My vegetable container garden windup

I know it's been ages, but garden season is just about over and it's time to start shutting her down. This year was amazing. My vegetable container garden was so much more successful then I could have hoped for. A few notes for next year.

Start earlier. I'm impatient. This is important for me to come to terms with. I don't like waiting. So I'm already starting to look at some diy cold frame designs and thinking about when, how and where I can start my seeds earlier.

Potatoes - not much I would change. They were awesome! The actual harvests weren't quite as prolific as many web readings suggested they may be, but they fed my family well and were delicious. I have just two pots left, the only veg left in my garden, and I need to use them up this week. Not sure what I want the last dish to be... probably some delicious roast potatoes to go along with the cooler weather (seriously, the weather has to cool down right? +30c in the last weeks of Sept is ridiculous!). I won't bother doing the potatoes in the bag again, the containers worked just as well. Oh I used a whole box of seed potatoes. That seemed like a good amount, although I'd like to try a few different varieties next time for fun.

Herbs - I didn't have a ton of luck with herbs. I also learned I don't use them as much as I thought. Maybe because I think of herbs in more savory hearty dishes like soups and stews, not something we have a lot of in the summer. I might play a bit with trying to grow herbs indoors this winter. Chives were great and I have lots growing around the yard. And I might do basil again. But that's probably it.

Peas - oh yummy peas! I did not have enough peas. Next year I want a big wall of peas. I did six pots worth, three of them died a mysterious early death (the 'early' batch). The last three were great and we snacked well off of them. No big dinners, but nothing beats standing in the yard munching. So I'm thinking nine containers. I did mine in two batches, one two weeks later then the first. And with our crazy weather this year I didn't find it made much difference (plus the first batch died). I'll space them 2wks apart again next year and see what happens.

Beets - fail. Okay, not a total fail, but they didn't do great. I got one dinner for six out of two large containers. I think I oversowed and under-thinned. Plus the big potato leaves covered up one of the containers so stunted the growth. I need a more square container for my own orgnization, and I will use seed tape next year so I don't have to worry about oversowing and under-thinning. And they need to be in front of the potatoes so they get enough sun.

Carrots - much of the same problems as the beets. Oversowed and under-thinned. And the giant zucchini leaves shaded them way too much. The few baby ones we got were sweet and yummy. But seed tape will be the way I go next year.

Spinach - fun early crop. We had a few good salads out of it. Will do again I think.

Lettuce - Blah. Did not like it at all. It was limp and tasteless. My sister-in-law grew some and while visiting we had a salad. It was awesome. Crisp, fresh and full of flavour. I'll have to ask what kind it was.

Peppers - the plants grew well and were a nice decorative feature in my front garden. They did actually fruit, although when we tried to eat them they were horribly bitter. I don't think I'll bother with them again.

Zucchini's - the gem of my garden. I had four plants in a large water trough, and they all did great. We ate them when they were tender little ones, and were able to keep up with the production. Not even enough for baking. Can't think of anything I'd do differently with them next year.

Tomatoes - Oh how I had high hopes for my tomatoes. My favorite vegetable of all. My boys consider them candy! And it was a dismal failure. I had eight plants in all. Six were in the Maxi Kaps, and two in their own pots. The self watering was great, although I was out there watering everything else anyways. The two cherry tomatoes we did get some good snacks from, although again we had crazy weather and they took FOREVER to ripen. The third cherry plant never produced a single one. Then I had four 'Early Girl' plants, your basic medium sized tomato. I'll give Mother Nature the blame for this one, but there was nothing early about these girls. It was late summer before they even started to look ready, and summer was almost over before I could harvest any. Which is when I discovered that the slugs had been feasting. And the little buggers couldn't just eat a whole one at a time. No. They had to go and stick their nasty little slug heads into as many tomatoes as possible. I had all of eight tomatoes. The rest went to compost. So, so, so sad. Next year, I will give a couple regular tomato plants a try, but will focus on cherries. Eight plants seemed like a good number. The little wire cages were not sufficient, especially as they wanted to climb higher and got quite heavy. I will need to do some more serious staking. And I have no idea how I will battle the slugs. So so so sad. And I need to start earlier. Again, this is where the cold frame/green house will come in handy.

