Seed starting has begun!

Happy Valentine's Day!   And seed starting has begun!  

I might be jumping the gun with the seeds this year, but with this long cold Winter that just won't east up, I really needed to have some sense that Spring will (eventually) come by doing something gardening related.  And thus seed starting is the closest thing I can get to at this point.

According to the gardening book I read recently, peppers are the first on the list.  Here we have yellow bell pepper and cayenne pepper.  I haven't had a very good harvest with yellow bell peppers in the past few seasons and I think one of the main reasons is that I start the seeds too late.  And since our planting season is so short here in Toronto, the late starter pepper plant doesn't have enough time to fully develop and pump out a good crop of peppers.  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by starting these indoor a good month and a half earlier than I usually do, I will get a decent size plant by the time it's warm enough to transfer the plants outdoors.  

Keep your fingers crossed for me!  :)

~ Rebecca

Preparation

Time to get planning!  After reading a few excellent gardening books by Gayla Trail and learning about some excellent gardening hints and tips, I'm all ready to think gardening!  First, let's do some organizing....

With the slightly disappointing planting season last year (not entirely my fault - the weather really did not cooperate), this time around I'm going to start specific seeds as early as possible - in this case it's peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes.  I've started my seed starting and planting chart (above) to get myself organized,  but also to review my seed inventory and figure out what seeds I need to replenish.

Speaking of seeds, do other gardeners have the same problems of buying / collecting too many seeds?  It takes me a few seasons to fully finish using a packet of seeds, but every year I still have the urge to buy more (seed hoarder?).  I buy almost all my seeds from Urban Harvest - they carry heirloom and organic seeds with varieties that are tried and tested for planting in our climate zones (on top of that it's a good way to support local businesses).

Summary for today:
- seed planting schedule:  check
- buy new seeds - done.
- collect and clean planting vessels (this weekend)....

Almost there! :)

~ Rebecca

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Today is winter solstice, the first day of Winter and the shortest day of the year.  From here on, the days are going to start getting longer again, which means in a few months it'll be time to get planting again!  Time to research and brain storm about next season's gardening ideas.... :)  Meanwhile, 

have a wonderful holiday and happy new year! 

Root vegetables

The root vegetables in my garden were the big winners this year - in particular the Chioggia beets.  I enjoyed them quite a bit last year so this year I decided to plant a lot of more of them.  As usual, the Chioggia beets will grow in a variety of colours - candy stripe , red, or just pure white.  This year, we got mostly candy-striped and one white ones.    

  

They not only taste delicious, but they are also beautiful to look at.  Look at that colour!!  

I found a recipe from the New York Times for Chioggia beets, quinoa, and walnut salad: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/health/spinach-salad-with-red-and-chioggia-beets-quinoa-and-walnuts.html?_r=0

The beets were so successful that they grew well into November.  Here are the last few from the end of the season harvest.  I boiled them quickly and fried it up with some butter - they were delicious! 

This year I also planted two variety of carrots - Solar Yellow carrots and French carrots.  The French carrots had this very cute, round shape root.  However, I find carrot growing to be a bit less satisfying (compared to beets) because they take almost the entire season to grow and the final edible portion is quite small (again, at least compared to beets).   Still, they were incredibly delicious so I was still glad to have planted them.  

Pesto

Every year I regret not planting enough basil, so this year I went to the extreme and literally planted basil everywhere (where ever I could fit them) in the vegetable planters.  Most of them were planted near the tomato plants, apparently basils are great companion plants for tomato plants as it's supposed to enrich the flavours of the tomatoes.     

 

I was quite pleased with the amount of basil I got to harvest throughout the season.  Fresh herbs are just so wonderful and handy to have around - a little bit over here on the pasta, a little bit over there for sauce, and some just to garnish the plate.  All together we had plenty of basil share with friends and family this time around, even enough to make a batch of pesto at the end of the season ;) 

Hydrangeas in the Fall

I know the Fall is coming when the hydrangeas begin to turn pink.  These Limelight PG hydrangeas take on a beautiful rosy/blush colour in the late summer / early Fall.  It's quite a spectacular plant as the flower clusters grows to quite large size - you can see it from a mile a way (well, not exactly a mile, but far enough).   This is probably the plant I get the most compliments on consistently on a yearly basis (and it requires the least amount of work - all I do is trim the branches in the Spring!)

Tomatoes this year

This has not been the best summer for my tomato plants.  This year, I planted two variety of tomatoes - Caspian Pink tomatoes and Big Rainbow tomatoes.  I decided to try planting larger tomatoes rather than Cherry tomatoes like last year to give it a try.  I had a late start with starting the tomato seeds this year, so the seedlings were small to begin with at the beginning of summer.  The cool and wet summer weather we've been having didn't help either.  I took the plants till early August to form fruits.  

The tomatoes actually stayed green for a very long time, almost one month.  I think it was almost the beginning of September when the first tomato turned orange/red.  

 Unfortunately I think the tomato plants were blighted (late blight) so by the time the fruits were changing colour, some of the leafs and stems were starting to turn brown.  At the end of the season, we only got a handful of edible tomatoes, rather disappointing results from five tomato plants.  I did a bit of research and found some resources on how to prevent tomato blight.  I think the key will be in air circulation, as well as having variety of tomato species (going to plan some cherry tomatoes for sure), at which some species are more blight-resistant than others.  I will need to start the seeds much earlier next season to ensure the seedlings have plenty of time to develop before going outdoors.    

Also, some warmer summer weather would help as well (keeping my fingers crossed for next season).   

Here's a good link to some resources related to tomato blight: 

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/dc20.php