I live here is zone 3 as well and have found that "Renegade" spinach really grows well in this area. It's my third year growing it and it's never bolted.
We’re south east of Edm and I’ve noticed our trees and bushes have bloomed weird/randomly this year too. The lower branches on our apple tree bloomed all the way and the top ones are just starting… same for all our lilac bushes. The only one that gone crazy is our Saskatoon berry bush, which is in it’s third year and should give us a nice harvest now that I put netting around it to keep the magpies from eating them all! The cold spring has definitely delayed everything but the rain has been good after such a dry winter.
That is strange! Hope your saskatoons produce lots, we have some wild on our property and they seem to have bloomed well too. Also hope you managed to avoid that frost they were calling for, we escaped it here thankfully.
@@FiveCanadianAcres it’s the third year of our one lonely bush, lol. The birds have always gotten all of them the past few years but not this year! It has a ton of buds so I put netting around it! We didn’t get the frost in our area as we are in town but more north and west got it. It’s always windy here so that helps keep the frost away this late in the spring.
@@FiveCanadianAcres I think its actually a chard, but it tastes and looks like a spinach. I have grown it here in northern bc during the heat waves and it did not bolt it was pretty awesome.
Great tour. It is amazing how much growth you have in just a few weeks. I hope the storms didn't do too much damage. I learnt this year that spinach bolts due to daylight hours not temperature. I am going to try it again in the fall and plant where it can be shaded for the afternoon next year. You will love the tunnel. Peppers love it for the heat, lack of wind, and season extension. I built one last year and it worked so much better than I ever dreamed it would.
Thank you :) We didn't end up getting any hail, just a good long rain! That's good to know about the spinach, we get a lot of daylight hours this time of year. So glad your tunnel is working for you, we may end up going smaller than I had planned but I will take anything I can get :)
I plant my spinach no later than the middle of August. Usually there isn’t much fall harvest with it. The spinach overwinters in the garden and starts growing early in the spring. It is usually my first spring crop and I harvest it until it starts to bolt in June. I pull the plants in June and plant my hot weather vegetables. This is the only way that works for me. I am also in Alberta. I always plant chard in the spring for summer greens. Hope it will work for you.
I forgot to say the variety. Last summer I planted bloomsdale and seaside spinach. The bloomsdale bolted before the seaside spinach but it still did well this spring.
Wow, that's alot of green growth for 3 weeks, I love it. You will get better with flowers as you grow more lol. I'm just look at your garden and thinking my entire garden is just one of your row 😂
I am always amazed at how quickly things grow in the spring! I get overwhelmed at the size sometimes. We are trying to grow and preserve as much as we can but it also takes a lot of time. I think the preserving is more work than the growing :)
Definitely a lot going on, looking good!!! Doing more perennial flowers, started a bunch of yarrow and some bee balm to attract lacewings and lady bird beetles. I love incorporating flowers in with my veggie garden. In another month you will be bursting at the seems. Stay Well!!!
I love having the flowers amongst the veggies as well. Thank you, the garden seems to have entered that rapid growth season!! Take care and happy gardening :)
Things are looking good. You are quite a bit further along than me. We have been so wet and got another inch today in an hour - I went out and got the orchard garden ready to plant so hope to get that planted tomorrow but main crop is next. I smiled at your tomatillo's - they will get quite large and with 4 you will be over run...at least I was. I have not planted my okra yet - will see. I am curious though - you have a lot of tomatoes to "take in" but you said you had enough in the ground. Are you going to plant all your extra's? That new bed you talked about for strawberries would be cool for some more fruit trees - saskatoon's, apricots, plums, etc. and underplant it with herbs and perennial flowers - a food forest if you will. Overall I have taken the attitude of what will be and not really sweating it this year - I am changing some plans due to fewer days now. Good job Ma'am!
I am amazed at how big the tomatillo plants are, I thought they were just like tomatoes but definitely not. I may plant a few more tomatoes on large pots, just to be sure I have the varieties I wanted. Also have a few for family to plant still. The rest I have for sale, in case peoples plants don't make it they can replant. Whatever is left in the next week or so I will take to the food bank for donation. That is a great idea for a food forest, it would be a good spot. I have apricot seeds but didn't realize the stratification/germination process took so long, it will be a winter project (I have some Russian almond seeds as well). Thanks for the idea :) It's been a year of adapting already. The fact I am still planting tomatoes in the middle of June is a little worrisome, I should adopt the same attitude of what will be will be. Hope the orchard planting goes well!!
