Friday, April 19, 2024 – Welcome Message

 

Welcome to our new website (www.elliottfarmservices.ca) and to our new blog. We hope to keep you informed about the goings on around the farm and the garden.

We are unsure on how the ground thawing is progressing, because the temperature out here has been dropping to colder than -10°C each night.

Remember, we are at least 5°C cooler out here than it is in the City of Edmonton (nice in the summer, not so much in the winter). For a more accurate weather forecast here, check out the one for Elk Island National Park.  

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Sunday, August 18, 2024 – STOP DUMPING BRANCHES

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To whomever is bringing their branches from home and dumping them in our compost pile… STOP IT! First of all, this compost pile is for the organic material produced in THIS community garden. It is not for your compost from home. Take those items to your local ECO station or compost them in YOUR yard! Second of all, although branches are organic, they will take forever to decompose when not mulched into smaller pieces
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Sunday, November 17, 2024 - Preventing Blossom End Rot

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Blossom end rot is when the side of the fruit that attaches to the plant begins to shrivel and rot. This can happen on some or all of the fruit on a plant. Thankfully, blossom end rot is not the result of a virus or disease, but is generally caused from a lack of calcium.  An organic solution to avoid blossom end rot, is to add crushed eggshells when you transplant your seedlings. The calcium in eggshells is 90% absorbable, and is probably the best natural source of calcium that we have available to us. And it’s free! Collecting and preparing eggshells is as simple as 1, 2, 3… 1-       Save your eggshells in a large bowl on your counter as you use the eggs. 2-       Leave the shells in the bowl to dry. 3-       Crush the eggshells into small pieces by hand or with a food processor / blender. (The smaller the piece, the easier the calcium will be absorbed by the plant) Use your crushed eggshells...
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Wednesday, July 2, 2025 - How to Keep Deer From Eating Your Plants

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    We have had several reports that deer have been feasting in the garden at night. While annoying to be sure, it is a fact of nature that we just have to deal with pest control of one kind or another. Here are some ideas that you can use to help keep the deer from snacking on your treasured plants… Choose Deer-Resistant Plants While hungry deer may eat just about anything, they tend to avoid prickly and fuzzy foliage . And, they don’t really like heavily fragranced plants, either. Experiment with different textured and aromatic plants. Try using them as borders for your garden beds.     Place Bar Soap Near Plants To keep deer away, many gardeners turn to ordinary bar soap . The scent is said to interfere with their sensitive sense of smell. Choose a brand with a powerful fragrance (I’m told Irish Spring is a favourite), and hang bars from strings in large shrubs or attach bars to stakes and place them around the edges of your garden beds. Scatter...
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