Life Lessons From Gardening: There Are No Mistakes

I love gardening for so many reasons, not least of which because of everything gardening has taught me. Anyone who has tried to grow something can tell you something that they have learned through the process. Some speak of the appreciation they have for nature, for being witness to the life around them. Others speak about the time spent outdoors and the meditative effect of daily tasks and chores. Then there is the satisfaction of growing one's own food and being intimately connected to the earth.

My favourite gardening lesson is also my favourite life lesson.

There are no mistakes in gardening, only learning experiences.

It is all a matter of perspective, really, as is most of life. Glass half empty or glass half full?

Sure there are posts and books about common newbie gardener mistakes, like not giving plants enough space, under or over fertilizing, or planting in the wrong location. I have read many of them, and when I started container gardening many years ago, and then gardening in my raised beds 5 years ago I did what I do when I start anything new: I read up on how to do it.

But gardening, like life, cannot always be anticipated perfectly, and sometimes things do not go as planned. Of course it feels like a mistake when the garden does not turn out the way you intended it. 

But there are no mistakes, only learning experiences and happy surprises.

An example is my backyard garden so far this season. I was very excited to plant asparagus for the first time this year because I love perennial plants that are plant once and go. I wouldn't be able to harvest any spears this year to allow the plants to establish themselves firmly in the soil, but oh the wait would be worth it for delicious, fresh homegrown spring asparagus. I read the information packet that came with the roots I ordered from a local seed company, did a quick search on the internet to read a little more and then I planted them quickly before heading off on a family vacation.

Asparagus crowns: the roots are the long dangly parts. You
maybe can see why I thought the part of the crowns in the
bottom of the photo were the beginning of the roots,
rather than the future spears. Basically this is upside down.

Continue reading at The Green Phone Booth>>>

Autumn Garden

Tomorrow will be the first day of autumn and I am looking forward to the official end of summer. I feel alive during the summer and I revel in all the outdoor activities we can easily do during the hot months, but like many people, autumn may be my favourite season. This year I have more reasons to say good bye to the summer than in previous years.

The leaves have begun to show their first blush of autumn. On the eve of what should have been the first day of school we spent time at my old alma mater, Simon Fraser University, and enjoyed the beautiful leaves. 

We are fortunate here in the pacific northwest because we can often have an extended summer in September and a long autumn with cool, crisp mornings and warm afternoons well into October. We make up for it in November with the famous Vancouver rain. 

While the intense growing season of the summer has all but ended, I like to extend the backyard harvests with colder season growing. In fact, last year I harvested various Asian greens and kale on December 1st. 

Bok choy, kale, sui choy, turnips, cabbage, marigolds and sunflowers.

I began planning and organizing my fall garden back in late July and early August when I started seeds in a mini shelf greenhouse unit in my backyard. I had to finally say goodbye to the summer and yank up some plants to make room for the new ones, which was hard. 

Beans and tomatoes in the mini greenhouse in the spring.

At the moment my garden beds are looking a little shaggy as I wait for the remaining sunflowers and cucumbers (which as still producing).

Things are looking a little sad with the squash gone and droopy sunflowers.

Growing in Two Raised Beds:

four varieties of kale 

bok choy

sui choy (Chinese cabbage)

leafy lettuce

spinach

turnips

chard

cauliflower and cabbage (for the spring)

garlic (to be planted in October)

parsnips (very hard to germinate; out of two dozen seeds I have three seedlings so far. I don't have high hopes that they will survive)

* This is my first year not growing Brussels sprouts. In the past I have harvested some for Thanksgiving dinner and the rest for Christmas dinner, and now I am regretting not growing them.

Lettuce, spinach, chard, bok choy, sui choy, parsnips, cauliflower

I have plans to build hoops and cover two of my beds with plastic when we have regular frost. I was able to harvest through mid fall frosts last year because we had a warm season and the frosts were intermittent. However, once winter hit we had to wait until late January before the kale was defrosted and edible again. I am hoping to have kale through to the spring with covered beds, as well as cauliflower next spring. 

