Yep, I went there again today. In my defence, they had a special on so I got a free $10 gift card. I picked up another AeroGarden (the Space Saver 6 this time) and a Sweet Pepper seed kit. I also bought some more chrome baker’s rack shelving; I cleaned out Mom’s old laundry closet (she had the washer and dryer moved into the garage a few years back so she could have full-sized appliances and a sink) and I cut up an old yoga matt to cover the plywood floor. I really should paint it and I need to duct tape over the old dryer vent or put a cap on it. Anyways, this cupboard will now be our little pantry, which will be nice to store some food in case of an emergency (the earthquake activity around here and up north in Alaska has been crazy lately).

I also picked up a bunch of canning supplies: canner, pressure cooker, jars, mixes, pectin, tool kit (lifter, tongs, etc.). I got Mom some nice teatowels and a wireless “Weather Centre” which tells the temp and humidity inside and outside (I’ll put the sensor by the terrace garden). I picked up 2 big plastic bins/barrels with handles on them for more container garden space, and I can move them around to put them in the sun.

I went next door to the garden store (Dig This) and picked up 1 Topsy Turvy upside-down tomato planter, some gardening gloves, some seed potatoes (Norkotah Russet), and a garden “trug” to pick my harvest :)

So, I basically spent almost all my savings this week but I was hoping to save up and go to Europe again this summer and just realized that I couldn’t really afford it/justify it especially with my brother’s wedding coming up, a brief trip to Ontario to scout out some properties, and hopefully I’ll get a job this summer. I guess I’ll be “staycationing” this summer and putting around the house/garden and spending lots of time with the fam and Zoë. I just hope we’ll have a nice, sunny, warm summer this year!

Finally, I transplanted my cucumber plant (it was getting SOOO big–I’ll post a pic) into a peat pot. It was drooping for awhile and I was freaking out but by the time I came home, it perked up. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope it pulls through. I planted some Basil in its place. Now I just hope the weather warms up so I can finish digging up the shrubs (ugh) and staple some landscape fabric on the bottom of my square foot gardens.

Okay, here are the pics:

The Pantry (random stuff on shelves to flatten out plastic shelf liners)

The “Terrace” Garden. (Taken from family room window ’cause it’s too damn cold outside). See the shrub massacre?

You can barely see them through the screen but hanging off the deck wall is the two pieces of wood that I’m going to hang my topsy turvy strawberry planters from.

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What a bizarre day. First it snowed, then it hailed, and then the sun shone. I planned on putting together my garden but was put off by the weather. Fortunately, by the time I got home the snow/hail stopped and the sun came out for a bit. I decided to go ahead with the garden work. Unfortunately, I realized that there is somewhat limited sun on part of the terrace/patio because of a high hedge and shrubs nearby so I had to figure out a way around it. After much debate and negotiation with Mom (not to mention brief discussions of how the sun works, aerodynamics, and nuclear physics), she finally let me sacrifice a teeny part of her landscape (a little shrub bed beside the terrace) that I am converting to a bed for my veggie garden. Unfortunately, there was a HUGE flowering shrub there that had to go. It was pretty quick work to chop down the branches with a hand saw but the roots are going to be a PITA to get rid of. I spent several hours with a spade and a pickaxe and managed to do some damage to it but the stump is still there :( And now my back is killing me but it will be worth it. I’ll be able to convert most of the terrace and the whole shrub garden into a raised veggie patch. I also added some posts to hang my topsy turvy strawberry planters off the deck and I nailed together my two 4 foot square veggie gardens using 1 x 6 wood (4 ft long, obviously). I have the landscape cloth to put under it so there won’t be any weeds growing up or nasty stuff leaching through from underneath. I’m going to use the rubbermaid bins for stuff that requires roots and more depth, like the garlic, onions, and potatoes I’ve already planted and the tomatoes, carrots, etc. that I plan on planting.

