Sunday, December 30, 2012

To Do List

Christmas is over and New Years is coming up fast and furious.  I was lucky enough to have 11 days off work to regroup and feel what it would be like to be retired. Oh I wish I was financially able to do that!

One of the things on my To Do List was to plan what to plant where in the garden. Keeping in mind that I don't want to plant things where they have been before it can be a bit tricky in a small garden. I think I have pretty much figured it out with a bit of juggling. I know when the time comes things usually change a bit. I don't know if I will be organized enough to get those wire potato cages done with all the compost that goes in them or if I will be able to get some kind of a better cover for my tomatoes this year. Already I'm feeling a bit stressed about it. Then there is the matter of the fence between my plot and the one next door. I have good intentions but my intentions include my hubby and both of us are building challenged. Saws scare me. I wish my Dad could help, he was an amazing carpenter and would be able to whip up something no problem.

There is also the matter of my back yard at home. It is lovely but now that I have lived with it for 6 months I can see some things need "adjusting". I'm going to wait and see if there are any surprises that come up in spring but a few things need to go and a few things need to be planted in the spots. Number one I want more flowers. There are a few evergreen shrubs in the flower beds and they need to go before they get too big. Homes will be found for them!


Then there is the matter of the Kiwi vine that is growing up to the back upstairs deck. Having never had a kiwi plant before and not knowing what to expect I thought I would wait and see. Well, I've waited and it was just a leafy vine with lots of big spiders in it. Spiders scare me. I know they are good and I steer clear of them but they still scare me. I think they are scared of me too. I chopped a bunch of it down in the fall but it will probably have to be dug out. I thought a honeysuckle would be nice and my little hummingbirds would love it. Pretty much that is the plan for the back yard gradually introduce lots of flowers for the hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. Perhaps a few flowers for inside too. Love Dahlias! Then there is the dead space right by the deck. Doesn't get a lot of sun and I don't think the soil is that deep but I might build a raised bed and grow herbs there or at least try to. Herbs I find are better close to home. Having them in my garden plot is pretty inconvenient.

For Christmas this year I was spoiled and got a home growing light system and four seed starter kits from Lee Valley Tools. I have had them before and they are the best. They are self watering so even if you are forgetful (like me) they do fine. I might start my geraniums (for the house) as well as cucumber, tomatoes, eggplant and whatever else I fancy. Amsterdam Greenhouse (where my hubby bought the grow system) has a couple of Saturday seminars that I might take on growing plants from seeds. Timing is the key. Usually I start them too early so I will have to restrain myself.... maybe...we will see.

Happy New Year!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Up is the way to go!


On the way to work on the bus in the morning I pass the road to my garden. I try and sit on the side of the bus so that I can look down it. There isn't much to see. It is dark and usually raining and sometimes fog that pools over the area. Still it comforts me to know that it is there. I have renewed it for another year and I think of it silently waiting for me.

Last weekend I was craving some of my lovely veggies and vowed that next year I would make better use of my space and try and grow more things vertically if possible. I actually went to a farmers market and bought some misshapen carrots. At least mine aren't the only ones!

My veggies are all but gone with the exception of some beets that I have in the freezer and some pesto sauce from my basil. If I had been smarter I could have some beans and peas frozen as well as kale. I didn't get many peas but I hate to freeze them as they are so good. I can't imagine having so many that you couldn't eat them! Carrots don't really freeze that well I have found but I think I read somewhere that you can store them in sand or something. Again, something to look into.

This I think is a great idea for a raised garden bed and I found the idea again on Pintrest, my favorite source.
It would work great in my small garden. There would still be room to walk through but I could grow beans and peas up it and still have lots of garden real estate left over.

My potato patch could also use a bit of reorganization. Last year I bought a bag of seed potatoes and they took up way too much space. Plus the fact that I didn't cut them. My reasoning was that I didn't have very much room and if I cut them I would have needed more space. Well, next year I might do something like this..


Grow your potatoes in towers (Pintrest again). Brilliant. I have seen others that might work better using wire and straw so I'm not sure which way I will go but definitely up I think is the best choice.