Summer Bounty

It's been a busy gardening summer, so busy that I haven't really blogged about my garden at all. On top of weeding, cleaning and reseeding, I water every day, which alone takes 30-40 minutes. It is a labour of love, and the time spent in my garden is my personal therapy session.

There is nothing more satisfying than walking out my back door and picking my food, and nothing compares to the taste of fresh, homegrown food. Recently I had a greek salad for dinner at a restaurant and it tasted bland compared to what I could make at home.

Every summer I am reminded about the true cost of our food. I am much less prone to wasting food when I have grown it with my own hands because I understand the effort that went into growing it. When I walk around farmers markets and groceries stores I'm astounded at how reasonable the food actually is, even though people complain about the high cost of fresh, healthy food.

I have four raised beds and multiple containers around the beds. Here is a selection of photos of my summer harvest:

For a family birthday party: greens (kale, chard, lettuce, beet, arugula),
cucumbers, carrots, dragon's tongue beans, tomatoes, peppers.

I tried something new this year: potatoes in grow bags. It was successful,
but next year I will go back to the garden beds to get a higher yield.

Asian greens, so good! I am currently starting new greens (sui choy and
bok choy) for my fall garden.

This mini harvest turned into pesto.

It has been a pretty good year for tomatoes, despite a rough start. The hot
summer has provided the perfect conditions for them. Now to pick them
before the squirrels eat them all! 

I like growing heirloom varieties too, like these yellow pear tomatoes.

The pride and joy of my garden: garlic! It was a bumper crop this year.

Speaking of bumper crop, my cucumbers have been amazing!

I'm trying four different varieties of hot peppers this year: jalapeño, habenero
yellow and red.

My beautiful yellow peppers, so sweet with a little kick.

My beets did very well too. There were a few gargantuan sized ones, but
these ones are so pretty when sliced.

It was my first year growing spaghetti squash and I have enjoyed it. This
is my first squashed harvested, and it was delicious.

My first successful year with onions, and the difference was buying the bulbs.
I have learned a lot this season, such as not planting onions with garlic.

Perhaps the hot, dry season wasn't as good for my zucchinis, which
did not produce as many as previous years.

Another first for me: edamame (soy beans), and I will definitely be growing
these again. 

Finally, the harvest today. I gave much of this to my neighbour who
has helped me so much by building my raised beds and fixing
my fence. He's so awesome.

My Garden This Season:

basil, thyme, cilantro, sage

arugula, salad bowl lettuce, mustard

chard

four varieties of kale

three varieties of beets

zucchini

spaghetti squash

two varieties of potatoes

yellow onions

four varieties of carrots

multiple varieties of sunflowers

cucumbers

multiple varieties of heirloom tomatoes

edamame

green beans and dragon's tongue beans

four types of hot peppers

radishes

bok choy 

celery

horseradish

hard neck and soft neck garlic

snap peas

blueberries

raspberries

strawberries

{this moment}

{this moment} - Inspired by Amanda Soule at SouleMama. 

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments."

Garlic Dreams

Looking out my kitchen window earlier this week I was thrilled to see some green poking through in my garlic raised bed. This is the first new green of the year in the yard. About this time of year I start to feel bogged down by darkness and chilly dampness. I need to begin thinking about what I would like to plant for the coming growing season and catching a glimpse of the garlic was just what I needed to get my imagination flowing. 

I can close my eyes, see myself running my fingers along the garlic scapes and smelling the heavenly scent of the pungent garlic. I can feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and hear my daughters shrieking and running around the yard. 

Despite using straw to mulch my garlic bed there were some weeds beginning to grow around the edges. Getting my fingers dirty doing some weeding in January was just what the doctor ordered at the end of an intense work week for me. 

I will have garlic dreams tonight. 

When To Plant - An App Review

 

With seed starting season quickly approaching (I will be starting some seeds indoors in a few weeks), I was interested in trying the When to Plant app created by Mother Earth News that I purchased for $1.99

There are numerous websites to help plan when to start seeds indoors, transplant seedlings and direct sow seeds outdoors, based upon planting hardiness zones. I enjoy reading articles from Mother Earth News so I was curious what the app has to offer.

