Starter Veggie Progress

As you know, Megan and I started our heirloom tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, and leeks from seed at the beginning of March. We took approximately two weeks to harden them off and on Monday we planted them directly in our garden. In total we planted 11 tomato plants, 11 peppers, five musquee de provence pumpkins, and a row of leeks.

Yellow Pear

 Of the eleven tomatoes we planted, two were Yellow Pear. Of the varieties planted last year these were easily one of the favourites. The tiny pear-shaped tomatoes are so sweet that they're almost like candy. We felt two plants of these would work well since each plant produces continuously until it is killed off by frost. I felt like we were eating these for weeks and weeks last summer.

Red Zapotec

 Since none of our Red Zapotec's made it to the garden last year, we decided to plant three of them. All three of the plants are beautifully proportioned and we're excited to see what this variety tastes like. Apparently Red Zapotec are huge red tomatoes that are ruffled and excellent for slicing and fresh eating.

Green Zebra

 Another favourite from last year is Green Zebra. This year, however, we only planted two in the garden as opposed to the three planted last year, because the tomatoes are smaller, and therefore, the plant produces more. We felt we had a difficult time getting through all the tomatoes we got last year, so two plants would be safest.

Purple Cherokee

 Like last year, we planted two Purple Cherokee. These were among our least favourite of the tomatoes last year, but they are still quite good and maybe this year we will gain more appreciation for them.

Purple Calabash

 This Purple Calabash looks somewhat windblown, but today the two that we planted are perked right up. This variety didn't make it to our garden last year either, are similar to the Red Zapotec in that they are ruffled, and apparently have a very rich flavour. It will be interesting to see how these ones turn out!

Jimmy Nardello or Bulgarian Carrot

Finally, here is a photo of either a Jimmy Nardello or Bulgarian Carrot pepper (I can't tell which). We planted six Jimmy Nardello's and five Bulgarian Carrot peppers. Last year we didn't get too many peppers due to how late we started our plants, but this year I plan to use the Bulgarian Carrot pepper in a number of recipes that include jalapeno, because while they are orange and not green, they have a similar spice level to a jalapeno. In addition to these peppers, we planted some sweet red Shepherd peppers that we bought from our local garden center. We still had room in our pepper row, so why not?

I don't have any pics of our pumpkins or leeks, but rest assured that they are looking wonderful!

Jennifer

Seedling Progress

Approximately two and a half weeks ago, we planted a lot of seeds in the garden, so there's been a lot of little seedlings coming up. All of these pictures show roughly where our plants were shortly after they came up, but now these seedlings are much bigger.

 Below you can see a picture of how our radishes looked a week or so ago. Our dad gave us Easter Egg radish and Cherry Belle radish seeds, so we planted a combination of those, as well as our radish seed mix from last year. Maybe we'll have radishes in a week or two.

We also have arugula and tatsoi coming up, although not quite as thickly as the radishes. You can see a picture of either the arugula or tatsoi below; they look almost the same as the radish seedlings when they start out. Now that they are quite a bit bigger than the picture below, and developing true leaves, we went out today and reseeded between the gaps in the rows, so hopefully this will result in fuller rows.

We were really happy to see our Cherokee Trail of Tears beans making some good progress by poking up out of the soil a week and a half ago. Unfortunately, our lima beans haven't come up at all yet, and we don't think they will. We suspect that we may have overwatered them as beans don't like soggy soil. The Cherokee's are much bigger now and developing true leaves, but there were some gaps within the rows. We  reseeded some Cherokee seeds in the gaps and also planted some Blue Lake starter bean plants in the rows. For the lima beans, we still had some seed so we replanted a row of those. Let's cross our fingers that those come up!

The spinach we planted didn't come up either, but it was old seed that we didn't expect we would get any results from. Luckily, however, the Swiss chard is coming up, although we did have to plant some extra seeds in the gaps where seeds didn't come up.The beets are showing some progress too, although they are so small still, it's not really worth taking a picture.

Our carrot pots are doing well too. We planted a combination of Nantes, mixed coloured, and Little Finger carrots. This week, we noticed some of their true leaves starting too.

This concludes our seed progress in two and a half weeks time. Stay tuned for some updates on our tomatoes, peppers, leeks, and pumpkins!

Megan and Jennifer

What's In Bloom

 Megan and I are not only gardeners of vegetables, but of flowers too! In fact, our interest in growing really started with our Mom's maintenance of several flower beds around our house and we continue that interest today.