This was an inventive way to grow tomatoes from one of my fellow gardeners. Can you tell we get a lot of rain here? It is cute but not much protection from the wind and blight. A for effort. I'm thinking of something with pvc pipes, clamps and plastic for next year.



Monday, November 5, 2012

Sweet Dreams little garden



I had a day off today and it turned out to be a beautiful day. It has been raining non stop for what seems like weeks and not just light rain, torrential rain. The trees are in their last stages of glory.

I have been thinking of my poor uncovered beds and it has been bugging me... a lot. If there has been a break I'm usually at work. The weekends have been very bad. When I went last I didn't really have enough leaves and they were just beginning to fall so I made do with what I had but it was always niggling at me.

I raked up all the leaves in our yard and threw them in my car. I then raked the front and even took the next door neighbours leaves. They probably think I'm a really nice person raking their leaves and taking them away. Three big bags total. Lovely, lovely leaves!


I donned my rubber boots, gathered up a cart and headed to my plot. Some of the plots were seriously under water. Pretty disheartening. It makes me so grateful for my lovely spot.


It looks so neat and pretty with all the fall leaves in the boxes. They are pretty damp so I don't think they should blow away too easily. My garlic was starting to come up so I made sure I mulched them well with leaves. 



Sweet dreams little garden. I hope to see you in the spring. May the winter treat you well....

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Last clean up



The weather has been pretty miserable for the past couple of weeks so when there was a break in the weather I decided to take perhaps my last trip out for a while... maybe.


The gardens were glistening in the sunlight and luckily the weather held. When I arrived at my plot I couldn't see my sunflowers towering anymore and I realized that they had toppled over from the wind and rain, poor things. It looked like the birds had gotten most of the seeds so that's a good thing.


Originally I had been planning to leave them up for awhile so I had to pull them out. They were huge!! The stalks massive! I hope they compost over the winter.  What the heck do you do with these guys. I love growing them for the birds but I might not put in as many next year. Or maybe a smaller variety?


My plan was to pull all my carrots, and spread leaves on the beds. I kind of ran out of leaves and it looked like other gardeners had raked up the ones around the gardens so I might have to take another trip when I get another few bags. I see that a lot of people are putting straw on their beds which might not be a bad idea but I haven't really checked out where to buy it. There is still time. All in all my garden is in pretty good shape and hopefully I will be allowed to rent it again for next year.

I now have a refrigerator full of misshapen and colored carrots. There are a lot of them. I'm thinking of maybe carrot soup... carrot cake...the possibilities are endless.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Remembering the Summer

This has to be the best spot. What a view!

I think I'm suffering from garden withdrawal. When you are used to going out 2-3 times a week it is hard to adjust to not going out at all. It is hard to get used to a different schedule. This is the first weekend that I haven't worked in the garden for months.

It is a really miserable day. Has been raining and raining hard for three days now. I can only imagine the pools of water at the garden now. I do need to make one more trip to spread some leaves, pick the remainder of the carrots and bring home any sticks. The leaves are beginning to fall in copious amounts so as soon as things dry up again (hopefully) I will try and get a few bags of them and tuck everything in.

We do need the rain but this is rather a lot of it but then this is Vancouver or the Wet Coast as I like to call it and if it didn't rain so much it wouldn't be so green.

I'm trying to get my studio all set up so that I can start to paint. I wish I was better at it but I do want to make a better effort to pay more attention, see more and experiment more. My garden photos are going to come in handy I hope.

I'd love to paint this! 

Days like this I like to reminisce about the beautiful summer we just enjoyed.... and for my garden.



Last days of Summer


Technically it is actually Fall but the weather has been glorious. Second week in October and the temperatures during the day are lovely and warm. There has been a frost in the garden as the temperature dips at night but that is to be expected. The warm spell is supposed to last until next weekend so I actually went out twice this holiday weekend and did some more clean up.

