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"I just think that Nelson and hopefully there’s just going to so entertained and walk away with more than just hearing music but also having a little bit of touched engaged and moved to what there are going to see . . .” director Pat Henman said prior to the weekend.

May 31, The Nelson Daily

This makes no sense! Do you even look at your copy before publishing it?

Organic gardeners share one challenge that has many faces – how to nurse newly emerged seedlings along to the point when they are strong enough to defend themselves. Because seedlings are so tender and tasty, and low to the ground, they are easy pickings for a host of animals, from the very tiny to the enormous. Everything from wireworms and millipedes up to racoons and deer are perfectly happy to chomp on your veggies, sometimes eradicating a whole bed of newly emerged plants.

The second half of May heralds the blooms of Columbine here in south coastal BC. The flowers only appear for a couple of weeks, but it’s so worth the wait. Take a walk through the UBC Botanical Gardens at this time of year, and you’ll see many variations on the theme, although only a sampling of the 70 or so species that exist. The flowers have an aesthetic attraction for me, in terms of simple beauty and daintiness. But the academic side of my personality cannot see past the flowers as potent symbols of Darwinian evolution.

If there’s one thing to take away from the recent election’s loss of a voice for the rainforest, it’s that protecting the largest temperate rainforest in the world is still possible–with or without politics and money being pushed into the controversial oil sands expansion that would potentially devastate this rare and critical ecosystem–one of the last of its kind.

Mid-May is an excellent time of year to plant drying bean seeds like red kidney beans, orca beans, or black turtle beans. These are all very productive crops, and the seeds are easy to extract and dry for use later in the year. Last year I planted an 8 foot row of kidney beans in one of the beds at Kirkland House in Ladner. I only used about half the package of seeds. I used, as I do with all my veggies, a small amount of Gaia Green’s All Purpose 4-4-4 organic fertilizer, but did not use a seed inoculant or any other method.

Okay, I confess to having made more or less the same post previously, but it is wholly warranted by the exquisite beauty to be found at Select Roses in Langley, BC. My friend Brad Jalbert has dedicated his life to raising and breeding roses. He has authored a book on keeping roses, and he’s traveled the world touring famous rose gardens. He is, in fact, one of the world authorities on the subject of everything rose. I admire his dedication absolutely.

I have written frequently about the results I get in my veggie beds from using the All Purpose Complete Organic 4-4-4 Fertilizer from Gaia Green. I love this product, and I use it with nearly all my vegetable plantings. The idea of a “complete” organic balanced fertilizer has been around for many moons – at least since Steve Solomon’s first edition of Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, published back in 1981, and probably long before that.

Rossland resident, Michael Gifford, has a new handle. Call him "Gut Bucket Giff". He recently released his two-part YouTube instructional video, "Compleat Washtub Bass". Part One (18 minutes) covers understanding and hearing the bass line. Part Two (36 minutes) deals with building and playing the single string instrument.

Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez have talked a big game over the past few months. Each one has insisted that, because of a mutual distrust for judges and how bouts are scored, they will aim to knock the other out this Saturday.

It’s not going to happen.