Hi P-Flog! Sorry I've been away for so long. I've been really busy with the gentleman friend workin' on the house and garden. Let me share our progress with you!
Today, Ed and I spent the afternoon building shelves in the pantry to better organize our jars. We're pretty damn proud of ourselves. 2x2s to hold everything up, 1x4s as the shelves, quarter-rounds glued and nailed to the edge of the 1x4s to make lips that prevent the jars from falling. What do you think?
Last week, Ed spent a day in the sun building a planter box for our sadly concrete-y back patio. The front of it is an old closet door that we bought at a barn sale near Thornbury when we were up north with Ed's family for the May 2-4. The rest of it was built from random scrap wood that we had lying around. Not bad, huh, P-Flog? I think it really ties the room together. The containers on the right are raspberries and hostas, the ones on the left are blueberries, and the plants in the container proper are, from left to right, thyme (thanks for the suggestion, Y!), columbine, white bellflowers, hops (!), coral bells, and thyme again.
Look, P-Flog, our garden is up! From the left to right is sugarsnap peas, bush beans, rainbow chard, dinosaur (!) kale, some sort of orange carrot, and golden detroit beets. Everything's organic and heirloom. Some of the stuff didn't germinate super well, so we'll probably try starting more stuff inside next year, but what's up is looking pretty snazzy.
Ed and I left some garlic for so long that it sprouted, so we threw three cloves into a container. A couple of scapes are poking out of each one now! Exciting.
Our bell peppers are doing great... (I should probably read up on how to take care of these, because so far I'm just doing the water them when they're dry thing...)
And so are our tomatoes! These things are giGANTIC compared to the size tomatoes were this time last year. It's going to be a great year for tomatoes, methinks. Time to build better trellises for these guys and do some pruning!
We're also trying our hand at front yard beautification. In the front is a peony bush, some periwinkle covers most of the garden (hopefully it'll fill in over time), and there's a euonymus growing near the tree. The ditch by the fence will soon be filled with a small cedar hedge.
The herb boxes (chives and cilantro on the left, basil and mint on the right) are goin' crazy! Ed's parents gave us these trellises to decorate the front, which is a way nice improvement. We haven't attached them yet because we want to strip the gross white paint off first.
Look! Strawberries! I had one this morning and it was freakin' awesome.
Also in the front yard, we're growing zucchini...
And potatoes! Both of which are going nuts. Yes, yes, P-Flog, I know it's time to add some more soil to the potatoes so they can spring forth more delicious potatoey brethren. Tomorrow, I promise!
Lastly, P-Flog, I hope you don't mind me posting this picture of our rosebush for my mom, who planted it. It's looking great! Thanks mom.
Goodbye for now, P-Flog. I'll be back soon, I swear!
To this!
And Champagne went from this..
To this!
Zucchini!
Kale in its natural habitat:
First harvest of the back garden: green beans, snowpeas, and aforementioned kale.
Beet (Golden Detroit) and carrot (Nantes):
Our first ripe bell pepper:
Baby French Fingerling and German Butterball potatoes:
Time for eatin'. Rice bowl with a tonne of garden produce and peanut sauce:
May the season be treating your stomach as well as it is mine.
And look! Our first baby pepper!
Gardens rule.
From the house:
After baking:
Last week, Ed spent a day in the sun building a planter box for our sadly concrete-y back patio. The front of it is an old closet door that we bought at a barn sale near Thornbury when we were up north with Ed's family for the May 2-4. The rest of it was built from random scrap wood that we had lying around. Not bad, huh, P-Flog? I think it really ties the room together. The containers on the right are raspberries and hostas, the ones on the left are blueberries, and the plants in the container proper are, from left to right, thyme (thanks for the suggestion, Y!), columbine, white bellflowers, hops (!), coral bells, and thyme again.
Look, P-Flog, our garden is up! From the left to right is sugarsnap peas, bush beans, rainbow chard, dinosaur (!) kale, some sort of orange carrot, and golden detroit beets. Everything's organic and heirloom. Some of the stuff didn't germinate super well, so we'll probably try starting more stuff inside next year, but what's up is looking pretty snazzy.
Ed and I left some garlic for so long that it sprouted, so we threw three cloves into a container. A couple of scapes are poking out of each one now! Exciting.
Our bell peppers are doing great... (I should probably read up on how to take care of these, because so far I'm just doing the water them when they're dry thing...)
And so are our tomatoes! These things are giGANTIC compared to the size tomatoes were this time last year. It's going to be a great year for tomatoes, methinks. Time to build better trellises for these guys and do some pruning!
We're also trying our hand at front yard beautification. In the front is a peony bush, some periwinkle covers most of the garden (hopefully it'll fill in over time), and there's a euonymus growing near the tree. The ditch by the fence will soon be filled with a small cedar hedge.
The herb boxes (chives and cilantro on the left, basil and mint on the right) are goin' crazy! Ed's parents gave us these trellises to decorate the front, which is a way nice improvement. We haven't attached them yet because we want to strip the gross white paint off first.
Also in the front yard, we're growing zucchini...
And potatoes! Both of which are going nuts. Yes, yes, P-Flog, I know it's time to add some more soil to the potatoes so they can spring forth more delicious potatoey brethren. Tomorrow, I promise!
Lastly, P-Flog, I hope you don't mind me posting this picture of our rosebush for my mom, who planted it. It's looking great! Thanks mom.
Goodbye for now, P-Flog. I'll be back soon, I swear!
Pretty fiddlehead
A couple of weeks later, they looked like this (notice the sad sideways one, which is now existing happily upright in its new digs)...
So we decided that it was time to plant them, some into pots...
And some into containers (I found them on the street! I think they're Canada Post bins, perfect for container gardening. Yoink.)...
The current state of affairs includes the aforementioned potted/containered tomatoes and peppers (the littler guys are peppers):
The plants from last year that survived the winter (from left to right, raspberry, thyme, strawberry, and a creepy ground covering that we're thinking about using for a green roof over the shed):
Our water barrel, set up artfully with the help of Ed's plumbing handiwork and my genius idea to use a tire (which I picked up originally to build a potato tower) to hold it high enough off the ground to use the faucet (we're still planting potatoes, but in a different container type, more to come on that in later entries):
And our back garden, which is weeded and ready to receive seed (ew?). Which it shall, this weekend! In addition to the tomatoes and peppers, we also plan to grow kale (russian and dinosaur. DINOSAUR.), rainbow swiss chard, butter lettuce, snowpeas, potatoes (french fingerling and german butterball), zucchini, beets, and carrots.
Many many many unending thanks to Ed's parents for donating the water barrel, tools, and time to help us get our yard ready for the season.