It's amazing to see how different the gardens look from spring to fall! Right now, we're especially seeing a wide array of purple outdoors. The few exceptions are pretty pink peonies which just bloomed yesterday, purple woodspurge, and pinks.

Peonies are among my favourite spring flowers and can  come in a wide array of pinks, reds, and whites. They have such a pleasant scent similar to roses, only I find them much more beautiful than roses. Ours are somewhat late this year, considering my grandmother's came out already a week and a half ago.

Purple woodspurge has a lot of green foliage with pretty little yellow flowers all over it. My sister and I planted this a few years ago when we wanted something that could provide a little more ground cover in one of the beds in our front yard. I love it because it is so woodsy and natural looking!

This variety of pinks is called Candy Floss and it certainly looks like candy floss with its array of pink shades. We purchased this yesterday from our local garden centre to act as a ground cover in our front flower bed.

These pinks (I forget their variety) are more traditional. I love how big the plant is and how it is covered in little flowers. Pinks are wonderful to have as garden borders as they are low lying and cover a lot of ground.

This pretty iris that's purple to almost black is a humongous plant! I think I counted between sixty to seventy flowers and buds on it this year. This flowers have a very rich and deep scent to them as well. We have two other varieties of irises, that are dwarf varieties, one being blue, and the other white. They should be out very soon as well.

Also purchased yesterday is 'Pink Mist' Pincushion flower. They really look like more of a light purple than a pink to me. I'm excited to see how these spread in the coming years. Apparently they will bloom straight until fall which is a bonus.

Taking up much of the garden in our backyard, as this plant takes almost like a weed, is Mountain Bluets. They are really beautiful flowers with purple centers and electric blue petals. You really do need to keep an eye on these or else they could be everywhere in your garden.

Well, perhaps later we'll have more pictures of summer flowers to show you. I know that very soon, our back garden will be bursting with yellow and a few different columbines so we will be sure to post those too.

Jennifer

Fresh Leaf Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette

Last Friday, Megan and I harvested the first batch of lettuce from our lettuce pot to make a salad with. It was a combination of oak leaf, deer tongue, cracoviensis, black-seeded simpson, and australian yellowleaf lettuces, which are leafy and soft. We planted some arugula seeds in the pot too, but they won't be ready to cut for another week or so.

The salad we made was so pretty and delicious with a combination of gala apple, onion, cucumber, walnuts, and chives, and we dressed it with a lemon vinaigrette. Since we made the lemon vinaigrette up on our ownand it was so delicious, I will provide the recipe here.

Fresh Leaf Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette

4 individual servings

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp of grated lemon zest, approximately

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp chives, chopped

A mix of leaf lettuces, approximately 4 cups

Enough gala apple for three slices per salad

Enough onion, sliced, and cut in half moon strips to provide 5 strips per salad

 Enough cucumber, sliced, and cut into quarters, to provide each salad with three pieces

chopped walnuts to garnish

chopped chives to garnish

Directions:

1. Combine first seven ingredients and stir until dressing is emulsified

2. Dress lettuce with vinaigrette adding a tablespoon at a time until lettuce is dressed to your taste

3. Plate lettuce in equal portions on four plates

4. Artfully distribute the apple, onion, cucumber, walnuts, and chives on each salad

Enjoy!

Jennifer

Mid-May Plantings

Today Megan and I sowed eight types of vegetables in our garden. We planted two rows of swiss chard, two rows of spinach, one row of tatsoi, one row of mixed radishes, one row of mixed lettuces, one row of arugula, two rows of lima beans, and two rows of Cherokee Trail of Tears beans. It's a little bit concerning direct sowing so many seeds in the garden, especially since I spotted a robin in the area after we planted, but I'm confident that we'll have some luck with the plantings. As soon as we spot the radishes coming up, we will likely plant another row of radish seeds to keep a continuous harvest going throughout the Spring. For the beans, we plan to put stakes in the garden so that each plant can climb up. We're concerned over whether or not the spinach will germinate, as the seed packets were leftover from our Opa's store of seeds and we're unsure of how old they are.

Tomorrow we will plant our Chioggia Beet seeds, and next weekend we hope to plant our pepper, tomato, and pumpkin seedlings directly in the garden. I will leave you with a pleasant picture of a chickadee at our bird feeder.

