Our first sweet million

While my blog entries have not been bountiful as of late, the garden has.

As you can see by that photograph, I think I'm going to have to learn how to preserve tomatoes. Our little "sweet million" plants are producing very well. There is a pile of little tomatoes ready to be picked each day now.

It seems the wet weather we've had this summer has been good for the garden in my case.

Let me take you back:

Three days into a vacation in southern ontario it hit me: we didn't ask anyone to water our garden. We weren't going to be home for another 10 days or so.

The weather in Niagara was sunny and warm. We were worried about our plants. Luckily the weather in Petawawa was wet and rainy.

We came back to a garden explosion! The sugar pea plants were falling over from the weight of pea pods begging to be picked. Our tomato plants were bigger than ever and the cucumber plant was taking over.

Unfortunately it was not the case everywhere.

My landlord in Ottawa said the only thing growing well in their garden was the kale. There might be a shortage of tomato sauce for one italian family this winter.

Things continue to grow well in our backyard. We have had many pumpkins start and later rot, but one is still growing and is currently the size of my head. The carrot tops are growing strong and we've pulled a few baby carrots for tasting.

It really is exciting to eat a salad made entirely with vegetables from your garden.

Green pepper never tasted so good!

Our white tomato plant and our zucchini plants are the only ones not doing as well as the rest. We have three white tomatoes growing but none of them look particularly healthy. We've had a few false starts with the zucchini plant and I accidentally picked a tiny zucchini while trying to hand-pollinate the flower.

Now it's a matter of maintaining things.

Anyone want some tomatoes?

Simply Irresistible!

I had to do it!  

I knew our onions were probably not ready but I was too curious to wait any longer.  I picked one out of a bunch of three and plucked it out of the soil.  

I may be biased but it was the most delicious onion I've ever had.

It also lead me to wonder about thinning plants out.  I know you're supposed to thin out the plants but I don't know when or how.  A quick search online lead me to a very comprehensive article from the BBC.  I felt a lot better when I read you might be able to transplant the carrots you pull from the ground while thinning out the row.  

We have a lot more room in some parts of the garden because we had to pull some of our plants due to bolting.  

I had no idea what that was until today.  All I knew is that my little spinach plants went from four baby spinach leaves to a tall flower in no time (See our flickr site for photos).  I couldn't figure out what happened but I spoke to a more experienced gardener and she explained that the hot weather we had a few weeks ago likely caused it (remember when it actually felt like summer?).  I found an article online that explains her theory and instantly felt better.  

I also gained a new appreciation for farmers.  It's hard to grow vegetables when the weather never does what you want it to!

Luckily each plant is different because our other plants exploded over the past few days!  Our tomato plants now come up to my waist and the pumpkins have grown right out of the garden.

I still have a lot to learn about the pumpkins.  The plants seem to be doing well despite the crowding.  I don't know if rubbing the two flowers together did any good yet.  The flower has now fallen off and I'm not sure if that's good or bad.  What's interesting is that they're sprouting new roots along the vine.  I'll have to take a photo to show you what I mean.

Our beans have finally grabbed a hold on the mesh we nailed to the fence.  We put it up way to high for them but, with a little coaxing, they seem to have a good handle on it.  

Everything is flowering, including the cucumbers so I'm hoping that means fruit will be soon to follow!

How's your garden doing?  E-mail me at jennifer@atv.ca

A little bit of lovin'

"Gently swab the stigma of the female flower with the pollen-laden stamen (of the male flower)."

Sound a little strange?  Apparently it's one of the secrets to growing a giant pumpkin (tinyurl.com/m2fdvr).  That same web site suggests selecting the  most promising pumpkin and removing most of the rest.  I'm not sure I'll be able to do that!  Luckily I'm not looking for a prize winner.  I just hope to get a pumpkin large enough to carve in October.

The rest of the garden is doing well.  Our spinach is going to seed already.  I'm not sure if that's normal.  We only got a few leaves of spinach on each plant.  I'll have to do some investigating into that.

We're experiencing a lettuce explosion.  The new rule:  every meal must contain lettuce.  It's the only way to get through our harvest!  

The beans have finally grabbed hold of the mesh we put on the fence, our single zucchini plant is growing strong, and our tomato and pepper plants are flowering.  It's an exciting time in the garden.

 

A little fun...

From The Daily Show with Jon Stewart regarding Michelle Obama's vegetable garden:  http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/#clip174795

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

It feels like mother nature flicked a switch on June 21, and we went instantly from spring to summer.  

This week has been a scorcher and it's clear I'm not the only one feeling the effects.  I did a little research into how much to water a vegetable garden and found out there's no simple answer (tinyurl.com/ljhd5r).   I don't have an irrigation system so myself or R go out back once a day and give the garden a good soak.  So far it seems to be working.

I saw some really interesting garden news in the Globe and Mail today.  It seems plants prefer a woman's voice to a man's (tinyurl.com/nb6kmk).  I'm not quite sure what that says about a man's company, but I'm hoping my plants do well enough with the sound of me talking while I weed.  I don't think you'll catch me spending my time telling stories to my plants.   Maybe I could buy some of those outdoor speakers that look like rocks and hook up an mp3 loop of my voice (tinyurl.com/l6mzw3).

Everything seems to be growing fairly well.  I'm really excited that our carrots are recognizable these days!  We have attached some mesh to the fence for our peas to grab a hold of but we may have put it up a little high for the seedlings.  

