Prep for Winter

Mike, the girls and I spent some afternoon time in the yard today preparing for the upcoming winter. Last night was our second frost, and it was a light one nearly a month after the first one. 

I have already pulled out many of the annual plants and am enjoying the seasonal color of foliage as it is turning. I rake leaves from the grass onto the beds to protect them (especially important now that I have planted so many more bulbs).  This time of year there is so much plant waste just from pulling things up that Mike actually has two compost piles - the regular one and a temporary pile in the garden itself.

Today the girls and I focused on converting the greenhouse to protect fall crops. Anwyn and I  pulled the last of the tomatoes and basil in the greenhouse and Leo made our final batch of fresh bruschetta. Mike and Leo saved basil seeds and Anwyn dug some carrots. Then Mike transplanted some spinach and chard into the greenhouse. The stuff in the greenhouse will be edible until it is about -15 degrees C outside.

We are actually still eating quite a bit from the garden. Chard, potatoes, spinach, beets, strawberries (just a few) and carrots are the big items. We are also eating butternut and spaghetti squash from storage. Fresh herbs, especially chives and mint are still doing well also.  The garden has large bare patches, and we use these for dumping the dirt from various planter boxes, which we will mix back into the garden before planting.  Another patch of bare dirt serves to hold a pile of fresh compost for use in the spring when it thaws. 

I had a good gardening year this year, and have little to do now before the end. We'll need to dig the rest of the root veggies before the ground freezes, and put away the outdoor furniture (I have already drained the fountain). I also have to dig up my few remaining bulbs for fall flowers, like the gladiola along the garage. They are my last flowers and I am sad to see them go, so I am delaying as long as I can. I know when they go I'll have six months before my next bulbs bloom outside.

More than one type of Harvest

What a satisfying day this has been. I spent it with people I love, doing things I love, eating fresh things from the yard. It really doesn't get much better than that.

I started my day at 7:30 with a quick breakfast and a trip to have a morning "coffee" with Jaime and Erin. The trees were a beautiful golden colour interlaced with splashes of apple red. By the time we were done, I felt so peaceful and happy that my grocery shopping didn't even dent my zen like calm.  I picked Anwyn up and came home to do a flurry of the weekend chores: three loads of laundry, picking, watering, homework with the girls, and a bath. By 1 I had read my book, loved the leftover root veggies for lunch and was taking laundry off the line.

Perspective is everything. Remaking my bed downstairs I was happy to have fresh sheets, not oppressed by folding all the laundry. I made squares, and felt happy to use some of the zucchinni, apples and raspberries I had frozen, not mad about the dishes. My house is 25C and I have 5 loud girls over who I just taught debate to for two hours, but I am happy. I'll even be happy when 4 of them sleepover tonight. . .

Today I spent time in my yard, and I am cooking a great pasta sauce full of my fresh ingredients for our supper. I picked fresh flowers and celebrated the fact that the new windows open so widely the house will cool quickly. It's a good day, and I have more than one type of harvest. As the girls giggle together over the veggies and dip they are making, I feel very blessed.

Storage

This time of year, most of gardening is about the storage.  Once again we had our first frost while I was gone at Elkridge, but it has only frosted twice so far, and today it was hot again (nearly 30C). As a result of the warmth, I haven't brought many tomatoes in, but I did bring in anything long and vine like. In addition, we've made 3 batches of salsa and lots of pickles. In the garden I still have beets, chard, spinach, kohlrabi, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots and potatoes.

So far I am storing in the cold storage:

• 13 squash
• 4 medium pumpkins, 7 small
• 23 liters salsa
• 21 liters dill pickles
• 12 500 ml jars rhubarb BBQ sauce
• 14 250 jars of raspberry jam
• 7 small jars taco sauce
• 4 500 ml raspberry sauce
• 6 500 ml saskatoon berry sauce
• 7 500 ml jars chutney
• 7 250 ml jars of apple sauce, and 3 500ml apple sauce

Frozen:

• 1 bag jalapeno peppers
• 1 bag habanero peppers
• 1 bag red chili peppers
• 5 small jars pesto
• 16 cups strawberries
• 32 cups rhubarb
• 40 cups apples
• 34 cups raspberries
• 8 cups zucchini
• 26 cups saskatoons
• 12 cups basil
• 3 cups oregano
• 4 cups mint

Leftover from last year I have 1 jar pickled beet, 2 jars apple sauce and 1 jar jam.  Not bad, really. My family will eat almost all of it by June next year, and we ate as much of our harvest as we could this summer.

My harvest was similar to previous years in many areas, although I got a lot more peppers and tomatoes this year than either of the last two.  We made dramatically more pickles and salsa, but I froze similar amounts of spices. I am really glad to have this blog as a comparison point, because it helps me know what to grow and how to save it.  For example, if I look at my harvest in 2009, I can see I almost had enough salsa with 18 liters.  I knew how much more to make this year as a result.

Arches

This time of year, the yard is not all that pretty. The major cycles of blooming are done and the beauty of fall colours is still about 2 weeks away. I am still enjoying a number of annuals, especially sweet peas, but my favorite elements of my yard right now are forming arches of flowers.

It all started with my white Clematis, which blooms in late summer each year.  The girls have it climbing over their new fort, and the arch from the living wall to the fort roof is covered in tiny clusters of white flowers.  Those same flowers run up beside my front door, frame my fountain and cascade down the retaining wall in my front yard.

Unlike my Clematis, which just keeps extending each year, my Morning Glory are always in different places and different shapes. I have some of the best shapes ever this year.  Here are two of my favorite pictures:

Currently blooming:

• squashes and gourds
• sweet peas
• sunflowers
• yarrow
• cone flower
• flox
• speedwell
• stonecrop (a favorite fall bloomer of mine)
• tomatoes and peppers (they don't know they are a week from last year's snow storm)
• daisies
• white clematis (just finishing)
• orange lilies
• orange and yellow roses.

Currently eating

• beans (just finishing)
• zucchini
• tomatoes (all types)
• peppers (all types)
• spaghetti squash
• pumpkins
• all herbs
• chard
• fall spinach
• cucumbers
• carrots
• kohlrabi
• potatoes
• beets

Harvest

This morning my family went to Osler and I went out into my yard.  After an early morning grocery shop, I really felt like all I wanted to do was just sit around, but I ignored the feeling because I knew it wasn't a good one for me.  My friend Jodi does the same thing when she heads into her sewing room even though she doesn't want to.

I spent the morning picking produce in my garden, and pruning and picking in the front.  It was great.  I picked the following:

• two ice cream pails tomatoes
• two ice cream pails cucumbers
• one large zuchinni
• two kohlrabi (one purple, one regular)
• 1 cup of strawberries
• 8 sunflower heads, ready to dry
• some fresh apples for nibbling
• 9 corn on the cob
• one ice cream pail of beans (purple, yellow and green)

Sounds like a good a good harvest, right?  It was, the best harvest was me. As I was pruning and watering,  I could feel by feelings of being tired and overwhelmed with all the summer craziness drain away.  After cooking for so many all summer, I felt like I'd never want to cook anything again, and now I am happily in my kitchen making Kashmiri potatoes, mango and pepper tofu and concord grapes for my lunch, and I'm delighted to be doing it.

Ah, time self in the yard.  Nothing like it to fill up this introvert after an exciting, people-filled summer and the first week of school.  This afternoon, I think I'll read a book and have a hot bath.

Lessons for next year

This year in the garden has taught me some good things for next year.  In some areas, it went very well.  I have had lots of beans all year long.  My beet crop will be good and my second planting of peas (especially in full sun under the sprinkler) did really well and gave me peas until August 15th. My peas and squashes did well together, and when the peas came out, it gave the squash the perfect room. The basil supply is ideal for Mike's obsession, as are the three mint plants for my family drinking ice tea. The apples are a few more than we need, so if we don't have a lot of guests, I should give some away. One row of chard and repeated plantings of spinach is shady beds is the exact amount we need in summer months

Notes for next year:

• Plant twice as many pickling cucumbers as slicers
• Plant 1/3 Cherry and Pear tomatoes, and the rest in Early Girl and Romas
• It is fine if carrots are a bit patchy. Water a lot in the spring. Carrot tapes are dumb
• Cut the flower off of the garlic for bigger bulbs. Plant Saskatchewan Garlic in Oct.
• Small pumpkins are best
• Zucchini will do fine with half sun
• Planting beets next to peas gives beets room to grow when peas come out
• Buy dense mesh for the cabbage moths and pin it in lots of places
• Plant more Romain at the end of June and in the second week of August

Today I was out in my garden dead heading flowers and weeding a bit (this is my second attempt in August, when I rarely weed as plants are well established), and I was thinking that  I am delighted with the amount of produce given the hail.  We have enough tomatoes this week to eat them all week and make large pizzas.  I hope we have enough in the end for salsa. It is nice to have learned so much about planting that I actually get nearly twice as much as I did when I moved into this house.

Today is Mike and I's anniversary - we've been married 17 years. I can remember how excited we were to have a "garden feast" a week before the wedding out of our second garden at 518 Albert Ave.  It was small potatoes, dill weed, and beans.  I can so easily put that to shame now, but the lessons I learned planting those first gardens only get refined over the years of gardening and marriage.  They are simple things, like tending to little issues means you don't have disasters, or when there is a disaster, hard work and focusing on the positive helps you pull together to get it solved. Like my garden, my marriage can do so much more now that we have more expertise and experience, but it still has issues that set things back.  After hail on the garden this week and the failure to order windows, I am reminded that focusing on the harvest you do get helps you to keep loving your garden.

Destruction

Destruction struck my garden on the 15th while I was relaxing at a movie with my sister Greta.  We left the movie chatting to step out into a bit of hail. We had driven less than 500 meters before it was hard to see.  On the way home we had to pull over because visibility was terrible, and I took an alternate route to avoid flash floods. I couldn't even hear Greta shouting, the hails was so loud on the van roof.

My lawn was carpeted in hail and flooded (Leo forgot two rain barrels open) when I got home. My pillow was also damp as my bedroom window was open.  However, the biggest devastation was my yard - I actually ran on a thick carpet of hail to close the rain barrel. In the morning, the hail was gone but the destruction remained.

Leaves were scattered everywhere and all the leaves still on plants had holes in them.  The hail was about pea to marble sized, and a few days later, so many of leaves are damaged that there is yellow all over my yard.  It looks like fall.  Liz says there was no hail at her house which is only 3km away, so it appears to have been fairly localized.

Here are some images from my garden - they aren't to Mike's standard since he was happily climbing mountains while I took them.

Max's play tent - blown across the half of the yard and luckily caught by the apple tree. The tunnel and the other tent were blown to the back of the garden.

 

My shredded corn and one of Max's other tents.

 Many tomatoes were knocked off the plants and a lot of tomato branches were broken. Even the tomatoes that stayed on were not great.

A sample of the rhubarb crushed by hail.  The rhubarb and the remaining apples were pulverized. I froze both for use this month and baked some of the 10 gallon pail of apples, which were covered in little round bruises.

The hardest part of the whole thing was loosing so much of the garden right as it is producing. We are currently eating:

• rhubarb
• apples
• spagetti squash
• pumpkin
• beans (three types)
• the last of the peas (yesterday)
• baby carrots and beats
• kholrabi
• two types of cucumbers
• six types of peppers
• three types of tomatoes
• all herbs (I froze a large ziploc of mint the day before the hail)
• chard, spinach and beet greens
• potatoes
• corn

On the upside, my average of 5 guests all summer long has actually resulted in less that winter grocery bills (ones for just my family) because the garden is producing so well. View all hail pictures.

Making time

Yesterday, Mike and Heidi left for Calgary (Mike is going to climb mountains with Dave in Canmore). Greta, Gus and Max arrived the day before, and Dad a bit before that.  Peff left the day before that, but Teela, Merlin and Viola are still here. Needless to say, I feel delighted to see everyone, but way too busy. Too busy for yoga, too busy to read, and too busy for gardening.  It's obviously as issue, but the garden waits for no one, so I had the feeling of getting behind in addition to having low resources.

I was really frustrated with both girls yesterday as they keep leaving work or forgetting things when we have guests. They are apologetic, but they don't quite get it together. I took Leo to party in Briarwood after frantically making her contribution with her when Teela's family and my girls were late getting back to lunch.  It was literally a 15 minute turn around.  I drove all clenched, got home and ate junk food because I was exhausted (I haven't done that it months) and then snapped at Anwyn for the work she had not done when  I reminded her to in the morning.  By 2:45, I had dropped my second sad daughter off at a birthday party, and I had an hour at home alone before I had to pick Leo up. I'd like to say I can just tell my girls to do less with friends, but we have company for six weeks straight, then a week off as school starts before Jodi and Brad arrive. I'd be asking them to have no life of their own all summer long.

After both girls were gone, I didn't go outside in that hour before I had to pick Leo up. I organized the house mess and watched a bad movie, but it was silent, and I could slowly feel myself unclenching.  When I drove to pick up Leo, I looked at the green fields on my way, kept my windows open and thought about my yard. By the time I picked her up, I was ready to be out in it, and to relax.

Leo came out and chatted with me while I puttered about the front yard pulling weeds, pruning and picking. Mostly I just talked to my daughter and looked at my plant.  It felt great, like I was slowly being recharged.

Leo and I had a great evening together and I was asleep by 9.  I have picked peas, my first pumpkin, green peppers, baby orange peppers, herbs, beans (4 types), cucumbers, apples and tomatoes. But mostly I picked myself back up and enjoyed some time in my yard. There is nothing like the natural world for helping you make time and space in your mind.

• View picks from the first week of August
• View picks from the second week of August

Garlic, Pickles, Pesto and - Raspberries?

Today I puttered about picking cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, peas - all the usual, and then I got inspired. Mike loves it when I get inspired. Today I was inspired for Mike to make pickles, pesto and raspberry cheesecake with some of the things I picked.

We have everything we need right now for pickles. Mike likes to add lots of different colors in each jar, so it is rarely just our cucumbers, dill and garlic. Today we also did purple and yellow beans, carrots, chili peppers and jalapeno peppers in each of the three jars.  To get to three jars, I typically pick some cucumbers throughout the week, and every ten days or so in full production, we have enough for pickles.  I keep the picked cucumbers in the fridge between canning inspiration, but I am careful to make sure they are not washed or damp so they keep better as they wait to be canned. 

I found picking the garlic today interesting. I had never grown garlic successfully, and I am still not sure it was quite ready. I read a Canadian garlic site  from Boundary Garlic Farm, and learned that when you are on the second loop of the scape you can harvest the garlic. Mine also had seed pouches called bulbils. Next year if I cut those off, the plant will spend more time making the bulb bigger according to everything I read, and the Saskatchewan government emphasizes the importance of this in Northern climates.  I think I'll plant quite a bit more garlic this fall, as it seems to be doing well and we eat a lot of it during the year.

I cut back the greenhouse basil, which yielded a two picking baskets of basil. I had to plant it in February for it to have 4 leaves a plant by March 20th, when I transplanted the seedlings into little pots. It is a lot effort to get a big enough crop in Saskatchewan, but Mike loves it so much that we always plant lots. It always makes me happy when I pick a lot in July and August. Today we made four times our regular amount of pesto, so we used 4 cups of loosely packed basil leaves and froze the rest. We'll freeze small containers of pesto for use throughout the year.

For lunch we had the leftover sushi (roles and scattered) from last night, along with some spring rolls, cherries and sugar snap peas. I love eating this time of year because everything tastes so great out of the garden and it is so nice to be picking and cooking together. The food is healthy and not fattening (except for the cheesecakes like the raspberry one Mike is making right now).

We had picked some raspberries before lunch and  I froze 12 cups of raspberries in small ziplocs.  Anna asked what the best method is.  As Mike mentioned to her, traditionally, raspberries are frozen individually on a tray. This way each berry keeps it's shape, and they don't stick together as much in the bag.  I used to do this, but when you thaw the berry, it always becomes mushy. Plus, I inevitably turn it into a sauce or blend it into something. Mike and I concluded about 5 years ago that freezing each berry is way too much work. Now we put about 2 cups in each ziploc, as that is the amount we usually use when cooking. It doesn't mater if they stick together, because you are defrosting the whole bag.

It has been a fun day with our produce, but I think I am not feeling inspired for Mike to do some dry walling to prep for my painting, so I think my growing related inspiration is coming to an end.

Apple sauce

Mike finally agreed some apples are ready, and today we picked some. I still have 1 bag of frozen apples I'll need to use, and we picked 4 ice cream pails worth today, which is maybe one quarter of what is on the tree. Mike is going to make some into sauce, and I'll make some into pie.  The rest we'll likely freeze for cooking over the winter or eat fresh. My nephew Merlin (the biggest apple lover I have ever met) will likely get a bunch of them if he is interested, but he was not so happy about the first one I offered.

Making apple sauce is pretty easy. First you rough chop the apples, then you cook them in a bit of water (essentially steam) for 20 minutes.   We have a food mill, so we just put the apples through that after they are cooked to remove the seeds, stems and peel. Then we sweeten them to taste for apple sauce and can them. On hot days, we often cook on the BBQ's side burner, but today the high is only 23, so we can cook and can inside. The basic ratio is 12 pounds of apples to 3 cups of water and 3 cups of sugar. You also add about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. We skipped the sugar this time, as we use this puree for an oil substitute in baking.  We did add cinnamon, though. Mike keeps trying to can in the pressure caner which never seems to work out, so while the sauce tastes great, he still isn't happy with it.

In addition to a food mill, the other great tool we use is an apple peeler.  It works best with eating size apples (which ours are), because it cores and peels. We got ours used at a garage sale, but I like so much I'd buy it new at Lee Valley.

"Pond" and Play

This last week Douglas, Teela, Peff, Merlin and Viola have been visiting. It has been a real pleasure to be in the yard with them (check out some of Mike's yard pics from this week). I have enjoyed my flowers and veggies as I always do, but it has been great to have new eyes to share it with.

About two weeks ago, Liz gave me an old fountain of Gary's. I filled it up and have been enjoying the trickle of water ever since. Viola, Leora and Anwyn, however, has put me to shame. Anwyn got me snails to clean my algae (one is even still alive), and Leo decorated the floor of the pool with polished rocks. Viola takes each rock out and carries it around the yard happily. Predictably, Merlin only likes the rock with writing on it, although he was a huge help finding rocks hidden in the sandbox, which he took to the fountain.

Teela and Peff did an admiring yard tour and made nice comments, and Teela has been writing an article about my front yard. She also grazes happily, eating mostly peas and raspberries. Viola likes to graze too. She picks green tomatoes and white strawberries, earning "No" is a deep voice from her otherwise fun Aunty Wendy. Yesterday she ate most the remaining red currants and quite a few raspberries as well. I really enjoy the enthusiasm of the kids, but Teela enjoys the yard the way I do. She likes to look at the growing things, relax in the hammock and pick things to eat.

Douglas was positive about the yard in general as it fits his hobbit hole vision, and he helped pick peas and raspberries, but his main interest was in open space for sword fighting. You can read Mike's blog for pictures and commentary on that.

Both Merlin and Viola enjoy the girls' revamped play fort. Merlin for climbing, sliding and other high up activities, and Viola for going in and out of the lower floor and swinging in the hammock. We also refilled the sand box for their amusement. It hadn't been filled since daycare days and was getting pretty empty as you can see in this picture.

For my records (sorry Gus, I know this is the boring part) we are currently eating:

• cucumbers (slicer and pickler)
• a few tomatoes and baby potatoes
• chili and hab. peppers
• all fresh spices
• beans (purple and yellow)
• peas
• zucchini
• raspberries (Mike made jam and raspberry sauce, and we froze 18 cups this week alone)
• red currants
• beets (greenhouse started only)
• greens (chard, spinach, lettuce, beet greens)

Currently blooming

• day lilies (7 types)
• sun flowers
• holly hocks
• yarrow (3 colours)
• astilbe (2 types)
• bell flower (3 types)
• salvia
• orchids
• roses
• nasturtiums
• coriopsis
• lilies (4 types)
• poppies (2 types)
• daisies (2 types)
• wild violets
• delphinium
• lupin
• clover
• lots of veggies
• a variety of ground covers
• spider wort
• sage
• silver brocade (artemisia)
• veronica
• rudbeckia (looks lots like yellow coneflower)

Groceries

Going for groceries is a weekly trip for me that starts with menu planning.  This time of year it is challenging because I don't know when I will have guests and the garden is producing so much I tend to cook based on what is available.  When I went shopping yesterday I bought almost no vegetables by my family's standard (they are normally our main staple), just tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers.  My own tomatoes and peppers are just starting to be ripe, as I have harvested only one green chili and a cherry tomato, and I only grew oyster mushrooms once with help from Greta and Gus.

Fruit is a bit more extensive, as less grows here. I bought cherries, melon, plums and nectarines.  We grow our own sour cherries, but no plums, and we can't grow melons and eating cherries.  Still, we currently have sour cherries, a few strawberries, rhubarb and raspberries. This turned into great rhubarb-raspberries bars for breakfast.

At lunch today we had peas, beans and kohlrabi with a homemade potato soup (not our potatoes yet) and homemade bread. Yesterday we had our own greens as the foundation of a salad, and a curry with rhiata (I am using up cucumbers and mint). As a result of my impromptu menu, we run out of dairy products, but still have lots to eat.  It is hard to know when to shop, but somehow I manage to spend $200 anyway. 

Teela, Peff and the kids arrived yesterday and I showed them around the yard a little and sent them home with peas before they went grocery shopping.  Hopefully, they will have the same issue. Merlina and Viola loved the yard and spent a while grazing on raspberries and peas.  It was fun to have them, and I hope I'll get to be a grocery store and garden  for them a number of times this summer. Makes me feel like a great grandma, even though I am just evil Aunty Wendy.

Happy Frenzy

Well the garden is in full production just in time for me to leave it and go camping.  We have a ton of company coming to visit starting on the 24th, so we are trying to get as much done as we can before then.  Here's the guest list:

• Teela, Peff, Merlin and Viola (staying in Liz's suite for a month)
• Heidi N. (5 days ish)
• My dad (? extended stay of a couple weeks)
• Douglas (3 days)
• Maybe Greta, Gus and Max for a week and/or Jodi and Brad

Seem a bit overwhelming?  We think so too, and the stress is so much we had to leave town (we are actually excited to see people, but have planned some camping in this time slot for a long time).

We have been very busy with our summer projects this week.  Anwyn had basketball camp, and Leora ran her own dance camp using materials from the library to teach herself. In last few days we finished the repairs to the walls in the girls' rooms so we are ready for new windows, and we repainted their rooms and moved them back upstairs. Today, the girls and I went Saskatoon berry picking after camp in the am. I froze 26 cups of berries and and have that amount again ready for Mike to use in canning tonight when he gets home from work. Saturday and Sunday I'll do the packing for camping and Mike will build a rack on the trailer to carry the canoe (also after work - he's crazy.  I like the relaxed lifestyle that all James girls prefer).

Naturally, the whole garden is ripe in time for our departure.  The strawberries are producing a handful a day now, but the raspberries are started, and so are the cherries. The rhubarb, beans, kohlrabi, greens (lettuces, spinach, chard and beet greens) and cucumbers are still going, but we've added peas and zucchini.

Usually Anna would come berry picking with me and take some garden produce off my hands, but she's in France, so I was over at her house mowing today.  I did some maintenance on her deck boxes and now have more greens and spices to use up. What a great problem to have!

All this work has left little time for yard sitting, but I am always able to squeeze in the moments. I am particularly enjoying an old fountain of Gary's that Liz gave me, my delphiniums and my lilies.

Thinning and staggering

Mike and I were talking about how there are many people, who after years of gardening, just plant a garden in the spring and eat from it in the summer. If that is how gardening was for me, it would be really boring. Our basic approach is to keep learning as much as we can and then experiment with what we grow and how we  grow it each year. This year I am really feeling the benefits of two things I have been learning about in past years, thinning and staggering.

My parents used to thin their garden as necessary (usually peas over planted by children), but not as a mater of course. That was how Mike and I started. Now I deliberately over-plant things like beets, peas, and greens and then thin when the shoots are delicious, keeping the best plants with ideal spacing. That means my crop is better, but it also means I have a lot to eat this time of year.  My favorite at the moment is beet greens - the baby beet plants.I use them in all types of salads for more color and flavor, and use them like spinach in any dish that has cooked greens. Last night for supper beet greens were cooked into our panini and were the greens base for a bean salad.

I have also really benefited from learning to stagger crops. We are currently picking and eating beans, for example, and because of staggering, I will have yellow and purple beans all summer long, even before my climbing broad beans are ripe in August. The same will be true with new beet greens, chard etc.

Currently eating:

• rhubarb
• strawberries
• saskatoons
• all herbs (oregano, basil, sage, chives, rosemary, mint)
• romaine, spinach, chard, beet greens
• beans
• green onions
• cucumbers

Currently blooming

• bleeding hearts
• day lily (orange)
• yellow asian lily
• nasturtium
• sun flower
• roses
• bell flower (purple, white, tall white)
• yellow and white daisy
• ground covers (8 types)
• peppers
• pumpkins
• cucumbers
• squashes
• potatoes
• tomatoes
• purple sage
• yarrow

Lots of food and a little hope about Cabbage Butterflies

This week marks the beginning of the time when there is a lot produced by the yard. We have been getting about 4 cups of strawberries a day for the last week and have picked 16 cups of rhubarb. Now the Saskatoons are ready, and we are eating kohlrabi, cucumbers and beans. The peas are also getting ready to produce, but I think we are a week away on them.  We are also eating beat greens, chard, spinach, lettuce and a myriad of herbs.

All this food has produced the typical seasonal eating. This includes lots of types salads, pesto, strawberry pie, tabbouleh, strawberry rhubarb crisp and a great new rhubarb BBQ sauce Mike is making. Since the Saskatoons are ripe in the yard, we hope to go and pick what we'll freeze at a U-pick next week, as our two small bushes just make a few handfuls at this point.  I think we'll also be picking raspberries in the next week, and this looks like it will be a great summer for them.

My biggest organic triumph of the year is the kohlrabi, but I am still nervous about them. Last year they were decimated by cabbage white butterflies, who lay single white eggs on the underside of the leaf. These hatch into nearly invisible green caterpillars, who hide on the underside of the leaf and munch the leaves. I have a few holes in the leaves this year, and have seen some white butterflies, but the floating row cover I made seems to be working so far.  I am worried the mesh is too large (I have caught butterflies inside it so I have good reason to be concerned), and I don't want this to turn into another negative lesson learned. So far this seems a much better year than last year - almost everything in the garden and most flowers are ahead by about a week.

War of the beds

I have two beds to talk about this week. The first is my hammock.  It was a Christmas present from my brother-in-law Gary a number of years ago, and I usually spend all possible minutes in my first week off school reading in that hammock.  The second is the new bed we put in during the rain storm last week, which requires lots of digging, watering, transplanting etc.  I am sure you can see the set up for this conflict. Luckily I have found that doing a bit of work in one bed followed by laying in the other is actually a delightful combination.

It was rain that got me started digging up more of the front yard, but it was actually Mike's surprise completion of the bed that readied it for planting.  We got almost all of the sod dug as a family, and then Mike finished the rest, added compost and turned the bed using a pitchfork so it was ready to plant.

I started by adding mature foundational plants transplanted from other beds. My first plant was a day lily. Almost all lilies transplant well, so they are a great place to start.  Because my bed are viewable from all sides and I want to walk through them on rocks, I plant large anchor plants in each of the main zones of a bed - in this case the two half circles and bottom point of my heart shaped bed.  I add one large focal point plant in the center, and then build rocks around my large plants.

My last step is to add ground covers. In this case I used three types of ground covers (two types of sedum and some golden moneywart) that were perennials from other beds and I filled in with some annual flowers for added colour. I spent about $6o on flowers for the bed from by spending money, but I was really happy with the result. I have two tomatoes and 5 vines hidden among my various flowers. I added new perennials including a yellow daisy and two roses, one yellow prairie rose and one orange rose called Mordant Sunrise.



Last year I lost all my tea roses to a viscous thaw and frost cycle that also killed a bunch of my strawberries, so I wanted to add a few roses to my collection again. This is one of the few tea roses I have had that really is hardy to zone three, so I am excited to have it back with me.

Today I rose from my hammock to get Mike to take some pictures of the yard and so I could finish a mini rock wall that prevents the hundreds of thousands of dutch elm seeds produced by my neighbour's tree from blowing into the bed and sprouting. The end flower bed was definitely worth getting out of my hammock bed for.

Strawberries and dirt

I spent a spectacular Saturday and rainy Sunday in my yard. Saturday was all about getting as many things as possible done before the forecasted rain struck late afternoon.  The biggest project we finished was the fort (see previous post), but we got lots done in general.  The girls and I mowed, weeded, trimmed trees, staked tomatoes, picked lettuces, cucumbers, spices and strawberries and built a woven branch trellis.

We ate nearly 4 cups of strawberries and made three strawberry rhubarb pies. By three I was tired but happy, and ready to head inside when Mike got home for supper. The girls and I had made a homemade salad with all our own greens, cucumbers and strawberries for lunch and I was excited to show off the pies for supper. Mike worked all day at his new job in the Children's department, and came home in the rain secure in the knowledge that he'd be resting due to precipitation on Sunday. We sat out in the yard that night on newly dried lawn chairs enjoying the candles and solar lights in the smell of recent drizzle.

When we woke up Sunday, Mike could see me eying the front yard and the rain. His dad had asked Mike to come help move some sod, but cancelled because it was raining, leaving Mike available. He cleverly offered for us to go for a walk in the rain in an attempt to distract me, but when we got back, he just sighed and said he just wanted to finish one more cup of coffee.  Then we went out and dug in the dirt.

Turning sod is hard work on the prairies, and Mike's wife wants the grass roots composted and as much of the dirt saved as possible. In order for the ground to be easy to dig it needs to be soaked, which is a rarity on this province. Luckily record flooding, and Bob's unwillingness to have a hole with wet dirt in it, cleared the way for me to have a patch of wet dirt. Mike cut up the sod, and Anwyn and I banged the dirt off of it. We spent about three and a half hours in the rain clearing sod, but we didn't quite get finished. More tomorrow - on the way back to dump the grass we found more ripe strawberries despite 24 hours of rain. I picked two cups for breakfast and count myself luck to have both berries and dirt (see album with tree house and digging pics).

Just for Gus, I will let you know what is newly blooming:

• lupines (pink, white)
• pink and fushia peonies
• white bell flower
• thrumbingeria
• 5 types of morning glory
• white bleeding heart
• sedum (6 types)
• 4 other ground covers
• yarrow

Fort for what?

Yesterday the girls finally finished the last of the work on their dream fort (inspired a bit by Douglas's hobbit hole).  They made the roof from leftover metal roofing from the house last summer, and built walls from scrap lumber and some particle board Mike bought for them. The whole thing made him nuts because so many things have been added one by one to the fort that nothing is really square, and we were forever adding on, trimming or shimming. The idea was that the girls learn some basic skills with tools, but lots of the measuring and cutting required more than basic skills, as nothing was the same size at the top and bottom.

 The fort is decorated with the door from the old hobbit hole from Meadow and is bedecked with pails of flowers. There was substantial arguing about artistic differences over which colors of pails should go where, but Mike hung them on hooks so constant redecorating is possible. The girls also have the hammock hung and Anwyn has been building massive sandcastles to celebrate the new look and dress up the play area.  That whole process is a little pitiful, as the sand was purchased before she turned three and she has to scrape the whole area to get enough to work with.  Looks like we'll need to get her a bit more.

Anyway, the fort itself was finished last week when we hung the lanterns, and then it was steadfastly ignored.  Since substantial family resources were invested, and the girls have been nagging for a roof for two years straight, I pictured them practically moving out there. I know I lived in my tree house and playhouse at that age (it is best to stay outside when you insist on pulling the tops off all the baby carrots).  This weekend I required that the last of the construction material be put away, and suddenly the fort was beloved. Anwyn and her friend Rachel played there late into the night, and Leora colored on it with a marker (a sure sign of both ownership and affection.) Once I could tell they loved it, it all got better for me.  It is easy to see what the work is for when you can see their joy.

Beautiful Blooms

View Album from second week of June

My late June back yard  is my favorite time for blooms in the whole summer. It is a mass of purple, pink and white in all my beds.  I like to just wander around the yard each day and see what is happening.

In the side by my tomatoes, I have big pink bloom on the morning glory I started from seed, and across the path I have daisies, two types purple iris, salvia, pink roses and pink ground cover - all blooming right now. Each of my beds is like that. My show stoppers right now are my columbine, iris and daisies (pink and white), but I also love things like my late pink lilac. As my iris finish, I will get more roses, delphinium and lupine, yarrow (already blooming in the front yard).  After those finish, I will have day lilies. You can view the pictures from the third week in June if you'd like to see what all these flowers are starting to look like - I should warn you, Mike also took a lot of bug pictures.

All my veggies are blooming now except pumpkins, peas and beans. I think my early beans are a week away or so. I have baby cucumbers and am eating the first early strawberries.  However, we are still fighting with bugs. The cherry trees have small infections of black aphids and the red current is suffering waves of attacks from the wasps. So far, my kohlrabi look mostly good under their net, but the mesh size may not be small enough. 

I am excited about most of the plants in the garden, especially my volunteer coriander and my potatoes, which are already thick and knee high. My carrots are still sad, but my strawberry crop looks spectacular. The raspberries in the alley, which were pretty small after transplant, now look great. Last year at this time, my yard was not nearly this nice. Of course, last year the rain prevented anything from growing.

Sick

Well, I spent the last week pretty sick with a sinus infection and actually took two and half days off work. That is the most I have ever taken off for sickness in a row, and it left me with a lot of time laying around with no energy.  That wasn't too bad for the first 4 days, as I had no brain cells to focus on things I might be doing. This weekend however, I had the brain and no brawn to go with it.  As result, I had lots of time to think about what I wanted to do in yard and no energy to do much of anything.  I got a bit of weeding and transplanting done and mostly sat around thinking about what I wished I could do.

Mike never got as sick as I did and he has spent the last two weeks being Amazing Dad. Last weekend he worked on the girls' fort with them, and today he hung Leora's hammock and helped her bake a cake complete with elaborate fondant. He did a 5 km race with Anwyn and just picked them both up from the pool and took them to a BBQ. He even helped me hang a net on the garage and stake all the tomatoes. You'd think all this would make him popular with me - but it has not.

You see, this time of year my large clematis grows very rapidly. Every week or two I gently trim it back over the path no one is surprised by trailing laves.  While I have been sick, the clematis has been growing, and the weather has been nice enough this weekend that Mike has his practice swords out (my cousin Douglas would be so pleased).  Anyway, I am sure you can see where this is going.

To give you an ideas of how sick I have been, I tell you what happened last night when we went to Anna and Ian's. Anna is a great cook, I got to see her garden and we got to play a fun dance game at their house. We also went home at 8:30 so I could go to sleep. Anyway, you can imagine how happy I was when I woke up well enough to hang sheets and blankets on the clothesline this morning. My voice is too croak-like to hum, but I was mentally humming and hanging sheets when Mike dashed out and assaulted my clematis with his sword.

He slashed at it a couple of times before I croaked "Stop!" and fixed him with a baleful glare my students have always called "the look." He was unfazed and made specious claims that he was pruning my clematis since I was too sick to do so. Mike even slashed it more times to demonstrate how well it worked. I actually had to step slowly and threateningly off the clothesline perch to get him to stop. 

I had to spend the rest of the day hovering protectively in my hammock to prevent further damage, but it gave me a great chance to look at the yard, so I can give you a very accurate list of what's blooming:

• chives
• tomatoes
• all my squashes, cucumbers and pumpkins
• 6 types of iris
• white and pink "daisies"
• lavender
• pink lilac
• 3 types of columbine
• tulips
• clematis
• strawberries
• poppies
• anemone
• 3 ground covers
• crainsbill germanium
• comfrey
• peppers

I am worried my carrots aren't up well and I am not sure how well my kohlrabi transplants are doing. I have stopped harvesting asparagus since it was about the right time and I was too sick to, but I picked a lot or rhubarb which Mike made into BBQ sauce and stewed rhubarb. I had some with homemade yogurt (also made by Mike), but it hasn't made me less concerned about my poor clematis in the light of his unprovoked attack.  I may forgive him if he saves my red currents from bugs.

Farmer's Market Lessons

Last summer, Greta and Dad took me to one of the largest Farmer's markets I have ever been to, and it got me thinking about my lifestyle. Today I took the girls to Saskatoon's and noticed it even more. The things that Mike and I make for ourselves are all up for sale, and they cost a lot more than you might think. A handful of rhubarb is $5 and a wilted basil plant is $4. Fresh spinach and chard both cost about the same. The amount of asparagus I picked yesterday is about $7.  That's just plants and seasonal food. Anything processed is much more. Baking costs nearly ten times the cost of ingredients and thing we make like canning and soap are even more. People pay it because they are too busy or disinterested in doing it themselves, but they believe handmade, local or chemical free is worth it. Quick calculations told me that Mike actually earns nearly double his library salary each month in the stuff he makes for us.

This lesson was reinforced at the grocery store where I bought pre-made salsa and bruchetta ingredients (minus the fresh basil, a savings of $4.19 - no organic available). Because of our tomato blight last year, we ran out salsa about three weeks ago and Mike is very sad. I think salsa is to Mike as ice cream is to Wendy. Anyway, the salsa is very mediocre and costs a lot for the amount you get, and bruchetta ingredients were also really costly. Makes it easy to understand why people by chips instead of peppers and candy instead of raspberries. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I am very happy to be growing things - and not just because I love to do it.

Currently eating:

• all herbs
• rhubarb
• spinach
• baby chard
• asparagus
• garlic greens

Blooming perennials:

• 2 types of iris
• purple clematis
• anenomie
• 4 types of tulips including a beautiful yellow-pink clustered tulip
• orange poppies
• tomatoes
• cucumbers, squashes 
• chives
• tea rose
• lily of the valley
• wild violets
• strawberries
• birds-eye narcissus (Mom admonished me for calling them daffodils)
• a variety of shrubs

Today the girls and I also picked lilacs, tulips, iris, and lily of the valley. Leora and I made 7 bouquets in a variety of rooms. There were no lilacs for sale at the farmer's market, but we played with the equivalent of $40 of luxury fresh flowers that were pesticide free with zero greenhouse gasses expended in growth or transportation. Yup, we live a luxurious life in a small bungalow full of used furniture.

Planting the garden

This weekend was our flurry of spring planting, weeding and yard projects. The weather was great Saturday and Sunday, so we got lots done, then rested on our cold and rainy Monday.

What's new:

• Mike built me two new beds on the side of the garage and I have filled them with peppers and tomatoes. Because they are raised, against a south wall and on concrete, they should get a lot of extra heat, which will be great for them. The girls planted the third one full of their own veggies and herbs and put it in their sandbox.
• I moved one of my square foot beds onto the driveway.  We have never actually parked our car in our garage, so I parked my raised bed in front of it.  I'll let you know how things do there. I planted about half of the spaces with flowers, basil, beet seed and a pumpkin (my lone veggie bedding plant from a store - old seed didn't sprout).
• A bee hotel is a great think for a gardener - the girls made me this one for Christmas and I am hoping to attract some lone bees with it.
• Mike is gradually growing the stone path that connects my front steps to the sidewalk in front of our house. Thanks to rocks donated by James, there is great progress. I also used some to make a dry stone bed in the front.

Our planting:

I always try to plant on the May long weekend because it is our last frost date (although as Anna noted, there was a frost warning last night after the last frost date). This year I put in two types of bedding plants: those always done in Saskatchewan and those I did so we could have early crops.

Tomatoes:
I planted three types I like, Yellow Pear, Cherry and Sub-Arctic Maxi.  I also bought a new heirloom type and a small pack of Roma's. The tomatoes are planted mostly on the south side of the house and garage, although I have 9 in the front yard and 12 in the garden. I have used spiral stakes in the front because they were great last year. The tomatoes twine themselves up the stakes and need less pruning, so Mike is a big fan. I also planted three in the greenhouse and the ground and potted 6 more as patio tomatoes. Last year I thought the upside down tomatoes did not work well, but it was such a bad tomato year that I am trying another.

Cucumbers and squashes and other vine things:
I am growing four types of squashes and two types of cucumbers. The cucumbers are on the south side of the house where they did really well last year, as is the watermelon (which did not, but Mike wants to try again). I had to buy two pumpkins, as mine did not sprout.

Corn and Peppers:
I have learned that starting corn in the greenhouse a couple of weeks early ensures I get a crop of corn before first frost. I did that again this year. Peppers need a much earlier start to be able to fruit. I did mine in February - they are always the first thing I start.

Herbs:
I started basil, oregano and mint this year. Mostly, I did a lot of basil which I kept in the greenhouse in hanging baskets and pots. I put about 15 plants throughout the yard as well. I also did some edible flowers like nasturtium and potted them with the herbs in the front.

Plants usually grown from seed here:
I actually plant in three intervals now.  Most of my seeding happens on the May long weekend, as do my potatoes. I also plant extra peas, beans, chard and beets about two weeks later. The other big thing I do is start a number of things early so I can put them in as bedding plants and start eating them sooner. This year I planted bedding plants of:

• sunflowers
• coriander
• spinach
• chard
• beets
• yellow beans
• purple beans
• lettuce
• rocket
• kohlrabi (with my new bug screen)
• onion, green onion

Check out all Mike's pics of planting weekend to get a feeling for how things are laid out. We are currently eating herbs, lettuces, rhubarb and lots of asparagus.

Happy blooming

This year, my flowers looks especially lovely in our late "early" spring. Because I planted so many tulips last fall, and my mother's 2009 hyacinths have bloomed, there is color in ever bed in yard, and beautiful layers of flowers in a number. To left is the view of my bed beside the deck. I like the varied heights stepping up to the middle on the bed and the 6 different types of blooming flowers.

In each of my flower beds, there are several things blooming. Mike just re-mulched the front bed under the pine tree, which is always the driest bed that needs the most fall compost to keep the soil balanced.  The mulch is made of dried coconut and gives a great visual contrast with the flowers. We couldn't get it last year, but Mike found two bags this year, which was enough for the entire bed.

Currently blooming perennials and vegetables:

• 7 types of tulips
• Grape hyacinths
  
• Poppies (orange and yellow)
• Apple tree
• Cherry tree (back)
• Daffodils
• Cucumbers and squashes
• Flox (pink and purple)
• Johnny jump ups (think wild violets)
• Strawberries
• Lilly of the Valley

As usual, Mike's pics really let you see the beauty of the flowers. Check out some artistic ones from the 3rd week of May, and compare them to the lack of greenery in the second week or the full growth in this 4th week.

Greening

My mouth is sore from a braces tightening today and I didn't get to talk to Jodi very long tonight.  I am turning that negative into a positive by using the time to write a blog post.

I was gone last weekend at debate in Estevan at got home Sunday about 12:30 with the girls. It was Leora's Junior Nationals, and they fed us "kid food." By the time I got home, I was really craving green food and burning to see my yard.  So much is blooming, and it makes me feel a little giddy. I picked my first asparagus of the season and cut some chives, spinach and rocket.  Then I alternated between working in the yard and making a delicious salad for supper to go with the potato soup (made from our potatoes and basil) that Mike brought up from the freezer.

Mike had sent me a picture of crocus blooming in the front and something else I don't remember the name of blooming in the back.  I zoomed around the yard inspecting each bud. Today I have grape hyacinths blooming in 5 beds and white tulip blooming in one. My daffodils, tulips and  phlox will all be blooming soon. All my leaves are in bud and I can see growth each sunny day.

The help from the girls on Sunday was grudging, but nothing could hamper my green rejoicing. I nagged them to do and hang their laundry then looked on happily at the second line and thought I was glad Mike hung it, or all the laundry would not have fit. I felt the same way as I gleefully watered everything in the yard for an hour and a half, and emptied my three rain barrels. I was even happy weeding as I watched my daughters do a decidedly mediocre job of mowing with the push mower.

At the end of my green afternoon, my salad was delicious and marred only slightly by the sunburn on my chest. I guess there is such a thing as too delighted. . .

So Much Fun

Mike and I are so exhausted but happy after a busy weekend in the yard.  It has been cold and windy all week long, but this weekend we got some sun and only 20km winds, so we enjoyed the time in the yard as much as we possibly could.

I was wrong that my first flower would be a chive.  The buds are almost ready to flower, but the first flower was actually on my strawberries. I found it yesterday when transplanting some that had crept into the garden from the berry patch. My asparagus are up (two tips so far) and about 5 cm tall. I also have buds on my grape hyacinths, which did not bloom last year. My violets are also blooming.

I spent a happy afternoon Saturday transplanting in the greenhouse, expanding the front flower bed by lifting grass and doing spring transplants.  Mike got 4 van loads of rocks from James, so I also spent time re-building the dry steam bed and placing new rocks around the yard.  Mike expanded his rock paths and built me two stone benches, one in the front and one in the back. Leora and Anwyn both helped lift the turf, and Leora also removed some bricks and replaced them with rocks. Anwyn trimmed the four clematis and they both mowed the backyard. I mowed the front (around the rocks Mike was storing on the lawn) and my elderly neighbor's yard.

This evening as I was bringing in laundry off the line, I was so happy I actually stopped and gazed at the yard.  Mike and I are both sore but happy - nothing like a workout that actually accomplishes something.  I'll post pictures next time when the main path is done and things are starting to bloom.

Spring in my yard

It has been a cold spring, but things are finally humming along. Mike and I moved the plants out to the greenhouse and I have dug the mulch out all the beds. I am really excited about a number of the bulbs I have found coming up.

My asparagus came up yesterday (two stalks so far), and more and more garlic keeps coming up. In addition, all the fall bulbs I put in last year are humming along. I have tulips about an inch up in most beds and my Mom's daffodils are up, although they did not bloom last year. A number of grape hyacinths are up, although they are not budding.

Most of my seedlings are continuing to do well. We have a huge crop of garlic and I started some beans, beets and kohlrabi for my first square foot bed. I will start some corn tomorrow and then all my seeding is done.  I did almost no flowers this year except morning glory and nasturtium, but the veggies are great.

It is hard to believe we have about three weeks left until planting in the garden because I have so many projects in mind. I have tried to convince Mike we should put some things into the side bed early, but he seems doubtful. I want to dig out more of the front yard so that I can move one of the rhubarbs up there, and Mike has plans to get some rocks from James. It should be a busy, fun spring. I predict my first flowers will be chives, which are already budding.

This week Mike put up a second clothesline and I started drying things outside. It was great to dry to loads at once, and I have enough room now that I can do 4 loads totally in a day. I am so excited about all the possibilities in my yard.

Double digits

Saskatoon hit double digits today - 14 degrees.  There was a hefty wind, but it was still glorious. My deck has been clear of snow for 4 days, so I got out my patio furniture, set up my hammock on a snow-free patch of lawn and  spent the day in the yard. So many of my spring things started this week. I've started hanging my laundry outside, where it drys in a third of the time it takes in the basement. I am biking to work and walking at lunch in the sun.

Today I cleaned out some of my beds and left some others covered in leaves. Most of my beds look like the one on the left - all brown. I have a heavy mulch of leaves and there is no sign of growth. However, the snow has been off them for less than a week and it is still freezing at night.  There is a potential for snow in a couple of days.  I know I should leave those beds alone, but I want to see if anything is up.

When I clean out a bed, I can see some of the green coming up. In this bed there are even a few little green buds!  That makes me so happy. I only cleaned the ones that have south exposure, as they have the most reflected heat off of the walls and can handle a little bit of cold (or so I tell myself).

I spent a lot of my day in the greenhouse. I have rocket and peas transplanted out there and I seeded spinach, cilantro and green onions last week. Anwyn cleaned all the windows for me today, and Mike hung the bubble wrap last Monday.  That means it isn't frosting in there at night, although it still gets below zero. In another couple of weeks it will get warm enough to move my bedding plants out, which is a good thing.  Jodi and Brad are coming to visit and might struggle to sleep with the grow light.

 Today I transplanted the the last of my seed plugs into pots, and I now have the grow table completely full. There isn't room for even one more pot. My tomatoes have been starting to dry out a lot, so they really needed to be transplanted. I am growing sub-arctic maxi, yellow pear and a red cherry, all of which were ready for larger pots, and will outgrow them in another month.

In the Greenhouse

Today I was out in the greenhouse planting cold hardy greens in the unfrozen dirt (everything is still frozen outside). I planted spinach and cilantro in the south side and a little on the north side. I also planted some experimental green onions, although I think they will struggle to be ready on time.

As Pip and I were planting, I noticed that my garlic is already up just outside the greenhouse. I have never had it come up so quickly before, but this year I planted real planting garlic designed for my climate. It's pretty impressive, as the snow recedes and the garlic green resurface. They remind me of my iris that way. We had our first warm day (a high of 3 on Friday)!

The grow table continues to do well.  Mike has a fan going on it to prevent the plants getting to leggy. 

Thinning and transfer

This weekend we were gone to debate provincials in Regina and drove home late Saturday night. This morning we are all a little groggy after our 1am bedtime, and the girls and I sat by our sunny patio door when we woke up. We chatted lazily about Leora going to Nationals, games we like to play, things to read and, oh happiness, what would happen with the yard this year.  Less than an hour later the sun was gone and the 30 km an our wind was very cold. March continues to feel too much like February, but my little dreams of green sustain me.

Today I spent a half an hour working with my baby plants.  I cut lettuces for supper, potted my squash and peppers and did the last of my thinning. As my trays fill out and my flowers start to vine, I can picture exactly what each one will do and how much I will enjoy it. One tray of seedlings looks like salsa, pizza and bruchetta. Another is a wall of climbing flowers and edible blossoms.

I have started some of the square foot items I will eat early when the rest of the seeds germinate in the garden.  My early spinach, chard, beets and kohlrabi are all up and doing well.  Some of my pumpkins seem quite late and I may need to replant using this year's seeds instead of a package from 2 years ago. It doesn't really matter as I still have the promise of a good gardening year and lots of time before my plants can be out and growing.

Seeds are up

The tomato seeds I planted last Sunday are up.  At this point they have the two little false leaves plants get when they are starting, but I have a germinated seed in each plug, and often more than one.  I am excited about them. The squashes, of course, came up huge. They are already 7 cm tall, and will need to be put into pots part way through the week. Only the green onions are slow, but that is to be expected. I planted kohlrabi, beets and oregano today. They can all be started from seed here, but I start some early so that I spread out when I get to eat them.

The basil I transplanted has survived well and is growing sluggishly as basil does Saskatoon. Most of the plants have 4 leaves, even thought they were planted in February. That's the reason I plant a lot, as Mike could eat 2 cups of leaves a week without much effort.

Last summer when we were visiting Greta, Gus and Max in Ontario, we got to meet a family what also tries to do a little farming in the city. Their blog says they are already eating things growing in their greenhouse. We aren't there yet, but I was out in my greenhouse today and started unearthing pots for transplanting. The greenhouse was warm enough when the sun was on it that I was comfortable in a long sleeve shirt, but it is still freezing hard and night and there is 2 feet of snow on the ground around it.  Our cat, Pip, was out in the greenhouse with me sniffing for mice and loving up the hidden spots behind pots. Even though I could see winter out every window, I could feel spring inside. It's hard to believe I am only a month away from when my first plants were up last year, but I know it is coming.

Some more seeding

I spent the morning chatting with my sister Greta and planting the remainder of my early plants.  I did an entire flat of tomatoes (sub arctic maxi, yellow pear and cherry), and some green onions yesterday.  Today I did the bulk of my other planting.

I start by looking as my planting plan and estimating the number of plants I will need. In each cell, I put one or two seeds depending on the type of plant (see full method).  I plant a few more seeds in each category than I want to have plants.  That means if some don't come up, I still have enough plants to complete my garden plan.

Today I planted squashes and pumpkins first.  I planted 6 pumpkins (two large jack o' lantern size, 4 small sugar) which will eventually become 4 plants. I planted a number of types of squash, which I hope to eat for more of the winter next year:

• 3 yellow zucchini (bush)
• 3 green zucchini (bush)
• 3 butternut squash
• 3 buttercup squash
• 6 spaghetti squash

I have a number of odds and ends veggies I start.  I planted 12 pickling cucumbers and 12 slicers. I also planted some Cayenne peppers. They are the fastest of my peppers, so they are fine if started at this time. I even planted some things I hope to eat early - in this case spinach and chard. Both can get started to hear and move into the greenhouse in mid-April, as they will tolerate some frost.

Lastly, I planted some flowers.  I started poppy (my only perennial), nasturtium (great for eating the flowers of) and morning glory.

Later today I will need to thin the peppers I started in February and transplant my basil seedlings. I am also planting a new batch of pea shoots as my old batch is done. We cut them 4 times for large batches in meals. I love it when I get to eat and plan.

Last of the Fresh Food

I just used the last of the fresh food from last year's garden - potatoes in Anwyn's favorite soup. I figured this was good time to do an inventory of what was left. Last year I did this inventory in February and used it to plan my garden. This time I will take it for posterity but not use it for planning, as the rain last year impacted the harvest so much that I can't make assumptions about how much I need to plant.

Frozen

• spices like oregano, sage, parsley, and mint
• 2 bags chili peppers
• 9 cups apples
• 16 cups saskatoons
• 2 cups zucchini
• 1 cup raspberries
• 10 cups pumpkin
• 32 cups rhubarb

Freezing spices is a really great habit, and allows us to have the flavour of fresh spices all year without paying $3.00 for a sprig in the winter. This year I ran out of rosemary and basil, so I will get more of both next year. It looks like I was also short of raspberries despite picking my neighbor's berries. I am still in good shape for everything else.

Canned

•  7 liters pickles
•  3 liter jars of salsa
•  12 small jars taco sauce
•  5 250 ml jars plum jam
•  5 250 ml jars apple honey
•  4 250 ml jars pear jelly
•  8 500 ml jars chutney
•  3 250 ml jars raspberry jam
•  4 250 ml jars of apple sauce 

Our most painful shortage this year will be salsa, and we knew it would be.  We made one double batch instead of the two we usually do because of the tomato blight. I also had no canned tomatoes, sauce or pizza sauce at all. Everything else is holding out well and should make it to the next harvest.

Dried 

• 2pkg chili peppers

So far I don't dry much except spices and chili peppers.  I'd need to learn more to do more.


My first outdoor harvest is still 3 months away in June (asparagus, chives etc.) so I'll need to keep enjoying my indoor harvest for now.  This week I had sprouts and rocket (arugula).

