Back Alley Garden Renovations

Back Alley Garden Renovations

When we moved into our house in 2014 the fence was in very poor condition. At the time there was a fair sized area south of the garage facing the back alley that was just filled with weeds. There were indications that someone had tried growing things back there the previous summer due to various volunteer vegetable and herbs (especially dill!).

Unfortunately I failed to take picture of the back alley that first year. We basically contented ourselves with mowing weeds back there and keeping the status quo while we settled down. The spring of 2015 we began a rejuvenation project.

In the summer of 2015 we began by building two raised beds measuring roughly 8'x 2'. Along the south side of garage we put four trellis's with different varieties of grapes planted at the base of each trellis (as of 2017, Marechel Foch, Frontenac, Fredonia, & F-130). We put down weed barrier and covered the area with non-coloured cedar bark.

Along the fence line we planted raspberries and used leaves and lawn clippings as mulch to keep down the weeds. There was already a beautiful rhubarb plant back there that kept a large area weed free already.

We were pretty happy with the results of 2015, but knew that we needed to replace the fence as soon as possible. With three dogs including a Great Dane we were very concerned that our fence looked like it could be pushed over with a stern look!

I thought we kind of wasted a golden opportunity with the garden boxes in the first year. They are one of the few areas of our property that get almost full sunlight, and are in an excellent little high heat microclimate. In 2015 we grew mostly zucchini and beets which will grow pretty well in less than optimal conditions.

In the fall we started the process of replacing the fence, but the section facing the back alley was left until the spring of 2016. That spring  we also converted our whole front yard to garden (which is covered in an earlier post). Because of this I was able to focus on vegetables that could really benefit from the sun and greater warmth so



The grapes overwintered quite well, but were still not "taking-off". The raspberries that we had planted along the fence line on the other hand suffered quite a bit, both due to the winter and damage endured while replacing the fence. I decided a better use of the area would be to plant squash. I planted butternut and buttercup squash with about 6' separation. The pictures to the right were taken in about late July. As the summer progressed the squash weaved into the trellis at the top of the fence and looked awesome. Behind the rhubarb what had started as a single wild cucumber the year before became a dense matt of wild cucumbers.

Inside of the fence line I also planted squash and trained them to reach the top of the fence and travel along the top. This allowed me to grow some vegetables within the yard while at the same time not having them destroyed by the dogs.

I was very happy with the yield of the squash for the space that they used, they also made the area look very lush and green. This year I will probably grow peppers in the raised beds as they are probably the crop that will benefit the most from the location. Hopefully the grapes will have overwintered well and this is the year that they take off. Time will tell!

Front Yard Garden Update

In the spring of 2016 we converted the front yard of our house into a garden. My wife and I had been interested in doing this for some time. We had begun killing the grass in the fall of the previous year, but a huge amount of work remained, and with a hard deadline to finish in time to seed the garden in the short Saskatchewan summers.

I wanted to approach the project with a lot of planning. I was concered about the amount of shade certain areas of the front yard get, and what plants to grow in the different areas. Because it was winter already, just looking at which areas are shaded would not be a good guide to how the shade would be distributed in the middle of sumer. I started by uploaded the satellite image of the property from Google Maps into a free program called Sketch Up. The program will know your latitude from the location you pulled from Maps. Based on this it can display accurate shadows based on the time of the year that you pick. From there it is just a matter of building a model of the houses which will be casting shadows and uploading models of trees that match the local trees from the program's free model library. I picked a date of mid-June as a benchmark to "heat map" the shade. In the model I generated bright green represents 0 hours of shade, while dark red represents 0 hours of sunshine. Now that I had an idea of what could be grown where, it was time to start planning layout.

One of the things I really wanted was a good mix of hardscaping objects in the garden that would act as focal points around which the garden could be planted. The first item we built was an garden obelisk. The obelisk would act as both a focal point as well as add vertical interest to the garden. I adapted the design from this site. I was very happy with the results. We decided to position the obelisk at an angle when viewed from the street (point to the street rather than flat side) as it seemed to increase the "substantialness" of it since you see every strut, rather than them being hidden behind each other.