My flowers were pretty successful. I need to remember to take a picture before they're all gone. My pansies looked great for a bit, but died early (I overplanted). My sweetpeas grew well, but didn't flower a ton. My cosmos also grew well, but took ages to flower. But now that they're in full flower they are stunning. My snapdragons did not work from seed at all, but when I bought seedlings, they thrived and look fantastic now. My dahlia was smothered by the pansies I planted around it. And my Scarlett Runner Beans stole the show. Easily hit 8ft, and was green and covered with flowers. The beans made an interesting view. I didn't think you could eat them, but it appears I'm wrong and especially in the UK they eat them a lot. Next year I will try some! The only problem with the plant was that it was so big, I needed extra staking (in the form of a large 10ft stake), and it blew over several times. Next year I will stake better from the beginning (a tripod style would look great), and brick the bottom of the container. The marigolds and sunflowers were a bit of a disappointment. Took forever to flower, put on a great show for a week or two then died back again.

Some other notes for next year. I need a better watering system. In the early stages it was so exciting to get out every morning, take my time watering and checking each plant. But by summer it was taking up a lot of precious time first thing in the morning. So some kind of sprinkler or other irrigation system is needed. Starting all the flowers from seed was fun, but it was hard to watch all my neighbors with their flower beds in full bloom when mine were still just sprouting. I may spend the extra money and buy seedlings so I can enjoy them much earlier.

All in all the containers worked better then I could have hoped for. For so many reasons I think they may be better then an in-ground traditional bed. Next year we should still be in this house, and I plan on doing it all over again. Right now I'm bagging up all the soil to overwinter. And next spring I will ammend it and hopefully get another year out of it.

Here are some pictures of the tomato tradgedy. All of these went into the compost. And there is another huge bunch ready for me to take down straight to the compost again. DAMN SLUGS!!!!! You can see in the background everything else is ready for me to prepare to overwinter. It looks so empty and dead back there now. I miss the lush jungle I had!






Thank you so much to those who have followed my garden journey. I hope maybe you learned something with me (even if it's just what not to do!). The days are shorter, and I'm getting back into the swing of sewing, crocheting, baking, crafting etc. With Halloween and Christmas right around the corner, I will have plenty to post about hopefully! And like I mentioned, I might try a little indoor gardening too this winter!

DIY fake wasp nest update

So it's been awhile since I first made and hung the fake wasp's nest (see this old post).

I've had many people ask me how they've worked. All in all I'm really happy with them. After a couple months (and a few rains), two of the bags burst and the stuffing fell out. But the bags were still hanging and looked kindof the same so I left them. I have not seen any wasp nests in our yard. I know there's not because I've been looking. I've been looking because there have been quite a few wasps in our yard, especially the last few weeks.

I heard a quick story on the news that Calgary is having quite a battle with wasps this year. Pest companies are extremely busy, and wasps are #1 on their complaint list.

So yes there are many wasps (they love my container garden it seems), but I do feel like I've been successful as there are no nests. We live right next to a large greenspace, so I'm sure there's a ton of nests close to us, but not in my yard!

I will be doing this again next year!

Jen Made Bread!!

Yes I did! We have been trying to make more of our own food and eat less prepackaged and processed food. And something that we eat a lot of is bread. Gareth has been wanting me to try making bread for ages, but I was pretty intimidated. Something about all the kneading, and resting, and punching, and I don't know, it seemed so complicated. My mom lent me a bread maker, but I never did get around to trying that. Then I came across a review of the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes. That got my attention! I reserved it at the library, but it was so popular I would be waiting a few months. So Gareth surprised me with the book!

