My garden dreams

The first of the tomato seedlings are up! They were planted March 15. I just finished planting the last of the others to be started indoors so we'll see what comes up next.

A non comprehensive list of my garden plans:

tomatoes--a few varieties (Ok, 7. I'll be making salsa and sauce. The cherry kinds are for snacking during the summer.)
peppers--hot, sweet and paprika (who knew you could grow paprika?)
winter squash--red kuri, delicata, butternut
pumpkins--pie and giant
melons--watermelon and muskmelon
cucumbers--English type and for pickling
onions--red and yellow
gourds--ornamental, birdhouse and luffa (which has never worked for me but I still have seeds so will give it another try)
celeriac (also called celery root)
brussel sprouts
and a variety of flowers including Maltese Cross, purple millet, nicotiana, feverfew
summer savoury

To be planted outside when the snow melts and the ground warms up:

peas--shell and snap
lettuce--a variety of kinds
more flowers, including cosmos, zinnias, scarlet flax, chrysanthemum, calendula, sunflowers, runner beans
dry beans--goose gullet, blue jay, cranberry
carrots--our soil is too compact for these so we're trying the little round Parisienne ones
cauliflower
potatoes
kohlrabi if there's room but I got tired of those last year

I think I'm forgetting some things.
Ask me how I like my garden during weeding and harvest time!

Food, Family and Flowers

Well, if you want to see the posts I just posted....they're over here. I managed to be on our other blog instead of the regular one. And the other blog is sadly neglected so I guess it's not a bad thing to have posted over there. They (2 posts) even have photos.

What I didn't write over there is that I've managed to dodge rain drops and get half of the tomatoes planted out in the back garden. Of the 57 plants I grew from seed, I've given a dozen or so away, killed two and have plans to give a few more. The front garden is host to a beautiful crop of healthy dandelions and a few onions that got missed last year. If it stays dry for more than a day Pieman might even be able to get it tilled so that I can plant out the giant pumpkins the kids are growing. Wait. So the kids can plant out the giant pumpkins they are growing. I have a few flowers to scatter about too and more vegetables...squash, peppers, cauliflower, onions, carrots, and more lettuce and peas on a staggered schedule. My neighbour just assured me that this is a more typical weather year for around here than last year's beautifully gorgeously warm and sunny spring and summer. I'm not happy about that. But let me tell you...only 3 weeks until we reach North Carolina and please, let it be hot!

So, after pulling (rather, digging) out all our kale plants months ago, I noticed yesterday that we have more growing again. I know I've mentioned that I have kale in past blogs. I just checked and found two references, one here. But I've not talked of it enough for you to understand much of how this new sighting makes me laugh and the kids groan. It's too bad I didn't take pictures the first year when I planted out 6 little seedlings that quickly grew to be huge plants. I didn't really like kale before I planted it. You'll discover that's typical of my gardening habits. I plant some things so that I'll learn to like them and with some exceptions I usually do. Of course there are some things I think I like that I learn to dislike. Well, I quickly learned to like kale. We had so much of it I had to eat or be eaten. Search for kale recipes online and you'll most often come across kale chips. Worth a try. And it became my favourite way to prepare the greens. You see, kale doesn't get mushy like spinach. It gets crispy. And when you add a little oil and sea salt to the mix it becomes a snack worthy of any potato chip bag. K2 shared my enjoyment--a little too much at times until I learned to double my batch size. The plants survived a few frosts, tasted fine and continued to grow until they were covered by snow. So much for my kale. I hoped that maybe one plant would survive the winter as the package said but it was a long shot.

So I thought.

The snow melted and first one plant then another and finally a total of 8 plants grew and thrived. (How good is your math?) We--as in me and K2--were eating kale in April long before any other plant showed its tips. They went to seed, I dug them up, giggled when a new one that had seemed dead resurrected and then went to seed. It has literally been months since I dug up each and every plant. I found myself craving kale so that I even bought some from the market to make my chips and stir-fry with my cabbage. It wasn't as good but I didn't have to inspect it as closely for caterpillars.

And now there's a good sized plant again on its way. Kale into November again this year and who knows? maybe spring? One day I'll post a picture for you and you can smile with me at the silliness of kale that won't go away.

Picking Potatoes from the Pumpkin Patch

First tomatoes

I have been looking after my little vegetable plot this past week carefully but not as anxiously as in past years. Funny. The garden is actually looking better this year--starting to look less wild.

