Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
April Showers.
I’ve started obsessively checking the weather forecast lately – partly because I’m eager to get my tomatoes out, partly because I want to bike to work on the good days, and partly because it seems to change every freakin’ minute. April, after all. It’s a very changeable month.
But there is no denying that spring has fully and firmly taken hold in Vancouver, with temperatures in the mid-teens, flowers popping everywhere, and lots more people getting on their bikes (as evidenced by the crazy-busy bike store I was in yesterday to get a flat fixed).
In my garden I’m about ready to plant my earliest tomatoes which are looking a bit spindly – I think because I didn’t fertilize enough at a particular stage. I’m hoping they recuperate enough to put out some more leaf and flower, but at the moment I’m not sure which way they will go once planted out.
Although I was warned against planting too early, I’m glad to say my carrots and beets are both sprouting which excites me to no end. My peas are coming up strong, my broad beans are little trees at the moment….. There’s just a million things going on in the garden every day, and I am endlessly excited to watch it all come to life!
This is one of the best parts of gardening. Before the bugs come, before having to water twice a day, before any significant weeding commences. Between getting the beds set up and planted and later spring when issues start to emerge, a brief lull in which to enjoy the emergence of new life. The weather right now is the perfect combination of sun, ran and good temperature – and I’m just waiting for the burst of growth that comes with it!
Observations.
New things I noticed in the garden yesterday: my pink dogwood is coming into leaf and flower, my carrots and beets are sending up little shoots already! Oh, and someone stomped on one of my more promising raspberry canes 😦 I suspect that was an angry friend who stormed in and out of my backyard with her bicycle the night before and it made me a little unhappy despite all the other abundance poking through.
Plans for this weekend include: building two more cold frames so I can get my tomatoes and peppers outside soon, planting some cabbage seed since my starts all failed (too much heat I think), doing more yard clean-up, and building a ladder for the outdoor studio-loft. At some point I’ve got to get into the frontyard as well and clean-up the beds. I’ve got some shasta daisies to throw down out there somewhere as well, since my backyard has no room for heavily spreading plants no matter how much I love them.
I am noting nighttime temperatures all above 7 degrees for the next week, which means that it’s almost time for my earliest tomatoes to go in the ground. I’m thinking that I’ll cover one of my tomato beds with black plastic for the next week to get it warmed up since these plants are going in so much earlier than feels right.
Each year it’s hard to imagine the changes from one week to the next. That my garden right now is so much more lush than it was a month ago and in another month again it will be bursting with growth and taking its own shape. That is the miracle of gardening after all isn’t it? The excitements and disappointments day by day. The life and death dance of all things green and beautiful.
Cycling and Running.
I’ve recently got it in my head that I want to increase my daily fitness without having to go to the gym more. I like my gym and all (YWCA Vancouver – you rock!), but the rushed lunchtime sessions my life allows doesn’t seem like enough to counteract the 7.5 hours a day I spend sitting at a desk and I don’t particularly want to add a second session indoors every day. Not to mention that when I’m on the road for work, I don’t always have access to good fitness facilities because while most hotels advertise a “gym” as part of the package these days, they are often little more than closets packed with old treadmills and stairmasters.
Last week, for the first time ever (almost), I took the running I’ve been doing on the treadmill during the last month (shoulder injury kept me from my fitness classes so I’ve been jogging occasionally instead) out onto the streets of Victoria during my visit.
On the first day, running near my folks place, I did twenty minutes (2 km). On the second day went the full circuit and only walked during the last five minutes of a thirty-five minute run (3.4 km) because it was straight uphill. On the third and fourth days I did forty continuous minutes to the tune of 4.4 km (mapped on Google) on the Dallas Road seawall and through Beacon Hill Park (one of those days was in a windstorm too). Which means that over six days I ran 14.2 km. This week I’ve only run once (3.5 km) on the treadmill but I’m thinking that lunch today might be spent on the seawall pushing myself back to forty minutes since there is no time limit in the real world, unlike the gym machines that clock out at 30 minutes.
