Harvest 2016

We finished our garden harvest a few weeks back, but things have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to write up this post! It was another great growing season this year and we ended up with a good amount of produce. Sure there were a few bumps in the road, including Bronx eating Roman's prized broccoli plants, but overall it was a good season.

 

Once again the tomato plants when hog wild and grew to an enormous size is no time flat. One of the plants was literally the size of me. John tried desperately to keep it standing, but even 3 large stakes couldn't keep it standing. It eventually sprawled out in all directions and smothered the watermelon plants. Poor things didn't stand a chance. I used the tomatoes to make close to 32L of sauce before finally giving up on the 4th and 5th pickings, of which I didn't even take pictures of because I was so over them. I pawned some off on a few friends and the rest (which are still sitting in the garage waiting to completely ripen) will be donated the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank. If you ever have extra produce from your garden, don't throw it out!! Most food banks and even some shelters will accept garden produce donations!

 

John's jalapeno plants managed to produce a lot of peppers despite being partially covered by the mammoth tomato plant. SO many peppers in fact that John was able to make a good sized jar of pickled peppers. The brussel sprouts however didn't do much other than attract a swarm of cabbage butterflies. I had be warned about these nasty little bugs but I thought to myself "not in my garden". Boy, was I wrong. I sprayed the plants down to kill the worms, but by the time I realized there was a problem, there weren't enough leaves left to worry about applying powder to get rid of the butterflies. The sprouts themselves only got about as big as a loonie, despite me removing leavings to try to help them grow as Google suggested. I probably won't be planting them again. Too much effort for too little sprouts. Roman's replacement broccoli plants also aided in the takeover in the butterfly situation, but at least we got a bit of broccoli out of them.

The zucchini plant also wasn't a big producer. The plant itself was giant, and we did get a few zucchinis off of it, but then the zucchinis started rotting on the plant. Turns out the soil didn't have enough calcium in it. Google (again) suggested egg shells in the soil to increase the calcium but I think it was too little too late. I'll probably give these tasty morsels another go next year because I love having shredded zucchini on hand for baking.

I love cucumbers! This is a big statement because I always thought I hated cucumber. Turns out I'm just a cucumber snob and only like garden cucumbers. Considering the plants looked pretty sad, they produced a TON of cucumbers; big ones at that! Roman wasn't a fan of picking the cucumbers because they were covered in "pokies", but would happily carry them once we brushed them away.

Finally we get to the experimental potato patch. I for one was shocked! We ended up with what I thought was a huge amount of potatoes for an experimental plant. I'm guessing we have close to 10 pounds sitting in the basement right now, plus we ate some as new potatoes. Roman had a blast digging up potatoes. Well, more like watching me dig and then diving in the pulling the potatoes out like he had found buried treasure.

Now all that's left is to clear all the plants out and dig up all the weeds. There were so many mosquitos here this year that the garden didn't get much tending. I watered for the second level of the yard, and tried to physically enter the garden as little as possible. Even to pick the vegetables we did we had to suit up in pants and hoodies, hood up and tied as tight as possible around our faces, and doused in a thick layer of bug spray. It was not a pleasant occasion.

Garden 2016

Last year our garden kind of fell by the wayside. I had the best of intentions, but once the morning sickness monster of pregnancy reared it's ugly head, I had no desire at all to look after the garden, let alone harvest the food that grew. We also had a small problem with a certain vegetarian staffie helping himself to the cucumbers and squash as soon as they were big enough to eat. Who knew dogs could be vegetarians?

If you've followed my garden posts in the past, then you know I'm usually super organized to the point of being anal, with my graph paper and drawing out plant-o-grams. If you have no idea what I'm talking about I'll link to my past garden posts at the end of this post. Well this year I went with the "I'm going to get me some plants and plant them" method.