The next task was rock work. Because the yard slopes fairly significantly towards the street I wanted to split the yard into two flatter tiers so that when I ran a sprinkler on it the water wouldn't just run right off into the street (and bring soil with it). We happen to have a large amount of limestone boulders and flagstone that had previously been used to suppress weeds between the house and the fence line. We used the rocks to create small "U" shaped lower tier as well as flagstone path that leads from it to the house through the centre of the garden.

The final hardscaping item added to the garden were raised bed boxes at the very corner of the property (the only good picture I have of these is from the fall). These added a nice anchor point to this corner of the yard as the other edge ends in the driveway. They also provided a convenient way for the rock wall to end and reduce the amount of rocks required.

Once all the hardscaping was done it was just a matter of planting in between. I also used potted trees and plants to fill in spaces and gaps as they developed over the course of the summer. I'll get into the potted trees and plants in another post.

Fig Tree Update

I stored my Chicago Hardy fig at my parents' farm over the winter in a part of a barn that they keep heated. I got this tree as a root ball from T&T seeds in the spring of 2015. After an intial struggle it took off and grow to about 15" tall by the fall. After all the leaves had fallen off and after it had experience a few frosts I took it indoors before it got really cold (although this winter there hasn't been a whole lot of that).

The room that it was stored in stayed a little above zero for the last few months. About three weeks ago I brought it home and just kept it inside. It took about a week and a half for the buds to start developing and it has been growing very rapidly since. Last year my wife bought me an X-Up Flowerhouse Pro Greenhouse from Early's in Saskatoon. Because of the large amount of space that this now gives me I decided to give the fig a bit of a head-start on the year in the hopes that it will guarantee me at least one ripe fig by fall. Considering that I have yet to taste a fresh ripe fig I figured this would be useful before I get too excited over them. Regardless of whether I get fruit this year I do love the look of the foliage on figs. They have a very tropical look to them (at least to this boreal dweller!).

I've been perusing the website figs4fun and figsforlife and they've both been providing me with some excellent information on what to expect in terms of pruning, how the figs develop and variety information. Figsforlife is a Canadian site and their rates look very reasonable and they also ship across Canada. If I hadn't already bought so many fruit trees this year I would definitely be making some purchases there. Oh well, there's always next year.

Shade Mapping

Shade Mapping

I recently used Sketchup to model the distribution of shade in my front yard. In the coming summer I plan to convert it to a garden and would like some guidance on where to plant different varieties. Because the front yard is north of the house part of it is covered in deep shade even during the middle of summer. As well because I live at such a high latitude (52 degrees north) the house casts quite long shadows. Sketchup's geolocation function allows you to use Google Maps satellite data to locate models in the real world. Once Sketchup knows the latitude of the model it can accurately model the shadows cast throughout the year off of any given model. I'm not aware of an easy way of getting Sketchup to track shade, so instead I modeled in hour by hour by drawing shapes to match the shade then added up the hours that each shape spent in the shade. I then applied a colors to the shapes to indicate the length of time spent in shade.

In the map you are looking South-West (the house is orientated almost directly North-South). The area running from the street South along the East side of the house is the drive way. During the summer I put a number of planters and containers for growing vegetables in the driveway. I had intended on placing planter boxes along the house on the driveway, however this map has made me realize how much shade this area actually gets. I will likely try to put most containers along the North-East edge of the driveway to maximize the amount of sunlight they get.

It's a really nice feature of Sketchup and nice to use in planning of new gardens.

Russian olives, olives, and wild dreams

Foliage of  the Russian Olive

Russian olive tree from my local nursery

I recently bought a Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) from my local nursery, Little Tree. I have been looking for a slightly shrubby plant that would provide some interesting foliage and beautiful smell in my backyard. I had read on a few websites that it does well in containers and so I'm going to try this out for the next couple years. I know that in many US states Russian olive is considered an invasive species, but I have seen exceedingly few Russian Olives in the wild here in central Saskatchewan and so I think growing here they are near the limit of their possible range which hopefully will limit their invasiveness. This seems to be borne out by this thesis paper which indicates Saskatoon and Warman are outside of the suitable zone for rampant Russian olive naturalization.

