It's Time for the Veggie Report

My veggies seem to be doing fairly well. Last year, I built the beds over my summer vacation, which was in June, and then a friend with a Bobcat very kindly offered to help me fill the beds with the topsoil I had ordered and to lay down the rock between the beds (whew!). By the time all that was done, it was July, and I just started planting. Most of my vegetables did well last year except the peas, which apparently like being cold. Who knew? But, if you're from my zone or nearby, at least you know you can still plant veggies from seed in early July and still get a decent crop.

I'm anxious to see the difference in the harvest - both in terms of quantity and timing - between this year and last. Last year was the first year I put in a big garden by myself. In 2007, I just put in tomatoes, cukes, and zucchini. In 2006, it was still my Dad's garden.

Kentucky Wonder pole beans (green snap beans) are just starting to climb my handstrung trellis; and Royal Burgundy bush beans. I imagine next year I can get in two rows of bush beans in this bed.

Sugar Snap peas climbing the trellis and Detroit Dark Red beets. The broad-leaf plants are borage which has been self-seeding in the yard forever. Never know where it will turn up and I didn't want to pull them until I knew there were other borage plants around (there are, so these should go).

In the top photo of this post, you can see my raised flower beds on the far left. They've got sweet peas, morning glories, mini sunflowers, and marigolds. Still pretty small. They should really get going by mid-July.

National Pickling cucumbers and you bet I'll be putting up dill pickles in August!

Tomatoes. The four plants in the foreground are Lemon Boy; and the four plants in the background are Super Fantastic. I also have one Green Tiger tomato and one Sweet Millions. And, oooh, I forgot to take a picture of my early Jalepenos. They are in barrels just across the sidewalk from the tomatoes.

Dark Green Zucchini. These have really taken off in the last week.

This is my saddest bed :-( I wanted to try growing garlic because almost all garlic in our supermarkets come from China. I've been buying processed garlic in the jars because these are products of Canada, and the only preservative is oil. I wanted to try preserving my own garlic, but it didn't come up. Apparently garlic is best planted in fall, but I don't know if that holds true for our zone, which is basically sub-Arctic. I might try putting in a batch in the fall, just to see what happens. In the meantime, my onions and dill are doing well. Those sad little yellow plants are squashes (Honey Bear and Butternut) that I picked up at Canadian Tire. Hoping they'll still take. And, you can see row of tiny little plants to the left of centre - more Detroit Dark Red beets. In August, I will make a big batch of bortsch (last year, 4 gallons worth) and freeze it for the winter. The beets in the beet bed looked pretty thin, so I thought I would put in an extra row here.

And my herb garden is doing well - the Scarlet Runner Beans are up and should start climbing the trellis this week.

The saskatoons are coming along nicely, but I may have to cover them with netting to protect them from the birds. I had a flock of them playing in my yard today.

My Auntie Mary - my mom's sister - stopped by this morning and said that my garden looks better than hers (that's a once in a lifetime occurence, trust me!) and that she is proud of me for all my hard work. That was very nice to hear.

Flaunt your Flowers this Fertilizer Friday!

It has been a looong week and it ain't over yet.

I was on vacation last week and returned to work this week. I had hoped to have my yard projects completed before going back to work, but that did not happen. I did, however, get the last of it done on Canada Day, July 1st. Yay me!

In the midst of all this, I have tenants moving out - tenants who did not work out and who I had to ask to leave. They were not happy campers about that and it has been a stressful time. Their stuff is all gone, but they promised to clean, and the dust bunnies and inches of frost in the freezer compartment seem to indicate the cleaning isn't done. I'm not sure if they're coming back or not.

But, the garden of course, is a little oasis of pleasure. It's so peaceful and calming, the perfect place to destress. Things are motoring along out there, in no small part, I'm sure, to Fertilizer Friday. If it wasn't for Tootsie, I'd still be fertilizing just once a month.

Tootsie Time hosts Fertilizer Friday as a time for us to fertilize our plants indoors and out and post pictures of what's growing around us. Here's what's happening outdoors at the School of Yard Knocks:

Yep, they are peonies :-D

My sister came to visit on Tuesday and brought me two beautiful lily plants. I haven't planted them yet.