The first improvement you'll notice about our garden is our ever so classy plastic green fence. Like I said, we had a staffie problem last year and unfortunately there is no spray to keep it at bay, so we were forced to put up a fence. Granted the green plastic is a lot more appealing than the orange plastic I thought we were going to be stuck with, but it's still an eyesore. But I'm willing to deal with the ugliness if that means we get some delicious fresh food!

Before heading off to the garden centre I made sure to ask Roman several times what he wanted to plants in the garden. If you have kids then you understand the importance of asking a toddler the same question several times. You don't go with the response you get, but rather the average number of times they say the same thing. Roman was adamant that we had to plant broccoli, strawberries, watermelon and pickles (cucumbers). I've been wanting to give potatoes a try and of course we have to plant tomatoes, so that only left a few spaces left in the garden for whatever random plants I came upon.

When all was said and done, this is what ended up in our garden this year.
- potatoes, and a lot of them      - carrots
- tomatoes                                  - broccoli
- cucumbers                               - brussel sprouts
- zucchini                                   - watermelon
- jalapeno peppers                     - strawberries
- chives (because even the zombie apocalypse won't kill these plants)

As you can guess I don't stand my garden from seed. Quite frankly I just don't have the patience, so I prefer to pay a little more and get the actual plant. The only thing I had to buy seeds for was the carrots (obviously) and watermelon. I've tried growing watermelon in the past and didn't have much luck, so hopefully these seeds fair better. We also have some raspberries popping up through the fence. There is a bush in the alley along our yard but I guess the sun is nicer on our side. We'll leave them for now, but if they get really invasive then they'll have to go.

As I type this post the garden has actually been in for about a month and we have already harvest a bit of food! We actually cut off a couple good size stalks of broccoli, Roman ate the few strawberries we had, and I've given away stacks of chives because it was so big that it was laying on top of the carrots. Obviously different plants are going to be ready at different times, so I think I'll just post a collective "harvest" post at the end of the growing season.

Also, does anyone else feel like their garden looks better right after it's been watered?

**Update: Bronx breached the perimeter and ate all the broccoli. Luckily I found one last broccoli plant in town, so we are starting over. 

Past Posts
Building the Garden
Garden 2015

Spring Yard Work

Well it's that time of year already; time to make the grass grown! If you've read my post about our lawn last year you know that it wasn't in the greatest shape when we purchased the house in 2013.  While we did make some improvement last year we still have a way to go.  We also built a garden last year so that has to be cleaned up for spring, along with my front flower bed.  Oh the pleasures of home ownership that we all seem to forget about during the long winter...

With Roman spending more and more time in the yard it's that much more incentive to get the grass in the back yard into good shape.  We had a major problem with thistles last year and I'm sure we'll continue to wage that war this year.  How major can thistles be you might wonder?  I kid you not we had thistles that were at least a foot across.  Obviously no amount of poison was going to kill those monsters, nor did we want to use it around the dogs and Roman, so we ended up having to dig them out.  This left a few good size holes in the lawn that will need to be filled and seeded this year. 

To kick off grass growing season I raked the entire yard really well to remove all the dead grass and to rough up the ground so that the grass seed and fertilizer would penetrate more easily.  With that done I applied a good layer of Scotts Turf Builder Coated High Traffic Grass Seed to the entire lawn, focusing on the bald or destroyed areas.  Bronx is murder on our lawn so I think this seeding business might be a yearly event for our lawn.  I followed the seed up with a nice thick layer of CIL Golfgreen Gold lawn fertilizer.  We went with this fertilizer because it was on sale, and because it is safe for use around kids and pets.  Now it's a matter of keeping it well watered so that the seed can germinate and hopefully grow into a beautiful, lush lawn!

Now on to the job I've been dreading all winter; cleaning up the garden.  When we did the final harvest last fall we basically pulled the tomato plants and walked away from the rest because it was so darn rainy and cold.  Well I'm paying for that now.  The garden was full of weeds and quack grass which was nice enough to stick around to visit me this spring.  The only perennials in the garden are the chives, dill and rosemary and asparagus.  The chives have already started growing again but there is no sign of the dill (which I'm sure will pop up later) or asparagus, and the rosemary isn't looking so hot.  I'm pretty sure when the zombie apocalypse descends upon us the only thing that will survive will be chives. 

