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New Digs

Neglect could be a word used to describe the state of both this blog and my gardening in general. To my credit I did move away from my beloved garden in August, but worry not as my new home has an even larger garden thanks to my landlord (read slumlord) Greg. Greg did an amazing job this summer planting a whole mess of potatoes that are still being harvested, a ton of tomatoes, a prize winning zucchini (if there were prizes to be awarded), beans, peas, carrots... A whole lot of Miettinen.

The existing garden consisted of 4 square plots roughly 4'x4' each but Greg and I had the intention of expanding this to give me some room to garden as well as rotate the existing crops. This past Sunday, armed with an empty stomach and a window of sunny weather we tackled the expansion. This involved removing many of the perimeter stones which I quickly found out were large, numerous and heavy. Meanwhile the area to be expanded into needed to have all the morning glory and blackberry vines removed along will all the weeds and other crap back there. We found a long strip of landscaping fabric in the back section of the garden which actually helped remove a lot of the vines despite being a pain to lift up.

All said and done the garden now consists of 6 plots with the stone perimeter back in action. The soil on the new plots itself will have to be dug up and prepared before the spring. I have heard that seaweed is good for your soil so Greg and I might have to collect some down at the beach to mulch into the garden. The very exciting photos of the completed work are below.

Sweet Paint Job		The New Digs

Brussel Sprouts & Green Onion Shuffle

I stopped by the Big Barn Garden Centre on Monday and picked up some brussel sprouts for the garden. They may not be everyones favourite vegetable but I happen to love them, and if the flavour of homegrown broccoli is any indication the sprouts should be excellent. I also picked up 2 dwarf dill plants 'cause my current plant is not producing fast enough for my consumption rate. I planted 2 brussel sprouts and 1 dill in each plot to once again compare how they are progressing.

I took the opportunity while planting to move around some of the green onions and ended up creating tight row of 6 onions between the herbs and lettuce on the west plot. Some of the others were being consumed by the zucchini, which I am now investigating how to properly stake. I also planted 2 spinach seedlings, 1 in the southern plot, and one in an old coffee tin.

My final task was transplanting the Basil out of its container into a larger home. Maria had some old buckets laying around so I poked some holes in the bottom with my soldering iron and filled it up with potting soil. I also removed the final 2 Bok Choy plants by cutting them at the base. I am not sure if they will regrow this season or just do nothing but I thought I would give it a try.

Head to Head Results

I has been a little over 2 weeks since I started the second plot and I thought I would compare growing results between them. For reference the Western plot receives sun from sun up until the late afternoon (currently 16:30), whereas the Southern plot gets sun from late morning (currently 11:00) until sundown.

Southern Plot		Western Plot

Despite my predictions I would say that the original plot is showing much better growth than its counterpart in the south. In particular the Spinach is doing much better on the western side. The Cilantro, Broccoli and Corn are also showing better growth in the west. It is possible that I have not been watering the Southern plot enough but I have been fairly diligent. The ground temperature over there is extremely hot on sunny days so possibly the roots are not staying cool enough. I am really just guessing as I am fairly uneducated in the optimal conditions for growing vegetables.

In other happenings some high winds last week knocked over my cherry tomato basket. A large branch broke off the plant but the rest of it seems fine. The strawberries are really coming in now as you can see above. I gotta get some ice cream.

The Fruits of Labour

Tonight I dug up some of the Bok Choy, as all of it has gone to flower in some stage or another, and made a vegetable stir fry. My sister would be proud of me as there is not a trace of meat in this dish. I marinated some tofu in chili sauce, garlic and soy and threw in a bunch of vegetables. Although the Bok Choy is tasty I can't say it jumps off the plate much more than its store bought equivalent.

In the past week I have not planted anything new but I have utilized the southern plot by putting both hanging baskets down there. They will receive a lot more sun which should equal more fruit from both those plants. I also have a bunch of green onion plants starting in plastic trays down there as well. I have also added some earth back to all my potato plants in an effort to create more tubers. I plan on having my little ditch filled with potatoes come the end of summer.

Vegetable Stir Fry		Southern Plot \w baskets
First two Bok Choy		Earthed up Potatoes

The Second Coming

In the past few days I have accumulated a lot of stuff to plant in the garden thanks to Tony and the Big Barn Garden Centre.

• Strawberries - 1 hanging basket
• Cherry Tomatoes - 1 hanging basket
• Early Girl Tomatoes - 1 plant
• Thyme - 1 plant
• Oregano - 1 plant
• Parsley - 1 plant
• Broccoli - 8 plants (4 in each plot)
• Cilantro - 2 plants (1 in each plot)
• Garlic Chives - 2 plants (1 in each plot)

I already have Cilantro, Chives and Parsley but none of my herbs in the far end of the first patch are growing all that well but I will let them stick around for now. In addition to planting all this new stuff I moved 3 of the corn and 2 spinach from the west plot to the new southern digs. The corn should like the extra sun/heat and I can compare it to the 1 stalk I left behind.

Two of the Bok Choy are flowering now so they will probably come out later this week. Out of all the vegetables so far the Bok Choy has proved to be hearty and quick growing. Time to make some stir fry.

Flowering Bok Choy		Southern Plot

New Digs

In anticipation of tomatoes to plant I have begun to question the placement and preparation of my initial plot. My current location in on the west side of the yard and given that I didn't have a proper shovel I don't think I loosened up the soil as well as I should have. So today I dug out a 4' x 5' plot in the south of the yard which will get a lot more of the hot afternoon sun while sacrificing some of the morning sun to a giant tree in the neighbors yard. I dug about 6-8 inches down and churned over all the dirt well so I am hoping it drains better than the other plot as well. For the sake of curiosity I am going to plant some of the same vegetables in both plots just to see how they react.

The one downfall of my new plot is the hose doesn't reach that far and I don't have a watering can. Necessity being the mother of invention I decide to get creative (and cheap). I saw a milk jug staring me in the eye on top of the recycling and began to get crafty. Poked a few holes in the lid, trimmed them up with a razor blade and behold my 4L watering can. It needs an air intake but it does the trick.

In other news the weather has been in the high teens with pretty much full sun these past few days, finally. The Red Leaf lettuce is showing a lot of improvement as you can see above or below.

 
(left) Red Leaf lettuce                    (right) Milk jug watering can