@@FiveCanadianAcres Yup, they get large. I used tomato cages on mine which worked well but with your fence you should be able to tie them up if not put additional caging around them. Fair enough on the tomatoes - don't worry about the tomatoes being late...you will have to pick the majority green to ripen in the house but not a biggy. It's been so cool nothing is really doing much...they will catch up. That will be a cool project with the apricot - I was debating about Russian almond as well but have not decided yet as I am running out of room....lol...might do some gorilla gardening with some of them. We can't change the weather so might as well just work with it - you may not get as much from some things planting later, but just put in extra (if you are worried) and you will be fine. But generally the ground is warmer and so things grow so fast you can almost watch them grow. Enjoy the garden!
You could try purple orach instead of spinach, I love the taste, it is prolific, it self seeds AND….it’s one of the earliest things to pop up. We eat radish, orach, sorrel, chives, and rhubarb all spring! It does go to seed but it takes a long time and you can pinch it back. It gets really tall but I usually remove it as we eat it to make room for other plants, then I allow the biggest one to go to seed. You can eat the leaves all summer long if you want, even after bolting, and the seeds are edible. I have many seeds, located in Red Deer, if you’re ever passing through, plant it once and enjoy for the rest of your life!
That sounds like a great plant, I will check it out! We do have a lot of lamb's quarter growing, I may have to start harvesting that more regular. Love your spring harvests, it's so encouraging to have food available early in the growing season :)
@@FiveCanadianAcres I’m also looking to lamb’s quarter this year, trying to study wild weeds and get into cold press and tinctures as well. This year we’re drinking a lot of teas from the garden, loving dandelion petal tea especially. There’s so much more to learn! I’m going to try and do a garden tour sooner or later. We have a community garden plot and lots of yard space too. My passion is perennial food and free food for sure. It’s AWESOME to have you as a resource being so close climate wise, enjoying your garden a lot!
@@KarleenKrista Thank you :) I do tinctures as well, I will have to check out cold press, sounds interesting! I love making my own teas, it is amazing how much you can grow and forage for teas. And way cheaper than buying it. Perennials have really grown on me over the years, way less work than some of these tender annuals we try and grow, lol. You should do a garden tour, I love seeing everyones gardens. I get so much joy and inspiration seeing what and how other people are growing :)
Your garden has really grown .Here in Southern Ontario the earwigs and slugs are just terrible.Im trying paprika peppers also to make paprika pepper also fingers grossed .
Even with the rain we get it's still pretty dry here so slugs aren't too bad. If I do see one they are very small. I have heard beer traps work really well for them. My worst pest is those darn cabbage worms/moths, they are relentless! Fingers crossed for you paprika plants too!
Hi there Kayla, I am a new subscriber, and I've been enjoying your vids. I live in Agassiz, BC. I have a question. I your potato patch, what are the cardboard boxes for?? I'm thinking a walk path, or maybe for harvesting?? Have a great day, & thanks for the garden tour!
Thank you so much :) Yes they are for the walking path. We are going to fill them with wood chips, so the idea is eventually you won't see them, it will just look like a path. And it will be much easier to walk on them too, lol.
Awesome garden..thanks for the tour! I too have problems with spinach bolting early here in New hampshire. My favorite variety is 'oceanside'. It always seems to outlast Bloomsdale and other varieties by a week or two before it goes to seed.
Looks great! I am in zone7 impressive tomatillos!
Very nice!
Pickled radish is a super good condiment
I live here is zone 3 as well and have found that "Renegade" spinach really grows well in this area. It's my third year growing it and it's never bolted.
Awesome, thank you, I will look for that one :)
We’re south east of Edm and I’ve noticed our trees and bushes have bloomed weird/randomly this year too. The lower branches on our apple tree bloomed all the way and the top ones are just starting… same for all our lilac bushes. The only one that gone crazy is our Saskatoon berry bush, which is in it’s third year and should give us a nice harvest now that I put netting around it to keep the magpies from eating them all! The cold spring has definitely delayed everything but the rain has been good after such a dry winter.
