I mostly see them feeding on radish, arugula, bok choi, spinach, and potatoes. They are very fast and there are many varieties, therefore control is tricky. Last year, I decided to plant arugula in early August in part shade, and that worked well because the flea beetles are no longer very active. This spring, I planted a cover crop of mustard, and sure enough, the beetles are happy feeding on it. The spinach and early potatoes next to the cover crop have minor damage. I plan on composting the cover crop and lightly tilling the soil to expose any flea beetle eggs, once I plant a zucchini in the bed in the next few days. The most effective way to protect plants from flea beetles is to cover them with floating row cover, available at a local garden centre. My radishes are never wormy under the cover. The attached photo shows bok choi nice and cozy under row cover stapled all around a wooden planter.

Harvesting at the end of March is a bit unusual, but just two days ago, I dug out at least a dozen perfectly healthy parsnips. I planted the seeds on May 5, 2015, spaced in a block pattern about 10 cm apart, with 2 seeds in each planting hole. Once the seedlings were nicely growing, I snipped off extra plants. These plants really did not get a prime spot in the garden or any extra care, yet they grew without trouble. While the beets and carrots had to be protected with netting from pesky house sparrows that nibble tender leaves, the parsley did not seem to appeal to them.

In mid-November, after heavy frost had already flattened the leaves of my parsnips, I placed a thick plastic bag of leaves on the plants, and snow came soon after. During some warm weather in January, I thought I might be able to dig some out, but the parsnips appeared to be frozen into the ground. I sure wondered if they would be mushy when I could finally dig them up, but surprise! They look lovely, along with some golden beets that also made it through the cold unharmed.

I love it when I get many uses out of equipment I purchase because it just makes good sense, reduces clutter and saves money. So when it comes to a grow light, you need to think about:
- How often will you use this light?
- How many different ways can this light serve you?
- What is the right size for your purposes and where will you store it when it’s not in use?
 
In my case, the answers to the above questions are as follows. I have a 22 inch Sunblaster T-5 fluorescent light with a Universal T-5 light stand. I use the light for microgreens when I want to grow many trays and I have run out of space near a window. I also grow some herbs in the winter under this light, and starting in March, I use it to grow seedlings. Plus, having the grow light with some plants near my work desk is a nice boost during dark winter days. So here are 4 uses for an approx. $90 investment. I can take the frame apart and store it in a box with other seasonal gardening materials.
 
The T-5 fluorescent tubes are energy efficient and work best with a reflector. Extra light can be bounced back to the plants when set up near a white wall or by placing mirrors strategically.
 
There are a few options for stands and also light length, typically either 2 feet or 4 feet long. The Universal T-5 light stand works well and the Jumpstart T-5 Grow Light is similar in price but has a fixed frame with a nice pulley system for raising the light bulb. Many garden centres in Edmonton have the bulb/fixture/reflector, but you have to check around a bit for a stand. I have personally seen the Jumpstart system at Apache Seeds and the Universal stand at the Root Seller, but you can call other places to check.

Fruit trees and berry bushes are the key species of a food forest. They are an investment for the long term and are worth a bit of money and care to keep them healthy. It is rather tragic when wildlife causes major damage that leaves the plant susceptible to stress and disease.

An easy way to protect trees and small shrub is with a wire fence. Here are some tips on what to buy and how to get extra mileage out of this product. I am a big proponent of the permaculture principle to “stack functions”, so I like to find many uses for an item or materials I purchase.
 
Materials
You will have to look, google or ask for the following terms, depending on the hardware store you visit: Welded Wire Fabric or Fence, Garden Fence, Rabbit Garden Fence
The gauge of these products is around 14. The larger the gauge, the thinner the wire and the floppier or weaker the fence is.
Suppliers in Edmonton and Area: Home Hardware, Home Depot, Lowe’s and maybe others.
 
Mesh Size
Ideally, you can find a sturdy product with a mesh size 2 inches by 2 inches or 2 inches by 1 inch. Larger mesh size is available, but you need to be careful – if you have small children, their hands may get trapped. A mesh size of 1 inch or smaller is usually a less sturdy product as well. It will work, but you will need to support it with stakes.
 
Poultry Netting, Chicken Wire or Hardware Cloth or most plastic products are generally very floppy and will not work without a frame. If you have lots of mice, you may need to use hardware cloth, which has a finer mesh to keep them from chewing all the way around the trunk of a tree.