I pretty much dug in all my bits of plant material after cutting them up into little pieces. My thought is it should compost down by the spring. My garlic also went in today. It took up one entire bed which is a big chunk of real estate in my garden. If it all comes up I will have a ton of garlic. There won't be anything to harvest until next August which seems like an awfully long way away. I'm thinking that perhaps I didn't dig them deep enough so I might need to add an additional layer of something more on top. The next step anyway is to rake some leaves and cover all the beds as a mulch. They say you should plant a cover crop of rye or something (not on the garlic) but it is a bit of work to turn it in and then you have to wait to plant. If the leaves don't decompose by spring I will just add them to the compost. I may do it on some of the beds next year.


Nothing is in now except for a row of carrots and they won't mind the cool weather. I picked a bunch this weekend so I won't be needing any more for a few weeks. They will do better in the ground than in my fridge anyway. I have to say I'm pretty pleased with my carrots. I was pretty bad about thinning them and you can see I did have quite a few small ones and deformed ones but all in all I have quite a few and they taste pretty good.

I found a great recipe for roasting carrots and actually all root veggies and I love it. Simple and brings out the nice flavour of them. I found the recipe through Pintrest which is quckly becoming my favorite source.


Monday, October 8, 2012

The cleanup continues...


I spent more time at my plot this weekend trying to prepare it for winter. I've decided not to wait until spring before spreading some of my compost around. What better time than now to try and put it in each of my raised beds. Next year I will move the compost to a different spot and the spot where it is now will no doubt be prime real estate!

It is pretty heavy stuff. Of course I have layers of uncomposted stuff on top so it is a bit of a chore to find the good stuff and it is kind of heavy. Full of worms though so while trying to be careful of them, I'm trying to get some into each bed. They are also getting lots of cut up bits of plant material which should, compost down through the winter. I'm starting to take things home, my wire compost bin, my garden tags and the sticks that I will use next year. It will do them no good to sit around in the wet wet winter that I'm sure is coming.

The huge sunflowers had to be staked up, they were so large and heavy they were starting to topple over. My hubby had a brilliant idea to stake them with my bamboo sticks. I said there was no way a couple of sticks would work but they did much to my surprise and worked beautifully. Thanks Andy! Because the beds are raised the sticks are propped against the edges.  The birds have already been feasting on them. They don't look ready to me but I guess they know best.


There is still work to be done but not too much. I was itching to go out today but will make a trip next weekend. Next years project, a fence between my plot and the next one.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Eggplant Pizza!

For the first time ever I decided to grow eggplant. I actually bought two for a dollar each at Amsterdam Nursery this spring. I figured for a buck why not try it. I harvested the last two little eggplants and will perhaps try a little eggplant parmesan with them. They are pretty tiny.

One of the plants was a Japanese eggplant and they were pretty nice in stir fries but I didn't get too many. Wrong location as they didn't get much sun as they were shaded from my towering sunflowers and sweet peas.  I kind of just threw them in as an experiment but I will definitely give them a good sunny spot next year. The plants don't get huge so I will probably plant them beside some pepper plants where there is no shade. Since I am going to rig up a proper greenhouse for my tomatoes they can have a head start in my portable greenhouse. At least that is the plan for now.


A couple of weeks ago I harvested three of my eggplants, they are so cute I just love them. I really hated to pick them. The only thing I have ever eaten them in is moussaka which I love but since Andy isn't too keen on it and I thought I would try something special that we both would enjoy. I figured pizza might be interesting.

I added lots of cheese to the top of this

I found a pizza recipe online from Epicurious and decided to give it a try. I didn't follow the recipe exactly after reading the reviews and it was lovely. I used my own crust recipe which was wonderful and crispy and also put added some pizza sauce with some pesto on the base. Of course lots of cheese. Even Andy liked it. My only complaint was that when I reheated it the next day I found the eggplant slightly bitter. The solution to that would be to eat it all the same day or invite a couple of eggplant loving friends over.

Mmmm!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Roasted Tomatoes

Before
Sigh, the last of the summer tomatoes. These ones were ripened in newspaper. The left ones are heirloom and the right ones are my early girls. I wouldn't normally roast tomatoes as I love them too much raw, but they aren't quite as tasty if they don't ripen on the vine. Don't get me wrong they are good, very very good but they kind of lend themselves to roasting.

