A Weekend With "The Opester"

Well I just had a great, action-packed weekend with my dear friend Helen Opie, whom Brendan (my husband) nicknamed "the Opester" before they even met; she doesn't mind and the nickname seems to suit her.

As well as an amazing artist Helen is a master gardener and has been extremely generous with advice as we're keen on growing as much food as possible.  Saturday March 31st Helen invited me to her home in Granville Ferry where she was explaining how to grow tomatoes from seeds.  She'll be co-gardening this year with her friends, Jeff and April as she figures there is plenty of space on her 1/3 acre lot to grow food for Helen as well as Jeff, April and their children.

Onion Seedlings in Helen's Kitchen

Strawbale Raised Beds

Helen had an assortment of tomato seeds and pepper seeds to plant, mostly from Hope Seeds.  I brought a few packs of seeds from Halifax Seed as well as a deep-root planting tray from Lee Valley Tools.  I didn't plant peppers as I've cut way back on my intake of nightshade plants; tomatoes are nightshades too but are too delicious and too much fun to grow.  

Seedling trays were planted with a couple of seeds per hole filled with wet soil, 3x the depth of the seed.  So for tomato seeds, which are small, they are just barely covered with soil.  The trays are then covered with plastic wrap (but only until they sprout) and my tray now sits in a sunny window, on a heating pad which I also got from Lee Valley.  Helen suggested I cut the front and top off a cardboard box and line it with tin foil, to reflect more sunlight onto the seeds.  I'm out of tinfoil right now but will try to remember to do this!

Helen and April planting pepper seeds

Helen also has the next show opening at Swoon, her paintings as well as paintings and sculptures by Christine Lavoie will be featured for April, with an opening Reception this coming Saturday from 2 - 5pm:

With Saturday being a gorgeous day and Helen having many neighbours and friends who don't go into the city often, she got the great idea to host a "preview of leaving attractions" from 2 - 4pm, and hung all her paintings on the streetside outside wall of her home.  When I arrived at Helen's place she had a long list of folks in the neighbourhood to call up to invite to her spontaneous art event:

Her outdoor show attracted many residents throughout the afternoon, who enjoyed the work very much, and appreciated the opportunity to view it!

Helen proudly holding her painting-hanging-hammer

Sneak Peak at Helen's show, minus a couple paintings

Helen's "Whalecome" sign, which suits her home very much!

 

Late Saturday afternoon we packed all her paintings into my car and I drove her back to my place where she spent Saturday and Sunday nights for a well-earned rest.  She also gave me some red worms so I can start my own worm compost bin, I'm excited about that.   I'm very pleased that she likes my new digs as much as I do, and on Sunday, after she dowsed to figure out where my septic tank and its access is, we walked around with my shovel to see how the soil is.   Fortunately the overgrown field in front of the house appears to have wonderful rich soil full of worms!  Much nicer soil than she suspected at first glance. Thank you, river. 

I think the area by the shed will be a fine spot for some fruit and nut trees, and perhaps some raised beds as well.  Helen suggested I get some silage plastic to place over the sod, black side up, so that it can start to rot the ground cover underneath.  Later in the summer I'll plant squash, tomatoes and other plants through evenly spaced holes in the plastic.  Sounds much easier than breaking up all the sod as it is!