Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving. Last night was our first real hard frost of the fall. Fitting perhaps that the wild turkeys were out in the field when I went to take a picture this morning.

Frosty Field & Wild Turkeys on Thanksgiving

This year we’re going to try growing a lot more of the produce that we use at the cafe (www.YellowCanoeCafe.ca). I’m trying to aim smaller if anything so things don’t get away from us. The primary crops will be mixed salad greens, tomatoes, beans, and herbs. We’re also putting in pie pumpkins, cukes, eggplant, corn, and more.

I got a good start in mid April tilling up the plots.

First till of the vegetable garden beds

The tractor mounted tiller makes quick work of producing a nice looking bed. The near end of this bed is destined to be covered with our 24×48 foot greenhouse which I’m planning on using as a field-house to extend the growing season. It’s taking longer to get the foundation up, so it’s looking like we’ll be testing extending things in the fall more.

I paid for not getting the field-house up last night when there was a surprise frost warning. We have about 40 tomatoes, a dozen brussels sprouts, and a few cukes in so I was scrambling to come up with row covers. I ended up using a combination of floating row cover I got at Lee Valley Tools, and a bunch of recycled lumber tarps.

Plants covered up for frost protection

As it turned out I don’t think we got a frost, although it was close. Here’s a picture from inside the “caged garden” after I got the covers off.

The view from inside the "Caged Garden"

I used this configuration last year and had no problems with the deer. In a few weeks I’ll plant the beans around the outside to climb up the fences. It was one of those “blinding flashes of the obvious” when I realized that the beans didn’t need to be in rows and I could use these fence panels to provide crop protection too.

More info as things progress, I’d better get back to welding up the last section of the field-house base.