Peas and Potatoes and Beans ... oh my.

The first potatoes have been pulled from the garden. They look, and taste, delicious. Peas and beans are growing in abundance. See below, this is just from Monday.

Food for thought...angry thought.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/10/boulder-man-faces-20.html

With Regards to the Balcony...

As big a fan of flowers as I am, this year I decided to plant herbs in the window boxes of our balcony instead. Last year it was beautiful out there, a serene sea of white, this year it's productive as well as beautiful. Growing are two types of sage, chives, garlic chives, rosemary, lavender, parsley and cilantro. To date they have all proved useful and delicious. I've also planted two different types of tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes and red cherry tomatoes.

As a treat to myself, and because I wanted some flowers out there I planted a white Climbing Hydrangea, and a white Rose.

Progress, Progress, Progress.

Things are coming along quite nicely at the plot. This is one of about 7 zucchini's growing. I couldn't leave it any longer. I picked it for dinner this evening and will attempt to leave the rest to get a bit bigger. Looking forward to some chocolate zucchini cake. Delicious!

Also tiny red flowers have begun to grow on my 'scarlet runner' beans as well as white flowers on my 'little marvel' peas. We should start to see actual peas in about two weeks, beans in about three and a half. Fingers crossed.

The Green has Erupted!

Can you even establish what is going on in that sea of green? This is my garden 7 weeks after planting seed, yes that is right, seeds. I planted 4" tall tomato plants but the rest of this greenness has grown from seed. I hope to post some close ups of the individual plants, and their fruit when the bear it, but just so you have an idea this is what's growing in our garden: carrots, onions, tomatoes (5 varieties), scarlet runner beans, peas, potatoes, mint and zucchini. I wish I had taken progress shots along the way, oh well, there is always next year.

The Garden Bed is Built

This is the raised bed that Tony and I built to house my garden. It was fairly simple to do. The frame is built using untreated red cedar 2 x 6'es, nailed into corner pieces of untreated red ceder 4 x 4'es. The finished size of the raised bed is 8 feet long by 3.5 feet wide and 12" deep. I inserted a cross piece at the 4' mark of the length side, set 3" below the top of the bed, for stability. The 4 x 4 corner pieces are 18" in length and the entire box is 'sunk' about 4 " into the ground. I chose to use red cedar because it was the only wood I could find locally that was untreated. Everything else seemed to have be treated with creosote, or some other kind of wood preserver. According to my research the red cedar will withstand the elements for at least 10 years, and I don't have to worry about chemicals leaching into my vegetables.


With regards to the soil: I filled the box with about 400 litres of soil. I made my own mixture of soil that was 4 parts basic soil : 3 parts Sea Soil : 3 parts mushroom manure. I think this will be a great mixture, very fertile and well retaining of mositure.

For more information on Sea Soil check out there website.

How I Started....

This is where I began, with a piece of grass. Specifically the piece of grass in the middle, in front of the rubbish bins.

I began with research into how to 'dig over' the plot. I sought advice from my parents who both had taken on a similar task years ago with a much bigger plot of land. I gathered information online, as well as information from books.

The general consensus was:
- Dig a trench at one end of the plot, approx 1 foot in depth and 1 foot wide, placing the soil in a pile outside the area of the plot. Use this soil at the end of digging to fill in the last trench.
- Begin to work the plot digging a second trench adjacent to the first and turning each spadeful of soil from the second trench into the first trench.
- Continue digging and filling trenches for the entire length of the plot, turning each spadeful so the grass is on the bottom and the newly exposed soil is on the top.
- Fill the final trench with the soil you removed from the first one.

It was tough. And the rain didn't help. But I was determined and in about 2 hours I had 'dug over' my plot. All 8 by 4 feet of it. I used a combination of both a pitchfork and spade. I found that the spade was very valuable for the digging of the first trench, but that the pitchfork was more useful for loosening the soil. As well, I was counseled that the fork would help aerate the soil, where as the spade would not.

All in all it was successful and the next step was to build a raised bed.