It was a perfect ending for a hard-slogging gardening day as I lowered my grimy self into the sparkling clear, sun-flecked water at a nearby beach. A swim brought deliverance from the heat and restored needed energy.
The next day I woke as usual before six, to an eerie yellow-grey light in the bedroom. That early, the garden felt vaguely threatening in the weird half-light, almost as though a Jack the Ripper could be lurking in the shrubbery.
A dark-coloured bathing suit drying on the patio was dusted with fine white ash. The sun was a hazy orange sphere in a grey sky. The unmistakable acrid odour of smoke was in the air 鈥� the smell of danger, and devastation. I鈥檒l not ever take for granted our sweet, fresh Island air again.
The dimmed sun had cooled things down enough to provide a听likely window for sowing seeds that would otherwise have fried in the sun鈥檚 direct heat.
That Sunday turned into an eight-hour marathon as I cleared out old plantings, dug compost into sites here and there and seeded carrots, beets, chicory, and several varieties of bush beans. I even sowed a second double row of peas in freshly plumped soil at the wire-mesh fencing that had supported an earlier planting. More fine food to look forward to.
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Bounty. As I checked through the food garden that day I saw cauliflower that needed to be harvested. Both the white Snow Crown and the green Romanesco type called Veronica had taken on slight pinkish tinges from the heat, but they were still delicious lightly steamed with broad beans and tossed in a blend of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, mashed garlic, salt and pepper.
I added raw vegetables to the mix 鈥� young carrots sliced into slim sticks, chunks of zucchini, and paper-thin slices of Italian Red Torpedo onion 鈥� a beautiful, elongated summer onion with a mild taste.
I had the vegetable blend warm for dinner that night, and the leftovers stored in the fridge provided ready-made salad meals topped with sliced black kalamata olives and chunks of feta.
This is a quick, easy, and efficient way to use a surplus of vegetables that need to be picked at their prime. Examples are beans, broccoli, cauliflower and snow peas. And such vegetable medleys make a colourful, nutrition-packed dish.
Stir-fries are another quick and tasty way to use a varied medley of garden vegetables. My remaining heads of cauliflower went into a stir-fry meal with onion, carrot, snap beans, garlic and cubes of leftover chicken, mixed with brown basmati rice and drizzled with Tamari.
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Deer again. It happens every time. I suggest some deer-resistant plantings or pass along听a reader鈥檚 (successful) method for deterring deer foraging. Then come the inevitable emails citing experiences that contradict the information I鈥檝e conveyed.
Most recently, I wrote about a gardener I鈥檇 met who had for several years managed to protect a previously deer-ravaged clematis and some hosta plants by planting garlic with them.
The next day, John S. from Salt Spring Island wrote: 鈥淣ot so lucky here.鈥� Three photos attested to his losses 鈥� a planter with garlic eaten down 鈥渁nd the deer have also feasted on a hanging basket with chives and snapdragons as well as dusty miller, dill, and a sweet bay bush. Nothing is safe.鈥�
In an earlier column, I鈥檇 suggested some plants for a food garden in a location visited by deer. My list included rhubarb. The following Saturday at my local farmers鈥� market Rob, a听grower who sells at the market, informed me his rhubarb plants had been munched down, toxic leaves and all.
It鈥檚 looking more and more as听though John is right. Without a tall, secure fence, nothing is safe.
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GARDEN EVENT
Sooke farm tour. The Sooke Region Food Community Health Initiative Society will host its fourth Farm Tour Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Experience hands-on farming for a day on this self-guided tour of nine working farms. There will be farm activities for children and adults and the opportunity to learn about food gardening. Bring shopping bags to carry home fruit, vegetables and other fresh farm products. Tickets at $15 (free for ages 12听and under) can be picked up tomorrow in Sooke at People鈥檚 Drug Mart, Shoppers Drug Mart and The Stick in the Mud Coffeehouse. sookefoodchi.ca/farmtour.