Oh, I also grabbed a bunch of worms from the garden (whilst singing “I touched a worm and I liked it”) and added them to the compost bin. We’ll see if they earn their keep in there, but they should be happy–it’s like an all-you-can-eat schmorgasbord in there. Fortunately, it smells pretty darn good too because of a bit of lemon and lime peels in there. Very citrusy. I added more Rot-it and turned it all before adding the worms so hopefully that will help it break down faster.

All right, that’s all for now. Zoë needs some quality snuggle time before dinner :)

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It’s Pizza Night! I used my new Mandoline slicer to slice up some tomatoes, peppers and onions (plus I cut up some mushrooms) and made a delicious homemade pizza. I made the horrible canned pizza sauce taste better by adding an equal amount of “tomato sauce” (canned, puréed tomatoes). Fresh, cheesy, and healthy (in moderation, of course).

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Apparently, I’m becoming a man. Two weeks ago, I bought my first power tools. Then I went to Home Depot for gardening supplies and got really excited (I love Home Depot, it kicks Canadian Tire’s ass) and now I’m about to construct something. Well, I’m just nailing together a few pieces of wood but still…construction. Manly. Grrrrr. Anywho, I have waaay too much homework to ignore today so I’m going to summarize briefly what I picked up today:

Home Depot:

  • 8 pieces of 1 x 6 x 4 to build two square foot veggie gardens
  • 2 pieces of scrap wood so I can hang my topsy turveys off the deck fence (because Mom won’t give up her hanging basket spots)
  • 2 planter boxes (like 2 feet by 3 feet?)
  • huge bag of peat moss

Garden Centre:

  • 3 bags potting mix
  • 2 bags compost
  • 1 bag worm castings
  • 4 blueberry bushes (2 different varieties, which escape me right now)
  • Big tub of “rot-it” (to speed up the compost)

I think that’s everything. Unfortunately, it’s raining and freezing out right now so my little construction project will have to wait a day or two until the weather clears up. I can’t wait to plant my garden. I’m considering it my micro-micro farm on my 10 x 20 terrace (?). I even have a teeny tiny herding dog (Zoë the Yorkie) to herd the…um, ants or something. Well, she can scare away the crows anyways. Now if I can just convince Mom to let me have a couple Bantam chickens…

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Well, I haven’t been doing much cooking lately as I’ve been a bit under the weather and just haven’t had the energy. But I did dabble a wee bit in the “garden” today. Well, mostly at the gardening stores. First, I went to Home Depot and picked up some more seeds (chili pepper, corn, and snow pea) and some bulbs (garlic and yellow onion), along with 2 cheap wooden trellises for the Rubbermaid Tomato and Pepper gardens. Oh, and a book on growing organic veggies/fruit/flowers. I also got a few small things like labels and tomato ties. Then I went to Canadian Tire and got 2 Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planters (anybody familiar with these? Are they any good?), a big bag of compost soil, some anti-weed felt or whatever it’s called (to be the base of my vegetable garden bed), and some peat pots. I’m going to build my own raised vegetable garden on the terrace using the weed felt, some wood (or perhaps some cement mason bricks), and soil. I’m not that handy but surely I could nail/screw 4 planks of wood together or stick some bricks in a square and fill it with soil.

I just planted the onion and garlic bulbs in my 2 cedar planters (rectangular, narrow-ish planters with a plastic liner filled with potting mix). I also pulled out the onions and romaine lettuce from my aerogarden; putting onions in there was a stupid idea to begin with (what was I thinking?) and the romaine was getting big enough to transplant to a larger container, so I just stuck it in a styrofoam cup (we already had them so I was repurposing them) and filled it with some vermiculite and inserted the grow pod (sans plastic). As long as it survives that, I’ll transplant it outside at a later date (probably will move it over to a peat pot first). My cucumber plant is doing really, really well in the AG. It’s grown 1 big true leaf and the second one is rapidly growing. Eventually, I plan on transplanting it outdoors as well but I’m not in a rush to kick that one out of the nest quite yet :) Unfortunately, my second Ruby Heirloom Tomato kit isn’t really doing anything (yet) but hopefully those seeds will germinate soon *fingers crossed* My next new obsession is canning and preserving food but that can wait until I actually have something to preserve. And yes, I still want chickens dammit. I was looking at suburban farm land in Ontario on the MLS site for fun. If you go north enough (an hour or two outside Toronto), you can get some huge acreage and a decent house with a barn for cheap (less than a shitty, leaky condo costs here in Victoria). It’s a fun little pipe dream. I’m also really enjoying reading the blog at www.urbanhomestead.org. They really seem to be making it work on less than 1/4 acre of land in California! Very cool. Oh, and here are a couple really neat blogs/sites on canning and food preserving:

Food in Jars

Canning Across America

Consider the Pantry

And a really great YouTube account: Wolfcrik (by “Granny Miller”)

EDIT: I’m also going to start adding my veggie gardening/homesteading/etc. links here:

In My Kitchen Garden

5 Acres and a Dream (sounds like my dream!)

Suburban Homesteading

Enjoy! :)

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Hi folks, just a quick update for you on two products.

1) Aerogarden: I got a reply from AG a few days ago, they are sending me a new tomato pod kit without any hassle, proof of purchase, etc., which is great customer service. In the meantime, I have replanted using my extra tomato kit that I bought. So far, nothing is happening (I planted them about 4 days ago) but my fingers are crossed that they will germinate. I’m absolutely AMAZED at how much better my AG seedlings are doing compared to my dirt ones. My little cucumber plant is HUGE in the AG and is growing it’s first set of true leaves, whereas my dirt ones are pretty small and all my other dirt seedlings are spindly/leggy and some of them have just collapsed unfortunately.

2) Mimo Monitors: I finally got around to sending back the dead mini monitor. I requested a refund but the company denied it. They did, however, send me a new monitor (which seems to work!) along with the accessories that were included in the original special offer (including the stylus this time). Unfortunately, I’m out the shipping fee to return it but they did give me an equivalent store credit–the only problem is that I’m not likely to buy anything from them again (mainly because I don’t need another mimo and that’s basically all they sell).

Also, it’s a beautiful day out today. The sun is shining, the birds are singing. It’s on days like this that I wish I had my greenhouse (and chickens) :-) I haven’t been sleeping much at all this week and have been feeling a bit under the weather, so I’ve missed a few days of school, but I’m trying not to think about it as I have waaay too much to do (including a million readings to do this weekend).

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Sorry for the delay in posting, I’ve been fighting off something this past week :S However, I just ate a load of garlic so that should fight it off. Garlic is my weakness, it’s no wonder I’m single LOL.

I have this little dream. I’ve actually had it on and off, but recently it’s back on :) I am very contradictory, I really should be a Gemini instead of a Leo. If I won the mega lottery tomorrow, part of me would want to get on the next flight to Paris and buy a beautiful apartment near the Jardins Luxembourg but another part of me would want to buy a small acreage in Ontario near the city (sort of like Blenkinsop Valley here in Saanich). Maybe I would buy a small hobby farm in France and enjoy the best of both worlds LOL. I would love to have a simple but nice Victorian-style farmhouse with a large backyard vegetable garden and a big greenhouse (or perhaps an Orangerie attached onto the house, heated with tropical plants and exotic birds, citrus trees, and a big fountain in the middle). I’d love to have a cute Provencal kitchen with a split door leading to the back garden that I can open the top half on a good day to cool off the kitchen while I’m baking. I’d try to grow as much of my own food as possible and have a bunch of chickens (maybe 10?) and a rooster. Zoë could run around (I’d probably fence in the back garden) and I could rent out some of the land to a tenant farmer or have a big pasture and barn for goats/sheep or rent out a horse stable to somebody (and in turn they would take care of a horse for me)–or just have one acre to play around with. I’d cook everything from scratch, have lots of family and people over for dinners, maybe even turn it into an agritourismo so I could have guests come and visit so I could meet some interesting people. Maybe I’d sell some eggs and produce in my little barn or at a Farmer’s Market on the weekend. I’d also have time to write a book or something. It would be a fun, simple life. I would be near shops and not too rural (so I’m not a million miles away from my neighbours) but far enough away that I could have some privacy without people complaining about every little thing (not having to worry about stupid covenants or neighbours snitching because the sprinkler was on at the wrong time). Maybe one day I’ll win the lotto and get my little dream house. Of course, that means I have to start buying a ticket :-)