Russian olive environmental suitability according to research
by  Lianna Collette

Regardless it is a beautiful tree, and an excellent fill in for my burning desire to try to grow a real olive tree in Saskatchewan. Olives (Olea europaea) are not related to Russian olives at all. I have not been able to find any information on anyone being crazy enough to try growing olives in Western Canada online. Information from Oregonolives.com indicates that they are getting successful harvests of olives from around 2350 degree growing days at 10C (athough this is fewer GDD than they normally get). In Saskatoon we can expect around 1200, so right off the bat this doesn't seem like it's going to end well. Research at the University of Saskatchewan has shown that growing plants like watermelon in high poly tunnels can increase the number of GDD's a plant receives from 1200 to 1900 GDD. I'm hopeful that given enough love and attention and a custom microclimate near buildings it may be possible. Obviously because these would be growing in an area many zones colder than they could possibly survive the olives would be brought into an above zero area for winter (more on that later).

Arbequina olives

According to Oregon Olives they have found the most cold hardy olives to be the Frantoio variety. The Saturna Olive Consortium located on Saturna Island in BC suggests Frantoio, Calletier, or Taggiasca mainly on the basis of the fact that they are self-fertile (though they are also hardy enough to survive in coastal BC). I had previously also heard a lot about the cold hardiness of Arbequina, but at this point I have not found a way to get my hands on any of these varieties as seeds will not grow true, so I suppose beggers can't be choosers. Hopefully by next year I will have more to report.

Strawberries & Figs

I started a quick little project today. I took some June-bearing strawberries from my parents' farm and put them in some planters. Hopefully they will transplant without too much shock. There was a grand total of 2 strawberries already growing on them, so I'm hoping their most productive days are still ahead.  June-bearing strawberries only yield a single batch of fruit and then stop producing for the remainder of the summer. As an alternative there are also ever-bearing strawberries. These produce a small trickle of fruit all summer long. I have heard a lot of complaints about the productivity of this type, so although I would like strawberries all summer long I'll stick with the free ones I've got.

The U of S's recommendation variety when it comes to June-bearing strawberries this year is Cavendish. At their plant sale this spring I bought a few Kent to plant at the farm. This blog seems to have quite a good experience with them, and from the sounds of it Cavendish has quite a long productive season so that may be a purchase for next spring.

In other news my Chicago Fig from T & T seeds continues to finally sprout. The root bundle had a very tenous sprout when I recieved it in the mail, however it quickly broke off when I unpackaged it. I had given up all hope when last week it finally sprang into life again. I had first seen figs last year on sale at Super Value (President's Choice), but I had dismissed it as yet another item that was on sale in Saskatchewan, but couldn't survive outside a small area in Niagara or Vancouver. But it turns out with a little winter love and care they can be grown here. More on that in a few months I guess!

Grape variety update

It's been a while since I posted so I'l try to update a few things.

This is the south facing side of my garage in the back alley. Unfortunately I don't have any "before" pictures, but before I started this project it was just weeds back here. This is now the second summer of the project and it's progressing very nicely. There are currently four grapes planted in the ground as well as two grapes in pots. The garden planter boxes are also new to this year. They are planted with zucchini on either end (one yellow and one green). There are also cucumbers, eggplant, dill, green onions, basil,rosemary, parsley, borage and a ton of beets packed in there.

Going from left to right in the picture above, the grapes are Marechel Foch, Severnji, Frontenac, F130, Marechel Foch, and Fredonia. I had previously written about Severji, which is an interspecific hybrid of european and amurensis grapes. It was very delayed in budding out this spring and so I took it for dead. Everything I had read stated that the amurensis genes would cause early bud break, but it did not occur for me, or at least not this year. Because I thought it was dead I dug it up, but put it in a pot to hedge my bets. In either case it died back to very close to its base and so it hasn't set any fruit this year, not that I expected much.

F-130 grape from Boughen Nurseries

The F130 and Fredonia grapes were new this year. I bought them from Boughen Nurseries in Manitoba. I haven't been able to find any information on the background of F-130, which normally would bug me so much I wouldn't even be willing to try it! They budded out pretty slowly, and I definitely wouldn't call their growth thus far vigorous, but it's early.

Fredonia grape from Boughen Nurseries

Fredonia from what I understand, is also called "Early Concord". It is the result of a cross of labrusca and riparia grapes, and in theory has some of the same taste as concord grapes.

The only information I have been able to find on F-130 is that it has "good flavour" and "produces larger clusters than beta or valiant". Based on that I'm hopeful!

