Garden

Planted:
- 10 strawberries
- Cilantro
- Basil
- Dill
- Horseradish
- Parsley
- Garlic chives
- Red cabbage
- Carrots (LOTS!)
- Lettuce
- Kale
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Jalapeno pepper
- Tomatillo
- Runner beans
- Raspberries
- Watermelon

Put in a raised bed to try out using a cold frame this fall. I'll have to start scouring for supplies.

Started edging the fence line with cinder blocks. This will allow our neighbour to trim around her fence without hurting any of our stuff. AND, hopefully it will slow down weed growth in that hard to reach area.

It is HARD to decide where to put everything. Companion planting, plants hating other plants, planning walking paths, etc. Tricky, tricky I tell ya. There are already a TON of weeds. It's crazy how prolific they are. Look at the ground around the trellis...covered in weeds. I have a new found love of a good hoe. The best garden tool ever!

Strawberries, tomatoes/peppers, red cabbage/herb section and a garden view

Bean trellis, raspberry plants, cheery tree, red cabbage. Oh, and that sunspot (?) on the cherry tree picture, don't people say that it's a ghost or something? Whatever it is, I hope it's nice to the cherry tree.

5-in-1 Pear tree

The Garden Is Happening

The garden this year is going through a major overhaul. Not quite what I had planned/dreamed, but due to some reasons that I will explain at a later date, we've revamped our imaginations and garden design.
With the help of several friends who are garden savvy, we have decided on a 20' x 60' space dedicated solely to garden - mostly veggies but eventually, I can see some room for ornamental perennials. A few feet at the beginning of the garden is going to be an herb garden with some fruit trees. Don't yet know if the apple trees will be going in this year, but they have a space saved for them for next year (or the year after....).

Super exciting.
In the meantime, I thought I'd capture what the yard looks like now so you can bear witness to the change as well. I just have to remember to take photos during the process! As a wise woman once said "Always remember the blog!".

(NOTE: I never did take any 'before' shots of the garden. Ha! I wrote this post, headed out with the camera and then was sidetracked with other duties - child rearing, laundry hanging, etc. So, I've linked to previously posted photos of the garden that will give you an idea of how it looked and how it has changed. My apologies).

The garden is a whopping 20' x 70'. It starts around the clothes line post (that you see in the winter shot) and ends just at the little hill in the back of the property (middle shot). It's a big garden. So big in fact that I'm quite intimidated by it at the moment. The potential is unlimited.

What I know for sure right now is:

1. The area surrounding the clothes line post is going to be dedicated as the 'herb garden' with some perennials, like rhubarb. 
2. After the herb garden, we are planting three fruit bearing trees. I really wanted to plant heritage apples and pears, but am having a hard time sourcing them. Any of you know a good place?
3. None of this could have been done as fast as it has without the help from our community. Our neighbours not only lent their time and backs, but also an excavator and heavy duty tiller. We really do live on a great street with great people and have some amazing friends. 

As for the rest of the garden...well, we'll just have to figure it out as we go. 

And It Begins!

Oh man...I wish I was the kind of writer that could describe my feelings in such a way so as you, the reader, could feel the exact sense of excitement that I am feeling. My masters course is finished for this semester (and I don't have another course until September!!) and my green(ish) thumb is ready to get dirty.

That's my hand. Getting the soil ready to sow some seeds

Two weeks ago, a good friend of ours, who has an amazing resume in organic farming, came by to help us (me) finally design the garden of my dreams. We spoke about the food we eat, the benefits of raised-bed gardening vs. conventional in-ground gardens (we're doing raised bed...it just fits with me), and even braved a spring snowstorm by venturing out to our backyard to take some measurements and for her to get a visual of my dream. This dream of mine is big - really big (we even talked fruit trees!) - but totally doable. The initial cost and work will be substantial, especially (again!) for my dear husband as there are several raised beds, a fence and a whack load of digging that needs to be done.

Exciting, no?

I'm a little behind in sowing seeds however. Gage and I just planted them about a week ago. Three different tomatoes and two different peppers. I did a few leeks as well, but am fully aware that they should really be almost 2 months old by now! We also planted some cilantro, basil, marigolds and pansies. I have a really hard time controlling myself when it comes to planting. I wanted to sow ALL the seeds. There's just something exciting about watching them all grow. Alas, I had to be realistic not only about space in the garden, but also about how many tomatoes I wanted to deal with in the summer.

So my friends, the growing season is just on the horizon. If nothing else, it will surely be better than last year!

2012 Intentions

If you remember this post, you may be wondering how things have been going.

1. I have not made cheese yet and there are no plans in the near future to do so.

2. I made a kneaded bread that failed miserably. This was months ago and became one of many moments that I should have photographed but didn't, to blog.