A little sunflower is cheering up the place.

My wave petunias are starting to kick in.

I was having trouble focussing my camera today for some reason. Sorry for the blurriness. You can see my veggie beds are coming along. I do fertilize my tomatoes, but not any of my other veggies. I'll write more about my veggies in the next few days, as soon as I find some spare time.

Don't forget to visit Tootsie Time to take part in her Fertilizer Friday meme or just to visit the other gardens participating.

Fertilizer Friday!

Fertilizer Friday: Flaunt Your Flowers

I missed last weeks' Fertilizer Friday because I took a flying trip to West Edmonton Mall with my sister and her three daughters. We were gone for 38 hours (it's a 13-hour round trip drive, plus we needed to sleep a bit, hahaha). I found the cutest little chickie retro sugar dispenser and creamer set at Anthropologie, but anyways ... Fertilizer Friday! It's time to fertilizer your plants inside and out and post pictures of your gardening efforts.

I think this a dahlia bud? I know it's not a peony. My mom planted it years ago.

Bada-Bing begonias in a $2 copper teapot I found at a thrift store.

I think marigolds are highly underrated.

I got this Columbine last year at a perennial close out sale in July. I bought a bunch of perennials and the Columbine is the only thing that survived. It's pretty though, and I do have bunches of it scattered around. I'm looking forward to it spreading.

When I saw this little guy at the thrift shop, I had to snap him up because this is exactly what my dog Gabe would look like if he were fertilized. I should know, we've been on a reducing plan for over 2 years now. We'll just call it a "lifestyle choice."

Make sure you check out Tootsie Time for her Fertilizer Friday: Flaunt Your Flowers meme!

Fountain

You know how you sometimes look at something so often that you don't even see it? Today I pulled into the garage after work and "noticed" the orange extension cord on the pile of cement bags. When I was looking for an extension cord to hook the fountain up with, I looked where the outdoor cords stay. Nada. So, I figured the only one I had was wired to the side of the house. Wrong!

I'm in the garage a minimum of four times a day. Duh.

Sometimes, though, the old grey matter does kick in a little more quickly, and I actually did a trial run with the cord, putting it down on the route I wanted to run it, and plugging it in to try it out. *lightbulb pings on* I then buried as much as I could under the gravel.

And the birdie is now spouting very prettily.

Herb Bed, Part 2

Okay, so when I went in for supper yesterday, I wasn't quite finished the herb bed. In the evening, I scouted around for more items to repurpose and decided that my cucumbers could live without the teepee trellis. Last night, I arranged the trellis in the bottom left corner of the bed - the two faux terra cotta pots were directly opposite each other across the birdbath. I even planted scarlet runner bean seeds all around the base of the trellis. This morning, I decided it looked good, but could look better. I basically switched positions of the trellis and the terra cotta pot in the bottom left quadrant of the bed. This meant digging up and sifting through the soil in search of the scarlet runner bean seeds! I found about half of them, which I replanted in the new position. If any others sprout, I will transplant.

I should have taken a picture from the deck, but with the trellis in the new spot, when you're looking at the herb bed from the deck, the trellis will be right behind the birdbath, which should be really pretty once the beans start going up.

I also transplanted some chives from the ground into the canner; sunk the two black plastic pots and put herbs in them; and put down a rose stepping stone that I can set my watering can on.

So, the bed now has dill (seeded); peppermint, spearmint, oregano, thyme, and chives (transplanted); snapdragons (transplanted); and scarlet runner beans (seeded). Can't wait to see it in August!

Herb Bed, Part 1

Okay, so this is my “herb bed.” On June 13th. Bahahahahaha

Yup.

My dad built the frame for me, long ago – maybe 10 years? Originally, the frame was in the orchard area, but my mom planted some kind of bush (still unidentified) right beside it. It grew quite big and blocked about 1/3 of the bed, in addition to making a lot of shade. My herbs didn’t do well there, so I moved the bed to its new location last summer. I just moved it then; I didn’t do anything else with it.