Marechel Foch grape growing in a 10 gallon pot

This spring I also bought two Foch grapes from the local Home Depot. It was both exciting and frustrating to see. It was exciting for me to see this variety available locally as it saved me the difficulty of hunting it down online, however I also knew that most people would not know what they were going to be getting into, and a lot of plants were going to die!

Foch is a French hybrid grape which is the result of a cross between a European grape (Goldriesling) and a rupestris-riparia hybrid. In theory it is hardy down to at least -32C, however I don't see it being close to hardy enough to survive outdoors in Saskatchewan, at least not most winters. Because of my doubts I have planted one Foch in the ground and will keep the other in a pot which will over-winter in a room that's kept at about 5C. The plant in the container is doing significantly better than the buried vine, however the plants also appeared to be infected with some sort of virus when I bought them, so it may be a difference of infection levels more than anything.

Vitis "severnyi" inter-specific grape

V. amurensis at the Patterson Arboretum

In my continued quest to hunt for the most cold hardy fruiting plants I have been looking at grapes lately. A while back I posted about visiting the Patterson Arboretum in Saskatoon on the University of Saskatchewan grounds. At the arboretum they grow a species of grape, Vitis amurensis that is native to Eastern Siberia and whose genetics make up a large part of new experimental varieties being produced at the U of S. While looking into this I read this project summary from Tyler Kaban who at the time was a Master's student working on grapes. In the release it is mentioned that it was a variety called "severnyi" that was used to introduce the hardiness genetics from amurensis.

V. "Frontenac" containing no amurensis
genetics, no leaf indent

Lo and behold a couple weeks later I was at Dutch Growers looking for a Frontenac grape and came across Severnyi. I didn't buy it at the time because I couldn't quite remember all the details of the variety. The project summary previously mentioned provided some basic information on the variety,

• Severnyi's parents are a Vitis amurensis and  Seyanets Malingre (which itself is the open pollinated product of Malingre Precose, a French white vinifera grape).
• Severnyi is also commonly called Severnji, this appears to be an artifact of translation
• Requires cross pollination



V. "Severnyi" showing the deep leaf
indents due to its amurensis genetics

• Severnyi has been used as an intermediete in Russian and other's grape breeding, producing two more renowned varieties, Saperavi Severnyi, and Cabernet Severnyi

Cabernet Severnyi is one of the most popular varieties at a vineyard in Quebec called Carone who produce a wine called "Venice".

In term of hardiness the tag that it came with from Dutch Growers indicated Zone 3, one zone hardier than the most optimistic rating for Frontenac. I wish I had a list to provide of other carriers of this variety as well as any of its derivatives. Anyone with this information please let me know!

Actinidia continued

I posted earlier about Actinidia aguta, the hardy Kiwi. I also referred to them as "Arctic Kiwi". This apparently was incorrect. The title of "Arctic Kiwi" and most hardy in the genus belongs to Actinidia kolomitka. It is native to eastern Siberia, Northern China and Japan. The males (as they are generally dioecious  like arguta) have leaves that are randomly variegated pink. This species is hardy to -40C (so roughly Zone 3).

Dutch Growers lists a variety of kolomitka, "Arctic Beauty" as hardy to zone 3b. On a recent trip to Dutch Growers I did not notice this plant there and it may be something that they stock on certain years. Arctic Kiwi's do produce fruit, however they are the size of a pea and so growing them will likely be for more ornamental purposes than anything. Other websites I have seen do list Arctic Beauty as capable of producing "large grape sized" fruit which would fit what I have seen from my cutting's parent vine. Vesey's states that only certain vines produce both male and female flowers and in general yeilds will be improved with both male and female plants. In the end it is very possible that the cuttings I have are kolomitka.

Many varieties of arguta exist and so because I'm not sure of the origins of the cuttings that I have started I'm not sure which variety it is. One of the most popular variety of hardy kiwi is Issai. This variety does not require male and female plants and so reduces the amount of space you need to dedicate. Various catalogues have varying views on which zone this variety is hardy until. Dunvegan gardens in Edmonton lists Issai as hardy to Zone 4a. For more information I highly recommend this blog by a fellow named Dave who lives near Red Deer Alberta and grows Issai.