Continue reading at The Green Phone Booth>>

Garlic Planting Time

A sure sign of fall is planting bulbs in the garden. I have a bunch of daffodils and tulips I need to get into containers, and some new bulbs that I bought from my daughter's preschool fundraiser that I am excited to try. My big bulb project, however, is planting my garlic.

This is my second year planting garlic so I am still a newbie who has much to learn, and I hope to apply what I learned from my experience over the past year for next year's garlic.

Last fall I planted five rows of hardneck garlic in one of my raised beds, with about 5 bulbs in each. I added some of my own compost to the bed, but no other fertilizer. A few weeks after planting, when I was cleaning up my yard and raking leaves I added some dried leaves to the pile for mulch (to protect the bed from frosting, to keep weeds down, and to retain moisture because raised beds drain easily).

I was both pleased with and disappointed by my garlic this summer.

As the garlic began sprouting above the soil in the spring I noticed that many of the plants were being smothered by the leaves, which I had not mulched into small enough pieces. By the time I took all the leaves off the bed it was too late for some. Others that sprouted did not thrive, and I have to wonder if I didn't do enough to prepare the soil in the fall. Garlic is a heavy feeder and I planted them in a bed where I previously grew summer squash, which are also heavy feeders. I was worried that I wouldn't have any useable garlic at all!

I planted garlic from two different sources - West Coast Seeds and The Sharing Farm. Initially I thought the garlic from The Sharing Farm was doing better (was thriving more), but in the end the garlic from West Coast Seeds had a higher success rate when I harvested them. I was thrilled with the garlic scapes that I harvested in late June / early July, and for I while I was thinking hat this was all I was going to get out of my garlic. I made scape pesto and sautéed the scapes in stir fries as I would with garlic cloves. So fresh and summery!

In the end I pulled about fifteen bulbs out of the ground, but after drying only about eight or nine were edible. I could have saved all my precious garlic bulbs for myself, but what fun would that be? I shared with garlic loving family members and they all reported that the garlic was pungent and delicious.

So this year I did things slightly differently.

I didn't have any of my own compost ready so I bought organic manure and added it to the beds. Turning the soil and taking out all the left over plants and weeds was a back breaking job because I had some volunteer grape tomatoes in my squash this summer. There were so many little green and rotting tomatoes that I had to pick out because I don't want my bed to be overrun by them next year, as much as I want to encourage tomatoes in my garden.

Next I dug five troughs lenth-wise in my bed, rather than 5 width-wise as I decided to increase the amount planted. Then I added a commercial organic fertilizer liberally to the troughs before adding the cloves.

Before planting, I separated all the bulbs into individual cloves, selecting only the healthiest and largest cloves from each.

Into each trough I planted about a dozen cloves, making sure to plant the cloves the correct way with the pointed end up and the rooting end down. Two thirds of my garlic bed is hard neck garlic again because I love the bonus of scapes before the bulbs are ready. The remaining third is some soft neck varieties because I want to experiment with braiding the garlic.

After covering each of the troughs, I covered the entire bed with glacial rock dust just to be sure that I'm adding back essential minerals to the soil.

The last step was to mulch the garlic bed. This time I decided to use good old fashioned straw, just like all the books and websites recommend. The straw will not smother the seedlings but it will retain moisture. I bought some at our local pumpkin patch and I am using the remainder of the bale as part of our Autumn / Hallowe'en display in the front yard.


To summarize the steps I followed this year:

• prepare the soil by removing weeds, plants and adding in compost and fertilizer
• dig troughs or holes approximately a few inches deep
• separate the garlic bulbs into individual cloves
• add additional fertilizer to each hole
• plant the cloves root end down and pointed end up
• cover holes
• add any additional fertilizer or glacial rock dust 
• cover garlic bed with mulch, preferably straw, although leaves could work if they are mulched into small enough pieces. 
• cross fingers and wait patiently for next spring to see the results

I have recently learned about people planting their garlic on the full moon for increased production! Too late to try that this year - already something to add to the list for next year's garlic planting.