Luckily the weather cooperated with us and Roman and I got to rock our tank tops and shorts!  You didn't think I had to work alone did you?  Roman had a blast digging around with the shovel and rake while I did all the heavy lifting.  Bronx is already back to his old tricks of hunting birds, which is extremely irritating when you have to listen to him bark all the time but it keeps him busy.  If you are our neighbor, I'm sorry!

Of course all work and no play is never fun, so Roman was sure to inject so fun into our work.  This is now one of his favorite hiding spots in the yard.  I can't imagine it's comfortable to crawl up into a raspberry bush but he seems to thinks it's great!

Once the garden was dug up and weeded I sprinkled in a good layer of CIL Gro Organic garden fertilizer since I had some left over from last year.  This stuff worked extremely well last year so I wanted to use it to restore the nutrient content of the soil before we plant this year's garden.  Roman loves water and jumped at the chance to be able to water the garden.  Unfortunately it appears he is now strong enough to squeeze the handle himself, which is sure to make for some interesting moments this summer...

So this is the plan for the garden this year.  I've cut down on the number of tomato plants this year because we had more tomatoes last year than any family in the world could possibly consume.  Watch, now that I've said that the tomatoes won't grow at all this year.  I've also cut back on the number of parsley and basil plants because I still have a freezer full of fresh herbs from last year.  The butternut squash, brussel sprouts and watermelon are all going to be experimental for me this year, but I've heard other people in town have had luck with squash and sprouts so here's hoping! The large empty section on the left side I still haven't quite decided on.  I might plant potatoes there this year but I'm not sure.  Maybe I'll cruise the vegetable isle in the greenhouse and see what pops out at me. 

I must admit I'm a little embarrassed to even post this set of photos.  This poor flower bed was horribly neglected last year and the quack grass took over a good portion of it.  Since we were already out digging up the garden I figured we might as well tackle the flower bed.  Unfortunately the flower bed was worse than I thought and I actually had to look back at my flower bed post from last year to see where the perennials were located.  Insert face palm here.

I was having trouble keeping Roman out of the neighbor's sprinklers so I decided to fill the water table for him.  No, it wasn't warm enough to play in the water but I figured this was better than standing in the middle of a sprinkler.  Of course before I knew it he had half the table filled with mud so I guess that will be a project for another day.  I always need projects anyway I suppose...

This is much better!  It's actually a little shocking to look at the before and after photos and to see how much the grass had invaded the bed.  I'm pretty sure I lost a couple perennials in the process of digging out the grass but it's nothing that can't be replaced.  My favorite lily is still in tact and that's all that matters!

Now that we have the base line established I'm excited to see what these areas will look like in a few months!!

Follow Us Friday - Sick but Recovering!

It appears summer is quickly coming to an end on the prairies.  For the next few days the temperature isn't supposed to get above 10°C.  I happen to love fall so I'm all for it!  Roman on the other hand will probably have a hard time adjusting to the cooler weather and not being able to go outside as much.  He has been pretty cooped up for the last few days as he has a virus and a bacterial infection, plus the poor little guy's first year molars are super swollen and causing him a lot of pain.  We have some antibiotics for him and he's slowly getting better and not sleeping/crying all day like he was in the beginning.  Here is what our days look like with a semi-cranky, hurtin' unit of a toddler.

7:30am - Breakfast
Or at least we attempted breakfast.  I had a couple Breakfast Burrito Bites and I attempted to share with Roman but he was having non of it.  I managed to get a few frozen blueberries into him along with maybe 1T of peanut butter that he sucked off a cracker.  He was up most of the night drinking milk for comfort so I wasn't completely surprised that he didn't have much of an appetite.

