I just moved to a new house and there is a vegetable garden here. I would really like to keep this garden going. I have very little experiance. I have found potatoes, cabbage, rubarb, some kind of onions and all sorts of herbs. I have found what I think is garlic. I would like to plant sweet peas and snow peas, corn, lettus, onions and cuccumbers. I have found two composts that I am filling. I have turnned over the soil on most of the garden and weeded. I also have tons of fruit trees, Plums, cherry, apple trees, Blue berry, boisson berry. Please help me, any advise would really help. Ted
Rhubarb generally grows very well here (I also live in the Lower Mainland area). It should be starting to leaf out now. Once the stalks have grown you can start picking the rhubarb but it is recommended that you stop harvesting around June to give the plant a chance to recuperate before fall. Potatoes can become quite the weed if you don't get all the tubers up in the fall and start planting them in different spots in the garden. Keep wood ash away from your potato bed as this is likely to cause scabs to form on the potatoes. As the potato plants grow, you will want to pile dirt up around the stems. This helps keep the potatoes that form out of direct sunlight (which will turn them green and the green parts should not be eaten), it also encourages the plants to make more potatoes along the buried part of the stem. Watch out for cabbage caterpillers! I'm not sure how much of a problem it is in Maple Ridge but here in Burnaby the caterpillers get more of the greens than I do!! Garlic does well here and most people in this area plant their garlic in the fall - usually late October. The plants get started then rest over the winter then start growing again as soon at they feel it is warm enough. I don't know of any major pests other than the snails and slugs which our climate is noted for. Peas do well with an early spring planting - usually mid to late March. Inoculant (a black powder available from the garden shops) sprinkled onto the seeds help them absorb nitrogen and makes them grow better. I've tried to grow peas mid season and in the late summer for a fall crop but I think we have too much rain and they mildew very badly. Corn should grow very well for you - lots of corn fields out in the Abbotsford area! Make sure that you plant the corn in square blocks and not in straight rows. The plants are wind pollinated and straight rows just don't do the trick if the wind blows the wrong way! Lettuce may experience similar problems to cabbage with the caterpillers (and slugs and snails) feasting on it. It all depends on what pests are in your area. Fruit trees are very popular here! Plums and cherry don't usually suffer much from boring pests, the apples may have problems with worms but again, it depends on your area. Some people I know who live in your area never spray their apples and have never had a wormy one! Blueberry and Boysenberries are great! Birds like the blueberries but I find that I still have more than enough from my 2 bushes even with the birds helping themselves. Blueberries like a slightly acid soil so go easy with the lime around them. If you have high bush blueberries, you will want to do a bit of pruning in the late summer to keep the long shoots under control. Don't prune off too much of the new wood though because this will become fruiting wood in the following year. Hope this has given you some specifics for you upcoming year! :o) Anne
