B had a PD day at school today (a.k.a. Professional Development day, a.k.a. a day off; are they called PD days outside of Ontario/Canada?) and I had a day off work so we puttered around the house. It was overcast and damp but mild so we headed out to the gardens to pull out the dead potato plants and see what we could find. I think I had about eight plants (maybe nine) but we didn’t end up with very many potatoes. If I had to guess I’d say we had about 20 to 25 potatoes, mostly small-ish with one or two mid-sized ones. I used some in tonight’s supper and the rest we’ll have another day. Here’s the method I used to plant my potatoes and I plan to do the same next year, possibly with more plants.

a one-gloved B (the other could not be located) proudly displaying the first potato he dug

B craves this kind of attention and being involved in what I’m doing. Throughout the time it took to dig through the potato bed, there were numerous hugs/squeezes around the waist and declarations of, "I love you!" and "We’re best friends right, Mommy?" and "I love digging tomatoes!" (tomatoes are tomatoes and so are potatoes a lot of the time)

a super-duper lovely headless-and-blurry shot of me with my jeans rolled up to keep them dry

After we dug the potatoes we brought them in and washed them and I then sliced some of them to put in the crock pot for tonight’s supper. (See the menu posted yesterday for the recipe.) We ate lunch, went to the library, where B got out the same Mighty Machines videos that he gets every time we go (borrrr-ing!) and a couple of books, and then came back home and made some super-yummy Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip muffins. We then ate supper, went to skating (B’s in a learn to skate program), came home, did the bedtime routine, and B went to bed. PD day done!

I’m beat from a long day of work followed by a long evening of removing cabinet doors and washing them as well as the cabinets, filling knob holes on the doors, and taping off the floor in the kitchen. Who knew that washing doors would take so long??

Today I share pictures of my front garden. You can find the before pictures here from June 2008 and another shot of it a year ago at the beginning of July. Here’s how it looked at the beginning of June of this year. A month and a half later, it has really taken off. All but three of the plants came from my mom’s garden. My peony bush, on which I am eagerly anticipating blooms, didn’t produce buds or flowers this year but it was only a twig when I planted it last year. I think it needs another season to establish itself.

Do peas grow this fast? There was nothing there yesterday morning when I was walking around the gardens but late this afternoon, on getting home from work, I was taking a look again and saw the peas. Full sized pods. Was I just not all that observant yesterday?

There are more pods on the front of the vine and on the vine to the right (from the front) of this one. I’ve planted Lincoln and Sugar Pod varieties.

The sun is shining in a brilliant blue sky here today and, knowing I had to nap this afternoon for night shift, I took advantage of the weather this morning and topped up my potato bed. This is my first year planting potatoes here and I created a semi-raised bed framed on all sides and sunk into the ground to house the plants. I mentioned before (here and here) about the bed and how I wasn’t sure how it  would do but it seems to be quite happy. It sits in shade for the morning, getting dappled sunlight around noon and early afternoon and then receives a bit more sun mid and late afternoon into early evening. I have three plants that are really taking off, poking up within a day or so through each new layer of growing mix that I put down (I’m using this method). Today I noticed four new sprouts with tiny leaves and was loathe to cover them but I’m optimistic now that all of the potatoes planted will send up shoots that find their way to the surface and become healthy, happy plants. I had previously been worried that only the three thriving plants were going to grow as they were the only ones I could see. If I gently dug down into the dirt I was able to find sprouts from other potatoes but nothing that looked promising. Now I just have to sit and wait.

The rhubarb patch is also thriving. This spring I moved it from a full sun location just inside the fence by the driveway and placed it at the back of the yard, also against the fence, in a location that, like the potato bed, only starts receiving sun partway through the day. I moved the frame that had been around the patch in its original location and took it to the new spot. I also took some of the soil but filled in most of the new patch (which I dug deeper and sunk the frame into the ground a little) with the same mix as my raised gardens and the potato bed, equal parts of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost/manure. My rhubarb bed was happy last year but this year he is ecstatic. I think I have a batch of blueberry-rhubarb jam calling my name and begging to be made. Strawberry-rhubarb would be wonderful but I have a bag of frozen blueberries as well as two containers of fresh. (That’s a jar of blueberry-rhubarb jam in the middle of the trio in my header.)