I just haven’t gotten to it yet this summer. The dogs walk over it a lot; I walk over it sometimes. The dirt was quite packed – so much so, that there were actually very few weeds. It was also littered with dog toys (yes, that is a “toy” shoe - which is technically a doorstopper - but Gabe likes carrying it around).

The first thought I had was simply that I needed to sink pots into the ground, in order to protect the plants from traffic. So, I made a trip to my favourite discount warehouse – Bianca’s Amor’s.
I picked up some terra cotta-hued plastic pots for $2 each and 3 wooden basked for $10 each (the baskets were a bit pricey, but so pretty).



I got everything home, removed the liners from the baskets, and cut the bottom slats out. I also used a utility knife to cut the bottoms off the plastic planters.



Then I got to work on the bed itself, cleaning up the weeds, and working the soil.

Friday evening is my grocery night, so I kept my eyes open at the Real Canadian Wholesale Club (a division of Loblaws) for a "centerpiece" for the bed. I was hoping for something tall; maybe a birdbath. The fountains at the Wholesale were either tabletops or too big and pricey. But, in a different area, I found a plastic birdbath/fountain for $19.99. Whoot!

A plastic fountain is pretty lightweight, so I wired it to a piece of concrete to keep it from tipping.

Yes, it looks great!

I really wanted to get the fountain operational right away, but I needed a long outdoor extension cord, and the only one I have is attached to the house, for patio lanterns that used to be on the second floor windows. I was too cheap to run to the hardware store and shell out another $3o for a long cord and I live alone so how to get the cord down??? Well, I hope my mom wasn't watching from above, because I climbed the tree on the side of the house and hopped onto the roof from there. (Actually, my mom would have done the exact same thing.) I had to go pretty much to the peak to unwrap the cord and I carefully tossed it over the edge before scuttling back down to the tree and very carefully descending. All that was for nought, though. My dad wired the cord to some king of pipe on the side of the house. My tallest freestanding ladder will only take me high enough to change the lightbulb in the fixture. I need to use the extension ladder to reach waaaaaay up where my dad wired the cord. Sigh. I can't position the extension ladder on my own, it's too heavy. Plus my sister would have a bird if she knew I did that when no one was home (shhhh about the tree!). So, the fountain is not hooked up yet.

Okay, next step: get the rest of my containers ready to sink. I had mixed feelings about cutting up the shoes. They were my dad's - I bought them for him and he loved them. So easy to slip on and off; and he obviously wore them to paint something. I've put pots in them in the past; but really, what else am I going to do with them?

I stuffed gravel in the toe beds to weigh the shoes down, and then potting soil in the heel area, but the plants will be able to root into the ground.

So, I've got my fountain, my shoes, my wooden baskets, and my plastic planters more or less arranged, and I've started to plant herbs (thyme and peppermint transplanted; dill seeded into one of the wooden baskets):

Still a lot of space to fill. Time to repurpose things. First up: an old canner. It was rusting out at the bottom and there were holes. My parents would have purchased a repair kit, but I figured the canner would enjoy a retirement in the garden. I very carefully removed most of the bottom using a hammer and nail, tin snips, and needlenose pliers. Kids, do not try this at home without adult supervision! Adults do not try this at home without protective eye gear and gloves!

I ended around supper time, not quite finished, but needing time to visualize what exactly was missing. I added some oregano and some snapdragons for colour. I wasn't crazy about the faux wheelbarrow, but wasn't sure what else I could repurpose. The black plastic pots were just the beginning of an idea. I got it together, I think, this evening. More pictures in "Herb Bed, Part 2."

Fertilizer Friday c/o Tootsie Time

TOOTSIE TIME: Fertilizer Friday....Flaunt Those Flowers!!!

Tootsie Time hosts Fertilizer Friday, encouraging everyone to fertilize their plants indoors and out, and to share pictures of our plants on that day.

This is what's going on at the School of Yard Knocks this Fertilizer Friday:

Fuschia basket:

Potted wave petunias, pansies, impatiens, and an ivy geranium mid-garden:

Minature pansies:

Begonia:




Bleeding heart in the front perennial garden:

And just because I was enchanted with the bleeding hearts today:

Visit Tootsie Time to see what everyone else is showing off this Fertilizer Friday.