8:00am - Inside Play
Lately all Roman wants to do is sit on the couch and play.  Maybe it's because he sees John and I sitting on the couch?  Or maybe it's because he likes climbing to get up there?  Either way, this morning that was the location of most of his playing.  While he drove his ambulance and car around I sat on the floor and wiped his boogers as they ran down his lip.  Delicious, I know.  I must say though that he is a trooper when it comes to wiping his nose.  If you have a kid that hates having their nose wiped, try Boogie Wipes!  When I first saw them, while I was pregnant, I thought "what a money grab, just use a tissue!".  Oh how little I knew.  They are soaked in saline and are super soft which makes them much more gentle on little noses.  They are also great for melting off the crunchy boogers that get stuck to Roman's face during the night.

 

8:30am - Take me outside!!
Yes it's cool out, and yes Roman is recovering from being sick, but when this kid wants to go outside you go or suffer the consequences, and I personally would like to live to see tomorrow.  I bundled Roman up and we headed outside for a bike ride and some coloring.  Of course no trip outside is complete without visiting the backyard to eat some green tomatoes and play in the water table, which was empty much to Roman's dismay.  But who needs a fancy water table when you have an empty water bottle and a stage.  Let the dance party begin!!

 

9:15am - Snack
Praise Jesus the kid wants to eat!  There is nothing more concerning to a Mom than when her little one won't eat.  For the first 2-3 days Roman was sick he refused to eat anything.  I had to bribe and trick him to drink water and suck down a few snack pouches.  So today when he gobbled down a Minigo yogurt and 6 raspberries I couldn't have been happier!  You'll notice that Roman isn't in his highchair for this snack.  Well he suddenly decided one day that he was a big boy and wanted to sit in a regular chair.  Luckily my Mom had picked up this awesome John Deere booster seat at a consignment store, so I busted it out for him.  He goes back and forth on where he wants to sit, so for now we have both options available to him.  To top off his great eating Roman decided he'd clean the table for me!  Love this kid!

10:00am - Nap Time
Nap times have been a little rough lately with Roman being sick and it usually takes a bit of rocking and snuggling to get him to sleep.  Total flash back to 10 months ago when John and I had to bounce, rock, giggle and sway for an hour for Roman to go to sleep.  I'm praying that he transitions easily back to going to sleep by himself once he's feeling better.  Now it's time for my snack!  Nothing exciting just a rice cake with some dark chocolate almond butter on it.  I settled in for some blogging with a cup of Cinnaberry tea from DavidsTea.  I just picked this up on the weekend and it's absolutely delicious!  It tastes like blueberry crumble in a cup!  Given the chilly weather I decided it was time to bust out the candles.  I don't normally burn candles in the spring and summer but I almost always have one going in the fall and winter!  This banana pudding candle smells delicious in the jar but doesn't throw scent as much as some of the other Bath & Body Works candles do.  A little disappointing but it still smells good if your close to it!!

12:15pm - Lunch
In my attempt to keep Roman eating and happy I'm a little guilty of giving him only his favorites lately.  Luckily most of his favorites are good for him so he's still getting some food that will help him gain strength and rebound from being sick.  Today he had some delicious Smart Mac & Cheese, a bit of bread and some canned chicken.  I had a delightful chicken salad sandwich for lunch.  Okay so it wasn't really delightful it was pretty typical, but it was tasty!  Afterwards I enlisted Roman's help to unload and load the dishwasher.  He was surprisingly helpful!

 

1:30pm - Outside we go again!
I saw on the news while Roman was napping that we are going to have freezing, or close to freezing, temperatures overnight for the next week, so I knew I had to get the tomatoes in the house.  I still have pepper plants that are loaded with small peppers and blooms, so I'm hoping that if we cover them we'll be able to save them.  I love fall but it would have been nice if the cold temperatures held off until I got all my veggies in the house!  Roman of course was a great help at picking tomatoes, eating tomatoes, and stealing all my picked tomatoes and eating/squishing them. 

