This time last year… What to do this week: Gardeners are always happy to have a steady supply of vegetables throughout the growing season. One way to achieve this is to plant things in succession. You may plant a row of carrots, and then two weeks later you plant anotherRead More

Chinese itineraries CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke has yet to publish an itinerary for his November 30-December 6 trip to China on which he was accompanied by CAO Marie Walsh, Economic Development Manager John Phalen and his executive assistant Mark Bettens. As it happens, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was inRead More

Editor’s Note: Today, Michelle and Madeline mark the beginning of year two of their gardening column. The plan is to build on the advice given last year so, where applicable, the new columns will begin with links to the previous year’s, to allow you to refresh your memory. If you’veRead...

What to do this week: Now that winter is here it is time to start gathering seed catalogs, and planning the coming year’s garden. This week I am thinking about trees, bushes and berries. It is always a catch 22 because the prices are really good now, but it mayRead More

What to do this week This week, it might be a good idea to check on the health of the plants you’ve taken in for the winter: it is time to check for pests. When you bring plants in from the outdoors you sometimes bring outdoor pests in as wellRead More

What to do this week Now that the leaves are being blown off by the fall winds that have finally arrived, it is a good time for hardwood propagation of some of your perennial bushes. Gooseberries and currants are what I am working on this week, but you can doRead More

Kudos to the Post? Oh yeah, you read that correctly: this week, the cranky ol’ Spectator is congratulating the Cape Breton Post on its new website, which is crisp and clean and mercifully free of the clickbait ads that used to cover its home page like measles on the faces ofRead More

What to do this week Gardening is a year-round pleasure, or obsession, depending on how hard you have fallen. There is always something to do, whether it be preparing for winter, preparing for spring, preparing for summer…you get the picture. This time of year, most gardeners are busy between theRead More

What to do this week Eat! You’ve put 38 weeks’ worth of hard and noble labor into your fall harvest, now it’s time to enjoy it. Michelle Smith and Madeline Yakimchuk are taking a well-deserved week off, so the Spectator decided to ask some of the people involved with theRead More

What to do this week It must be green tomato season, unless you have been as lucky as I have been and are enjoying ripe tomatoes too. Local tomatoes had a bit of a slow start this year. It was cool, and then it was dry, so the plants didn’tRead More