I grew up in Medicine Hat, AB. The closest university to us was the University of Lethbridge. My mother grew up in Seven Persons on a farm, the only daughter in a family of six.

Alberta has a rich cultural heritage of Eastern European immigrants from Poland, Ukraine, Germany and Norway. My mother a Smeland (Norwegian/ German) married my father a Sadownik (Polish/Ukraine) in the late 1960’s.

(Russian) Sadovnik. : gardner.

Every year that I can remember as far back into my childhood, my mother had a backyard garden, and every year still my mother enters her annual garden produce and flowers into the country fair. For this project I wanted to highlight the backyard gardening possibilities for Southern Alberta that could be incorporated into any backyard in the Lethbridge and surrounding area.

Timeline 2023 (Pictures taken June 1, 2023)

April 1-Dig garden and remove roots and weeds with a shovel and rack. Turn soil, add compost, black earth and bone meal. Planted onions, 1st peas, 1st potatoes, carrots, kale and lettuce

April 15-Plant: 2nd potatoes, sweet peas, nasturtiums

April 30-Plant: 3rd potatoes, thin and transfer carrots, parsley, planted 2nd carrots, spinach, 2nd lettuce, 2nd peas. I planted my spinach later because I wanted it to be ready as my kale was beginning to fade. I did the same with my leaf lettuce and my head lettuce. We started eating kale and leaf lettuce middle of May. My spinach and head lettuce will be ready to eat towards the end of June.

May 15– Plant bedding out plants tomatoes/cucumber, strawberries, cucumber seeds (weather permitting)

May 15– Already eating kale, lettuce, green onions

Notes: Weather this spring has been extra hot (26-30 degrees Celsius). Water daily because of heat, 10 minutes in the morning (6 – 9 am). Snowstorm after the seeds were planted https://www.weather25.com/north-america/canada/alberta?page=month&month=April

June 12– Drying Herbs – oregano, thyme, rosemary. You can use old jars or reuse old containers ( these are Mrs Dash recycled). These are from last year.

My Backyard Farm Project is on Facebook

This shot provides the method to dry out the leaves after trimming the garden herbs fresh.

We use paper towels layered one on top of the other on a serving tray with each one separated on a towel.

This is a different Facebook account with the same name!!

My Backyard Farm Project

Gardening Tips on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@MyBackyardFarmProject

Pruning and Pinching Tomatoes and Suckers https://www.youtube.com/@MyBackyardFarmProject

Searching for false blossoms https://www.youtube.com/@MyBackyardFarmProject

Cucumber False Blossoms https://www.youtube.com/@MyBackyardFarmProject

My Backyard Farm Project
@MyBackyardFarmProject

Common Pest and Troubleshooting in the Garden

Seeds from neighbouring trees cover the ground, root and start to grow. Homeowners can try to gather them but it is an overwhelming task. Other garden pests include birds, rabbits and deer. Birds will eat the peas, and strawberries, so my mom often covers it with netting. Wild baby rabbits will eat the carrots, lettuce, kale, and spinach. Deer will eat everything they can. Grasshoppers are also a problem and are out earlier this year early June than usual (July and August).

Grasshoppers sitting in the sun https://www.youtube.com/@MyBackyardFarmProject

Identifying Cutworms in Green Onions

Identifying Cutworms in Green Onions https://www.youtube.com/@MyBackyardFarmProject

Garden Helpers and Dangerous Guests

Bees on the other hand are not considered a pest and are a welcome sight for pollinating flowers. This Black and White Bee was caught on video pollinating the snow pea.

I attempted to classify it as White-Banded Digger Bee (Amegilla quadrifasciata) by Googling “Black and White Bee” and this is the information I found:

Most people know that a yellow and black striped flying insect is a bee, but did you know that there are some very dangerous black and white bee types?

https://8billiontrees.com/animals/black-and-white-bee/

White-Banded Digger Bee (Amegilla quadrifasciata)

Unlike other furry black and white bee species, the white banded has several clear white stripes across its body against a black abdomen.

I wanted to find another way to identify the bee so I emailed Dr. David Punzalan, University of Victoria, Assistant Teaching Professor, Biology. This is his response:

Hi Stephanie,

It is hard to tell for sure but I think it is a type of leafcutter bee, or mason bee (family: Megachilidae), based on the video that seemingly showed a furry ‘underbelly’, and quite a few species have intermittent pale tufts/stripes on the abdomen. White-banded digger bees are European/Asian, I think and not present here. If you have still image, try uploading it to iNaturalist—it’s got some AI-based recognition software that is usually pretty good for narrowing down the ’suspects’ most plausible in a given geographical region.

iNaturalist.org. June 13, 2023

Less than 24 hours later I had emailed and received a reply from a iNaturalist user account that had successfully identified thousands of bees and received my first confirmation of the Leafcutter, Mortar, and Resin Bees Genus Megachile

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/167173690

Schematic Map and Birdseye View

June 1st pictures- Schematic Map and Birdseye View

I start in the main garden block (middle block) closest to the house, because the cement warms the soil. I dig in about a foot and put in my onions. I start with onions because you can plant them in cooler weather.

Next, I dig up an area for my peas because peas can also tolerate cooler weather (even if it snows) and can be planted as soon as you can dig the ground. I save my own pea seeds from the summer crop each year to plant the following year. Then, as soon as I can buy seed potatoes (early April) I dig up a piece to plant my first bag.

If the seed potatoes are small, I recommend putting in the whole potato, if larger, I recommend cutting them in half or quarters (making sure I have two to three eyes on each piece). Potatoes go down a hole about 6 inches deep (15 cm) with the eyes facing up.

I use Yukon Gold, Pontiac Red and Norland potatoes with a 1st, 2nd, 3rd plant. I use a staggered approach to planting for a few reasons. We start digging the Norlands in mid-June to July 1st, about 10 days after they have flowered. It is nice not to worry about the other potatoes until the end of September, when we dig them up for winter storage. Potatoes can not be canned, so you clean them well (there are bugs in the dirt) and dry them overnight and store them in a cool room, like a basement, in a paper bag. I store mine on the front porch in sand. Sand protects potatoes from freezing during an early frost in October.

Norland grow best and are recommended for Zone 5 in Alberta. My grandmother always preferred Pontiac Red and my mother continues to plant some of those. Norlands (70 days) ripen sooner than Pontiacs (80-90 days) and Yukon Gold (90 days). I think a variety is nice and Yukon Gold are a third option in for Zone 5 in Alberta.

After my onions, peas and potatoes are in ( by mid-April) I su

After my onions, peas and potatoes are in ( by mid-April) I surround that garden patch around the perimeter with my carrot seeds, lettuce, spinach and kale. I intentionally position these seeds around the perimeter to benefit from the runoff water.

June 1st pictures- Garden

Cucumbers

Sweet Peas and Nasturtium

23 tomato plants

Norland Potatoes with carrots in front

Yukon Gold Potatoes with Spinach in front

Row of Spinach

I planted my spinach later because I wanted it to be ready as my kale was beginning to fade. I did the same with my leaf lettuce and my head lettuce. We started eating kale and leaf lettuce middle of May. My spinach and head lettuce will be ready to eat towards the end of June.