Tim Horton
Junior Member
Posts: 69
Zone:: 2
Joined: October 2019
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Post by Tim Horton on Oct 26, 2019 17:17:00 GMT -5
Hello from the far north west of Canada.. eh...
We are a retired couple, live in the bush, the farm reduced to a hobby farm manageable size. We keep small livestock, chickens, geese, meat rabbits, a donkey named Sam, and dog named Winston Churchill DeHounddog...
Like said, we are zone 2 at best. Our season is likely quite different than most can imagine, but we do quite well for our needs..
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Post by Hensaplenty on Oct 26, 2019 20:18:46 GMT -5
Welcome!! Would love to hear about what you are able to grow. After visiting Alaska, I have been fascinated with Alaska and the Yukon. This summer we spent some time in Alberta and loved seeing the Canadian Rockies! SO beautiful! (And, of course, we visited a Tim Hortons!) :-)
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Oct 26, 2019 20:26:29 GMT -5
Good to hear from you though initially I was wondering if you sold donuts and coffee.
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Post by september on Oct 27, 2019 0:53:39 GMT -5
Welcome, I so enjoy hearing about folks gardening in a colder zone than me! The summers are usually ideal for growing almost anything, it's just that spring and fall are more like what winter is like in the south.
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Post by tomike on Oct 27, 2019 5:41:32 GMT -5
Hello,
I'm also from Canada and it looks like you live much closer to Santa Claus than I do. I live just north of Ottawa.
I would also be interested in knowing what you can grow in Zone 2.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Oct 27, 2019 7:41:11 GMT -5
Welcome Tim Horton! When I'm in an area with a Tim's, we go out of our way to get a box of Timbits for the road. We're thrilled to have you join us, and as you can see, we'd all love to hear about what you can manage to grow living so close to Santa! That has to take a special kind of perseverance for sure! Have you always lived there?
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 27, 2019 9:55:54 GMT -5
Welcome, Tim Horton! Glad to see you here, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your garden.
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Post by ahntjudy on Oct 27, 2019 20:13:28 GMT -5
Tim Horton... Hello to you from southeastern Pennsylvania...pretty much the tropics, compared to you!... Looking forward to hearing about your gardening and other experiences way up north there... Welcome to the gang!...
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Oct 27, 2019 23:31:41 GMT -5
Welcome from Hamilton, Ontario the home of the very first Timmy's franchise 50 some years ago.
Love to hear more about gardening on your hobby farm. I had a 50 acre organic mixed farm in Eastern Ontario. Now in the fruitbelt and in an apartment.
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Tim Horton
Junior Member
Posts: 69
Zone:: 2
Joined: October 2019
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Post by Tim Horton on Oct 28, 2019 14:44:30 GMT -5
So very sadly.... If you look up the definition of "black thumb" you will find a picture of me.
Sweetie is the gardener in the family. She has phenomenally luck with most anything she touches. I do the physical work, run the tractor or other machinery, and do mostly what I am told.
We are about 40 kilometers in the bush. Again, our last frost to first frost dates are on average 55 days for zone 2. And it runs very close to that. The "holy trilogy" of our garden is potatoes, peas, beans and anything else is a bonus treat. We container garden, and do mostly red and Yukon Gold potato, peas, she plants edible pod near the gate so I can snack. Three kinds of green beans. We do get some small zucchini but not the real canoe size.
Sweetie does tomatoes in the green house that are not that good all considered. We do get mostly green fruit for an old family Nova Scotia recipe, green tomato, apple, onion Chow-Chow.. One of my favorite from when I was a kid is ground cherry. It is supposed to be a perennial, but not up here. It makes the most wonderful jam.
It seems odd to many people, even this far north, we get a nice selection of fruits and veggies reasonably cheap and timely, all considered. We get US Georgia sweet corn, vidalia onion, sweet potato, again cheaper than suspected. The lower mainland of the province produces a lot of things.
We also have surprising amount of wild and zone hearty domestic fruits. Wild and tame Saskatoon berry, honey berry, sour cherry, low bush cranberry (lingonberry), thimble berry (raspberry of sorts). We have an invasive weed, called fire weed that the blossom makes a wonderful jelly.
In the river valley we have a lot of apples. Mostly no name, only good for critter feed varieties. We pick a lot for people to use as feed for our critters and to keep bears out of trees. A problem can be a 12 ga shotgun loaded with slugs is necessary equipment to pick berries because of competition from bears.
We have friends in Alaska with an extensive green house system that grow a lot of different things and supply bedding plants all over there area.
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Post by meandtk on Oct 28, 2019 17:30:13 GMT -5
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Post by pepperhead212 on Oct 28, 2019 17:45:55 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum!
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Oct 29, 2019 6:04:40 GMT -5
Mmmm, Lingonberries, Saskatoons and Thimbleberries. Doesn't get much better than that.
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Tim Horton
Junior Member
Posts: 69
Zone:: 2
Joined: October 2019
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Post by Tim Horton on Oct 30, 2019 12:34:21 GMT -5
Mmmm, Lingonberries, Saskatoons and Thimbleberries. Doesn't get much better than that. Oh yah... eh... We also have a small black current patch. As ragged as it looks it always does well. Dark color jams and jelly is the very best..
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Oct 30, 2019 16:59:16 GMT -5
I've had black currant bushes in every house for the last 40 years with the exception of the farm. They just did not thrive there? I had a Buffalo currant bush there but it wasn't the same. We sold our house this summer and I had two well established black currant bushes there. But I still had 15 or so jars of jam left from 2018 so I froze all of the currants as we harvested them. I never really paid attention to the many uses of Black Currants until now, we love the jam so much. But there are a couple of good sites with recipes. www.nzblackcurrants.com/our-recipes/I really want to try the salad recipe and either of the breakfast muffins. www.currantc.com/recipes/Now that I've been sharing this and going through the site pages again, I think I'll get busy and make some of the Currant Farm's Black Currant Banana Bread! Thanks for inspiring me.
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