For all the thriving being done by my potatoes and rhubarb, however, my beans are not faring so well. There are a few plants in the garden that are going to need some attention (from me, not the bugs who are already paying attention to them) and some re-planting, but the beans are what I noticed today.

I have two rows of 10 plants, I think, and it’s only the 5x2 block closest to the side of the bed that seems to be affected. So far. I noticed a dead ladybug-looking insect on the dirt right between the two plants shown above. Is he the culprit? He was a darker red, almost brown, with dark orange spots that looked more like o’s (they weren’t solid circles). When I google, it’s highly likely that he’s some type of bean beetle. Maybe I’ll have to move one of my borage plants closer to the beans and also a rosemary, since those are supposed to help. And marigolds can’t hurt either. I also have something that is lopping off my bok choy leaves at dirt level (a cut worm?) and just leaving them laying there. And something is eating a hole out of my watermelon leaves, leaving just a rim all the way around. Gardening is such a frustrating learning experience.

It’s Sunday and therefore Quotable Sunday over at Toni’s blog. Today’s quotes are garden-related because it’s only fitting.

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.
     — Hanna Rion

Weather means more when you have a garden.  There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.
     — Marcelene Cox

How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence.
     — Benjamin Disraeli

It is utterly forbidden to be half-hearted about gardening.  You have got to love your garden whether you like it or not.
     — W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman, Garden Rubbish, 1936

It takes a while to grasp that not all failures are self-imposed, the result of ignorance, carelessness or inexperience.  It takes a while to grasp that a garden isn’t a testing ground for character and to stop asking, what did I do wrong?  Maybe nothing.
     — Eleanor Perényi, Green Thoughts, 1981

The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.
     — Author Unknown

It doesn’t matter how green the thumb is, as long as it has a green hue, right?

These blueberry bushes were purchased last spring and didn’t do very much over the summer. After wondering if they would survive the cold winter in zone 3b, I was thrilled to see that they’ve really taken off this year. There are two bushes in a large square planter and they wintered outside against the house. This spring they came back even fuller than last year, with lots of new shoots and tons of flowers. Never having grown blueberries before, the only thing I knew was that the plants need acidic soil in order to produce the berries (or so I’ve read). I think I mixed some peat moss into the soil at one point last year but a few weeks ago I decided to up the chances of the soil being (or becoming) more acidic so I watered it with a mixture of water and vinegar. I don’t know if the vinegar helped or if the soil was good on its own but this morning my mom told me there were berries on my bush. And indeed there are.

I can almost taste the ripe berries.

I’m fascinated by my blueberry bushes. (Can they be called "bushes" yet if they’re still smll plants?) I saw all the flowers and then saw them drop over the weeks and couldn’t figure out where the berries were supposed to develop. The pink-tinged part of the berry at the end is what held the flower; the berry develops above or behind where the flower did (as shown in this picture). In the next couple of weeks, I’ll have to cover the bushes with some sort of sheer fabric or netting. I’m not wanting to lose my small harvest to birds or chipmunks!

A certain wee boy is pretty excited about the berries too.

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve participated in Tightwad Tuesday and I have two things to post today, both of which were also accomplished today and one of which fits into my kitchen Make It Instead challenge.

You can see the empty spaces in the forefront where the resident chipmunk killed the seedlings
when they were just above the surface. I’ve re-planted those seeds.