I did find out yesterday that we could technically raise 5 bantam hens (small chickens) as pets in our backyard as it’s just big enough to have them, but my Mom isn’t too keen on the idea LOL. Plus, I’m sure some neighbour would complain to the city, make up some BS about noise or smell and have them taken away and destroyed. The joys of living in Suburban hell. I am seriously thinking of putting up a little greenhouse; maybe a 6 x 8 or 6 x 6 greenhouse. One that snaps together like THIS ONE so I could take it with me when I moved. It is on sale right now… like I need a reason to justify spending money.

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It looks like it’s going to be a nice, sunny day today. Of course, here on the island the weather can change rather suddenly so who knows how long it will last! I took some pictures to show how my little seedlings are doing:

You can see my cucumber seedling that appeared out of nowhere. It looks MUCH healthier and happier than my seedling planted in dirt.

Closeup of cucumber seedling, compared to my dirt-planted ones:

They look much more leggy and spindly and aren’t nearly as green as the aerogarden seedling.

This is my tiny peat-pod greenhouse with Romaine Lettuce, Fox Cherry Tomatoes, Martian Giant Tomatoes, Danvers Carrots and (Sweet) Bell Peppers. I’ve planted a lot of peppers but I have never had much luck raising them from seedlings and even getting them to sprout, so I thought I would plant a bunch and see how they do.

This is the mini-greenhouse sitting on my desk under a full-spectrum lamp and regular desk lamp. It’s been grey and rainy the past few days and the first seedlings were really leggy so I moved it to my room and put it under the lamps and it seems to be doing much better (though still a bit spindly). I over planted the seeds a bit and I started culling some of the seedlings yesterday, snipping off the first ones that were really leggy. I’ll have to snip some more today or tomorrow once I see how the “younger” seedlings are doing.

My beets starting to peek through the soil. I just love that red colour!

And finally, a requisite shot of my sleepy pup Zoë.

TTFN!

D-

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Category: Gardening  8 Comments

So, I was curious why my Ruby Heirloom Tomato pods weren’t growing as it’s almost been a week and I only saw a little hint of green. Today, I finally got impatient and took the dome off to peek inside only to see that the little hint of green I was was just fuzzy green mold on the seeds. I think they have dampened off or whatever it’s called. So I just sent an email to Aerogarden’s customer service. We’ll see how long it takes for them to get back and if they will replace their seed pods, which are supposed to have 100% germination guarantee. I’ll update you as soon as I hear back from them.

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I temporarily took out the 4 spacers on my Aerogarden (between the Ruby Heirloom Tomatoes) and used my Master Gardener Kit to start germinating some seeds, which I will remove and plant in dirt once the tomatoes (hopefully) start growing and taking over. I added some eggplant, romaine lettuce, onion, and cucumber. Here is a pic of the Aerogarden in the corner of the dining room:

I also have an avocado pit in water and a ziplock with 3 lemon seeds in paper towel (just for some fun plants to grow, not really expecting anything from them).

And a pic of the “mini greenhouse” sitting on the cat’s condo in the dining room window:

And finally, a pic of my mini-orange (calamondin) tree, with lots of blooms and buds:

And that’s all for now :)

UPDATE: OMG, my salad mix seeds in the mini greenhouse are already sprouting!!!

UPDATE 2: Just realized that my lights are too high on the Aerogarden, didn’t realize I could lower them more duh! I also moved my mini greenhouse into the bedroom under my full-spectrum desk lamp because the lettuce is growing too quickly and getting leggy. I also planted a smaller mini-greenhouse with onions, carrots, basil, peppers, and martian giant tomatoes. I hope they grow!

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Category: Gardening  2 Comments