I have to admit that it has been a very long time since my last update! But no, I haven’t fallen off the face of the planet. But a lot has changed in the past… [gulp] nearly a decade! Even though I haven’t posted anything here recently, I’ve been gardening like crazy – and in fact, I’ve returned to our original homestead, planted a two acre garden/orchard, and plan to expand it all greatly in the years to come! Anyway, I just wanted to invite you to check out my new blog – Cold Climate Abundance. It’s got all of our recent activity, my latest experiments, and more! Check it out and see what I ..read more

In addition to all the wonderful fruits and vegetables that fill my garden, I have also found that I have a backyard full of interesting crawly creatures. I’ve shown you the swarms of ladybugs, clumps of boxelder bugs, bumble bees and honey bees, moths and ants, and even a salamander on occasion. Well, not many weeks ago I found a new bug that I had never seen before. It had actually made it’s way into my bathroom and was climbing up the wall. It was just a tiny creature – not more than a quarter inch from top to bottom – but I tell you, it was rather intimidating. To get a good view of this ..read more

For years I’ve been obsessed with growing fabulous, fresh fruit right here in Central Alberta. Not just saskatoons and strawberries – but grapes, plums, cherries, watermelons – yes, even kiwis and apricots. And I want to grow it all in my own backyard. Well, I can’t say I’ve got all those things checked off the list yet, but this year I’ve gotten closer than ever before. This has been a fantastic season for growing fruit. After starting from scratch 5 years ago, my backyard is now producing all kinds of different delicious fruit. One of my personal favorites has been my Pembina Plums. We had a ..read more

Some time ago I was introduced to Anna from northernhomestead.com – a fellow gardening enthusiast from central Alberta. She writes a very interesting blog – and has a most interesting geodome greenhouse. If you’ve never seen a geodome greenhouse before – you’ve got to check this out! Pretty cool, huh? I recently interviewed Anna (via email) about her garden & her greenhouse, so I thought I’d share our conversation with all of you. It went kinda like this: Dave: First of all, tell me a little bit about yourself. Anna: We are Jakob and Anna, passionate ..read more

For years I’ve had great plans to build a garden trellis for my many varieties of grapes & kiwis – and finally this summer I took the plunge. I built a simple, but solid trellis for the vines I have growing along the south side of my garage. It’s probably a little bit over-kill, but it’s certainly able to hold the weight of all my grapes and kiwis (which is actually pretty significant – as I have two grape vines and two kiwis and all those vines, leaves, and fruit can get heavy!) So if you’ve been looking to build a trellis in your own backyard, let me show you my design: First of all – my ..read more

This week I experienced my first real grape harvest. Sure, I’d had managed to grow a few small clusters before – just enough to get a taste. But this year was the first year that I’ve been able to grow enough grapes to eat all I wanted fresh, plus harvest enough to make up some delicious grape jelly for the winter. I have four different varieties growing in my yard here in central Alberta, but the two varieties that are mature enough to produce are my Valiant Grapes, and my Marechael Foch Grapes. The valiant grapes are larger than the marechael grapes (though still smaller than what ..read more

Orange and yellow tulips, flowering crab, and pears flowers – Just another fantastic show of color this spring in my backyard. I don’t have too much to say about these pictures other than I think they are amazing! The details blow my mind every time! The post More Spring Flowers in Alberta first appeared on Alberta Home Gardening ..read more

Well folks, I took another photo stroll around the yard and snapped some of my favorite pictures yet! I’ve got some beautiful pics of my plums in flower, as well as a super cool close-up of my grape buds about to burst, plus a sweet pics of my haskap, and a new-before-seen view of my Patmore Ash. Have a gander and see what you think… And make sure you click each picture for a larger view – I love the details of the close-up! This is a bud from my Marechael Grape. Notice the bits of fuzz… That’s awesome! Who knew, right? Haskap. Borealis, I believe this one is. Again – who knew flower bu ..read more

Hoop-frame greenhouses are amazing! If you’ve been following my blog for long, you know I love my greenhouse. But as good as it is, I wanted to make it even better. I wanted to extended my growing season without adding a the cost of a heater. In 2009 I tried using milk jugs full of water to hold the heat and slowly release it through the cool of night. That worked pretty good. But what else might I try? Well, here is what I did this spring: Now this probably isn’t a brand new idea. I’m sure someone has done it before, but its new for me. (And maybe for you too.) I decided to make a mini-greenh ..read more

One of my favorite types of photos are the macro photos of spring buds. There is such detail and such a variety in all the new growth that appears on branches or popping through the mulch or emerging from seed. So I took a bit of a stroll around the yard this afternoon to capture a few moments of springtime budding – I thought you might enjoy! Click for the full-size picture – but be aware – they are LARGE! The post The Budding of Spring first appeared on Alberta Home Gardening ..read more