What a wonder this time of year is. Family, friends, food, and all things miraculous. Have a wonderful Christmas and a glorious New Year.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Compost bins 1, 2 and 3. Now labelled as I'm totally OCD.
My neighbors and my husband and I all use my compost bins. The inevitable question "which bin?" has always answered with 'first bin on the left'. Over time has been shortened to 'bin 1'. So I went out and bought these lovely brass house numbers and now the guess work is over. It's the same as labelling the herbs. I do that mostly for my husband but on occassion my neighbors ask for herbs too. I love sharing anything I grow, so it gives me great pleasure when they ask.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Getting the grow lights up!!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Foraging for salad. Success.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Summer Salad. Remember when we ate like this every day !
We had a family barbecue this summer and this was the salad I made. I had forgotten how pretty they are. The days will be getting longer very soon.
On the topic of summer, I received my Westcoast Seed Catalogue today. I know what I'll be reading this weekend.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The microwave oven is leaving. Yayyy.
I have heard too many horror stories about microwave ovens. I just think they are a bad idea. It took me a while to gently get my husband on board. He has discovered that food tastes better oven warmed. Almost killed myself getting it down off a highish shelf that sits at about six feet. I was at the house alone and no ladder. Wow. That was close. Got the job done though, no worries. That gave me another shelf in this very small kitchen. A place to put the glass containers I've been switching everything over to. Isn't that wonderful. I think it looks really cool.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Meyer Lemon tree. How beautiful can a lemon be!!
I am in love with my Meyer Lemon. We had our first lemon last week. You can indeed taste the orange in it's background. I can see why they think it was originally bred with a mandarin orange. They are delicious. Everyone should have one.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Christmas Tree...what an incredibly satisfying chore.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Making lots of vanilla
Friday, November 16, 2012
Growing greens in flats. Making vanilla.
The post has nothing to do with my batch of vanilla, but isn't it pretty? |
Monday, November 12, 2012
Wow....organic horse poop.
When I got home from a very long day at the store, Allan said, 'you need to get your boots on and get the flashlight. Go check the green recycle cans'. I put on my boots, grabbed the flashlight and went around to the cans. Opened them up....horse poop. Organic horse poop from much loved horses. I was really touched. Thank you husband.
Monday, November 05, 2012
A veritable maple leaf frenzy
My neighbours maple. About forty feet across? |
A quarter done |
Very clay soil bed before |
After. With about a foot of leaves piled on top. First I dug the whole bed down about a foot. Huge, wet heavy clay hunks. I took some veg scraps and lots of leaves, layered it on the bed and started putting the clay back in place. I broke the clay up and mixed leaves as much as I could. I took the last leaves and laid them on the ground where I'm going to kill grass next year around dwarf apples. What doesn't break down in the bed over winter, will get raked over onto the lawn.
Some under the holly |
And...done |
Saturday, November 03, 2012
Check out my garden. Still pretty awesome.
Rosemary bundled up for winter |
Asparagus fern. Looks like a female to me. |
Callicarpa / Beauty Berry |
These fuchsias are about 3.5 inches across |
Calendula...found a seed pod by a fence last year and this grew!! |
Cymbidium orchid. Third year. |
Aunt Helen's Ontario 'lawn strawberries' |
Sungold tomato |
Chilean Guava |
Saturday, October 27, 2012
A full weekend of gardening. Almost done for winter.
Taken today...it is pouring on the west coast. |
I know that technically it is not the right time to prune a rose bush. I was looking at the rose leaves that have fallen. Ugly. My one and ony rose bush had rust, mildew big time and black spot. It was a complete mess. The Perdita roses were kind of sad this year. That's how bad the bush was. So, I hacked it. I brought it right down below the leaf line. Ummm, maybe about a foot and a half tall. Then I raked up every leaf I could get. I picked them out of the nooks and crannies with my fingers. It was awesome.
I moved on to asters. I never catch them before they seed and I end up with tens of millions of baby asters in the spring. They had seed heads, but hopefully I caught them on time. If not they are really easy to hoe out in spring.
You can see the eight foot high rosebush is now about one foot tall. Look at the beautiful leaf mulch. |
I took all of the flowers and seeds off the lavenders. I have spread them all over the yard for the bees next year. I know the seeds will be a bit of an issue, but I'm all over it!
Allan came out and put the bag on the lawn mower and mulched up leaves that lay in Lance and Judy's yard. They aren't using them this year. Yayyy. I put them in the compost bin and then thought, why don't I put them in the freshly winterized flower bed and let them rot over the winter. I have never fed the plants in any real way. I pulled the leaves out of the bin and spread them in the garden. I also put a layer over the rhubarb.
I stirred up the compost and watered liberally. Put up the front panel on the bin. Put them to bed.
I forgot my camera battery at the store...on the changer. So the pictures will be taken a couple days after this eight hour odyssey.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Non-GMO Project...the best thing to happen to the cause!!
If you haven't found the Non-GMO Project yet, check them out. The food industry is fighting tooth and nail against labeling foods that contain GMOs. Just Google Proposition 37. The Non-GMO Project certifies that products are GMO free and you will see their designation logo on some products now. We own them a HUGE thank you.
Thank you.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Garlic is planted.
Dibber and garlic |
Better safe than sorry |
It was really hot. Really hot. I got out my trusty garden fork and stirred six bags of chicken manure into the garden where the garlic was going in. A lot of work but worth it. I had to move the kale and Brussels Sprouts out of that bed into the lasagna garden. I used a measuring tape to line the garlic up beautifully and evenly six inches apart, and used a dibber for the first time in my life. How on earth does anyone get garlic planted without one? It is now one of my favorite tools. There are ridges cut into the dibber to measure inches. I made the holes two inches deep. Some of the cloves were so huge that I needed to make them about an inch deeper and wider. Some were truly huge. I carefully labeled the rows this year. Last year I didn't keep track at all. I just threw the two or three types that Jim gave me in willy nilly. So while I think what I planted yesterday was Music and Red Russian, I may have two or three types from last year and not just Red Russian. Oh well, as long as it's garlic and grows well, I am truly happy with that.
Finished garlic planting |
My first batch of turkey soup. It is more delicious than it looks in this picture. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)