Alberta Home Gardening » General

Field of Beans (and Corn)

Dave — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 01:05:38 +0000

Finally the snow has melted and the forecast no longer has overnight frosts. Time to get gardening! I’m currently in the early stages of landscaping our new yard, and there is an area on the east side of the house that I haven’t figured out just what to do with it yet. So, for this year I’ve decided to plant a mini corn field. I’ve always wanted to have a corn field, but until moving east to where we are now, I was always too close to foothills to have enough heat for corn.

In 2008 I experimented with inter-planting beans and corn. It worked so well that I tried it again in 2009. I had my best corn ever that year, so I’m going to do it again this year. So in my little 24′ x 24′ plot on the east side of my house, I have planted Supersweet Northern Extra corn in rows spaced two feet apart. I planted two seeds every two feet. Then in between corn seeds, I have planted a variety of beans – Purple Royalty, Roma II , Straight N’ Narrow, Scarlet Runner Pole Beans, and even Dark Red Kidney Beans!

(Click for a better view)

So there’s my field of beans and corn. Hopefully, both will grow nicely and produce lots. But if not, they should at least make for an interest way to fill the yard until I can properly landscape it!

Lettuce Fields In Alberta?

Dave — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:03:25 +0000

While traveling through southern California & Arizona over Christmas, I saw some super-sized gardens. Having grown up in central Alberta, I’m used to seeing large fields of hay or wavy seas of wheat. On occasion I’ve even seen some fields of corn, peas, and even strawberries. But never have I seen acres upon acres of lettuce, onions, and broccoli.

It was quite a sight to see – rows upon rows of lettuce. In Arizona, lettuce is a common winter crop. One local farmer I talked to said their family grew watermelons and corn in the warmer months and lettuce during the winter.

The winter climate of Arizona is not too far removed from Alberta’s summer climate. In fact, while I was there in December and early January, the average daytime high was about 18 degrees Celsius. So why don’t you ever see fields of lettuce in Alberta? It can’t be because of a lack of market – there are several greenhouses in Alberta that grow lettuce.

I would guess the reason we don’t see fields of lettuce in Alberta is due to our frequent hail storms. Arizona very rarely gets rain in the winter and I doubt they ever get hail. In Alberta, though, I can’t think of a summer that I haven’t seen a hailstorm roll through. If hail didn’t destroy the crop, it would certainly damage it.

So until they invent hail-proof lettuce, I guess I’ll have to give up my big dreams of becoming a lettuce farmer and settle for growing a few heads in my greenhouse.

What’s the Deal with this Blog?

Dave — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:45:34 +0000

I grew up on a farm in central Alberta and naturally, we had a large garden in order to feed all of us (Mom, Dad, and the four boys). That means every year we helped Mom & Dad plant, weed, and harvest the garden. But it’s a world of difference between helping your folks pull some weeds and going out and making a beautiful yard of your own. Now that I’m grown and have a family and yard of my own, I’m discovering all the things I didn’t learn. That’s where this blog comes in.

I wanted to make this blog a site full of great hints, tips, and how-tos that will help you in your own quest for a beautiful space. I’ve experimented with greenhouses, mulching, square-foot gardening, landscaping, unique and exotic vegetables, all varieties of fruit, raised beds, hydroponics, and a whole lot of other stuff. This blog will be my journal of my experiments and hopefully there will be some useful information that you can use in your own garden.

So in a nutshell, that’s the deal with this blog. The question now is… Where do I start?