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.

Goals Revisited

"By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own." Mark Victor Hansen

Okay. So I recorded my goals on the intra-web, that still must count, no?
The Coles notes of my initial goals from the beginning of this year are:
1. Get chickens
2. Build a garden
3. Stay happily married
4. Learn how to make bread
5. Learn how to make cheese
(all in no particular order...but if I had to choose the marriage thing would come first, just so you don't think I put poultry before my husband)

Outside of making cheese, I can check off the rest. That's not to say that the others don't have room for improvement, which is why I'm amending my goals.
New goals:
1. Learn how to make a kneaded bread
2. Learn how to make cheese
3. Create a new garden plan for next year
     - this I'm so excited about already! I've even bought seeds (I know, I know...they are technically seeds from last years crop but I'm sure they'll work out just fine).
4. Knit more. (I guess that goal should actually be 'finish the knitting that you start' - that's more of the problem. For example, I have several projects that are in different stages of being finished. Blocking, sewing on buttons, fixing mistakes, etc).
5. Stay happily married (especially since we've added the stress of me going back to school this year....and for the next 5 YEARS!!! - crazy).
Again...in no particular order.
I have many more things that could go on that list but I'm working on time management and with my free time now mostly being spent on my masters, I thought I'd keep my goals attainable. But to give you a hint....I think I may get some chicks in the new year. Don't tell my husband yet 'cause he doesn't know. It's our little secret.

Goal accomplished

I did it. I made bread. I don't know how making bread became such a terrifying culinary roadblock for me. Maybe it was the movies that portrayed women endlessly kneading dough, toiling in the kitchen all in effort for a loaf. Or the fact that there's such an invention as a bread machine. That in itself tells you that it's too difficult and time consuming to make bread by hand.
I think I came to a pretty good compromise between endlessly kneading and a bread machine. Amelia (theharvestkitchensisters.blogspot.com) sent me this link:

http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/recipes

It's a no knead bread recipe. It was easy and turned out tasty. Here's my bread journey...
Saturday evening I made this:


Oh iPad...how I love thee

Sunday morning while my kid was in front of the 'babysitter', I let the dough rise...


(In all fairness...they did say to generously coat the towel in flour. I was doing what I was told.)
Then baked it...

And it turned out like this!

I brought some to work today and before I could tell them that I had made it they asked where I bought the bread from.
I'm just sayin'. Amy, if you were in town, we'd be going into the bread business.
Give the recipe a try, you'll love it.

2011 Goals:

Someone once said that if you put your dreams/desires 'out there' (I'm pretty sure they didn't mean cyberspace, but it's still the universe nonetheless right?), they will come true...well, here we go. These are in no particular order.
1. Get chickens
a. Buy/build coop
b. Order chickens
c. Figure out how to keep them alive
d. Eat their delicious eggs

2. Build a garden
a. Convince husband, friends and family to help
b. Choose seeds
c. Convince friend with a lot of sun to sew them indoors for me
d. Decide on a garden plan (that should probably be a.)
e. Plant said garden and reap the rewards!!

3. Learn how to make bread (without a bread maker)
4. Learn how to make cheese
5. Not only stay married but happily married! (this may be a good time to tell you that my dear husband isn't really loving all my 'big ideas'...)

There, it's out there. Universe...work your magic!
NOTE: although I call myself 'naive', I do realize that it's going to take a lot of work on my part to accomplish these. I doubt the universe is going to pick up a shovel or clean chicken poop.