It is so easy and they will be lovely in the winter when all you have is canned tomatoes for sauces. I will just add these to what I have to enhance the sauce and enjoy a bit of summer. Roasting them sweetens them up.

You simply cut them up in half or bigger pieces and place (not overlapping) in a preferably glass dish. You can add any kind of herbs with it. I added fresh basil for my first batch and then ran out of herbs so I used a bit of parsley and dried thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil to coat the tomatoes. I threw in some garlic cloves as well. Roast in a 300 degree oven for at least two hours. Turn off oven and let sit for a while. I went shopping, came back and put them in a zip lock bag and froze them. The smell in the house was heavenly.

After

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

And so to bed.... almost

Or shall I say the long goodnight.

My little garden is halfway to being tucked in. Another month and it will be bedtime for a while. My visits will probably be once a week now to do a bit of cleanup and harvesting.

The flowers are starting to die back, except for those sweet peas. They are going crazy. I wish I had them at home so I could pick them every couple of days. Note to self, plant sweet peas at home!! They don't last long after they are picked but they sure smell wonderful. The sunflowers and still going strong. One of them was so heavy it fell over but luckily I was able to tie it up. The stalk was very thick and it was quite the effort to tie it to the fence it was so heavy.


My carrots are starting to finally get bigger. They are mostly still a bit deformed but I actually got a couple of almost normal ones. Not sure if any will last until the first frost. It will be tempting to have the whole garden finished by the end of October.


I'm actually looking forward to not going twice, three times a week. I love it but I need a break, a break to dream and plan, to figure out what to grow next year and where to put everything. I want to make a simple greenhouse in the spring with plastic tubing and heavy plastic and to also put up a fence between my plot and my neighbours.

I will miss this.

Fresh tomatoes, pesto and bocconcini!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Ready, set go!



You can smell it in the air. The end of summer. The days are starting to get shorter and you can feel a nip in the air. The rush is on now to get all the fall cleanup done and beds prepared for any fall planting. My garden is still not quite finished but I can start to tidy up a bit. Luckily I had a week off and it was spectacular. I spent quite a few hours at my plot puttering. I carted four more wheelbarrow full of manure to spread in my beds when they are all emptied. Right now I have it ready to go when I finish clearing all the beds.

Being an organic garden we are very limited as to what we bring in. I'm allowed Sea Soil (kind of expensive by the bag) Peat but no garden soil and all the manure we want. I brought in another bag of peat in the hopes that it will lighten up the manure that I'm spreading. If only life worked like that! I buried all my finished veggie tops and vines after chopping them up a bit and added the manure on top. I figured that will help to build up the soil. When all the lovely leaves fall I will use them as well. The compost I will cover and leave til spring and hopefully will be able to use it to fill up the beds as well. There is so much in there it should be great. It is pretty heavy to turn but when I last turned it it was steaming and I have never seen worms that big so I think it will be good. I'm going to plant something where the compost is now and move it to a different location. It will be prime real estate!

My garlic bed is all prepared with some manure and sea soil so will plant in another month. I cut down all my lovely tomatoes and picked them all :(. Even the green ones. Unfortunately I ran over a big green one with my wheelbarrow. I took it home and cut off the squished bit and made it into a fried green tomato. It was quite yummy. I wasn't quite sure what to do so I dredged it in flour, added salt and pepper and fried in a little butter. Never had them before. (Read the book though). The rest are all ripening in newspaper in the basement. I will probably roast these ones and freeze them for the winter. I always find that they are never quite as good as the ones that ripen on the vine.

Garden Art



I'm a bit behind on my blogging. It is such a busy time of year. Basically I had to run out at least twice a week and water which in itself shouldn't take too long. Usually, however I would be there at least an hour and a half watering, picking things, tying up stuff, always lots to do. My tomatoes were pretty pampered. I have diligently been taking photos but with the fall coming and harvesting everything as well as working there always seems to be a shortage of time.

I really really wish I had the time to pick blackberries this year. I would have loved to have made some blackberry jelly. Oh well, maybe next year. And pickles too!!

I wanted to try and do some painting as well and didn't quite get to it. I finally have my painting area in the basement set up and ready to go. I would have liked to do some painting outside but again ran out of time. At least I have taken lots and lots of pics so hopefully in the winter I can get going.