3:00pm - Snack Time and more playing!
Apparently Roman didn't eat enough tomatoes, so it was time for a snack!  Today he weaseled into the fridge in front of me and pulled out a square of Laughing Cow cheese and a bottle a jam.  Hey, I can take a hint.  So for a snack he had a cracker with cheese and bread with jam.  Obviously the jam was the real winner here.  Again, I'm just excited he's eating!  Once he was fueled up again it was time to do some serious building and have some kisses and cuddles with Bronx.

5:00pm - What a great time for a nap.
I had been been trying to tell Roman for 2 hours that he needed a nap but I guess he decided he wanted to wait until 5pm.  This isn't great for his sleeping routine since I ideally want him in bed by 8, but there is no way I was fighting with him until then.  I let him sleep as long as I could and woke him up around 5:50pm so he could have some....

6:15pm - Supper!
Lately John and I haven't exactly been eating the best food for us.  McDonalds, Chinese food, Beetniks (post to come on what this is), all delicious, all not good for us.  So I decided tonight would be a good salad night.  I love Taco Salad for a meal because it's hearty but still good for you.  I usually make it with turkey, like I did today, but any ground meat is delicious!  I like to skip the salad dressing and use salsa instead.  More flavor, less calories, and just as saucy!  Roman had a toddler version of taco salad with turkey, salsa, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese!

7:00pm - DanceFit Class!
I'll start with the back story.  When I was younger (8-13 years old) I was a competitive dancer.  I lived for dance.  I took tap, jazz as well as a few other classes.  I even took exams so I could one day teach dance.  I was dancing 3-4 nights a week for 2-3 hours a night.  I quickly burnt out and grew to loath dance when I couldn't hang out with my friends, not to mention it was extremely expensive for my Mom, so I decided to quit.  Over the years I have really missed the classes, so when we decided I would be staying home with Roman I knew this was my chance to get back into it, sort of.  I signed up for a DanceFit class at the local field house.  I'd never taken a class like this before but I was sure it was going to be a great time, plus it would help me with my weight loss goals and give me a short one hour break from the house once a week.  I wasn't disappointed!  It was an awesome class, even though I was quite sure I was going to die half way through.  Note to self, take two water bottles next time!

7:30pm - Tubby Time
I wasn't home for this event but I'm told it went amazingly well.  Roman laughed hysterically and splashed while John sang his rendition of "Old McDonald" which includes every member of our family.

8:00pm - Bed Time
The dreaded moment of the entire day.  With Roman being sick this is one of the hardest parts of the day (followed closely by night time where he is waking every 1-2 hours).  But wait!  Roman has a surprise for Mom tonight!  He went to sleep like his regular self!  Such a pleasant surprise when I have a bunch of stuff to get done before bed!  After a glorious shower I settled in with a delicious cup of Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait tea to finish up this blog post.  Tomorrow is another exciting day since Roman is starting his second session of swim lessons!  He loves to the pool so it's sure to be a blast!  Even if it is a lot of work for me.

It's now the next day but I had to give you an update!  Roman slept pretty much through the night!  I can see the light at the end of this sick tunnel!!! *insert happy dance here*

First Harvest & Herb Storage

Is there anything more delicious than food fresh out of the garden?  If there is I don't know what it is.  Oh wait, chocolate cake!  I don't have any chocolate cake so I guess I'll have to make do with some delicious produce!  I acquired a good variety of items in the first major harvest of the year.

Let's start with the dill.  I finally had enough with my dill bush (yes it was the size of a small bush) so I cut it all down.  It was stifling some of the other nearby plants because it was so big and had to be dealt with.  After I stripped all the tender dill sprigs off the branches I packaged them up into handy little dill rolls.  This is a technique that a friend of my Mom's (the very same one that gave her the Pierogie recipe) passed on to her.  Place the dill in the centre of a square of plastic wrap and roll it up like a burrito.  Pop it in the freezer and when you want to use it just unwrap a section and slice it.  When the dill is frozen it is very easy to finely chop the amount you want!

