Quick Update – Spring Nursery Details

Provincial Election: It’s been many months since our last update. Both Gord and I went all out during the Provincial election with Gord running as a Green candidate in our riding of Langford Juan de Fuca…Premier John Horgan’s riding. To say it was an intense few weeks would be an understatement, but we learned so much and met many amazing people…virtually and a few in real life. Gord and the team did extremely well given the short time frames which means that half of his campaign expenses have been refunded to help the next Green candidate in this riding…maybe even Gord again. The next campaign will have a huge head start with roughly $10,000 in the bank…let’s just hope its not another snap election in a pandemic.

Pandemic Reality: Here on the home front we are doing surprisingly well. Everyday we express gratitude for all the little things that make our life fulfilling. Because our income comes from a variety of sources we have been able to adapt as things change. Our nursery business was lower last year as we sold out of many items, were busy with the election, and were not able to source plants due to COVID. However, Gord’s Rain Water design/installation work has picked up this winter and his services are very much in demand. Our small quarterly regular council cheques also help. We are so grateful that we have created a financially and emotionally resilient life where we can live well on a small income. Hard work + Good decisions + Luck + Privilege all helped!

Food: Our garden has fed us well this past year and we rarely go to the store. In fact for 5 years now we have not purchased fruit or veggies and we continue to increase our variety. We are currently eating fresh apples and kiwi’s, all kinds of dried, frozen, and preserved fruits and berries. It’s now soup season with nourishing bowls of hearty rich soups with bone broths, beans, favas, dried veggies, squash, and root crops. SO GOOD. We are also eating lots of fresh salads, carrots, and fermented veggies. Then there’s the pickled eggs. Delicious! I’ve been making sourdough bread too…it’s the COVID trendy thing to do. Mine is made with our own sourdough yeast starter, and freshly ground 100% whole grain spelt flour. My loaves are NOT pretty, like all the photos everyone posts…but fantastic texture and flavour.

Grafted trees safe from bunnies

Spring Nursery Season: We have a relatively small inventory this year and judging by the number of emails we get daily, it will be a short spring season…once we dig out of the snow. The nursery is still buried under a white blanket of wet snow. Thankfully, we did a quick inventory before the snow started to fly. Our fruit tree + berry bush order was more than cut in half due to increasing demand and decreasing supply. Our plant order is still a couple weeks away. The good news is that Gord has done quite a bit of fruit tree grafting…the bad news is that the bunnies are well fed. Additionally we have managed to propagate some plants and there are more coming…just waiting on the roots. So, all of this has been updated to our inventory list (even the plant order that hasn’t arrived yet). Note that our prices include the GST. PLANT LIST

Cooped up in the snow

Nursery COVID Protocols: All nursery sales will be by appointment only. We will not be open for browsing in the nursery, (unless you are a bunny).  The best process will be to look at our inventory list, determine what you would like, and then send us an email. We could very well have some items not yet on our inventory list so feel free to ask. We can easily send you photos of plants and email your invoice. Your order will be pulled out and labeled with your name and we can set up a time for pick up. Payment can be by cheque at time of pick up or by email transfer. We prefer not to be handling cash. ann@eco-sense.ca or gord@eco-sense.ca.  Appointments can be made starting Feb 27th. 

Have fun in your gardens,

Ann and Gord