November surprises

It's November - the weather is cooling down and it's time to bundle up.  This is also time to start cleaning up the gardens and getting rid of unwanted/dead plants.  This is also time to pick out whatever is left in the vegetable gardens before the first frost hits.  

A very pleasant surprise were the Solar Yellow Carrots.  Although they took almost the entire season to grow, they turned out beautifully and was a nice little treat in November when almost all the other vegetables were gone.  Now it's making me think that I should have planted a few more of them!  We at them the same day they were harvested (boiled them quickly and sauteed in butter) and they were DELICIOUS! 

Here's a pic of a few other things I managed to harvest in November - lots of green onions, red onions, cayenne peppers, cherry tomatoes, and even one lettuce plant that was hiding in between the onions! 

I have to say, it has been a GREAT growing season this year.  Not that we grew so much that we could feed a village, but definitely enough to supplement our grocery bills.  I learned so much about starting the plants from seeds and about different vegetables, and was so good to see what heirloom, organic, and natural vegetables should be like (not to mention how delicious everything tastes!).

Now... time to take a break and start planning for next season! :)  Stay tuned! 

Fall visitors

 

This time of the year, lots of little visitors come by the gardens to feed and collect food for the Winter.  The seeds from the Black Eyed Susan is a popular choice for these little brown birds.... 

Very once in a while, we'll see some Cardinals.  I even saw a hummingbird earlier in the summer but it flew away before I had a chance to grab a camera.... 

And then, the ever so fearless squirrels.  They LOVE digging around in the garden, either looking for tulip bulbs people are planting for next Spring, or they are hiding something in the ground to be picked up later on in the season.  This one's eyeing the nice yummy pumpkin we put on our porch just before Halloween....    

And it took a nice bite (several bites actually)!  I guess Mr. Squirrel likes pumpkins!  I guess we just have to car around it for our Jack-o-lantern!  

Fall colours

A few photos to capture the beautiful colour of Fall..... 

The purple Aster blooms gloriously in the Fall... 

Limelight Hydrangea slowly starting to turn pink/blush colour.... 

Happy Autumn! 

Floral recap

Another recap of this summer's plants - here are the variety of flowers from the garden.  Can you identify them all?  :)

End of season roundup - vegetables

The end of the vegetable growing season is near and here's a nice little collage of this summer's various harvest.  Starting from left to right, top to bottom:

French Breakfast Raddish / Bak Choy / Variety of lettuces (Paris Island, Red Salad Bowl, Four Seasons, Arugula)

Nasturdium (Edible flower) / Red Onion / Cherry tomatoes

Cayenne pepper / Thai Basil / English Cucumber

Roma Tomato / Basil (right edge of photo) / Chioggia Beet (heirloom variety for the red & white stripes)

Other things that I didn't get a chance to include in the collage:

Rosemary, Oregano, Mint, Dill, Solar Yellow Carrot, and Strawberries!

I tried to keep track of the amount, but I think I lost track after a while... next year I'm buying a scale to weight the harvest:

   

I have to say this summer's vegetable growing experiment was quite successful (and extremely fun!).  Perhaps it was the early start to the summer or the several weeks of heat wave we had, I found that some of the vegetable plants (such as the cherry tomatoes) were starting to look pretty "tired" starting in mid-August. As well, the variety of plants I planted were mostly harvested early to mid-summer, so towards the end of the summer there were not very many things to harvest.  I think next year I will plant more variety so that there will be some things to harvest into the Fall.  Pumpkin anyone? 

P.S. I was very happy with the vegetable plants resulted from the seeds I purchased from Urban Harvest - they've got a huge selection of organic and heirloom seeds.  Check them out and buy local!  

Remembering.... my buddy..... she will be dearly missed..... 

French Breakfast Radish

First radish of the season!!!  I've been waiting for these "French Breakfast Radish" to be ready for a while now, so today I decided to  dig one up as the top was starting to be visible above the soil.  I read somewhere that the earlier you harvest the radish the less spicy they are, so I decided to give this a try before it gets too "spicy".  The result?  DELICIOUS!  Just slice them up and eat them raw, or mix them into a salad :)  Can't wait to harvest more in a few more days!     

Strawberries

 

We have a strawberry patch in the backyard that the previous owner had planted, and this year we were determined to protect them against the squirrels (we were told that those little monsters cause havoc on any vegetable and fruit garden)

Because of the warm weather we've been having this Spring, by the second week of May the strawberry plants were already full in bloom.  

 

And before the end of May, fruit were already forming and they were in pretty good shape, and some were starting to turn red already.... 

And ta-da!! The first few ripe ones :)  Freshly picked from the garden - it doesn't get any more fresh than that!  (And these are real size strawberries, around 1" big, not like the giant monster ones you see at the supermarket - sometimes you wonder what they use to plump those ones up so much?!)

May 2-4 and Vegetable Planters

It's Victoria Day weekend in Canada and they say this is the weekend that is "safe" to start planting your plants outside (no danger of frost).  Even though I started my seeds wayyyy early this year, I had a bit of a setback in April when a bunch of them didn't make it and  I was left with some pretty fragile seedlings.  The Cherry tomato plants are doing well and they are just waiting for more soil to transplant to the planters.  The French Radish (a few of them) have come back to life and are getting quite strong, as well as an abundant of lettuce (various kinds) seedlings.... 

So today I decided it was time to do the major transplant into the raised planters in the backyard.  The lettuce seedlings are still quite fragile but they were running room to grow in the pot I started the seeds in (my bad for not reading the seed packet instructions).  So I decided, what the heck, I'll just transplant them into the planter to give it lots of space to grow.   Things proved to be a bit trickier than I had anticipated, as the sun today was quite strong and it was starting to "cook" some of these delicate seedlings.  I had to come up with a device to shade the planters as I was doing the transplanting... quite hectic...  