 

The parsley is growing like a weed and I literally can't keep up with cutting it off.  I swear it doubles in size every day.  I think I could cook with fresh parsley every day for the next 6 months and not run out.  To store the parsley, I rinse it off and stuff it into sandwich bags and freeze it.  Once it's frozen I find most of the parsley will crumble up just with the bags being moved around in the freezer, which is handy because I don't have to chop it when I want to use it!

The chives, basil and rosemary are getting to the end of their days so I collected most of what was left from them.  I left a few rosemary and basil branches in the garden and I'll cut the chives back to the ground in the fall.  All of these herbs just get popped into sandwich bags and stored in the freezer.  Chives are a perennial herb that will come back year after year and require little to no care.  I actually have a cluster of chives that are growing in an old pot, in direct sun, without any water (other than rain) for the last 2 years.  Talk about hardy!

The green onions, carrots and beans and chugging right along and producing well.  Roman loves to walk around the yard while he munches on a fresh carrot.  Who can blame him!  He's also been known to make off with a bean or two that he usually ends up sharing with Bronx.  Again, shock shock.

I am completely flabbergasted with the performance of two of the plats in the garden, and for good reason!  The strawberries have surprisingly produced a ton of fruit for us.  The birds must have had their fill of Saskatoons because they haven't touched the strawberries at all.  It may also help that Bronx has snagged a few of the robins out of mid air....  With the two plants we have, every couple of days we all head out to the garden after dinner for our strawberry dessert.  So good!  Probably most surprising of all are the peppers.  Not only are the peppers growing, but they are enormous!  We have been watching these guys patiently as they grow bigger and bigger.  Finally we decided it was time to pick the chili peppers.  I've used them in a few dishes and was very impressed by the flavour as well!  A few of the bell peppers were picked by a certain small person, who then proceeded to bite right into them, but the rest I'm letting grow until they can grow no more, which might be soon!

The tomatoes have grown into a small forest which is starting to produce delicious grape sized tomatoes.  The plants themselves were up to a whopping 6-7 feet before we had a nasty windstorm come through that pushed the higher branches down and wound them into the lower ones.  I've managed to string most of the branches up on the fence, but we did lose a few.  Luckily a few of the plants are growing like vines up the neighbors fence and that seems to have saved them from the damaging winds!

 

To see how I built my garden click here!

To see where this garden was 1 month ago click here!

Project Garden

We are two months into project garden and things are moving along wonderfully!  As I mentioned in my yard update post, we have had some amazing weather for growing plants this year and our garden has definitely benefited from it, for the most part....  To see what this garden looked like at the start click here!

Let start off with the herbs, or as I refer to them as, the jungle.  We use a lot of parsley when we cook, especially in the summer, so I figured it was a good idea to plant 4 parsley plants.  Who knew that they would all grow to a mammoth size!  I have been cutting off branches and leaves every few days and they are still growing out of control!  I guess that is a good problem to have when it comes to growing food.  Clearly I couldn't possibly use all of this parsley fresh, so after washing it I pop it into a sandwich bag and freeze it.  The best part, when it's frozen you don't even have to chop it because it breaks up like ice!  The basil, thyme, chives and dill are all producing well.  I've been able to harvest from each several times already.  But seriously, if you need some parsley just let me know and I'll mail it to you!

 

I have been very pleasantly surprise but the pepper plants.  To be honest I didn't have a whole lot of faith that they were actually going to produce peppers.  I've only ever tried to grow peppers one other time and all I got was one measly pepper.  While I don't have any peppers yet, the plants are loaded with flowers which I hope (fingers crossed!!) will turn into delicious peppers.  Unfortunately I don't have quite as many peppers plants as I started out with.  It seems the learning curve for a certain white sasquatch (Bronx) was a little slower than I hoped it would be, and of course he had to level the two strongest plants with the most flowers.  Oh well, such is life I suppose.  I'm sure whatever caused him to high-tail through the garden was extremely important and would completely justify the loss of my pepper plants....