This afternoon after another trip out to the garden to pull the few weeds that have popped up, I decided that it was time I had markers placed so I wouldn’t have to try and go by memory anymore or consult my layout on paper. Rather than go out and buy plant markers (which doesn’t make sense to me), I gathered up simple popsicles sticks, a Sharpie marker, my layout chart, added five minutes of my time and the garden is now labeled and so much easier to keep tabs on. Now, if only that chipmunk was so easily taken care of. I have a strong suspicion that he’s eaten at least some of my corn. I’m undecided as to whether I should let the remaining ones sprout so I know where to plant the new ones or if I should just go ahead and replant and pull out any doubles.

That pita bread recipe that I’ve been wanting to try also got printed out today and baked; we had tuna melts for supper tonight as I didn’t go in to work and so B was at home with me. 

These turned out pretty well. The unbaked dough was saltier than the finished product but next time I’ll reduce the salt. The next time I make these I think I’ll also make seven instead of eight. The recipe calls for eight wedges rolled into balls and then each rolled out to a six-inch circle about 3/16-inch thick. My eight were six inches in diameter (I used a ruler) but only 1/8-inch thick at best. They only puffed moderately in the oven and half didn’t puff at all. I don’t know how they’ll work as pitas yet since we just used two tonight at flatbread. Instead of two-and-a-half cups of all-purpose flour, I used one-and-a-half and then a half-cup each of whole wheat and multigrain flours. Again, next time I’ll reduce the white flour and increase one or both of the others. All in all, a great recipe and very simple to make.

I’ll be checking out beingfrugal.net for more Tightwad Tuesday ideas…

I am overly proud of my potato bed. I can’t stop looking out the window at it! It’s nothing spectacular - quite the opposite in fact - but I made it myself and I’m enamored with it. I even used the level to make sure it was sitting level in the ground. Turns out the shed beside it is not level though. It looks pretty scrubby around the bed but I’ve sprinkled grass seed and once I get rid of the pile of dirt that came out of it and is now heaped beside it, I’ll sprinkle seed there too. The bed sits in the perfect spot in my yard as the grass there was scrubby and sparse and it was no loss to dig it up.

The grass in the sun is beyond blown out. I couldn’t fix it in Photoshop.

I ended up not using weed mat partly because I didn’t have any, partly because I couldn’t justify buying some when all I’d need was a small piece, and partly because the ground looked pretty good at the depth that I’d dug it. I just spread on a thin layer of the 1:1:1 mixture of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost/manure that I used for the raised garden beds, planted my potato pieces, and spread on another layer to cover the sprouts. When the sprouts break the surface and grow a few inches, I’ll put on another layer of mix to cover them. I’ll repeat this until the mix is a couple of inches from the top of the frame and then I’ll let the potato plants do their thing. I can’t wait to see those first sprouts! I’m a little worried that my potato pieces are too small. After I’d cut them a week ago I read that they should be two ounces minimum. Each of my pieces has two to three eyes but I have no idea how big the pieces are.

Yummy rhubarb!

It was an absolutely beautiful day here weather-wise and I had big plans. Unfortunately, I ended up not being as productive as I had hoped but there is always tomorrow. And tomorrow will be without a little boy slowing things down as he’ll be in school. I had planned to plant some more seeds as well as cut some sod to create a potato bed, get the bed framed and filled with Mel’s Mix, and the potatoes planted.

The frame is just some 2x6 (or is it 8?) that had been kicking around. I had planned to do it three-sided as it’s going to butt up against my shed, however I now think that I’ll make it a four-sided frame because of the grass and weeds that extend under the shed. And I’ll make it deeper. I’ll sink a same-sized frame of 2x10’s into the ground and sit the frame I made today on top so that it too is sunk down an inch or two with the rest above the ground so the bed is only partially raised. Or, I’ll sink this frame into the ground and set the frame of 2x10’s on top instead so that I don’t have to dig down 12 inches into the dirt. However I do it, this bed, approximately 5 feet by 2.5 feet, will house the potatoes. Tomorrow after I drop B at school I’ll pick up a bit of weed mat.

Someone has been playing in my dirt!

