On my afternoon walk yesterday I noticed neighbours raising Canadian flags here and there. This one, on Kalyk St., was attached to a parking sign by a nice lady who came from Iran after the Shah was overthrown there, back in the 70s. She raised her children and became politically active in her community, enriching us all by representing her neighbourhood when a large “high tech park” was being developed. Nice to see she is still politically aware and making a statement on behalf of her adopted country.
Several days each week I am filling the first of four raised garden beds. Filling them with topsoil, which I dug from the front yard last year. A few minutes ago I was watching a video for beginning gardeners; the topic was raised garden beds similar to the ones I have, and the expert was saying not to fill the entire bed with topsoil, lest it become waterlogged. Oops.
This first bed is only about half-way full, so perhaps it is not too late to mix in other stuff. I might buy a few bags of pumice to mix in. For the remaining three beds I will probably buck some fallen rotted trees, then place the wood pieces at the bottom of each bed. If I have leftover topsoil I’ll spread it in some depressions in the back yard to even out the surface of that lawn.
The northernmost raised bed, pictured above, will be shaded throughout the growing season so I’ll need to plant leafy greens and root vegetables; possibly some broccoli and cauliflower. Rhubarb, too.