Overflowing!

Since the sun has come out, the garden has been thriving!

I've been picking kale for what feels like months now and the same plants keep producing.  Last night I picked a huge bucket.

I also picked some sweet peas to bring home - my whole plot smells like sweet peas - they are growing and blooming like crazy!

By the time I got to the garden last night, the sun was on its way down and I didn't have much light to work with.  So, this morning when I went to let the chickens out, I was happily surprised to see tomatoes growing (from the plants I started from seed!).  Let's hope they ripen.

The chickens seemed eager to get out of their run so I let them free-range and decided to clean up my garden a bit.  The nasturtiums were taking over and preventing some of the other seeds I planted from growing so I took out some of the bigger bushes.  All of my spinach had bolted so I cleared that out too and let the chickens snack on it.

So now the garden doesn't look as lush, but I hope that the cucumber seedlings have more room to grow and spread out!  

The Gardens...

I couldn't resist taking some pictures of all of the beautiful plots at the Maples Discovery Gardens tonight!  It's such a great place to unwind after a day of office work.

In the Circle Garden

Apple trees

Nasturtiums

Sweet peas

Our friends, the chickens.

Leaf of Kale from my garden.

Peas

Lemon balm growing wild along the driveway.

Lettuce in the greenhouse.

Basil in a greenhouse bed.

Second Plot!

After some discussion, we decided that we could use a little more room in the garden.  Luck had it that the plot right next to ours was going to be available July 1st so we jumped on the opportunity!  Because our summer is a bit late, we should be able to get some seeds in the ground still.


On the weekend we installed the rabbit-deterrent fencing.  We only had to do the two ends as the fence shared with our first plot is rabbit-'proof' as is the fence we share with our other neighbour.


I won't bring in any soil this year as the group that had the plot before us put enough down that we will be able to make use of it.  There weren't too many weeds in the plot either (thank goodness because I was not prepared to weed like I did for the first plot!).


The chickens were out free ranging and we managed to scoop up a couple to help us till the plot.  The rooster was not impressed at all - good thing he could not get over our fence or we would have been in big trouble.  It is amazing how quickly he comes running when he hears one of his hens squawking!  He got over it quite quickly and went back to checking in on the other hens as they roamed around the property.  


As for the hens in our plot, they were quite happy to be there (although a door would have made it easier to shoo them in and out of our plot versus catching them and putting them over the fence; they are not the type of hens to just let you pick them up and cuddle).  They had quite a feast on worms, grubs, and other bugs.  They actually got quite comfortable with us and I'm pretty sure they would have eaten out of our hand, if we had something to feed them.

As soon as they would see one of us doing something that looked like we might be turning up the soil, they'd run to us.

We definitely need to work on our chicken-catching skills.  I should have taken some video of us trying to catch them.  We had a good laugh at ourselves.

In the Garden...

Things are growing like crazy in the garden right now!


The peas came out this weekend:

And so did the nasturtiums:

We picked a whole bucket full of spinach, lettuce, and kale:

Which turned into part of our dinner (kale chips, garden salad, radish top soup):

More space, less slugs!

Here is a picture of the slug buffet remnants:

Clearly, it was a fabulous feast!

Removing the weeds from around the raised boxes and putting some crushed egg shells on the wooden dividers around the lettuce seems to have helped.  However, I did pull a couple small, whitish slugs off my lettuce yesterday.  There are some weeds between the boxes and the fence so I think I'll have to pull those and continue to reinforce my perimeters with crushed egg shells.

Most things are growing fabulously, though!  Here is a picture from yesterday (apologies for the blurriness, it's from my phone and I didn't notice when I took it):

The top right and left are two types of kale (lacinato and rainbow), middle are nasturtiums, bottom middle is spinach, beside it is lettuce.  The nasturtiums are blocking the view of more lettuce and radishes.


This week I put in some cucumbers and dill as well as a few more broccoli seeds and another patty pan squash plant.  I'm slightly concerned because I don't see a single soy bean plant emerging from the dirt and I planted them a couple (few?) weeks ago.  I haven't lost all hope - and haven't looked to see how long it takes them to sprout either.


In other news, after some discussion with my husband, we decided that we would like more garden space and decided to take on another plot!  I'll be able to start work on it within the next week and can't wait!  

A Bowl Full of Lettuce

Last night I got a whole bowl full of lettuce (and a couple radishes) from my garden.  Finally, a full salad!

I haven't implemented any sort of slug prevention.  Although I have found a couple in my garden munching away, the majority of my veggies have remained untouched.  I'm thinking that the raised square foot garden beds might be helping out a bit.

I was on chicken duty last night so, as I waited for it to start to get dark, I had a little visit with the lambs.

When the lambs first arrived at Maples Discovery Gardens Co-op they were quite timid.  Now, most of them are comfortable around humans - I suppose they have figured out that humans could equal food.  Number 43 is especially friendly (or the hungriest) - she just followed me around the whole time I was in their pen.