I'm curious about adding any kind of mulch or compost at this point.  

If you are a gardener or know anyone with a green thumb, send me a note!  I'd love to know how things are growing.  E-mail me at jennifer@atv.ca

Another one bites the dust

When we first planted the garden we put in six little pepper plants.  Over the past few weeks we've watched five of them grow strong while the sixth plant struggled.  Last night we decided it was time to pull that plant out.  It had wilted to the point where we figured there was no recovering.

On a brighter note the rest of the garden is doing really well.

If you asked the weeds I'm sure they'd tell you we are good gardeners.  They seem to be flourishing!

Last week I purchased some tomato and vegetable plant food.  I mixed a teaspoon of the food with a gallon of water and gave all the plants a good soak.  When I checked in on the garden last night you could already see the difference!  

But it was time to get weeding.  We're finally at the point where it's pretty obvious what is a weed and what is a seedling.  We have quite a few carrots popping up, six bean plants, rows of spinach and one zucchini plant.  I think I accidentally dug up our onion sprouts when I was weeding.  

This morning I picked some of the greens for a salad and I was amazed by their flavour!  The lettuce actually has taste (which various with the variety of plant) and the arugula is downright spicy.  The spinach is delicious!  

We also found some flowers sprouting on the tomato, pepper, and pumpkin plants!  Hopefully we'll see some new growth soon.

I have posted some slideshows on the right of this page and have a flikr site set up as well:  http://tinyurl.com/lzvvto

Enjoy the photos!  And don't forget to send me your own stories and photos.  Is there a gardener you think we should know about?  Send me a comment or e-mail at jennifer@atv.ca

 

Just what I wanted to hear

"Overall it's looking good," says Lulu De Troit, Greenhouse Manager at Sunset Nursery in Pembroke.

It's her first assessment of our garden and she had good news and bad news. The best news is that we can already start eating some of our crops! The herbs and lettuce are ripe for the picking. In fact, De Troit says picking them will help them grow stronger.

She also said the tree is not a big deal. Although it will take up the water and some nutrients she said the plants will be fine.

She did have bad news, as I mentioned, but you'll have to watch A-Morning tomorrow to find out what it was.

Now that the garden is in place the next steps will be to fertilize and eventually weed. In terms of fertilizer, there are a number of different products available including organic options. De Troit recommends different types of fertilizer for different stages of growth (more details tomorrow).

But the best advice she gave me was to just have fun with the garden and enjoy the fruits of our labour. She says if you're a first time gardener there's no need to get too technical about it all.

Plus, you can always visit your local nursery and ask for a little advice!

I hope R comes home for lunch so he can be the first to taste the lettuce growing in his backyard!

If you have questions, suggestions or stories about your garden send an e-mail to jennifer@atv.ca

Make sure to include some photos!

So far so good. I hope.

Every chance I get, I pop out to visit the vegetable garden. Some plants appear to be doing better than others but in general I'd say it looks pretty good (pictures to follow soon)!

After putting the plants and seeds in the ground I did a little research and realized we made one possibly major mistake: we planted the garden around a young tree. There could be a competition for nutrients going on.

Looking at the wilting basil and our sadly flat watermelon plants I decided to call in some help.

Watch A-Morning Wednesday, June 17 to find out what the expert from Sunset Nursery in Pembroke has to say. I know I'm curious.

It seems we're not alone when it comes to growing your own! I knew the idea of planting a vegetable garden was becoming more popular but I had no idea how popular until now.

While backyard gardens aren't a new idea for some, community gardens are popping up in cities across the country (and the world) so those who don't have the space at home can also grow their own crop.

This year, Michelle Obama planted the first vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden during World War II (http://tiny.cc/7NEfz). Even Queen Elizabeth has her own allotment garden on the grounds of Buckingham Palace (http://tiny.cc/lAiGc ).

So it appears we're in good company.

I'm working on a story to explain more about the history of victory gardens, and the growth of community gardening in Ottawa. Watch for it next week.

If you're growing your own garden make sure you post a comment! I would love to hear any tips or tricks. If you have a question I'll try to find an expert to answer it.

The Garden Experiment

I don’t know where the idea came from. But there we were in the middle of the nursery excitedly piling plants onto our green plastic cart. We pulled tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and even a pumpkin. 

We were going to plant a backyard vegetable garden.

I love vegetables and I’ve always wanted a vegetable garden but I’ve lived in apartments for the past 9 years. So when R offered up a corner of his backyard I jumped at the chance!

With a pile of plants in the back of the truck and a trailer full of top soil we made our way back to his house with no idea what we were doing. I’ve never planted a garden and I have trouble keeping house plants alive. And at this point we’ve done no research.

I’ll be honest. R did all the heavy lifting while I finished up some work. He loosened the soil and put down the top soil and I joined him just in time to sprinkle on the fertilizer and rake it in.

As I started writing the names of our plants on little blue stakes I realized we had purchased 20 different plants. So much for starting small. We had two types of carrots, six different herbs, four types of lettuce and one watermelon (that was clearly my idea).

If I had been planting them on my own they would have likely ended up in some chaotic mess. As it turns out, R is a little obsessive compulsive so the lines were drawn and marked with a measuring tape so every plant had the proper amount of room. A few hours later we had a garden!

The only question is: now what?