I have to satisfy myself with the creativity at the garden. It is nice to see all the bits and bobs and scraps that give a garden it's character. Even some of the tacky bits look bright and colorful in a garden setting.

As I have said before I love to go wandering and seeing what people are up to. Sometimes I'm too tired and I don't always like to lug my big camera around so some of my pictures don't turn out as well as I would like. Looking around though I think I need more art in my plot.


Love this little rusty gate.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Winding down


My little garden is starting to wind down. The lettuce has bolted and the remains are now in my compost. I threw in some more spinach and lettuce seeds in the hope of a fall harvest.

I was told by a fellow gardener that I had better get cracking and get my beds ready to plant my winter garlic. I actually have bought my garlic but there is no rest for me it seems. Apparently you are supposed to get it prepared a month ahead with composted manure. There isn't much left and I was told to use the old stuff, NOT the new stuff that they will be getting when it is gone. The pressure, I tell ya. Honestly I'm not going to worry about it too much. I might just shake it up a bit and put in some sea soil too.

I'm very pleased with the garden this year and the soil can't be that bad as you can see from my sunflower. I do wish the flower part was bigger for the birds. Maybe I had too much manure. I know it was my second batch of seeds that I think I bought at Home Depot so they probably weren't the freshest. Next year (here I go again) I will special order ones with big heads of seeds for the birds. If only I can get them to not eat them before they sprout.

The nights are getting cooler and I can tell that my cucumbers and eggplant are slowing down. I think next year I will start them in my mini greenhouse to give them a better start. Over the winter I am going to try and figure out a better structure for my tomatoes. They really are a bit of a pain but I do love them so will probably continue to grow them until I get frustrated. My eggplants are so cute. I don't know if I will get much out of them but I have to say they are the coolest thing I have ever grown. So smooth and perfect. This is the japanese eggplant which is smaller than the regular one. I chopped one of them up and pan fried it with some mushrooms and it was delicious.



My potatoes are almost all dug up and stored in the basement. Again, not sure if I will grow them again. We will see. The fresh new ones you buy in the spring seem sweeter. Will see how long these ones last. The next week will be spent burying all the old plant material, throwing in some more manure and digging it in for the winter. Hopefully that should do the trick.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Inspiration



 The fields behind the gardens

I try and take as many pictures as I can in the garden but lets face it sometimes I am so tired all I can manage are a few quick snaps.

It was a nice cool day today so after I did my watering and picking I took my camera went for a walkabout and shot a few pics of the other gardens. I am always amazed at the creativity of my fellow gardeners.
This is from my favorite garden

 Pretty cool gate

The tin man

Someone even had grapes!

Mmmmmm



Oh tomatoes... how long I have waited for you.

Mmmmmmm

When I went to the garden on Wednesday night I was surprised at just how many there were.

I have an eclectic assortment of them. One Heirloom, one yellow and red cherry tomatoes and two early girl. They were so heavy a few green ones were on the ground so I am trying to ripen them in a paper bag. If that doesn't work maybe I will try fried green tomatoes. Whatever happens not one will go to waste.

Oh please, please let there be no blight until they are all ripe and picked!


The heirloom tomatoes are a bit strange. Kind of misshapen but they taste pretty good. This large one here made a very tasty salad for my husband and I. It was lovely, made with home made basil pesto and fresh mozzarella. It doesn't get much better than this.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Carrots

One of my deformed carrots

According to my mother my grandfather always said that you can't grow carrots in Vancouver. He would know, but I would love to prove him wrong. So far I haven't been so successful.

I bought a packet of assorted carrots in different colors. I have had some success with mostly the lighter colored carrots for some reason but the rest all have legs and look pretty strange. I don't know if color actually makes a difference or not but that is what has happened. They are also quite stubby. They still taste good but there just isn't much to eat. I am going to try again next year but after that I will move on.

Apparently they split like this because they hit a lump in the soil. My soil has lots of lumps being pretty new. Next year I might try putting sand where the carrots are going to be. They also don't like manure, one more thing to remember, pretty fussy I must say...