I remember hearing about the Peace Country way back in high school in the early 70s. The land of honey, prairie grain and midnight sun! Lots of farming in those days. I never imagined we'd move there in 1977 for a few years of teaching which turned into 38 years of loving the north. We immediately put in a vegetable garden and though classed as zone 2, we managed to grow some zone 4-5 flowers and crops. It was an easy growing area. I had massive flower beds and took a bouquet of over 40 blooms one August Fall Fair, just to make a point.
The soil is class one, rich, free draining and really, NO rocks! Sandy in our garden and clay in others. Amendments to the soil were easy to come by with all the ranches and farms around and so yearly loads were poured into the gardens. Water was not a problem as the mighty Peace River was close by. And the sun, oh the sun! In summer there was 18 hours of light that gave the plants a roaring start and growth time.
We grew the tenders (tomatoes and cukes) in the greenhouse for the long season they needed. There was never many pests except the white moths that would be discouraged from leaving their larva in the broccoli. That problem was fixed by wrapping the crop in remay cloth. No slugs. No carrot weevils. No need for chemical warfare. Tenders could be frosted dead by late August and by late Sept it was time to get the root crops in to the root cellar. Time to clean up and not think of gardening again till the inside seeds got planted in February. I must say I welcomed this rest from the gardens. This was the time for gardeners brags and figuring how to get it all right for the next year. We were keen on saying how long our crops could keep throughout winter. I had carrots in sand till we ate them all in late March in the root cellar with potatoes that went right into the following summers potato salad. The freezer was full of the berries, beans, peas and corn and other vegetables which made grocery shopping unnecessary and welcomed by me. The canning shelves were full too with local honey being used for the crab apples and various jams. There were market gardens that could fill in the gaps of what we didn't grow because we all know that every garden season has its failures. We just had to hang around for winter till that first crop of asparagus burst through the ground..Spring was at it again!
Yes gardening in the Peace was all it was said to be. Fantastic! Its a different place today from the many peaceful quiet years we had. Oil and gas were discovered along with dinosaur bones and their tracks. Coal. The north became a land of natural resource extraction. Farmers had no control or say as to who came onto their land as they only have surface rights. A swath of our precious valley will soon be under the waters of the Site C Dam and along with it the amazing class one soil . A sadness for those who live there that is hard to convey. Progress got a hold of us and we had to let go. It was great while it lasted..gardening down here (PR) is a whole different story. It sure takes lots of muscle power and dirt!
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my daughter taught at Cadotte lake. i teased her she should have stayed for the summers and gardened. she said the soil was terrible there.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your write up, Debbie, along with those great photos. I gardened for years in the East Kootenays before I moved to Powell River in 2014 and although the climate may have limited the perennials I could grow, the vegetable garden was much more productive and tasty there. It is a challenge here, especially keeping nutrients in the soil, but ...... I was also picking broccoli, kale, rosemary, sage, chives and parsley yesterday!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your gardening memories and beautiful photos, Deb.
ReplyDeleteJoyce R.