 

The white sasquatch was also responsible for the loss of my watermelon plant.  I wasn't too broken up about this since I didn't think I was actually going to end up with a watermelon anyway.  In hindsight, with the fabulous weather we've had, it might have stood a chance!  There is no sense in leaving an empty space in the garden when I could be growing something, so I decided to pick up some cucumber plants to fill the space.

 

Mother Nature wasn't completely on my side though.  I had almost no luck at all with any of the seeds I planted.  Part of the problem was where I decided to plant some of them; I didn't realize one corner of the bed was as shady as it was, and I think the other part was the white sasquatch and his spotted companion (Lola).  Over the course of their many trips through the garden I think they pounded the seeds down far enough that there was no hope in germination.  Animals I tell ya.  I recently seeded beans where the original cucumbers were, so here's hoping that these ones take!

On to the fruit!!  The strawberries are doing surprisingly well considering I had basically zero hope of them producing anything.  There was one good size strawberry that I was saving for Roman but the birds got to it before I did.  I've been meaning to cover them with mesh but since the first berry I haven't had many more show up, so I haven't been in a rush.  Not bad for an experiment I guess!  Our Saskatoon tree is chock-full of nice sized Saskatoons and I couldn't be more excited!  If you don't know what Saskatoon's are, they are a delicious berry synonymous with Saskatchewan and quite possibly the most scrumptious morsel of berry goodness that you will ever taste!  We are taking the birds on head on and trying anything we can to keep the birds away.  So far we have spinning shiny decorations hanging in the tree to deter them, and we may have shot a few with the water hose when they got too close.  (No birds were harmed in the writing of this blog post!).  If you have any tips to keep the pesky birds away, please share in the comments!

Onto the pies de resistance, the tomatoes!  I have no idea how these behemoths came to be.  All I did was water (although not much with all the rain) and give them a bit of organic fertilizer.  These plants also get the most sun out of any of the plants in the entire garden.  I guess the trick to growing massive tomatoes is to ignore them for the large part....  I think we are going to be overloaded with tomatoes come fall, which is good because Mom's tomatoes died so we'll be able to supply her!  Be sure to keep an eye out for a tomato sauce canning video this fall, no canner required!!





Maybe I do have a green thumb!

We've had some amazing weather this year when it comes to growing flowers and grass.  We have had tons and tons of rain broken up by some very hot days.  As much as I hate the humidity (and the heat for that matter) the plants seem to love it.  Let's jump right in to the update!  Click here for the original post!

It's been about a month since I planted all my flowers and I am happy to report that they are all still alive!  Probably most impressive is that the weeds in the flower bed aren't as big as the flowers!!  This is really shocking since everything is literally growing like a weed and of course the fact that I despise weeding more than anything in the world.  I think I would actually go through labour again before I spent an afternoon weeding.  I was also lucky enough to have my Aunt (Hi Aunt Kathy!) come over and water my flowers while we were away on vacation, which I'm sure saved them from certain death.

My irises bloomed beautifully but the idea of taking a picture for this post completely escaped me!  Which is unfortunate because they were gorgeous!  I forgot just how much I truly love lilies until mine started to bloom.  John probably thought I had lost my mind as I went running across the yard to bask in the glory of the first lily bloom.  Now it has become a daily ritual to check the progress of the new buds and to admire the magnificent blooms.

