Summer Gardening in British Columbia
A moderate climate, with plenty of sunshine and rain makes my organic efforts all the easier. I make a point of harvesting something daily for each meal prepared (I especially enjoy making stir-fries). As a result, I find store-bought produce incredibly boring and rather tasteless!
Lettuce for lunch: Warm from the sun, fragrant with fresh earth, filled with complex flavors not found in most store-bought produce...salad anyone?
These snow peas climbing the trellis will round out many healthy meals this summer. Both the peas and the tender tips of the vines are edible.
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The moist, cool summers in British Columbia make for a short, but bountiful gardening experience. In Tucson, I plant gardens in the fall and spring - so I am essentially gardening year-round.
Asha and Ajax help with digging. I've had several generations of Rhodesian Ridgebacks and thoroughly enjoyed every minute with these intelligent, affectionate dogs. Although they are very active and are excellent hikers and swimmers, they also enjoy the slower pace of gardening, and help to keep marauding critters at bay!
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Ridgebacks Are Great Gardeners
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My British Columbia garden. No home is complete without a garden. My patch in British Columbia is roughly 30 by 40 feet, and strictly organic. For vegetables, I grow tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, snow and snap peas, Romano and French filet beans, soy (for edamame), beets, onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, lettuce, arugula, cucumbers and celery. Fruits: strawberries, red and black raspberries and boysenberries. Flowers: dahlias, morning glories, delphinium, zinnias and lillies.
Big tomato. Though I can't promise double-handful fruit like this, here are tips on tomato cultivation.
Wasabi is a difficult to grow and this batch had limited growth and the leaves were completely bleached. These symptoms are common with extreme magnesium deficiency and general nutrient depletion.
I gave several applications of Epsom salts (magnesium source) and a balanced organic fertilizer. Here they are one week later - coming back to life.
I am a great fan of wasabi, so in the summer of 2008, I planted "starts" in the garden of my summer home in British Columbia, near Puget Sound. Wasabi is notoriously difficult to grow - it requires plenty of water; shade to protect the leaves from sunburn; just the right mix of minerals and other soil nutrients; and two full years to reach usable size. I got the starts from wasabia.com, the main wasabi cultivators in the Northwest U.S. I love to eat wasabi in all forms, and make a point of seeking it out whenever I travel to Japan.
This is the whole wasabi, fresh from the garden. The Japanese use all parts of the plant - they grate the root to form a condiment paste for sushi, and pickle the leaves to make a spicy dish called wasabi-zuke.
The bare wasabi root. After two years of cultivation, this was the first one I have tried. Fantastic flavor, both hot and intricately nuanced. Wasabi root is best prepared with an ultra-fine grater known as oroshigane.