Jennifer

Advancing Vegetables

Unfortunately growing vegetables inevitably comes with some failures as well as successes. Remember the Bleu de Solaise Leeks we planted from seed? Well, many of them sprouted, but died shortly after. I guess, as with onions, leeks are susceptible to rot, because I feel I may have over watered them. Luckily though, we planted some Lyon Prizetaker Leek seeds that we bought from Lowe's which are doing well. Hopefully, these ones can make it to the garden.

Our tomatoes are doing stunningly well this year! They are all approximately 6 or so inches tall at this point, which is an ideal minimum height for planting. As the May 24 weekend is approaching,when we would like to plant our tomatoes in the ground, we decided to start the hardening-off-process with them. This process is simply to get plants that have only ever been indoors used to the outdoor elements. Yes, tomatoes can get both sunburn and windburn! Megan and I learned this last year after setting our tomato plants outside in the direct sun for too long, and we paid the price by losing several of those plants. The tomato leaves of indoor tomato plants are so papery thin that they need time to build up to the elements.

The method for getting tomato plants used to the outdoors is simply to place your plants outside for short intervals in shade each day before building to longer intervals and gradually working the plants' ways into the direct sun. For example, yesterday we kept our plants in the shade for an hour, while today we're expanding that to an hour and a half with fifteen minutes or so in sun. There's no basic formula that we're working with, but we're judging based on how good our plants look while sitting out, and if they start looking worse for wear, we'll bring them indoors. You will ideally do this until the tomatoes can adequately stay in full sun for the entire day.

Here are some photos of our lovely tomato plants:

                                                                 Purple Calabash

                    
                                                                 Yellow Pear

                                                               Green Zebra

                                                                 Red Zapotec

                                                                Purple Cherokee

                                                             A mixture of tomatoes

In addition to our tomatoes, our Bulgarian Carrot Peppers and Jimmy Nardello Peppers are doing very well too. As usual though, peppers grow a lot slower than tomato plants, but we are confident that once they hit the garden next weekend, they will sprout up quite quickly!

Our lettuces have grown in the last week and the arugula seeds we planted in the pot have now germinated. I'm excited to see how these will grow as we have never grown arugula before.

Here is one of our Musquee de Provence Pumpkins. Last year, we direct sowed our pumpkin seeds, but this year with the seeds I collected and dried, we decided to start them indoors. As such, our plants are quite advanced in comparison to last year.

Jennifer

Around the Yard in May

Our attempt at growing an indoor lettuce garden wasn't very successful, but luckily a lot of the lettuce from last year reseeded itself in the garden. We wanted to save some of it before the garden got rototilled, so we potted a few plants today. We also planted a few seeds of arugula around the plants, so maybe we'll have arugula growing in there soon too. I think there's red deer tongue, black-seeded simpson, green oakleaf, cracoviensis, and Australian yellowleaf in there, but it's still a bit difficult to tell.

Jennifer and I also got some carrots planted today. We decided to plant our carrot seeds in pots again this year, since our soil in the garden isn't really suitable for the carrots; there's too much clay and the soil isn't sandy enough. Jennifer and I still had mixed coloured carrot seeds and little finger carrot seeds from last year, but we also bought a new package of little finger carrot seeds because we had the most success with them last year. On top of that, our dad gave us three packages of scarlet nantes carrots that he bought in the fall last year. We planted one package of scarlet nantes in a large pot, mixed coloured carrots and the rest of the scarlet nantes in another large pot, and the little finger carrots in two smaller pots. I should add that all of the pots are about 12 inches deep at least, which is what you should aim for if you want to grow carrots in pots. Deeper is fine, but you don't want a pot that's too small.

We are currently in the process of waiting to have our garden rototilled, so we haven't even planted many of our early crops yet, but here's some pictures from around the yard today.

The bleeding hearts are absolutely stunning at this time of year. I honestly have to say that this is one of my favourite times of the year for the flower and herb gardens. Everything looks so healthy in this in-between weather before the heat really strikes.

We also have a rose-breasted grosbeak at the kitchen window today. Our mom put a bird feeder there, so it's nice to see the birds from the kitchen window, but we never see rose-breasted grosbeaks around. They are stunning! Unfortunately I didn't get a really good picture, but I think this gives you a pretty good idea of what they look like.

That's all the news I have for now, but I think we'll be doing a lot more garden-related stuff this week, including beginning the process of hardening off our tomatoes, leeks, and pumpkins, so we should have lots more posts coming up soon.

Megan