.............................

Disclosure: I did not receive compensation for any of the products shown in this post. I purchased them myself and included them because I like them.

Summer Garden Roundup

It is now September and the long, warm days are winding down. I've been busy in the garden, with harvesting the summer veggies and cleaning up the beds to plant winter crops. I spent my Labour Day long weekend the same way I started my summer - puttering about in my backyard garden - which seems very fitting. I have enjoyed watching the changes over the season and seeing plants complete their life cycle when they go to seed. Overall I would say that we have eaten four to five meals per week from my garden, which makes me proud.

It was my first time growing garlic.

My garlic turned out better than I was expecting for my first time growing it. Out of 25 cloves planted about half were harvested, and about ten were edible. The bulbs were huge - much larger than the original bulbs from which the cloves came, and they were delicious! I have more reading to do about growing garlic, but I already know that I need to add much more organic matter and fertilizer to the soil this fall (they are heavy feeders). At the Sharing Farm garlic festival last weekend I picked up $25 worth of garlic (several varieties) to plant this fall and I am looking forward to getting them in the soil.

In early August I started noticing powdery mildew on my peas, which were almost finished by this point. The mildew quickly spread to my mustard that had cone to seed and then the squash. I was very disappointed because I tried everything I read about over the winter to avoid the mildew: watering in the morning and using a soaker hose to water near the base of the plants. Having said that, I have been reading that this has been a bad year for the mildew in general, and even the weeds in my front yard are covered in it. As a result the zucchini hasn't produced as much as I had hoped, but we've still had enough to keep us going. I have also been disappointed with the saucer squash; they were the first squash to get the mildew and they have produced only three squash so far.

I planted more pumpkins than I intended because I didn't label all the seedlings when I transferred them outside to harden them up in the late spring. The pumpkins started growing earlier, and ripened sooner than I expected; by mid August most of them were turning orange. Despite having more pumpkin plants than last year, I have the same number of pumpkins - seven.

I thought carefully about what we actually eat to make sure that I wouldn't grow too much or little of something and I would say that overall I did well with this. We had just about the right amount of greens, peas, beans, salad greens, potatoes, chard, kale and carrots, and they all did well. I would say that the carrots were the most loved item in the garden this year by my daughters. My favourites were mustard greens, cucumbers, kale, beets, raspberries and tomatoes. My husband's favourites were the potatoes and mustard greens.

My daughters' mini garden

My daughters have enjoyed watching me in the garden and often ask to help. At the end of July they planted their own little garden and they are very proud of how it is doing. Of course the plants are crowding each other out because I let them plant what they wanted where they wanted. I find it interesting that my six year old wanted to plant vegetables that she won't eat. Perhaps this may encourage her to try them, but I'm not holding out too much hope as she is a very fussy eater. They are growing tomatoes, carrots, kale, beets, lettuce, and broccoli.

But what is a vegetable garden without the eating? There is nothing like growing your own food. It has been interesting to plan meals around what we have growing, which meant that we ate lots of salad and greens in the earlier part of the season. My "specialty" in June and July was mustard greens, beets and beet greens sautéed in garlic and balsamic vinegar, with feta cheese. I had many salads for lunch, which changed as new things came into season. Throughout the summer I have made quinoa salad that included whatever I could find in the garden, with apple cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar dressing. I experimented with salad rolls using rice paper noodles and wraps, and although they were a great deal of prep, they were fresh and perfect for summer. My family's favourite meal was my "zero mile fried rice", made from brown rice and again whatever I had in the garden. I tried kohlrabi from the farmer's market for the first time and found it was delicious in the fried rice; definitely need to add that to my list of things to grow next year. With tomatoes finally ripening and coming in fast and furious in the last week I decided to make tomato boccincini salad, and it was definitely worth the wait.