I’m aiming to get to 50 minutes/5 km, but at the moment I’m content to under 45 minutes just so I don’t torture myself into giving up too soon. Up until now I’ve *hated* running with a passion – my whole life swearing that my build (busty) was an impediment I just could get past. But recently I’ve figured out a few things that have started to change my perspective (I don’t exactly love running yet, I’m just barely past hating but I’m working on changing that):
- A good bra really does make a huge difference. Lululemon makes a bra called the Ta-Ta tamer that has a strong binding function which is what I need more than “good support”.
- It’s okay to go slow. My heart rate does just fine at a slow jog (averages 145) right now, and it’s okay for me to focus on length of time as opposed to distance since I’m not a racer.
- Good shoes also make it easier. I just bought a pair of cross-sport Merrell shoes that weren’t cheap but feel great – and I can use them for hiking, running, cycling and climbing. Such a difference from the low-end New Balance cross-trainers I’ve been wearing for years.
- As the weather gets nicer, exercising outdoors has all sorts of aesthetic and emotional benefits that I really do appreciate. The more picturesque the run, the better!
So we’ll see. On top of the running, I’m also attempting to cycle to work on good weather days – starting today! As with the running, I am the slowest cyclist out there which I’m sure irks the commuting “warriors”, but I’ve decided not to be daunted by them or the traffic in my attempt to make cycling a part of my weekly routine. The new Dunsmuir viaduct lane is great, I took it for the first time just after it opened and it really makes a difference not having to cycle through the DTES or Gastown both in terms of time and traffic stress. I’m not sure that I would take it home as it is just as easy to use the Pender bike lane going east to where it connects to Adanac. Mostly I just try to stay to the side of the lane so the fast people can pass me and it’s only thirty minutes door to door (ten minutes less than my bus commute). Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll have that down to twenty-five minutes I’m sure!
Just figuring it out now – if I managed to cycle to and from work (6.2 km each way) and run for forty minutes at lunch, I would be looking at a total of 16.5 kilometres of self-propelled travel/exercise without adding any extra minutes to my daily routine. That’s crazy! And also pretty unlikely in terms of a daily routine. A couple times a week though – that certainly couldn’t hurt.
Sun and starts
Coming back from lunch, I am wondering if spring is finally here. Watching the nighttime temperature forecast go up and up because at a consistent 7C I can put my earliest tomatoes out in the garden. I’m hardening them off at the moment but putting them outside during the day, I’m thinking I’ll put them in a cold frame this weekend and leave them there for the next week until it’s time to put them in the ground.
All the other tomatoes and peppers are doing well inside under heat lamps at the moment with the exception of a slight yellowing on some of the older plants that spells nitrogen deficiency. A little organic fertilizer is my only realistic solution at the moment.
Lots of little green shoots coming up in the garden these days: peas, spinach, mesclun greens, oriental greens, amish deer tongue, edible chrysanthemum, borage, onions, shallots, and radishes. I also put in a set of leaf lettuce and radicchio starts on the weekend because I couldn’t help myself in wanting a few bigger things to take hold for earlier eating. The weather has been somewhat cool until this week, so nothing is really going crazy yet but I know it’s just a matter of time before those tiny seedlings become lush boxes of salad greens and stir-fry fixings. My chives are lovely right now, I had to nip the first set of flowers off on the weekend to keep them coming in strong. The rhubarb is ready for first harvest.
At the garden center on Saturday my partner picked out a shrub/tree he was drawn to and asked if we had room for it in the backyard. Since I’m all about him having a say on our yard (flowers! he wants lots of flowers) I agreed to the Sambuca nigra he was drawn to. Little did I know that Sambuca is the formal name for an Elder Tree and the flowers and berries are used medicinally as well as in wine making. One more edible/medicinal plant for our permanent collection! For my part, I picked out the decorative passionflower vine for the corner of our new studio which I’m hoping will create a lovely effect once it grows up and bushes out.
More pictures soon!
Studio update
I was away for a week and came back Friday to a weekend of good backyard weather. Not to mention the new hot tub B. facilitated the installation of when I was away. Here are a few photos of our finished studio (with grape lights and bird feeders), B & C installing the bookshelves that I built Saturday, and our new hot tub. Over at amongtheweeds.ca you can see the new shade garden we put in as well!
Red Cedar 