That is strange! Hope your saskatoons produce lots, we have some wild on our property and they seem to have bloomed well too. Also hope you managed to avoid that frost they were calling for, we escaped it here thankfully.
@@FiveCanadianAcres it’s the third year of our one lonely bush, lol. The birds have always gotten all of them the past few years but not this year! It has a ton of buds so I put netting around it!
We didn’t get the frost in our area as we are in town but more north and west got it. It’s always windy here so that helps keep the frost away this late in the spring.
Perpetual spinach is a good one not to bolt, not a true spinach though. Happy to see your garden content and be able to relate to it. 🌻
Is that similar to malabar spinach? I should look into something like that :) Thank you, it's so great to connect with other gardeners here!
@@FiveCanadianAcres I think its actually a chard, but it tastes and looks like a spinach. I have grown it here in northern bc during the heat waves and it did not bolt it was pretty awesome.
Wow! Look at your beautiful garden. I am very impressed. My vegies are not as far along as yours... Sylvan Lake area. Thank you for your update! 😊
Thank you :) While it's been a cool spring all the rain has really helped things grow!
Great tour. It is amazing how much growth you have in just a few weeks. I hope the storms didn't do too much damage. I learnt this year that spinach bolts due to daylight hours not temperature. I am going to try it again in the fall and plant where it can be shaded for the afternoon next year. You will love the tunnel. Peppers love it for the heat, lack of wind, and season extension. I built one last year and it worked so much better than I ever dreamed it would.
Thank you :) We didn't end up getting any hail, just a good long rain! That's good to know about the spinach, we get a lot of daylight hours this time of year. So glad your tunnel is working for you, we may end up going smaller than I had planned but I will take anything I can get :)
I plant my spinach no later than the middle of August. Usually there isn’t much fall harvest with it. The spinach overwinters in the garden and starts growing early in the spring. It is usually my first spring crop and I harvest it until it starts to bolt in June. I pull the plants in June and plant my hot weather vegetables. This is the only way that works for me. I am also in Alberta. I always plant chard in the spring for summer greens. Hope it will work for you.
I forgot to say the variety. Last summer I planted bloomsdale and seaside spinach. The bloomsdale bolted before the seaside spinach but it still did well this spring.
Thanks for that tip, I will try that this year. I will look for that variety as well, I usually grow the bloomsdale.
Congratulations. You have a huge garden. It’s coming along nicely.
Thank you :)
Wow, that's alot of green growth for 3 weeks, I love it. You will get better with flowers as you grow more lol. I'm just look at your garden and thinking my entire garden is just one of your row 😂
I am always amazed at how quickly things grow in the spring! I get overwhelmed at the size sometimes. We are trying to grow and preserve as much as we can but it also takes a lot of time. I think the preserving is more work than the growing :)
Wow loooks lovely!!
Definitely a lot going on, looking good!!!
Doing more perennial flowers, started a bunch of yarrow and some bee balm to attract lacewings and lady bird beetles. I love incorporating flowers in with my veggie garden.
In another month you will be bursting at the seems.
Stay Well!!!
I love having the flowers amongst the veggies as well. Thank you, the garden seems to have entered that rapid growth season!! Take care and happy gardening :)
Things are looking good. You are quite a bit further along than me. We have been so wet and got another inch today in an hour - I went out and got the orchard garden ready to plant so hope to get that planted tomorrow but main crop is next. I smiled at your tomatillo's - they will get quite large and with 4 you will be over run...at least I was. I have not planted my okra yet - will see. I am curious though - you have a lot of tomatoes to "take in" but you said you had enough in the ground. Are you going to plant all your extra's? That new bed you talked about for strawberries would be cool for some more fruit trees - saskatoon's, apricots, plums, etc. and underplant it with herbs and perennial flowers - a food forest if you will. Overall I have taken the attitude of what will be and not really sweating it this year - I am changing some plans due to fewer days now. Good job Ma'am!
