Grape growing has its rituals. If you’re going to take a plant that roots itself as it tumbles down hot volcanic soils on river banks in humid Europe and move it around […]
Voodoo Grapes in the Okanagan
Brave Bees… Perhaps
The balsam root blossoms on the hill were visited by these furry brown bees yesterday. These are the first bees I’ve seen on the flowers that were not shy. They wouldn’t scare. […]
Go, Garlic, Go!
It’s a happy time in the garden. Garlic is 15 centimetres high. Leaves did their job. How great is that, eh! And, yeah, there’s lots of it. Go, garlic , go!
It’s Either Wine or Sunflowers, Eh
The expanding social competition among vintners to be super-elite seems to be at blame. This will be one of the few balsam roots you’ll see this year above Okanagan Landing, some 5,000 […]
Alders in the Spring
Last year’s snow bent the branches down. This year’s spring power’s through on the work of last year’s summer. This is that special time of the year, when the old year and […]
Life and Death and Cottonwoods on the Similkameen River
Rivers flood. It’s one of the things they do. They’re pretty good at it. The Similkameen River, with a minimum flow of 65 cubic feet per second at Nighthawk, an average flow […]
Climate Change in the North Okanagan 6: A Tale of Two Orchards
This is an old apple tree. The government has paid for it to be replaced. Best read that again. The government has paid to have almost all of these trees replaced. Up […]
Reducing Climate Risk in the Okanagan 5: Collect Water in Place
The practice of collecting water in the mountains, delivering it to cities and farms in the valley bottom, and then emptying recycled water into the lakes is placing us at climate risk, […]
Climate Resilience 3: Self-Fertilizing and Self-Watering Islands
That’s right, islands in the grass. They’re not just sitting there. They are creating nitrogen and releasing minerals from the rock into a form that plants can use. In fact, instead of […]
Zero Carbon Farming in the Okanagan
This week, I will be discussing options for reducing climate risk in Okanagan farming. The Canadian government is interested in protecting the atmosphere from carbon emissions. I am interested in that and […]
Okanagan Okanogan 