3. The garden. Well, that was an epic fail.

4. And the whole getting chicks idea is not going to happen.

So this year, I'm keeping it real. The garden is going to be a big priority. I'm tired of 'making due' and making constant revisions to the lay out, etc. I want it done. I want the bones of the garden to finally be 'set in stone' so to speak so that year after year, I just have to plant some seeds, minor weeding, minimal watering (this will be another year's project) and eat the deliciousness of my hard work.

Outside of the garden, my intention is to enjoy the rest of my maternity leave (that is going shockingly fast!) and eventually re-enter the workplace with grace.

Chicken Garden?

Someone posted this in a chicken forum that I read and I'm a little (a lot) intrigued. We definitely have the space, maybe enough energy (calling all friends!) and probably not enough time...but I think this would work for us.
The concept is that you let the chickens loose on one side for a season, then after you harvest the garden, you let them scratch that side while you turn the soil and add your compost to the other side.

My only concern, is that the chickens wouldn't have constant access to grass. I know that this isn't a necessity but it does give them some omega 3's which in turn, give us omegas through their eggs. I could just give them greens from table scraps. The fact that they are enclosed would make my hubby quite happy as he constantly complained of chicken poop in the yard (I didn't notice that much of it...).

If you see any potential 'problems' with this plan, PLEASE let me know. I'm still a newbie when it comes to chickens and gardening. Plus, I tend to dream big while reality takes a backseat.

Something to think about for sure.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/silveira44a.html

More garden planning

I just finished going through the Urban Harvest seed catalogue and writing out everything that I wanted to order. The total? $78.50. Considering most packages of seeds are $3, that's a lot of seeds...
Here's what I want to order:
Bush Beans x 3
Beets x 1
Carrots x 2
Corn x 2
Cucumber x 1
Lettuce x 3
Melon x 1
Onions x 2
Peas x 1
Peppers x 2
Pumpkin x 1
Tomatoes x 3
Herbs x 3
Plus 1 lb of potatoes
I'm going to have to be pretty creative and smart about my use of space this year. My only concern is the space required to grow the pumpkins and the melon. I came across an idea of growing melons vertically. You have them climb up a fence or something like that and when the fruit start to grow, you support them with pantyhose.
I'm thinking the lettuce I'll try and grow in containers. And the herbs. The potatoes I'll do in the garbage can again. Hopefully that will leave me enough space to grow the rest. And now the eternal wait for spring.
Oh mild winter - how you tease us!

Garden Planning 2012

Last year was really my first in the vegetable gardening realm. I had a very tiny raised bed at our previous residence that barely got any sun and we moved before I could harvest the ever so tiny beets - though the lettuce always did great.
Our garden this past summer consisted of three 4'x6' plots (yes, they looked like graves) and one 6'x2' plot. I tried to be cognizant of companion planting as I wanted to do a square foot garden. That's where each of the 6'x4' plots were divided with sticks and strings into 1' squares and only one vegetable type was planted into each. Depending on spacing requirements, you could plant 16 seeds of one plant in that 1' space. The square foot gardening technique is really for space conscious people and if you've seen my amazing backyard, you'd wonder why I was trying to conserve space - but as much as I'd like my whole backyard to be used for veggies, my 4 year old and my dog....and the chickens, probably wouldn't like it much. Wait...the chickens would love it - but that wouldn't be good for us.
To re-cap what we planted last year:

• tomatoes
• peppers
• cucumbers
• snow peas
• basil (that never really did well)
• beets
• onions
• carrots
• broccoli (the broccoli was the saddest veggie ever)
• bush beans
• salad greens (I forget the mix I used but it was too bitter for us)
• raspberries (we put two plants in the 6'x2' plot - with the intent on moving them this past fall but that never happened. Does anyone know if transplanting raspberries in the early spring is a good idea?)
• Potatoes (but they weren't part of the garden, they were in a garbage can)

Last year I learned that as nice as it was to have such a variety, we didn't have enough of the family staples to keep us from having to go to the market and buy more. I don't want to get carried away and have a goal where we can only eat from the garden (not yet anyway) but there were a few veggies that we could have used more of (onions, carrots, beans, peas - and raspberries, but they never last long enough do they?). 

My goal for the garden this year is to use the space appropriately (we will be making the garden a little bit bigger, but not by much), make it as low maintenance as possible (ha!), and pay attention to succession planting so that I can get more yield throughout the season. 

For now, I need to get me some seeds. I'm going to order from Urban Harvest. They have a great selection of organic and heirloom varieties that are perfect for the backyard homesteader. 