I am amazed at how big the tomatillo plants are, I thought they were just like tomatoes but definitely not. I may plant a few more tomatoes on large pots, just to be sure I have the varieties I wanted. Also have a few for family to plant still. The rest I have for sale, in case peoples plants don't make it they can replant. Whatever is left in the next week or so I will take to the food bank for donation. That is a great idea for a food forest, it would be a good spot. I have apricot seeds but didn't realize the stratification/germination process took so long, it will be a winter project (I have some Russian almond seeds as well). Thanks for the idea :) It's been a year of adapting already. The fact I am still planting tomatoes in the middle of June is a little worrisome, I should adopt the same attitude of what will be will be. Hope the orchard planting goes well!!
@@FiveCanadianAcres Yup, they get large. I used tomato cages on mine which worked well but with your fence you should be able to tie them up if not put additional caging around them. Fair enough on the tomatoes - don't worry about the tomatoes being late...you will have to pick the majority green to ripen in the house but not a biggy. It's been so cool nothing is really doing much...they will catch up. That will be a cool project with the apricot - I was debating about Russian almond as well but have not decided yet as I am running out of room....lol...might do some gorilla gardening with some of them. We can't change the weather so might as well just work with it - you may not get as much from some things planting later, but just put in extra (if you are worried) and you will be fine. But generally the ground is warmer and so things grow so fast you can almost watch them grow. Enjoy the garden!
You could try purple orach instead of spinach, I love the taste, it is prolific, it self seeds AND….it’s one of the earliest things to pop up. We eat radish, orach, sorrel, chives, and rhubarb all spring! It does go to seed but it takes a long time and you can pinch it back. It gets really tall but I usually remove it as we eat it to make room for other plants, then I allow the biggest one to go to seed. You can eat the leaves all summer long if you want, even after bolting, and the seeds are edible. I have many seeds, located in Red Deer, if you’re ever passing through, plant it once and enjoy for the rest of your life!
That sounds like a great plant, I will check it out! We do have a lot of lamb's quarter growing, I may have to start harvesting that more regular. Love your spring harvests, it's so encouraging to have food available early in the growing season :)
@@FiveCanadianAcres I’m also looking to lamb’s quarter this year, trying to study wild weeds and get into cold press and tinctures as well. This year we’re drinking a lot of teas from the garden, loving dandelion petal tea especially. There’s so much more to learn! I’m going to try and do a garden tour sooner or later. We have a community garden plot and lots of yard space too. My passion is perennial food and free food for sure. It’s AWESOME to have you as a resource being so close climate wise, enjoying your garden a lot!
@@KarleenKrista Thank you :) I do tinctures as well, I will have to check out cold press, sounds interesting! I love making my own teas, it is amazing how much you can grow and forage for teas. And way cheaper than buying it. Perennials have really grown on me over the years, way less work than some of these tender annuals we try and grow, lol. You should do a garden tour, I love seeing everyones gardens. I get so much joy and inspiration seeing what and how other people are growing :)
Your garden has really grown .Here in Southern Ontario the earwigs and slugs are just terrible.Im trying paprika peppers also to make paprika pepper also fingers grossed .
Even with the rain we get it's still pretty dry here so slugs aren't too bad. If I do see one they are very small. I have heard beer traps work really well for them. My worst pest is those darn cabbage worms/moths, they are relentless! Fingers crossed for you paprika plants too!
Hi there Kayla, I am a new subscriber, and I've been enjoying your vids. I live in Agassiz, BC. I have a question. I your potato patch, what are the cardboard boxes for?? I'm thinking a walk path, or maybe for harvesting?? Have a great day, & thanks for the garden tour!
Thank you so much :) Yes they are for the walking path. We are going to fill them with wood chips, so the idea is eventually you won't see them, it will just look like a path. And it will be much easier to walk on them too, lol.
Can I make alist please, really hoping the okra drow. A lot of work went into this garden, awesome!!
Thank you :) For sure, the grocery store will be opening soon, lol
Awesome garden..thanks for the tour! I too have problems with spinach bolting early here in New hampshire. My favorite variety is 'oceanside'. It always seems to outlast Bloomsdale and other varieties by a week or two before it goes to seed.
Thank you :) I will look for that variety, I think the one I am growing is Bloomsdale.