Springtime in Canada

It was just over a week ago I said goodbye to Saskatchewan,

touched down briefly in Calgary…

and then returned to Victoria where the herring run is in full flow, which brings out the fishermen

and the seabirds, including mergansers,

as well as harbour seals –and the odd otter.

Meanwhile, thoughts turn to plantings; I have some wading pools and car tires ready to roll. I’d heard that you can plant lots of potatoes using a stacking method and car tires, so I’m going to try that. On the other hand, this guy has had pretty good luck growing everything from corn to eggplant to okra in his Tennessee garden using 163 car tires. The wading pool idea came from this article about inner city gardening, which says they last at least 6 years in Chicago, so hopefully will prove even more durable here. The article also describes using car tires (with plastic liners), feed bags (you can use big burlap sacks as well) or other discarded containers like wooden crates, bricks, barrels, and plastic pails with holes in them.

But at present I don’t have to do anything more than plan, since we had a surprise snowfall this morning – though it is melting as best it can.

Luckily there’s poetry to keep us warm. I’m looking forward to David Cavanagh‘s reading at Planet Earth Poetry this Friday.