Tiny Farm Experience (Suzuki Aerio: One Mean Hauling Machine!)

Tiny Farm Experience is a great site that is following several Canadian farms over the course of 52 weeks. This is going to be a fun year of learning and exploration from across Canada. Check out Lynn and the other farms at www.tinyfarmexperience.com.

Suzuki Aerio: One Mean Hauling Machine! - www.tinyfarmexperience.com/suzuki-aerio-one-mean-hauling-machine.

Gabriola Island, BC ~ Who needs a pick up truck when you have a hatchback? This past week we moved 5 car loads of soil from our house to my plot at the community garden. We will be moving in the spring to another house so Steve’s brilliant raised beds he built where we are now needed a new home. These two raised beds on my 400 square foot plot will be planted with garlic. A bit late, but sometimes you just have to push the envelope. 

Tiny Farm Experience (Strawberry Field Forever)

Tiny Farm Experience is a great site that is following several Canadian farms over the course of 52 weeks. This is going to be a fun year of learning and exploration from across Canada. Check out Lynn and the other farms at www.tinyfarmexperience.com.

Strawberry Field Forever - www.tinyfarmexperience.com/strawberry-field-forever.      

Gabriola Island, BC ~ On the side to make extra money, I have been taking the odd garden maintenance jobs. My most recent job was to rip out an entire strawberry bed. Best part? I got to keep all the plants I ripped out. As I was already wanting to plant strawberries on my land, this was such a bonus. Out here we can overwinter strawberries just fine. But, because I am not fenced in yet, I protected my new plants with frames built by Steve and netting from Lee Valley.   

I have been reading from my new book, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, by Steve Solomon. He is a garden guru out here in the Pacific Northwest. He has a great complete organic fertilizer recipe that I mixed and used to transplant my strawberries. Here is Steve Solomon’s not-so-secret fertilizer formula:

• 4 parts seed meal or fish meal
• 1 part dolomite lime
• 1 part rock phosphate or 1/2 part bone meal
• 1 part kelp meal

A little look at the 1st year of growing on a 20' by 20' plot on Gabriola

Have a quick look at our first growing season on Gabriola.  We shared a community plot with Maya and grew some great produce...take a look!