Potatoes

Our last harvest of the season was our garbage can potatoes. To be honest I had kinda forgotten about them. I walk by them several times a day - they've just become part of the outside decor. That is until, I started walking on the vines because they had died and we're all over the patio...
My dear husband and father-in-law carried the heavy can to the garden and dumped it. Then, G-man and I went out to get our hands dirty; and it was F-U-N. Getting our hands dirty, digging around trying to find our treasures. I had initially planted 5 seedling potatoes and yielded 22. For the life of me I can't remember what the name of the potato is or where the piece of paper that I wrote it on is currently hiding, but they are blue potatoes. They look more purple - like eggplant purple (aubergine?).
Their first use was a delicious potato and leek soup. I think we'll try frying some next.

Putting Up Tomatoes

Like so many other small gardeners out there, my crop of tomatoes didn't ripen all at once. I really want to make tomato paste and some tomato sauce this year but can never get enough tomatoes from the garden at one time to make a batch.
The book 'The Encylcopedia of Country Living' suggests freezing your tomatoes until you have enough to can. Freezing tomatoes also makes the skins come off much easier. Apparently, they just slip right off while they are defrosting.
I'm looking forward to cooking these into jars of deliciousness to use throughout the winter.

My first batch of frozen tomatoes. These went straight into a freezer bag and are now awaiting their peers.

Garden Bounty

The little garden that could is producing a great crop of tomatoes, snow peas, beans and cucumbers. Our untamed grapevine is also starting to give us some delicious, sweet grapes. Gage calls them 'crunchy grapes' because they have seeds in them. Luckily you have to really dig into the grapevine to get them or the chickens would be all over it.
I love how excited Gage gets when I ask him if he wants to come to the garden with me. I hope he remains as excited over growing ones own food in the years to come.

The pictures...

These are the photos that were to accompany that last post...

Radish

The first cucumber!

Green Pepper

Bush Beans

Garden Update

It's growing! I've harvested my first radishes. They were delicious. The lettuce is hard to keep up with. I had no idea how prolific it is! Lots of salad (with Amelia's fantastic dressing)
I've picked 3 raspberries. The plant has produced maybe 7 berries total but the birds find them before I do.
I'm really looking forward to the snow peas and bush beans and beets and, well....the whole lot.

Hot Potato

Looks like the potatoes are doing well. I've mounded them to the top of the garbage can, so now I have to wait for them to flower, let the flowers die, and then harvest. I'm looking forward to these blue spuds!

Garden Planning (or a lack thereof) and execution

The garden is in. Shocking isn't it?
I didn't get the plants in until a good week (or two) after the May long weekend, but considering the amount of rain we've had, that may not have been a bad thing. I also couldn't have done it without the help of Megan and Eric, who dug three of the plots in less than an hour.
The garden consists of three 3'x6' plots and one 2'x6' plot. I divided the 3x6 plots into square foot sections as per the 'square foot gardening technique'. You can garden with less space and get more yield - plus, you don't walk on the dirt so you don't get compacted soil. I had read a lot about what plants grow well with others (companion planting) and had intended on sitting down and figuring out what plants should go where but I just wanted to get the plants in so that didn't happen. I made sure to put onions in each plot for pest control - that's as far as I got.
Here is what the garden looks like. Some seeds have finally sprouted!! I'm most excited to see if the carrots are successful. I've been told by many neighbours that since the Peterborough flood, no one has had much success with carrots. I'm trying to prove them wrong.

The garden - or Fort Knox if you will. Protected from the chickens



First plot: tomatoes, peppers, radish, cucumber, snap pea, salad greens, onion, broccoli, carrot, beet



Plot 2: Cucumbers (two of which died - I didn't really harden them off), pepper, bush beans, snap peas, onion and salad greens





Plot 3: Tomatoes, pumpkin and cantaloupe



Plot 4: Raspberries, one red the other yellow



The yellow raspberry starting to fruit!!



Kale



I've also planted potatoes in a garbage can. I read about this technique in Gayla Trail's book "Grow Great Grub" (http://www.yougrowgirl.com/) and wanted to give it a try because I didn't want to dedicate a huge patch of garden for potatoes. They seem to be growing quite well. I've been 'mounding' them as the get taller - which is a little difficult since they are all at different heights. I got the seed potatoes from our co-op but I can't remember the name of them. They are 'blue' something. Suppossed to be good for everything you'd want to do with a potato.



Here's how I planted them:

Tools required: Garbage can, large guage nail and a hammer.

Punched holes in the bottom and around the can, about 6" from the bottom

Put approx 12" or soil into the can, put in seed potatoes, covered with a few inches or soil and watered. This growth took appox. 3 weeks.