Gardening is a great stress reliever in this unusual year

I feel very lucky. Now that it is spring, there is so much to do in this huge yard, that I forget there is a pandemic. I forget the stress. I forget for a while, that I can’t see or hug my friends and family. I just dig. And weed. And go to my garden calendar to see what needs to be planted in the next few days. I can focus on my tomato seedlings. I can prepare a hoop house for the onions and leeks that need to be planted now. I also have someone to hug and love here. I am blessed. 

Mulching the flower gardens

Doing a second very thorough weeding before putting mulch down. There are acres of meadows full of weeds that scatter seeds everywhere and it is virtually impossible to keep ahead of them.

I am using animal bedding wood shavings. Laying it several inches thick.

This bed was done in the fall and you can see that the bedding turns a darker more natural looking colour. There were maybe a dozen little weeds in this bed vs thousands in the others. 

One of my favorite narcissus. Tahiti.

I never dreamed I would make my own orchid bark

I have been growing orchids for about 45 years. Sometimes I have more of them, sometimes less. Right now I have about 16. I have been upping my orchid game lately and bought a wonderful LED grow light panel. The one thing that has eluded me in the location I live now, is a good supply of orchid bark mix. There is literally nothing available on Gabriola Island and there is only one brand available in ALL of the garden centres in Nanaimo area. I hate to complain, but it is horrible. They seem to have completely cornered the market as there used to be bags of plain fir bark chips you could always get in any garden centre to make your own mix, but no more. The available ‘mix’ has pieces of wood that can be skinny slivers or wide chunks 4-5” long right down to almost powder. I have found what looks like dried long grass in every bag. There is so much very fine charcoal and perlite, that half the bag is more like sand than orchid mix. I thought I got a bad batch and bought two more bags but they are exactly the same. So... I planned to contact the Victoria Orchid Society next time down island and buy some from them. It is beautiful. But that didn’t help me now. 

Then my garden buddy said... “our neighbour has a whole pile of fir bark that he said we can have, that I could chip and see if that would work for you”. So yesterday we flashed up the wood chipper and I’ll be darned, it worked. We used a screen and sifted it into two basic sizes. So I have a huge container of roughly 1” pieces and another of fine. That should take care of my orchid needs for years. 

Chipper at work

Sifted out larger pieces

Fine pieces

Repurposing our old recycle bucket for bark storage

My lungs can’t take wood dust at all, so one of the masks 

Mom made for me for Covid works just perfectly 

Pile of raw fir bark slabs. Raw beauty.

Spring... isn’t it glorious

Spring. Even the word makes your heart feel good. It is so much fun to start plants that you watch grow into full grown bedding plants. My favorite still being tomato plants. We bought a second upright freezer this year to keep frozen produce from the gardens. So whatever I can grow, I have room to store it now. 

The other thing about spring is the blooming things, after months of no colour. Here are a few things blooming around the gardens right now.

Christmas Fudge since 1967

When I was 11 years old I found a recipe for Fudge on a can of Carnation Evaporated Milk. I made the fudge but I didn’t understand that you stirred the hot cooked fudge until the marshmallows were completely melted and all traces of white gone. How adorable. I realized what I had done before I made the next batch which I made at Christmas. I have been making the fudge every Christmas since. Actually, I’ll be honest, I got up before six this morning and got myself a cup of coffee and a small piece of fudge. What a lovely way to start my day. This past week I got the fudge shipped off to the family in that I can’t hand deliver. I thought I would share the recipe in case you wanted to try it yourself.

Christmas Fudge 

Ingredients

3 1/3 cups granulated sugar  1 2/3

1 1/3 cup Carnation Evaporated Milk  2/3

4 tbsp butter 2

1 tsp salt 1/2

4 cups miniature marshmallows  2

3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips  1 1/2

2 tsp vanilla extract 1

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

**Recipe makes a larger rectangular pan. The measurements to the right of ingredients are for a smaller 8” square pan.**

Preparation

Butter a rectangular or 8” square baking pan depending whether you want to make a large or small batch. 

Combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium saucepan; slowly bring to rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 4 to 5 minutes or until mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in marshmallows, chocolate chips, vanilla and nuts (if desired) until marshmallows and chocolate melt and blend. Stir until all the marshmallows are completely melted. Pour into a buttered rectangular pan. I use a clear Pyrex. If you want to put maraschino cherries or pecans or something on top, do it right now, it will harden quickly. Leave at room temperature. Once cooled off cut into squares. Now you can put it in the fridge. 

Eat the warm remnants/leftovers in the pot. It's my favorite part.