A few weeks ago my Mom, Roman and I made a trip to Dutch Growers to pick up some new additions for the flower bed and came across this beauty!  I loved this mushroom the moment I saw it!  Because the top is attached to the base by a spring, Roman also loves it since he can hit it and make it dance!  Some people try to keep their kids out of their flower beds.  I have accepted the fact that there are not enough hours in the day to chase this child out of my flowers and therefor have tried to make my flower bed baby friendly.  So far there haven't been any flower casualties as he's too distracted by the "toys" to notice the flowers, let's hope it stays that way!  Thanks Mom for the Birthday mushroom!

Now for the new additions to the flower bed.  I decided to get a few ground cover perennials to help choke out some of the weeds so that one day I won't have to weed at all!  Just the thought of it makes me smile!  The first plant I picked up was a Purple Robe Rockfoil.  This plant has small spiky leaves that produces red/purple flowers with white centres in spring.  The horticulturist at Dutch pointed out this next plant to me.  Elfin Thyme is a moss like plant with tiny leaves and tiny pink/purple flowers.  The selling point for this plant, you can walk on it!  Perfect for planting between paving stones on a walk path, or for a flower bed that doubles as a playground for small people!  It is also drought tolerant which is perfect for this south exposure bed.  Last but not least I picked up a Creeping Speedwell, which is similar to my Creeping Jenny (which I learnt is also a perennial not an annual!).  The plant has small white flowers that bloom in mid spring to early summer and can stand up to moderate foot traffic.  Bring on destructor baby!

The other day I noticed that Canadian Tire had all their plants on 50% off.  We decided to stop by and see what they had left.  I'm so glad that we did!  I have loved hydrangeas forever.  In Toronto (where John is from) people have them all over the place and I knew one day I could have my very own bush.  Would you believe they had the Annabelle Hygrandea on sale for $15!?!  Plus the plant is huge (probably close to 3 feet) and is in really good shape considering the time of year and the fact that it was on clearance.  John loves lilacs so I knew I wanted to get a couple for the yard.  Just my luck they had Syringa Vulgaris 'Prairie Petite' on sale for $11 each!  Total score! 

Now for John's pride and joy, the lawn.  I think we won the lottery when we decided to try to grow grass this year.  With all the rain we've had I only had to water the grass for a couple weeks before the rain took over and showered the seeds with the elixir of growth.  The bare spots are filling in amazingly and it's just a lot more lush and green over all.  There are still a few spots that are a little worn down but with dogs in the yard you can't expect perfection.  The only down side to this amazing grass is that poor John has been having to cut it twice a week just to keep from losing Lola in the yard!

Lawn Rehab

Now that Roman is walking he needs space to run and play.  Our front yard has deep green, luscious, grass that he can play in, but with a south exposure, it gets very hot very fast.  Attempting to play with Roman in the back yard one afternoon I became so frustrated with the state of the lawn that I decided it was going to be fixed NOW. Between the previous owner not looking after the lawn and the dogs (specifically Bronx) running laps through the yard, the poor grass (if you can even call it that) is in pretty rough shape. There are large sections that have be worn down to the dirt, others have patches of relatively healthy grass, and other areas have reverted to prairie grass.

I immediately loaded Roman up in my car and headed to Canadian Tire to get supplies.  I picked up two rakes and a bag of Scotts Turf Builder Sunny Mix grass seed.  I might have also picked up a few flowers while in the garden centre, but we just won't tell John about them...

Once Roman was in bed for the night war was unleashed on the lawn.  We started by raking the grass to remove all the dead grass and loosening the dirt so they grass seed would sit in the dirt rather than on top of the soil/dead grass.  Using a hand spreader we spread the entire bag over our lawn.  We put the seed on fairly thick so that there wouldn't be any bare spots and so we'd have the best chance at germination.

After two days of watering we decided to follow the seed with a layer of Scotts Turf Builder Lawn Fertilizer to give the grass an extra boost.  We had a partial bag left from fertilizing the front lawn so we just used what was left of the bag.  We are continuing to water the grass every other day or so (if it isn't raining) to keep the seed moist and to dissolve the fertilizer.  Now we play the waiting game and hope that grass grows!  To be continued....