Planting Plans for 2010

Saturday, December 26, 2009 03:29 AM

Reflecting back on the past 12 months, overall, we had a good gardening year. It started late but the warm temperatures of the summer certainly helped the garden grow and by the end of the season we had a bountiful harvest. One thing that I will continue to do in 2010 is use blood meal and bone meal rather than fertilizer. For the second year in a row we used blood meal and bone meal in the garden and this has been very successful. It was sprinkled on the soil before we rotatilled and so was evenly dispersed into the soil after the garden was tilled. The nice thing about using the blood meal and bone meal instead of fertilizer is that it is organic and it only needed to be applied once and the vegetables were very healthy and large!

Another success this year was rhubarb wine. In one corner of our family garden we have a large rhubarb patch that we feed with mushroom manure every spring. We have been doing this for years and always end up with too much rhubarb. I had heard from someone that rhubarb makes very good wine and decided to give it a try.

One evening we harvested a large amount of rhubarb and washed it and chopped it into 1 inch pieces. It was then placed into large bags and placed into the freezer for 3 weeks as this helps break it down. After 3 weeks the frozen rhubarb was brought into ‘Hobby Brews’ where they made it into wine. At the end of October we bottled the wine and after 1 month had our first taste. It was excellent and we along with our friends are really enjoying it. Making rhubarb wine will certainly be something that we will continue to do in the years to come and my only regret is that I didn’t do this sooner!

The nice thing about gardening is that it is always changing and there is always something new and improved. I enjoy traveling and looking for new and interesting things that will work in our Prince George climate and next year look forward to trying them out at home as well as passing them along. Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year filled with many gardening successes!

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Home and Garden Centres in Prince George: