Kazusa's Photos

 Our homestay student from Japan, Kazusa Ueda took these photos today. She has been such a wonderful student to host. Sadly, she is only here for 8 days. We have really enjoyed getting to know her. She is sweet, quiet, and thoughtful.

Spring Time Garden Update

I wrote a post here a few weeks ago about how the city left a nice pile of mulch on our front lawn (A gift from sweet-baby-Jesus Himself, as I frequently remind myself!) This Sunday the two amazing men in my life worked diligently to get that pile distributed over our front and back beds. Again, the heavens parted and I heard trumpets and angels singing, and if I would have squinted into the lovely sun... I'm sure there was even a dove and a lamb and a lion up there in the clouds dancing around.

Why do I get so fired up about mulch and getting "thing done" around here?! Because I can.

6-8" of FREE and LOCAL (how much more local can you get than getting it from the trees on your street!)
mulch lovin' for the soil to feast on this summer. ps. Does anyone see Joe in this photo?

We also tackled the lovely task of getting the raised beds ready to rock and roll for the gardening season of 2013. I had covered them with a THICK layer (6+ inches) of maple leaves this past fall, and under that was 4 weeks worth of Hard Winter Wheat I had sown. While raking the leaves out (because they were not broken down enough to leave in there yet), I uncovered a HUGE surprise... GRUBS! White, brainless grubs!

Head Gardener on Sunview St.

Now... We have a policy here around these parts about killin' and all things mean and terrible. There are two things I give the go-ahead to kill... and that's RED ANTS (the bane of my 2011 summer existence  and white brainless grubs. 

That's it.

Everything else can be saved, relocated, or prayed over in hopes that it dies of natural causes on someone else property. :o)

The squish site... TMI?

So, I gave son-ski full permission to "do what is needed" and he was a big boy about it, and did the squishy deed to about 10 white guys. 

I didn't praise him for it, but rather just said: "Son, sometimes mamma is going to ask you to do somethings that just have to happen, and then we move on" and he nodded and asked more questions about planting seeds and if we could hook up the garden hose yet. And it was a good day. 

I have been busy with more transplanting. Today was ground cherries and orange pepper day. Thank God they are going in the ground in the next month. The poor babes are ready now... but I think I can help them off for another little while.

Here is a visual update on the tomatoes growth to the left

<--- They are doing very well, and I have had to pinch off suckers already. 

Here is the garlic we planted this past fall... in-between the rows are spring peas that were planted last week. There is Joe, smoking his pipe under the cedars, keeping an eye on my leaf pile :o) He also has a friend who we have yet to name.... both are SOLID concrete... and I'm thinking "Tubby" might be appropriate for the one off to the far right.

Far left is ever-bearing strawberries, and to the right (out of view) is our raspberries we planted in 2011.



We planted these last fall too... I didn't know they were variegated foliage tulips (nor do I know their colour of bloom) so I am excited to see what happens here shortly. Pink I am thinking... maybe a prediction of the baby within!

These are one of my favourite signs spring is DEFINITELY on the way.

Can you see the tomatoes crying in the back ground cause they want to be out of their containers and into the rich soil!?


I can.




Tomorrow I have the honour of watching my girlfriends little guy for the day. He's a very helpful little man. I hope to be outside working away at raking and weeding if time allows. I love little boys, cause if you give them a job to do... it does not matter what age they are... they (for a limited amt of time, depending on their age) will do it! So Win has the job of being helpful with raking and shoveling tomorrow. I cleaned up some dump trucks and diggers, and I'm sure his mother will wonder why he's so messy and tired... but hey. 

These things happen :o)

Mu[l]ch to be Thankful for!

This past week our city crews were busy trimming the maple trees on our street. They were past due (in my opinion) because the garbage truck began taking out a few upper branches nearly every time it came down our street.

If you know me, I am a sucker for all things soil building. When I saw them shooting mulched branches into their truck... I plotted and planned me best "poor pregnant lady" ploy. I made sure that when I went out to speak to them that my round belly was exposed (under a shirt for pete-sakes, I do have class!)

I asked if they knew when the Jaycee Park mulch site would be opening (even though I have a count down on my calendar) and if they would be willing to save me some back ache, and just off load some onto my front lawn. {tee hee}

At first, they both said "maybe" --- and ---"we won't have much to give you"...but after persistently batting my eyelashes at them through multiple trips outside to plant peas, radish and some Asian greens... they crumbled and dumped some delicious mulch on my lawn. WINNING!

Yes!





The heavens parted that morning, and we all rejoiced. This rejoicing included my husband (for the sake of his little car not being abused this year with multiple trips to the mulch pile and chiropractor (for saving my back) --- and our baby-within who would have felt the strain of mamma being her overly ambitious self.

SK was SUPER excited too!

Gardening for Canning and Freezing

If you are planning on starting a garden for the purpose of being able to can and process much of your bounty... here are some suggestions I have on what to grow for a season in your front or backyards.

Humble Beginnings in 2011

Keep in mind, I live in Canada... so for those of you what are in the USA, you may be able to grow other foods (like kumquats for example) If you have access to local farmers markets, be sure to weigh out the pros and cons to growing your own versus buying from a local farmer. Sometimes a plant takes more effort, money and energy than they are worth when you are doing smaller scale, backyard gardening. Here is a lovely link for working out the logistics for space, cost and time too.



 I know that the following few that we have grown and loved are GREAT for canning and freezing:

Veggies:

Beans - for Dill Pickle Beans, plain canned beans, or flash-frozen
Green, red and yellow peppers - freeze well for stuffing, can well for salsas, chutneys, corn relish, etc.
Cucumbers - for obvious reasons! PICKLES! RELISH!
Asparagus - keep in mind that this stuff takes 2 years to establish from crowns before you can begin harvesting. It's an "investment" in the backyward garden, best grown along a fence. Once it is done (very short season) you can plant low-rooting things like salad greens where it was... and them make sure you heavily mulch before the winter comes to protect the area. Makes DELICIOUS dills though.
Legumes - for drying and soaking/cooking later on. You have LOTS of choose from, and I wold say these are ONLY worth is if you have LOTS of space.. otherwise, they are cheaper in the grocery stores.
Onions - You can grow from seed (start NOW!) or sets (later)
Corn - a heavy feeder for those of you with backyard gardens... and it takes up quite a space of room to get a decent amt... but if you have the room... I say go for it.
Beets - Hello beautiful colour. We use blood bull beets from the seed savers exchange. NOM.
Others... if you want to "grow there" - pumpkin, squash, cabbage (for sauerkraut or Kimchi)

Fruits:

Tomatoes - hundreds of ways to use these babies. Make sure you get a variety that say sis processes well... or one that you love. One bush can yield 10-50 lbs of fruit too... so tomatoes are a MUST in this girl's garden

Ground Cherries - These are a staple in my garden from now on. Simple to grow. See my bog about them here: GROUND CHERRIES, and I snapped a photo of the back of the seed pack for your enjoyment. PS... they are apparently perennials too! PSS. I can't say enough about these babies!

First Berries 2012

Peaches, pears, apples, concord grapes, raspberries, blue berries, strawberries - all amazing for preserves and such. Just make sure you think about how much space the plants take up, and how long the plant takes to product a harvest. I would say that strawberries are a great place to start, but make sure you get the established trailing ones if you want a harvest this summer. Raspberries can be invasive, but also incredibly rewarding. Growing them at the back of your property along a fence is good.

Herbs:

Dill from Dedo's Garden in Innsifil, ON

Dill (for pickles)
Garlic (for pickles, pesto, etc.) - see blog post here about my little garlic helper :)
Basil - for pesto
Oregano
Thyme
Sage
Lemon Balm - for tinctures, flavoured liquors and simple syrups
Mint (lots of varieties) - same as above for purposes  also great dry for teas and homemade bath soaks
Lavender - same as above :)
Cone Flower (Echinacea)

Ready to Harvest

Made July 18th 2012 - used them as Rx this last winter and gave as gifts

Making Kelp Fertilizer

We took this photo out at St. John's Conservation Centre here in Niagara.
Our son asked is the moss was "old seaweed". 

The boys and I (Meap and SK) started some lovely sea kelp fertilizer. It would be ready in about a week or so, and we'll introduce it to a few experimental plants (to make sure its good) and then... I will report here how it's g(row)oing! I anticipate that the valuable minerals and nutrients will be a yummy treat to our babies.

I would encourage you to do your own research and see what you come up with. All I know is, commercial liquid kelp fertilizer is EXPENSIVE!

NOTE: *** I was hoping to find Canadian Kelp, sold here in Niagara but there is none to buy when I called around to the 4 health-food stores... so I spent the $1.99 at the local Asian Grocery Store, and the product I found was harvested in China. It hurt me to compromise my usual "buy local" "buy Canadian" philosophy... but this was an exceptional experiment, and not a "typical" purchase pattern of our household. ***

Rather than making a blog entry, I used my YouTube account this time, and you can view the video here.

Making Kelp Fertilizer for Seedlings <--- click here for the youtube video.

Enjoy and let me know what you use for your seedlings to give them a boost of nutrients!

Progress! {ground cherries}

Last summer we fell in love with ground cherries. I had quested for them the in 2011 and found ONE pint for $8.00 at the market. Once I scraped my mouth off the market floor, I enjoyed them immensely .. and plotted a plan to grow my own. 

We had so much success with growing them last summer (2012) both in the front yard here at my house, and out at Julia's farm in Vineland. 

Our family and neighbourhood friends would commune around the 3 GIANT bushes in our front yard... we has more ground cherries that we knew what to do with. My mom made a DELICIOUS ground cherry pie, which lasted 30 seconds before it was devoured (we are classy). I offered them to ANYONE pulling in or out of our driveway. I kept pint baskets tucked into the raised bed over-hang to make sure I could employ the 4 and under age kids to "work" for Auntie Julie, (while stuffing their precious bellies). I made a few parents happy to see their kiddies enjoying fresh as you can get produce all summer too. 

Makes me a happy happy mamma!

The photo below makes me warm and tickley on the insides. 

Soil Building a Greener Way

There is so much reward in growing your own food. There is even more reward (in my opinion) in doing it sustainability, keeping the bettering of the environment in your mind. Keeping the Miracle Grow and "icides" away from my garden is SO important to me.

Soil building had become something over the last 20 years of gardening (I started early!) that I have been a sponge to. Tell me more I say.

Indoor Wheatgrass, over looking the outdoor wheatgrass in raised beds :o)

A few of the local soil "gurus" out there today are not difficult to come by. You just have to know what to look for. For one, if you have a local gardener who is forever "stealing" bags of leaves from the curbs in your neighbourhood, you can bet they are a soil builder. Leaves are a lovely, free way to protect and cover up bare soil over the winter. They act as a blanket, covering up the soil, and you can turn them under in the spring. Because I have raised gardens in the front yard, I have put a good 6-8 inch layer of leaves into our 4 plots for the winter. Our back yard has a HUGE pile encased in chicken wire that I collected this past fall (thanks neighbours!), and I plan on babysitting the pile over the next 2-3 years until it produces a lovely, rich and nutrient soil for it's dear mommy to use in her gardens. I check on it when I am outside playing/working with SK, or adding to the black-bin that rests beside it. We juice almost every day, and I have been collecting the pulp from the juicer. I spoke with my worm-dealer, Bentley about what our wormies prefer... and he said that if I freeze the pulp before adding it to the composter, the fibers in the veggies even further break down, and it really fires-up the composter.

Mr. Bentley aka: The Compost Guy

Bentley by the way is a humble city-gardener as well, living in Elmira, Ontario. He and his little operation are amazing, and if you want to learn more about vermi-composting, I would recommend you connect with him. He also has a facebook page where you can ask him questions and he has over 7,000 people who also follow-along with his work in worming. https://www.facebook.com/RedWormComposting

Our "Bentley" worms are happy little red-wranglers, and they are doing a fine job making their deal mommy a lovely pail-full of soil nearly weekly. I have already used some of the bottom of the black-composter soil they have made for me over the winter (about 2 cups) for making a weak compost tea for our seedlings to enjoy. Happy to report they LOVED it. (I aged the "tea" for about 24 hours at room temp, and used 16 cups of water, for 2 cups of compost)

Getting back to soil building...another tell-take sign is a fall garden that is "covered" with a green manure. To the untrained eye, this may look like the gardener has thrown-in the gardening towel and given-up for the season.... but to the soil builder... they are covering up their precious soil to avoid erosion, weed over growth, unwelcome trampling-upon, and generally just being a good planner for the following spring. Green manure can be one of a few types of seeds. We have hard red winter wheat here that we thickly cast on the soil in the fall, and it was about 5 inches tall before the first snowfall. It looked like the image below before I covered up the beds with a THICK layer of leaves (see above). It will all get turned under soon.

*Not my photo* - this is a local grower in Brighton, ON and his photo of some rye grass growing
in his raised beds. http://greenerbuilding.ca/2013/01/27/garlic-adventures/

Thick is best because it chokes out the possibility of other seeds (like weeks) growing as well. I will hand-turn it under using a spade and stiff rake (basically flip it over and kill it) this spring, and let is sit for about 2 weeks before planting anything. In doing so, the grass breaks down, and re-generates the soil for planting. It's a big booster for a good strong start for the spring. If I were to plant right away... my poor seed(lings) would be starved of any nutrients because the soil would be busy trying to break-down the wheat-grass... and I would be putting stress on the garden's soil. Better to wait, and plan everything out accordingly.  Just till it over when you can work the soil (and its not too wet or sticky). I am a supporter or tiller-free gardening for a few reasons... but I will post about that later. (mostly for worm and enviro-love reason)

If you didn't plant a fall cover-crop, not to worry. Not all is lost. White clover or buckwheat is a fast-grower and can be used when the soil can be worked. Apparently buckwheat is hard to come by these days... (but I found some organic stuff at the bulk barn, and since my beds are small, I'm cool with spending the $7.00 to build up the soil.) Another gardening friend told me that rabbit food (basically dried alfalfa) is a good thing to use if you are short on time.

Another alternative is alfalfa, buckwheat, white or red clover, or just generally letting nature take-over and run into your garden. If you are local to Niagara head over to the Minor Brother's Farm Supply store. Just be sure to purchase Organic, NON-GMO seeds... you wouldn't want all your hard work keeping those things at bay... to go to waste. Another alternative is looking online. I encourage you to shop locally, but if not possible, to all my fellow Canadians, buy Canadian seed.

Here is an article from Dalhousie University about Organic Farms using green manure. Excellent resource.

* I've unfortunately mis-placed my camera cord... so there are no photos that belong to me in this post, but once I find it, I will add some photos of our lovely system here in Niagara for soil building. *

Tom Thumb Popcorn

For those of you who scored some of the Tom Thumb Popcorn from us at Seedy Saturday... here is the down-low on how to grow it, and our own "take" on the seeds from the hot-hot summer of 2012.

My little man helped put them into the brown paper sacks....





He was diligent at making sure none split onto the floor (hard to go with popcorn!)

SeedSavers.org is the online store where we bought some of our seed last year. Click on the link, and it will take you to their website.

Here is what I have to say about the growing details:

We grew two varieties... the 2 inch strawberry did not fair as well as Tommy did :)

Make sure you water your corn, like they recommend... our field was not really near an kind of consistent water source (other than up lugging white pails out to it with the trusty Gator ... see below ... which we did from time to time...) But as you know, our summer last year was ridiculously hot and dry... and I believe the corn may have suffered as a result. I should say however that the corn did grow exactly as it says online. Perhaps I am just used to the big-ol-GMO variety of corn that we are all growing to hate.

Anyways, hope you enjoy watching it grow as much as we did. I would recommend growing it in blocks, rather than rows, to encourage good pollination. 

It is really fun to give as gifts once dried out. Our son gave some out at Halloween to his buddies in the neighbourhood, and we have enjoyed popping it in our SaladMaster pan :)

Our water-luggin' Gator... 

Site where we planted the corn (to the right)