Creating a Cage
For trees, create a sturdy wire cylinder around the trunk that has a diameter at least twice the size of the trunk. That way you don’t have to cut a new piece as the tree grows.
The height of the cage should be about 2 feet minimum. You want to be sure that a hare or jackrabbit cannot reach the lower branches or reach above the fence when we have a winter with lots of snow.
The rolls of fence are usually around 2 feet to 4 feet tall. I cut my wire closer to 3 feet tall, as I also use the cages for temporary compost bins when I don’t need them for plants (see more info below)
 
Shrubs grow much faster and you really only need to protect them for the first couple of years. Once the shrub is 2-3 feet tall and well branched, even heavy pruning by a rabbit will not kill the shrub.
 
With the welded wire fence, you will need to wear thick gloves and wire cutters. Place the fence around the trees and shrubs and use a pair of pliers to bend the cut wires and connect the fence into a cylinder. You can also use twist ties or plastic zap straps to connect the ends.
 
Stacking Functions – Using the Cages for Composting
The wire cages are really important when trees and shrubs are young, and during the winter when our local Jackrabbits have nothing else to eat. So eventually, you may not need all your cages or you only need them during the winter.
 
I like to connect together some extra welded wire fence to create larger cylinders (2.5-3.5 feet in diameter) for storing dry leaves or extra compost, and I have even used a cage with extra compost that needed more curing as a growing bed for cucumbers, melons and potatoes. Check out this blog post and photos below.

Of course this should have been done in the fall… but sometimes there is just no time for one more thing.
Tools last longer when cleaned properly and late is better than never. While I don't fuss and clean every single tool, my pruning shears are definitely worth cleaning and oiling as they simply work better and last longer!

Here are some quick instructions for cleaning your pruners. Please note – professionals recommend you clean your pruners after every use and sharpen them regularly. If you’re like me, that simply doesn’t happen. There are many great videos online for cleaning your expensive pruners (i.e. “How to Maintain Felco Pruning Shears”) for folks who will go out and purchase some tools and products.

For basic maintenance, dry them when they are wet and do not leave them out in the elements. It's a good idea to clean and sharpen them a couple of times a year - this keeps them in decent working condition for urban gardening purposes.

Instructions

• Snap a photo of your pruners before taking them apart – this will make it easier to reassemble.
• Use a flat screwdriver, vise grips or pliers and disassemble the pruners. You don’t really have to take them apart to clean and sharpen, but if moisture has gotten between the pieces, it’s worth cleaning and oiling when apart.
• Get a bowl of hot soapy water and a cleaning pad or steel wool, as well as some rags and light mineral oil.
• Scrub the pruner blades to remove any dirt, sticky sap and rust. Wipe and dry the pruners. You can also use a bit of WD40 to remove rust or tough dirt. Wipe the parts clean again.
• Use a wet sharpening stone to sharpen the blade at the original angle. If you are unsure, there are some helpful videos online or see below.
• To oil your pruners, you should use a lubricant for metal, such as for your bike chain, but in a pinch, a little bit of olive oil rubbed on the separate pieces with a piece of paper towel or rag will do until you remember to buy special lubricant.
• Assemble your pruners (that photo should come in handy) and store them in your house until spring.

This video for cleaning and sharpening is pretty short and does not require complicated materials.

If you are confused about bugs driving you crazy in your home, you are not alone. Fruit flies and fungus gnats are likely what you are swatting but where do they come from and what can you do? Fungus gnats are very small black flies – their eggs are in potting mix, and so they come with your potted plants or the mix you purchase for repotting your plants. The larvae feed on organic matter in the soil and don’t usually damage your plants. You can hang up yellow sticky traps to catch the flying adults and reduce their numbers. You can also purchase diatomaceous earth and dig the white powder into the top layer of your potted plants and stir it into potting mix when planting or transplanting. Some people have moderate success with placing a layer of sand or grit on top of the soil. Another useful product is Growstone Gnat Nix, a recycled glass product that you spread on top of the soil. You can find it at some garden centers or online. None of these tricks are 100% successful, especially if you keep the pots continually moist. Let your pots dry out between watering to reduce the success of the pesky gnats.

Fruit flies hatch from the peel of fruit. If you have a compost or garbage bin that has not been emptied in a while, you might see the odd fruit fly in your house. If you like to compost with red wiggler worms, it’s best to avoid feeding them banana peels or citrus fruit. Once you have an outbreak of fruit flies in your worm bin, it’s almost impossible to get rid of them.