I planted more beets in the raised vegetable beds today. I had planted seedlings out a couple of weeks ago but they didn’t look happy so I pulled them out. I also planted more kale and romaine as only one seedling of each had survived (out of two for each) and put in my onions,  bok choy, carrots, rosemary, and marigolds. I have one pea out of eight that has sprouted but I didn’t plant them that long ago and I think I planted them a little deep so I’m not worried yet. Tomorrow I’ll plant another eight peas and a nasturtium. My radish has been up for a week or so now and my chives are thriving after poking through the dirt weeks ago when it was still blustery cold out. All three of the kohl rabi are up and in another week or so I’ll plant another three (and then another three a few weeks after that). I’m a little worried about my tomato starts as well as my pumpkin, zucchini, and squash seedlings. They alternate between looking very happy and healthy and looking like they’re on their last legs. I started them in peat pots and even though they’re not overly big, I think they want to be planted and have room to spread their roots. I think it’s too soon though. Maybe next week. Next week I’ll be planting my beans and corn too. And I have to figure out what to do with the two square feet in the third bed that were going to be filled by potatoes. Maybe I’ll plant more beets since I want to pickle some this year. That will give me 32 more beets, provided they all grow.

It feels good to be outside in the beautiful sun and fresh air even if I am very much opposed to the dirty and sweaty feeling that I have to endure all day as a result.

It was another good day outside. The weather this morning was cold (breezy), grey, and damp but it turned sunny by mid-morning. The breeze never really did go away so it was cool at times but nice and warm in the sun for the most part. My boyfriend came over and finished the last two trellises while I dug a hole for a wooden frame, moved the rhubarb patch (I use the term "patch" loosely as it’s only a few small stalks), and tried to level out a bit of a hollow along the back fence. Now, I need to start gridding the garden and I should stain the trellis frames like the bed frames to protect them from the weather a little.

When I look at the pictures, I’m not really sure why I didn’t put the rhubarb bed closer to the tree and composter.  I think the hollow starts pretty close to where the bed is placed and maybe that’s why. I used the dirt that I dug out of the hole to spread around to the left of the rhubarb bed all the way to the corner by the vegetable beds. The rhubarb frame is made of 4x4’s stacked two high and I’ve buried it to a depth of four inches. I used a mix of all-purpose topsoil (half a bag), sheep and cow manure as well as mushroom compost, and peat moss and vermiculite to fill the hole back in. I also added back in a little of the dirt I’d taken out. I mixed it all up and topped it with more peat moss, vermiculite, and manure/compost mixture. We’ll see how the rhubarb  does in its new home.

I’m sitting here exhausted but in a good way. I have that "worked most of the day in the fresh air" tiredness happening and I love it. Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous and I think I’ll try and do some work in the shade bed that runs along the right-hand side of the back yard between the shed and B’s sandbox. I want to dig into that bed (very heavy and damp soil as it’s nearly always in the shade) and mix in some peat moss, vermiculite, and the compost/manure to lighten it up a little. I should do the same in the flower bed in my front yard too. My boyfriend has also ripped out all the Lily of the Valley which had overtaken his front beds so I should help him with that. He wants to use some of the mix as well.

In non-gardening news, supper tonight was very, very good. I made the Spicy and Tender Crock Pot Pork Chops mentioned yesterday and they were delicious although, despite the name, they weren’t spicy in the least. At first I thought that even though I was using three chops instead of the five to six called for in the recipe there wouldn’t be enough sauce (it was relatively thick and only amounted to just over a cup or so) but combined with the juices from the meat, it made plenty. My chops were pretty thick so I was worried they’d take longer to cook but they didn’t. I turned the pot on low just before 10 this morning and we ate tonight at 6. For about an hour and a half to two hours this afternoon I turned the temperature up to high because I wasn’t sure they’d be cooked in time but I don’t think they needed it. It didn’t hurt though. The chops were boneless and were falling apart as we were trying to dish up. I served mashed potatoes because that is what B wanted and because we had rice last night but the sauce would have been wonderful over rice. The chops also would have made a perfect pulled pork sandwich. The verdict is that it is a recipe I will use again.