A few of the meals I made from my garden this summer.

What I grew this summer:

kale (2 varieties)
chard
shelling peas
snap peas
mustard
Brussels sprouts
beets
tomatoes (various heirloom varieties)
zucchinis
saucer squash
sugar pumpkins
cucumbers
quinoa
carrots (rainbow)
garlic (2 varieties of hard neck)
raspberries
strawberries
basil
thyme
chocolate mint
chives
lettuce (salad bowl, Amish deer tongue)
rosemary
horseradish
potatoes
onions
celery
hot peppers
green beans
dragon's tongue beans




What I will do differently next year:

• add more organic matter and fertilizer to the garden beds
• grow more carrots, cucumbers, kale, dragon's tongue beans, onions, garlic, basil, potatoes, beets
• try growing spaghetti squash, kohlrabi, butternut squash
• spray all squash with a milk and water regularly to prevent the powdery mildew from taking hold
• reseed greens more frequently
• skip the saucer squash
• cut down on the amount of pumpkin plants
• have a soaker hose for each raised bed to cut down on watering time
• experiment with other growing containers, like hanging baskets and straw bales
• plant more seeds directly outside rather than start inside (such as grens, peas and beans)

I was fixated on my vegetable garden this year, to the neglect of my flower bed at the back of my garden. I did plant marigolds for a burst of colour, but I found that they were also quite good in salads. This was the first year I tried planting sunflowers and while they took a long time to bloom, they are beautiful. But next year I may give some more attention to planting companion plants and flowers around my beds and containers to help attract more bees.

Small Space Gardening Methods

Over at The Green Phone Booth I'm blogging about how I increase garden yields when space is limited.

Click

Happy Earth Day

There's a lot in the news and on the internet to drag someone down these days. Global warming is worse than we thought? Polar ice caps melting at an accelerated rate? Oil spills in backyards? Stephen Harper pulling Canada out of international agreements? Gah! Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with information and powerless as an individual.

Personally I've had the rug pulled out from underneath me this past week and a half, with my mother in intensive care in the hospital. The only thing that has helped me to not feel overwhelmed, besides the love from my husband and daughters, has been to get outside and do some much overdue gardening.

I was looking forward to celebrating Earth Day this year with the students in my class. I had some fun activities planned, such as making a salad with the greens and herbs we grew in our classroom container garden. Unfortunately I am not at work while I deal with my mother's illness and care for my grandmother, so this will have to wait until I am back in the classroom next week.

This weekend when I was able to carve out a bit of time to power garden I realized that I was spending the Earth Day weekend how I should be spending it. I was doing something small, something personal and something real for the Earth.

I was excited to add homemade compost to my raised garden beds. We started backyard composting a year and a half ago and this was the first time I used any of it in my garden. As can be seen by the photo below, the garden beds look primed and ready for all the seedlings that are currently residing in my living room. The soil smells amazing; much better than the chicken manure I used last year before my own compost was ready. I was even more thrilled to do this because my neighbour finished building two more raised beds for me this past week, bringing my total to four.

My compost bin last fall, almost ready.

I had quite an ordeal weeding the beds and literally chopping down the kale trees that I had growing from last summer.

My kale and <ahem> garden, last October. I was still harvesting 

leaves at this point. It was probably a foot taller this weekend.

Seriously, they were huge; the stalks were about two inches wide. I would have kept the kale leaves but they had gone to seed and tasted bitter.

All the weeds and leftover garden ready to be chopped for the compost bin.

After weeding I had some pleasant surprises; there were some more beets growing, which I picked for the greens, and the potatoes I started two years ago are coming along nicely. I'm happy to see my garlic growing, although I wish I'd planted more of it last fall as some have not come up.

I am looking forward to seeing how my garlic turns out.

I finished the afternoon planting some peas directly outside, to which I will add some that I have started inside. I've cheated a bit by purchasing a few pea plants from the garden store just so I see some green in the beds.

All my baby seedlings getting ready for the garden.

I have big plans for those four garden beds!

Happy Earth Day.