Four years ago, when we purchased this property, our garden was a forest. I still find big branches emerging from underground. Here is a catch of last Sunday while cleaning up an old radish bed.

Remember our trial of different mulch materials to cover growing beds for winter? The first picture below was covered by plastic tarp and then direct seeded with arugula and mustard green. All I needed was to add a little compost before seeding.

The second photo shows the area covered with dead leaves. When we came back from our break at the end of January, the leaves on the bed were not decomposed at all. Therefore, I covered the bed with about 2 inches of compost, hoping it will help the leaves to be decomposed before spring planting. I dug it last week and found that the leaves were still mostly intact. In order to prepare this bed for planting, I needed to remove as much leaves as possible from the bed, and it was a tedious job…

Well, this book that my friend gave me a while ago, has some good explanation:

Carbon-rich material such as leaves needs nitrogen-rich green material to decompose. No wonder leaves covered with compost did not decompose. It would have taken a long time! I will continue researching the best way to rest and prepare our garden for the next season.

”The parable of the sower” in Bible, says, “Only seeds that fell on the good soil produces good yield of crops.  I witness that in our garden especially in spring.  Here are some examples.  Lettuce, cilantro, Chinese broccoli and mizuna are growing beautifully at the edge of our garden, near compost pile. I guess the seeds fell there when we cleaned the beds after they were finished last season. Potatoes left in the ground last year emerged far earlier than those I planted this year, and they look healthy! Dills appeared in the same place as where they were two years ago.  They waited until water, sunlight and temperature are optimum for them and flourish without us giving them any water.  

In our (tiny) orchard, we are so happy to see signs of fruits! One of the apple trees bloomed last year but did not bear any fruit. This year, we see some baby apples! The plum tree we planted two years ago, also have small fruits. How exciting!

Both Gabriola and Nanaimo farmers’ markets started the summer season. Here is a view from our booth at Wednesday Nanaimo market at Beban park. Surely it looks like summer!

• Island Roots Farmers’ Market: Beban Park, 2300 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, 3 – 6pm on Wednesday
• AGI Market: AGI Hall, Gabriola, 10am – 2pm on Saturday

Thank you for reading our newsletter. Have a wonderful week!