The cuttings I have started do require both the male and female and so it is unlikely that they are Issai. Lake Shore greenhouse also in Saskatoon sells a Hardy Kiwi that is an unlisted variety. Their website states the plant is hardy to 4a. Varieties Anna (Ananasnaya), Meader, and Geneva also exist but are rated Zone 4 or warmer.

Vitis amurensis in Saskatchewan

Vitis amurensis at the Patterson Arboretum,
University of Saskatchewan

Today I visited the Patterson Garden Arboretum on the grounds of the University of Saskatchewan and came across a grape species I had never head of before and decided to investigate.

First a refresher for anyone who isn't fluent in the nomenclature of grapes, European grapes, the kind typically used in good wine are of the species V. vinifera. These grapes probably originally came from western Asia and the Middle East. As a general rule these grapes are very frost sensitive and not hardy in Saskatchewan or indeed most of North America.  The most hardy vinifera species are perhaps tolerant of temperatures down to -20C.  North America has at least  eight different native species of grape in the Vitis genus, V. labrusca, V. riparia, V. acerifolia, V. rupestris, V. cordifolia, V. aestivalis, V. californica, and V. mustangensis.  In addition to these Vitis species, North America also has grapes of the genus Muscadinia (Muscadine).

Vitis amurensis is native the the Amur valley in eastern Asia. Anyone who is fairly familiar with landscaping trees will likely be familiar already with the Amur name. Other plants from the Amur valley that are commonly grown in Saskatchewan include the Amur Maple, honeysuckle, corktree, ninebark, lilac, and cherry. The Amur river makes up part of the boundry between Russia and China. The mouth of the river is located at a latitude of roughly 53 degrees north. For comparison Saskatoon lies at roughly 52 degrees north and my orchard lies at about 53 degrees.

The table grape that sets the hardiness standard here in Saskatchewan is Valiant. Valiant is a cross between V. riparia (riverbank grape) and a variety called Freedonia. Freedonia itself is a cross between V. labrusca and V. riparia. In grapes the ability to pull useful genetics from various species of grape is essential to producing new, hardier, and tastier varieties.

Unfortunately V. amurensis does not appear to produce very good/much fruit. Anyone with information to the contrary please let me know as I would love a reason to grow this species! Recent research at the U of S to produce grapes that are more hardy than the standard Valiant have utilized much of amurensis's genetics unlike Valiant.

Salsify

This spring I tried growing a very unique vegetable, salsify. aka oyster plant, and vegetable oyster. The particular variety I grew is a Mammoth Sandwich Island from William Dam Seeds. I found this company after one of the classes I took in the Prarie Horticulture program at the U of S sent their seed packs as part of a hands on component to a class. Salsify is a quite long season vegetable (120 days) for this area and so I started the seedlings indoors roughly 8 weeks before planting out. Because they are tap-root vegetables I wanted containers that would provide as deep of starter cells as possible, while at the same time because each root only provides a very small return on investment I wanted as many plants started as I could. I found the perfect starter at Lee Valley, their 72-cell deep rooter starter trays allowed me to start 144 plants in the space of just two trays.

Carrots, Onions and Salsify Growing
(left to right)

The picture on the left was taken around June 10th and so far the tap-root has not fattened up significantly. This is not surprising as they had not received much heat at that point this summer. I have already noted that the tap root on the ones that I have pulled are not perfectly straight and this may be the price I pay for starting them in starter cells. I will see come fall whether the whole adventure was worthwhile in terms of production. As for taste I'm hoping for the best as I have never actually tasted salsify, it's not a common item in the grocery store! I expect that regardless of taste it should make a good root vegetable for soup or dry roasted with other root vegetables. I had started leeks this spring as well in much smaller celled starters in the hopes of being able to make this recipe come fall. The leeks grow very poorly in the cells and I'm guessing the temps indoors may have been too hot for their liking. Live and learn, and we will see what fall brings!

Pepper Thermal Heat Bed

I acquired a large number of cinder blocks from a secret location in the winter of 2012-2013 and used them to create a "thermal storage grow bed" for my peppers. In the summer before (2012) we had grown some peppers in the city on the south side of a friends duplex. The wall was stucco, and the soil was nothing special, but the largest peppers I have ever seen grew that summer. The plants resembled bushes rather than plants! This growing bed was my attempt to emulate the conditions.

