Building Raised Beds from Free Wood for our Comox Valley Vegetable Garden

By Keith and Heather Nicol

A sandbox became our first raised bed

    The Comox Valley of B.C. is blessed with a great climate for growing many vegetables and we have been having fun watching things grow, especially since Covid 19 has forced us to stay around home alot more. The other day we came across a sign showing free wood on a neighbors driveway and since the wood was mostly 2” by 4”s in various lengths (3 feet to 16 feet) we thought this would be perfect for increasing our garden space this year. The wood had been used to crate the metal roofing they had just had installed on their house. We love repurposing wood and when we moved in to our house 3 years ago we emptied a sandbox in the back yard and it became one of our first raised garden beds. 

Our most recent addition to our garden

      All of our other raised beds have been made from 2 by 4’s that we have been given or found for free.  These beds grow all of our lettuce, swiss chard, kale , argula and basil and tomatoes that we enjoy through the spring, summer and early fall. This year we stopped buy lettuce from the store on May 20 and are really enjoying the ‘garden mix’ seed pack we bought this year that has red lettuce, green lettuce, kale, endive, argula and other greens all in one seed pack. No need to pick from different rows to get a great varied salad. 

Another raised bed built 2 years ago

Our 2” by 4” beds are 3 boards deep and we used plastic to line the inside of the boards. Along the bottom of the bed we put down a layer of cardboard to keep the soil in the box and the weeds trapped below it. The only wood we bought was the trim to cover the plastic at the top of the beds. So to keep the cost of home gardening down think about using discarded wood for your raised beds.  Stay safe and hope you have a great growing season. 

Our tomato garden with garlic along the front of the raised bed made from 2 by 4's

Exploring Point Holmes at Low Tide

By Keith and Heather Nicol

The rocky tide pools have lots of interesting life

      Mother’s Day in Courtenay, BC had amazing weather for the time year with afternoon temperatures in the mid to high 20’s C so we decided to head to Pt Holmes  to check the tide pools. The tide at 2:45 pm for Sunday, May 10 was just 0.5 meters which we knew meant that many of the bedrock tide pools would be exposed.  For those people not familiar with this area it is to the right of the boat launch and there is parking for a number of cars just off of Lazo Road. Because of the large tides in this area the tide pools are 200-300 meters from the parking area and footing can be tricky especially near the rocky outcrops. We wore hiking shoes but some people we saw were wearing rubber boots. Flip flops or similar sandals are not recommended given the slippery, seed weed covered rocks. 

Crow with a Midshipman Fish

     We saw many ochre sea stars clinging to the underside of clefts in the rock and in the tidal pools.

Ochre Sea Stars are making a comeback

We saw a large green anemone with its delicate tentacles as well as lots of small crabs. This is also the time of year for midshipman fish to come to these tidal areas to lay their eggs. They like to lay their eggs under rocks where they will be protected from predators but sometimes birds can find them and score an easy meal. We saw a crow fly from rock to rock carrying a midshipman trying to keep it away from other crows. We also saw a gull with some sort of tide pool fish. It was interesting to watch the gull try to eat this fish and then spit it out and try again before finally swallowing it whole. Next time we go we are going to bring a guide book to help us identify many of the other creatures we saw under the rocks and in the tide pools.  Bring your camera and binoculars since you don’t know what you might see.

Gull with a fish either coming up or going down

Checking out the Vaux’s Swifts at the Courtenay Museum

Heading down the chimney

By Keith and Heather Nicol

   On Saturday , May 2 we headed down to a parking lot behind the Courtenay Museum to see if the Vaux’s Swifts that are in the area might fly down the chimney to roost for the evening. Evidently they have been seen coming to this chimney for the last few years around this time of year and one person we spoke to said they will likely be here for the next few weeks. The Vaux’s Swifts spend the winter in Mexico and breed in large hollow trees found in old growth forests in BC, Washingon and Oregon. Because of this their numbers are in decline as logging removes their breeding habitat. 

      The birds feed on insects and their shape has been described as cigars with wings.  On Saturday we were joined by close to 15 other people who had heard about this chimney roosting behavior. We arrived at 6:45 pm armed with binoculars and a camera with a telephoto lens.  Their arrival to the chimney seems to depend on the weather and so you don’t know when they might arrive. Around 7:30 pm we began to see a swarm of Vaux’s Swifts swoop over head and fly over the chimney. They then disappeared for a few minutes only to return again for another fly over. Then they began to spiral around and just like Santa they headed down the chimney. Presumably they like the rough interior of the chimney and spend the night huddled together along the edges of the chimney. 

The Vaux's Swifts soaring above the Courtenay Museum

    No sooner had this group headed down that another swarm of 40-50 birds did their fly by and after disappearing they reappeared and like the first group dropped down into the chimney.  Over the next few minutes a total of 200 birds had descended into the chimney!!

Video of the Vaux's Swifts streaming into the Museum Chimney

One of the birders we spoke said that they have counted up to 3600 birds drop down into this chimney in one evening and 2 nights ago they counted 750 birds!! Needless to say these birds are NOT social distancing in this chimney. Birding is apparently on the upswing with Covid 19 and you don’t have to be a avid birder to be impressed by this phenomenon so be sure to check it out.