This is the end result, seedlings planted in neat rows/groups and planter is secured with chicken wire (just in case) to prevent the squirrels from doing any "recreational digging".....  

Keep your fingers crossed for me that these seedlings will survive the next few weeks (in terms of facing the weather and the squirrels!)  Happy Victoria Day! 

" In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." ~ Margaret Atwood

Spring on full force

I still can't get over how beautiful the Phlox are in the garden.  I wasn't familiar with this plant (I'm still a beginner gardening - so knowledge is still very limited!) so I had no idea it was going to be this beautiful display of purple in the Spring time :) 

Zoom in of one of those pretty little purple blooms

And finally, the "Sir Winston Churchill" double daffodils (french: Jonquille) are blooming!  I really thought these were all lost when the squirrels dug up the bulbs in the Fall but I guess they didn't get to all of them :)  They are really as beautiful as I was hoping they would be.... 

And a nice close up of the Viola :) 

Happy Friday!!!

Mystery flower

Can anybody identify what plant this is?  I'm trying to find out what plant this is - it came up in the yard in the Spring about the same time the tulips were coming up.  They're pale blue in colour, with a blue strip down the middle of each petal and are tiny little  delicate flowers.  Let me know if you have any idea what this is!  

Garden Centre Inspiration

 

Went to Sheridan last week to "browse around" :)  It was just wonderful to see all the pretty colours and shapes of the beautiful blooms.  And look at that nice arrangement the store put together - so pretty! 

 

Nice rain barrel they had there - top portion acts as a bird bath, good idea! 

Happy Spring!!!!

Seedlings growing up!

 

With an early start on the seeds, the vegetable plants are really starting to come along, in particular the cherry tomato plants and some of the herbs (cilantro and dill).  I think in a week or so I'm going to have to start planting some of the tomatoes in the big planters outside as they are getting quite tall and needs to be staked soon.  

Unfortunately some of the seedlings didn't make it .  The good news is, it's still April and I still have plenty of time to do round 2 of seed starting :)  So here are a few things that are in the works for Round 2:

- Basil

- Ciapoli onion

- Chives

- Sunflower (round 1 for this)

- Yellow bell pepper (round 1 for this)

I'm also going to start some Cayenne pepper seeds, and perhaps some lettuce?  

Backyard update

  

Spring update on the backyard.  Amazing how different (green) everything looks in a week or two!!    Hostas, daylilies, mint, coreopsis all growing already....  

 

 Spirea, strawberries, and more day lilies.... (I even spotted a few blooms in the strawberry plant!).  And the beautiful Emerald Blue Phlox are in full bloom....

And pretty little blossoms on the Purple Sandcherry tree :) 

Spring Blooms

Another update on the garden .... with the unusually warm weather we've been having there are tons of activities with all the plants in the yard.....

 

Hyacinth and viola's are growing beautifully (the hyacinth smells great too!)

The Sedum plant is growing too... 

Very excited about the Spring/Summer to come !!

Updates

 

The weather in Toronto has been back to the normal range for this time of the year.  Althogh many of the bulbs in the neighborhoods are alreayd blooming, probably 1-2 week ahead of their typical schedule.  The vegetable seedlings are doing well, especially the ones in the kitchen window sill.  The Cherry Tomatos are growing nicely, with nice little leaves and not too stringy...

The Cilantro is coming along as well.  I think I might have threw in more seeds in one pot than I was supposed to, but oh well, more Cilantro for me! :)



Ecofeminism

Fascinating interview with Vandana Shiva on the George Stroumboulopoulos show

Fascinating....

Watch it if you have 20 minutes.... 

Love - Care - Compassion - and Embrace. 

Seed Starting - Part 4

Here's an update on how my vegetable seedlings are doing.... 

(Going to have to change my post title next time, as they are much more than seeds now!)

(Seedlings getting a sun tan last weekend)

The tomato (both cherry and Roma), cucumber, radish seedlings are growing very well.  I think at our new location I'm getting THAT much more sun on the window sills (compared to the seeds I planted last year at a different house), these are less stringy and are producing more leaves already.  

The one surprise this time are the Nasturtium (Alaska Mix) seeds that my Mom gave me.  Even though only 3 out of 9 have sprouted, they are growing at lighting speed and are already almost 6" tall.  It's a little bit on the stringy side but the little plant already has about 6 or 7 small leafs each.  I hope these make it through the next few weeks as they are a GORGEOUS plant to look at, and it's edible!!!  

Can't wait for time to transplant these into large pots/planters when they get bigger.... meanwhile I have to stay patient and keep them indoors till May (that's my goal at least) as the weather is still unpredictable (they say it's supposed to be -2 degree Celsius tonight, coming from a weekend of +16 degrees!).  Well I guess after all it is still only March.  Hopefully all the pretty little flowers blooming in the front (super) early will make it through the next night or two!  

Seed starting chart

Here's a very useful chart I found online today from the Organic Gardening magazine.... it can help you figure out when to start your seeds depending on your vegetable types:

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/seed-starting-chart

Hopefully my vegetable garden this year will be as beautiful as this one I saw at the Canada Blooms show :) 

Spring surprise

Because of how warm it's been in Toronto lately, all the Spring bulbs are already popping up and even blooming.  This morning I was greeted by this beautiful red tulip (which I didn't plant).  I think I see a few other tulips (maybe) leaves popping up nearby as well, can't wait to see what they will bloom into! :)