I wouldn't make a good animal farmer.  I fall in love with the animals and could never imagine sending them to slaughter - not even chickens.  How can you eat your friends? lol  I told my husband that the ideal situation would be to have a small hobby farm (chickens for eggs, sheep for wool, goats for fun and milk...) and live close to beef and chicken farmers so that we can buy our meat from them.

Just look at this face.  Nope.  Couldn't do it.

Rain, Rain

Is the amount of rain we are receiving unusual?  Or am I just impatient as I wait for summer (a.k.a. camping and kayaking weather)?  I seem to remember last summer was quite wet too.  The (one) good thing about so much rain is that I haven't had to water my garden very much and the vegetables are loving it!  Unfortunately, I think the slugs are too.  I found a couple munching away on some of my lettuce last week.  But, surprisingly, most of my lettuce and other veggies remain untouched.  And, no signs of any rabbits feasting on my garden (and there are plenty of rabbits out now) so my fence must be working!


The first seeds I planted back in April are growing in full force now.


Lettuce:

Nasturtiums:

Kale:

Peas:

Cilantro:

The broccoli I planted recently is sprouting:

And, the uninvited guests in my garden (besides the weeds), potatoes:

I guess the people who had my plot before grew potatoes and there were some remnants in the soil that I didn't find when clearing my plot.  Their roots are deep and not always easy to pull out. 

While I'm thankful for the rain (as I have barely spent any time watering), I'm now hoping for some sun to give my plants a little boost!

Growing Garden

Things (including horsetails) continue to grow in the garden.  Here you can see the Redbor Kale as well as some spinach, nasturtiums, and lettuce.

 My original idea was to plant the seeds in the 3 beds at different times so I'd have a continuous supply of veggies.  I'm realizing now that, while I will have a continuous supply, I may not have enough of certain veggies to make anything (like a spinach salad).  Next year, I either need to have more squares dedicated to spinach and radishes or more beds or some other great solution.  This year, I'm happy to have anything edible in any quantity!

Last week I did some more planting including more of what I've already planted (radishes, spinach, etc.), marigolds, and some sunburst squash.  I'm hoping to plant some edamame and tomatoes this weekend if the rain lets up.

We now have lambs at the co-op.  I think they are just for fun/pets (a.k.a. not for dinner).

I had a little garden helper this week.

First Sign of Edible Life

Radishes!

Planted - April 21st

All from West Coast Seeds:


Cilantro
Kale - Rainbow Lacinato
Kale - Redbor
Lettuce - Buttercrunch
Lettuce - Esmeralda
Nasturtium - Salad Blend
Radish - Rudi
Shelling Peas - Paladio
Snap Peas - Sugar Ann
Spinach - Vancouver
Spinach - Corvair
Sweet Peas - Late Spencer Blend (for Els, they always remind me of her)


Checked on the garden yesterday - the radishes are coming up but no sign of anything else yet.

Fencing

After talking to some other people at the garden, I decided that it would be worth my time and effort to install a fence.  Not only is my plot right next to the parking lot - which lends itself as a shortcut for dogs and children - there is a rabbit problem in the area.  One lady said that her whole garden was eaten by rabbits last year, another lady told me that half of hers was.


So, I did some research and headed to Home Depot for supplies.


After another full day's work, I had a rabbit-deterrent fence installed.  It's dug about 6-inches into the ground.  The fence is folded under the ground so that it comes out about 4 - 6 inches from the fence line.  The idea is that if the rabbits start to dig to try to get under the fence, they will hit the chicken wire and not be able to get in (or at least be deterred).  We shall see if it works.


I had a man come up to me and tell me something along the lines of the more time spent bent over in the garden (i.e. back-breaking work) I do, the better my garden will be.  (I think he was translating a quote from Russian.)  I told him that, if that's the case, I'm going to have a really great garden this year!

Beginning of day. 

End of day.

My Garden Plan

Here is my plan for my 2012 garden using the Mother Earth News Vegetable Garden Planner:


http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=269231


The planner is really neat and has a square foot gardening option which made my planning much easier.  It will tell you when to seed, plant, and harvest for your area.  It will also help plan succession sowings and crop rotation.  Since I'm new to things like this, it will save me a lot of research!  It's only $25 per year - I've been using the free trial but am very tempted to sign up.


I did put in some time to research companion planting before I laid out my plan.  Wikipedia was really helpful for that.


In my square foot garden areas, the plan tells me how many seeds to plant in each square foot.  Of course, the math wouldn't be too difficult but it will be really convenient to be able to look at the plan and plant away.

My Neighbours

I will admit that part of the reason why I chose the plot I did was because of my neighbours; the chickens.  They are right across from me and make excellent company while I garden.

I throw my buckets of weeds over to them so that they can scratch through them.  I like to wait until they are on the other side of the coop so I can see the rooster 'sprint' when I throw the weeds over - it's hilarious.