Planting Peppers

Mike left for Honduras (follow him at #MikHonduras on Twitter) about an hour ago for a big Scuba vacation.  I am consoling myself by planting peppers.  Last year at this time I planted a couple of types of flowers, tomatoes and peppers.  The tomatoes got a bit leggy, so I am holding off another couple weeks for them. I already have pea shoots, rocket, broccoli sprouts and basil growing.  I'll be eating the pea shoots I planted again for supper tonight, and if I'd like to be eating my own peppers for supper in Saskatchewan, it is time to plant them.

How to plant indoors:

• Soak peat pellets in boiling water or fill small pots with a peat and soil mixture (I use pellets but they are less environmentally sustainable)
• When the soil is damp and cool, make a small hole with the end of a pencil or chopstick.  Check the seed package for the depth of the hole
• Drop in two seeds.  You will pull or snip on of the two plants in they both grow, but I use organic seed, so one seed in five doesn't sprout
• Cover over the seeds with the dirt you pushed to the side with the pencil and pat lightly
• Place tray under grow light or in very sunny south window (I am using my grow table)

Peppers need a minimum of 8 weeks indoors before planting time in most parts of Canada.  Mine will need 2-3 weeks more, and most will live on my south walls, patio or in the greenhouse where the heat is most intense.  Without that, I could grow pepper plants, but would never harvest more than the first pepper off of them. As it is, I will fertilize the first blossoms by hand so I can eat multiple peppers off the bell pepper plants.

This year I planted organic 12 green bell peppers and 12 yellow bell peppers.  I also planted 6 mini peppers and 6 of the hot chilies I liked so much last year.  I will buy one jalapeno pepper (I only use one plant, so the bedding plant is cheaper than the seed in that case).

Up and Growing

Good news - my pea shoots are up. 

What pea shoots?  I thought you said you were writing about garden planning.

Well, I am . . .but the best planning happens when your brain is hopped up on high nutrient sprouts and shoots.

Mike, the girls and I were a part of a research project together that worked on environmental goals. When the project finished, the group decided to keep in touch via a blog. Mike decided to get the group started with a post on how to sprout your own seeds.  While he was doing alfalfa, I figured he might as well start my peas shoots.  Since he was starting my pea shoots, we needed my grow table, and since we had the grow table out, I figured I needed to be growing lettuce and starting basil as well. 

Now everything is sprouting except the basil, and Mike did a nifty calculation to show that it wasn't even too costly for electricity.

While Mike has been blogging and sprouting, I have been planning my garden.  I looked closely at my plan from last year and started to plot.

I measure out everything on graph paper and choose where each plant will go.  Then I record how many plants will fit in each square foot. Lots of people don't realize you can fit 16 lettuce plants in this small space, or one tomato if your grow it up a trellis.  I also grow 16 beans or peas in a similar space.  Square foot gardening gives me high yields as long as I have lots of compost.

I read over what I learned from my last gardening year on my blog and made sure my plans used that learning.  Then I sprung my plan on Mike during our 6:30 am breakfast (It is always best to spring your plan on your husband after he's been hauling heavy tables and dirt in and out of the house in -40).  Needless to say, he was delighted.

Today when I got home he was over it, and invited me downstairs.  Good news, the plants are up, and I can picture each item I have planned up and growing like my sprouts are.

Starting to live it up

February is garden planning season. Mike and I set up the grow table yesterday and I started basil, lettuce and pea shoots.  Now that I am feeling my greeness, I am ready for the part of gardening that maters the most - good planning.

Mike and I plant in one main bed, one smaller bed by the greenhouse and some square foot beds.  I also intermingle my flowers and veggies in the front yard.  This has many advantages (including saving some harvest from tomato blight last year), but it makes planning more complicated. It is also more complicated for me because Mike and I grow all our own seedlings.  That mean I need to know in Feb. and March what I'd like to plant in May. 

Because I am an organic gardener, I don't amend my garden beds, except with compost.  That means I need to know which plants work well together (called companion planting) and which ones are best planted after something else grow there last year (called crop rotation). My final factor is the amount of light and heat that each location gets.

Here are the crop families I grow and where they grew last year. My next post will work on the plan for this year.

Alliaceae (Alliums)

• chives - a perennial I grow year round inter-planted in my back flower beds. They have purple flowers in spring and are very hardy. I don't move my chives very often, and they even tolerate the high acidity of living under my pine tree.
• garlic - I haven't had much success with garlic, but I have always planted it in the early spring and just used sprouting garlic from my fridge.  Last fall I planted actual grown for planting garlic and put it against the outside south face of the greenhouse so I have given it all I can. We'll see how it does this season.
• onions - like garlic, onions haven't done well for me.  I grew yellow onions in my south greenhouse bed 2 years ago, but the resulting onions were tiny. Last year I grew purple onions from bedding plants, and they did almost nothing.
• asparagus- is also a perennial, and I grow it in a sunny spot against my fence. It is a heavy feeder so I give it a lot of compost in the fall and eat it in May and June. I haven't transplanted it yet, because I don't have a warmer spot for it. 

Brassicaceae (Brassicas)

• kohlrabi - I love kohlrabi, but it always gets eaten by pests. This year I will grow it under a net. Although it can be grown from seed in May, I also pre-start some in April so I can eat it all summer long.

Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot)

• spinach - is very cold tolerant but goes to seed in the heat.  I grow it spring and fall
• beets - last year mine were washed away in flooding twice and then overshadowed when they eventually sprouted.  I grew them in the main bed last year and need to move them this year
• swiss chard - is a great substitute for spinach in the summer and even survives light frost. I planted some amount flowers in the front and some in the main garden plot.  I will go mostly with the front this time.

Compositae

• lettuce - is like spinach, it has a hard time in the heat.  I grow it in part sun, usually in the main bed
• sunflower - this is usually Leora's flower, and she grows it in the front bed. I need to rotate it to middle height positions this year, as it was a tall back of border plant last year.

Cucurbitacae (Curcurbits)

• cucumbers - did very well on my south square foot bed, and I am going to put them there again. I amend those beds so they are 1/3 compost because I need to plant the same heat lovers there year after year.  They are pretty sheltered, so I haven't had a pest or disease issue yet.
• pumpkins - I am not sure where I will grow these this year.  I am leaning toward the front yard among the flowers.
• spaghetti squash- Last year I grew these on the back fence and they did not get enough light.  I am moving them back to south square foot bed.

Fabaceae (Legumes)

• beans - last year I grew 5 types of beans, scarlet runner (in front) and yellow and green bush, broad been and edamame been in the back.  I always rotate those around in parts of the main bed and in the front.  They can't get too close to me neighbours tree or the worms eat them.
• peas - last year I grew these in the main bed along the north fence. I am going to try them against the back fence and see if they get enough light.

Labiateae

• basil - is always a potted plant for me, and lives in the greenhouse all summer so it is happy.  I started it this week and will be able to eat in the spring. It bushes out when cut, so I can eat it until fall if I plant nearly 12 plants.

Poaceae (Grasses)

• corn - I grew this on the north side of the main plot last year and it did well despite the cold and damp,  It is a heavy nitrogen user, so I am moving beans were last year.  They add nutrients and fix them in the soil for my corn.

Solanaceae (Nightshades)

• peppers - I grow these in my greenhouse or my south square foot bed. They have to have lots of heat or I don't get to eat them
• potatoes - I grew these in the middle of my garden last year. I'll put them where my tomatoes were last year, unless the blight might transfer. I need to read more.
• tomatoes- I am going to grow some in the front and the rest where my pumpkins were last year.

Umbelliferae

• carrot - did really well last year, and they are moving slightly over in my main bed this year
• dill, cilantro, parsley - I grow these scattered throughout the yard, as they are self seeding and act like weeds.

Having a record of where things are planted only goes from year to year for me usually, but I got a book for tracking each year.  Combined with my blog, I hope it will really help me learn more from my planting processes.