The theory of this bed is to store up heat during the day and release it slowly at night, providing the peppers with a more stable daily temperature routine so that they experience less stress and grow faster and larger. So far this has not panned out, and the peppers grow marginally better inside the bed than out. I chalk this up to a couple factors:

• The cinder blocks are not filled with soil which would significantly increase their thermal capacity
• The original design had called for the north wall  to have soil mounded against it, again increasing thermal capacity
• This summer so far has been atrocious for growing peppers

Last year the peppers also didn't well, but the thermal bed did have one significant advantage last year that proved its worth and somewhat its theory. Last year we received a surprise late frost. I had put out absolutely no frost protection blankets and the temperature hit -2C. All of my tomatoes and most of my squash died from the frost, but I didn't lose a single pepper. I will continue to modify the design and will let you know if I find a more effective configuration. 

Grape cuttings

Grapes are the second easiest non-herbaceous plant I have ever started (after willow). These cuttings were produced from a Valiant grape vine growing out by my parent's place near Duck Lake SK (near Prince Albert). The cutting were dipped in isopropyl rubbing alcohol then dipped in Stim-Root No. 3 rooting powder. The media is a 50/50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and course pearlite. The cuttings were taken well after the plant had developed it's buds and begun to produce new growth. This is not ideal, however grapes (or at least this variety) is so easy to root that it still had over a 90% success rate on rooting. These cuttings were intially started on the heat mat that I had mentioned earlier in regards to the Arctic Kiwi cuttings that I started after the grape cuttings. In the book "The Grape Grower; A Guide to Organic Viticulture" the author states that cuttings can callus within a week if maintained at 27 - 29 degrees C. The callus is a lumpy white tissue that will often split out of the side of the grape cutting. Roots develop out of the callus tissue and so good callus formation is essential for good rooting. Last year I started grape cuttings from wild grapes (Vitus riparia) in the softwood stage. None of these cutting survived the winter. I am not certain, but I suspect that it may have been due to the fact that these cuttings did not have enough stored reserves come spring as they had not lignified (hardened). Time will tell if these guys survive into another year!

Wild Cucumber

 Echinocystis lobata on my trellis

Wild cucumber is an incredibly fascinating plant that I was first introduced to by my wife and her mother. In some parts of Canada and the United States it is an incredibly invasive species. In my own experience it is not unheard of for individual tendrils to grow 6 inches a day. It is an amazing cover plant for unsightly areas or place where you would like more shade. The Ontario Wild Flower website has many great pictures of the plant flowering and the fruit which resemble green hedgehogs and fire their seeds out in little explosions in late summer. Anyone interested in getting their hands on some seeds please let me know. A word of warning though... once planted they will come back with a vengeance every year. This species is very persistant and can launch its seeds quite far from the mother vine. That being said as anyone who gardens knows, it is very easy to kill a cucumber with a lawnmower, unlike  plants that spread by runners and roots. The seeds need stratification and will not germinate unless they have been left in the cold for a significant period of time. For these plants I collected the seeds midwinter from the dried fruit husks that are left on the vine in the winter.

Arctic Kiwi Cuttings

Arctic Kiwi Cuttings

Arctic kiwi are also known as Hardy Kiwi and are scientifically called Actinidia arguta. The common kiwi that you buy in stores in Acinidia deliciosa. Listed on the Vesey's site as only hardy to Zone 5, I have seen them thrive in the heart of Saskatoon which on the face of it is in Zone 2b. A city the size of Saskatoon does have an appreciable "heat island" effect and so the city itself may experience up to one zone warmer, with microclimates created by building foundations, overhangs and other protection producing small areas with a Zone 5 type environment. Last year I began experimenting with cuttings and tried my hand at Arctic Kiwi. I took hardwood cuttings from a vine well into spring that had already generated many leaves and the cuttings died in reasonably quick order. The cuttings were stored in a north facing cold frame (more on the frame in the future). This year I am doing softwood cuttings. The cuttings were taken around the beginning of July. They are sitting in a roughly 50/50 mix of pearlite and peat. This spring I also bought a Hydro Farm heat mat. I looked at many places online for the best deal but many of the American sites had outrageous shipping and handling charges and in the end I purchased the mat from Early's Farm and Garden here in Saskatoon. The heat mat has greatly increased the rate of rooting of other cuttings that I have done this spring and I would highly recommend them to anyone who is looking to do more than a couple cuttings per season.