And tonight the rain has come.

We have had little rain these past two weeks and while that's great for suntans it's not so good for the seeds. I have watered when needed, filling my buckets in the shower and letting them sit in the sun to warm before pouring the precious liquid carefully over the plants. Without rain to replenish it the rain barrel was emptied. I have watched with mixed feelings as the forecast has said first rain today, then sun today and rain tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Mixed feelings because I prefer the sun.

My plants have drooped and I have watched the skies. If the prophets are right I will be watching the skies much this summer and I might even be successful in growing a good pepper crop if it stays hot for long enough. And hope the rain barrels stay full.

I feel somewhat like a farmer: anxious and hopeful all at once. I'm not sure how a farmer is supposed to feel. Am I a farmer? I till my soil, dig out the weeds, care for the plants, harvest my produce. Sounds farmer-ish but I would not truly claim that hard-working word. Gardener sounds more like me. And a gardener who throws seeds at the garden and shrugs that what comes up comes up after spending all winter planning. Is it worth the work? Isn't it easier to go to the store or even the farmer's market? I pondered this as I picked kale this morning. My kale that was extravagant last summer and not only survived the winter but came through tasting sweet. People said this was so--although they were talking about the taste after the first frosts, not months of snow later. But I didn't believe it.

Have you ever tasted new lettuce or tomatoes still warm from the sun? There is a great deal of satisfaction in eating a stew filled with vegetables you can claim as your own, that you've known from seed.

Come on over. I'll share.

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One tab is open to wonderfully photographed food blogs filled right now with warm, beautiful looking soups and stews. The other tab is open to a seed company filling my mind with images of next year's garden.

Both are food for my spirit in such different ways.

The one reminds me that a cup of hot tea will go nicely in my hands while I plan our warm and filling supper. The other takes me far forward into those sunny, warm days of digging, playing, harvesting a perfect tasting freshly picked vegetable still warm from the sun and full of flavour.


On the other hand, this is what my next project is...


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Yellow tomatoes float through my dreams as I start research on how to can the non-red tomatoes. Yellow spaghetti sauce? Doesn't work for me.

I had had visions of bushels of tomatoes filling my bowls and spilling out onto the counters. The reality has been that the weather has not been that warm this summer and the tomatoes have drifted in in manageable waves after each warmer day or two. Some are now frozen, some are dried, some are roasted and frozen and all have tasted really nice. There's nothing quite like a fresh from the vine still warm tomato exploding taste into your mouth.

Some of the oh-so-pretty and even tastier cherry tomatoes we've been fortunate to enjoy this summer.

Gladiolas leftover from a pig roast on Saturday serendipitously made their way to our house. It's a huge bouquet! and gorgeous.



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The tomatoes have started ripening.

So far we've been able to keep up with eating them. We've had almost exclusively the cherry size so far in an array of colours. But the larger ones are starting to ripen and they're harder to eat in a mouthful so my eye has been caught by tomato recipes. Tomorrow I'll try slow-roasting some.

I was told my blog is out of date. Sorry Calgary!

We have had sun this week and beautiful hot weather. We've eaten our first yellow cherry tomatoes the size of a marble. I'm hoping the next ripe ones will be bigger. Still enjoying peas, lettuce (a little bitter), swiss chard, kale and now kolhrabi and beans. The broccoli and tomatoes are coming. So are the Armenian cukes. The pumpkins are turning orange but the squash is a little slower. It's in a different plot.

I picked up Morton from the airport late last night. She's still sleeping. I'm going to start our breakfast pancakes. The kidlets are waiting patiently for her with their books, each ensconsed on a couch or chair. Pieman's chatting with his Dad who just had a birthday.

I've been referred to a learning languages page called LiveMocha. Looks good. Also a blog called The Linguist on Language. Look like fun.

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The end of our school year has come. We finished up our work last Thursday and to celebrate we got up at 5:30 am on Friday morning to spend a day in the life of Ye Olde Village.

It's been a full month of May. Certainly not very warm overall and the wind has kept us strong. But I did take advantage of the few hot days and got the garden planted so I can now enjoy watching it grow. Unfortunately the weeds grow too. As a friend said yesterday: I can look at the chore of weeding as simply decluttering my garden. Makes it seem lighter.

Yesterday I was inspired by this friend and decluttered dandelions for two hours. 

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