Agriculture

Whitefly. (Photo by gbohne from Berlin, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Gardening Tips: Indoor Infestations

February 27, 2019 at 12:45 pm

What to do this week These days, I mark time, waiting for my leeks and onions to sprout and it’s time to start my early spring greens next month. It is a good time to pay attention to the indoor garden and other small tasks. Houseplants, particularly those that spendRead More

Soil blockers. (Photo by Michelle Smith)

Gardening Tips: Making Mudpies

February 13, 2019 at 12:30 pm

What to do this week Back in the day, when I got ready to start my transplants, it meant rummaging through my collection of old flower pots, cell packs and cut-down milk cartons. Like all good gardeners I tried to recycle and my Scotch soul hated to buy new plasticRead More

Onion seedlings (Photo by Madeline Yakimchuk)

Gardening Tips: Gardeners, Start Your Onions!

February 6, 2019 at 11:30 am

What to do this week I know it’s the dead of winter but it is still time to think about finalizing your seed orders and starting your transplants. Onions and leeks are the first thing to start on the windowsill rotation. There are a lot of good reasons to startRead More

Gardening Tips: When Less is More

Gardening Tips: When Less is More

January 30, 2019 at 11:45 am

What to do this week This week we need to have a talk. Yes, it’s advice I find hard to follow myself, but just between you and me, we’re going to have to suck it up. It’s for our own good. The advice? Don’t take on more than you canRead More

Map showing proposed site of RV park in Big Pond.

UARB Critical of CBRM Planners in RV Park Case

January 23, 2019 at 1:08 pm

I have to start by quoting myself. This is what I wrote about Chris Skidmore’s RV Park proposal for Big Pond back in February 2018 CBRM planning staff seem really keen on this Big Pond RV Park idea. I don’t know how else to interpret the time and effort planningRead More

Gardening Tips: How to Read a Seed Catalog

Gardening Tips: How to Read a Seed Catalog

January 23, 2019 at 1:00 pm

What to do this week Looking at some of the better seed catalogs can be a bit confusing for the uninitiated. A well-written catalog is full of useful technical information, but that’s not much use if you don’t know what any of it means. This week, we’ll take a tourRead More

Gardening Tips: Time to Read About Seed

Gardening Tips: Time to Read About Seed

January 16, 2019 at 11:54 am

Editor’s Note: It is making the Spectator a bit giddy to announce the return of the weekly gardening column! Don’t let the snow fool you — spring will come, and Michelle and Madeline will make sure you and your garden are ready for it.   What to do this weekRead More

Photo by Bogdan. [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Cannabis is Legal in Canada

October 17, 2018 at 1:43 pm

I’m doing all my readers a solid this week and writing nothing about cannabis legalization. You’re welcome.       [signoff]

Garlic. (Photo by fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.au, GFDL 1.2 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html, from Wikimedia Commons)

Gardening Tips Week 37: Garlic Time

October 3, 2018 at 12:15 pm

What to do this week It is garlic-planting time again. In this part of the world, it is a good idea to plant your garlic before the end of October. It needs a bit of time for the roots to get established before the freeze-thaw cycles. One never knows howRead More

Der Sommer by Abel Grimmer, 1607. (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Gardening Tips Weeks 29 & 30: Harvest Soon

August 8, 2018 at 11:30 am

What to do this week Harvesting is really the point of it all. This week, I’d like to give you a few tips and tricks to make the harvest even more abundant. To get maximum production from some crops, you have to pick them. The plant senses it is notRead More