I just couldn’t resist doing another tour post. The garden is really filling it and the change from two weeks ago is just amazing. For anyone who is attempting to grow large amounts of food, the documentation process is vital. Each season we learn something new and taking photos and videos can help us to learn what not to do next year and what worked well.
For those interested, this year we tried something called lasagna gardening; read all about it here.
And onto the gardens!
We’re finally starting to see some warm weather and the tomatoes, peppers and basil are growing! Since I filmed the video below the temperature is about 10 degrees higher on a daily basis. I love this… the promise of sauces, salsas and pesto. Yum!!
The herb spiral is doing very well this year. We planted a mix of culinary and medicinal herbs (with a couple of cayenne peppers tossed in for good measure). Most of my cayenne will be used to make tincture, but some will go into sauces and salsa. A new addition to the spiral this year is lemongrass. Thai curry here we come!
These are our Blue Lake pole beans; one of two varieties of beans we are growing this year. Last year I had great success with freezing green beans without blanching and I plan to do the same this year… with what’s left after we gobble them up fresh.
Sweet sweet sweet corn 🙂 This is a first for us and we are definitely excited!
This is our potato bed. We took advice from a dear friend of mine and decided to grow them in straw this year. We placed the seed potatoes on the surface of loose loamy soil and the we covered with straw. As they grow we are continuing to pile straw around them. My friend swears by this method and her potato harvests are the envy of all.
No garden is complete without a few zucchini plants right? We originally planted 5 green and 5 yellow but only 8 seeds sprouted. We’re having struggles with powdery mildew so I’m keeping on top of it. Hoping for a lot of zucchini this year.
Our first ever crop of garlic is healthy and happy so far. Just waiting for scapes. Since it’s our first year I’m uncertain if we planted the right amount… bulbs need to be saved for planting next year, some will be consumed fresh and some dried into powder. Time will tell.
Our winter squashes are starting to grow too. It’s a real possibility that we placed the arbor in a spot that doesn’t get enough sun. One of those things that can be remedied next year, but sadly not much we can do this year. That being said, we have flowers and some climbing growth already so there is still hope. In the far right-hand corner is a watermelon plant that has a flower already too!
Project ‘Save My Sunflowers’ is in full swing. This is the third time we’ve planted sunflower seeds. The first two attempts were destroyed by squirrels and chipmunks (who are also eating all the chicken feed… sigh). This time I smartened up and built cages out of hardware cloth to surround the seedling to protect them.
Lots of happy broccoli and cabbage plants too!
The promise of jars of dill pickles. Although not as many as we had hoped. Not all our seeds sprouted so I supplemented with a few seedlings from a local garden centre. But almost all the plants I got from the garden centre are dying or covered in powdery mildew. Definitely a little disappointed but thankfully I have lots of farms locally to support for pickling cucumbers if need be.
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These are our achocha cucumbers! I first heard about these on American Homestead. I tried to order from him but alas, he could not send them to Canada. Thankfully we found another variety at the Cottage Gardener. I’m excited to taste these babies for the first time.
Red and yellow cooking onions. Also a first time crop for us.
The medicinal herb garden. The lack of rain has hit this bed pretty hard but we’re working hard at mulching and watering from the rain barrels. Thankfully we’re starting to see lots of growth now. For the list of my top 15 herbs to grow in a medicinal garden click here.
Raspberries that were gifted to us by my mother in law. They have all taken root and started producing leaves! It will be a few years before we get fruit so I’m happy to plant them now.
Kale, rapini, swiss chard and collard greens planted in an old broken water feature/fountain on the property. This spot gets a little bit less sun than anticipated but everything seems okay so far. In the pots we are attempting to grow lettuces, but darn squirrels keep thwarting my efforts!!
This bed was a bit of an after thought when we realized we didn’t have a lot of salad type veggies. Pak choy, spinach and purslane are planted in it. Thanks again to the chipmunks and squirrels we may not have a lot of success with this. Live and learn right?
And as promised a video tour of all the gardens on our property this year.
Thanks so much for joining me as I show you around our garden. I’ll be back in July to show you our progress and how things are humming along.
In good health,