And what do you know? I made bread!

I started with the basic recipe, and made a boule loaf. It was small, and a little dense, but it was good!



Then I tried again and made a partial whole wheat loaf, and it turned out much better.



And then I tried a cinnamon raisin loaf. That is one of my favorite breakfast meals. It turned out awesome!!




So I highly recommend that everyone runs out and gets this book. There are a ton of recipes, all with the same basic procedure. But the title is a tad misleading. The main premise is that you make up enough dough for four loaves, then it sits in your fridge for up to two weeks. Mixing the dough doesn't take long at all. But then it needs to rise for two hours, then refrigerated overnight. Then before you bake it, it needs to rest again at room temp for 40min. Bake for 30min. So while you may only be hands on for 5min, there is some preplanning to take in all the rest periods.

But you just can't beat freshly baked bread! (Especially the cinnamon raisin loaf!)

My potatoes in a bag

For dinner tonight, we harvested the first two hills of potatoes. It was early, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But what did I have to lose?

I decided to dig up the bag of potatoes. Out of all the hills, this was the one I was most curious about how/if it was working.

So here is the bag before, you can just see it under the foliage...



Here is what it looked like on it's own...



I dumped the bag into a bin, dug out the potatoes, then put the dirt back in the bag.



And here are the potatoes! The yield was small, but it was early. These were planted about 10wks ago. Another few weeks and I think the yield would've been much better. But the quality was amazing! We grilled them on the bbq in olive oil, garlic, salt and some onion. My mom and stepdad were here to share in them, which was great considering their contributions to my garden. And hopefully they'll be able to share in many more meals to come. I have 20 more hills!

Vegetable container garden Wk 11 harvest

It has been about 11wks since planting most of my vegetables. And finally we are starting to eat quite a bit from it. First it was spinach and lettuce, both of which are done now, and now we're into the peas and zucchini's. I have four zucchini plants, and it is fruiting like mad. We're also finally getting good sweet yummy peas. I have six pots of peas, three that were planted in one batch, and the other three were planted two weeks later in a second batch. I don't know what happened, but my first batch have all died. I managed to get a few peas off of them, but not much. My second batch seems to be doing much better and I'm getting more peas. We're snacking on about 6 pods/day. Hopefully this is just the beginning, but that may be it with such a small amount of plants. Next year I was to do waaaay more peas. I love love love them!

Here's what we had the other night. Another day or so and we should have that much zucchini again!



And while not a vegetable, I'm excited to say my cosmos have finally bloomed! Those too took about 11wks since I planted the seeds. A little too long to wait, next year I might do a bunch of indoor sowing so I can enjoy them much earlier. There are only a few flowers at this point, but hopefully they'll explode soon!

Homemade worm bin update

So I haven't mentioned my vermiculture bin (aka DIY worm bin) since I made it. There really hasn't been much to mention. It lives under my sink, I put in a few handfuls of chopped fruit/veg scraps once or twice a week, and you'd never know it was there. There is ZERO smell, no bugs, no escaping worms. But there are a ton of worms. Many more then I started with. Healthy, big, red worms. Probably double at least. And there is compost. Lots and lots of compost! As someone who had know idea what I was doing, I can tell you that it is easy to tell when it's finally turned to compost. The bin is much heavier then when I started, and it's rich, black, moist compost.

So I've decided it's time to get the compost out and start again. But how do I do this without losing all my worms? I have no idea if this will work, but here's what I'm doing.

I have pushed all the compost over to one side of the bin. I am not feeding them on that side anymore. My only concern is that it's so heavy, I don't want them squished under the weight. But I have to have faith that instinct will lead them out. On the other, now empty, side of the bin, I have started fresh. I have fed them some moldy strawberries, covered it with several inches of damp newspaper, and voila. The plan is that all the worms will migrate to the new side for food, and I will be left with one side of compost that I can then take out for storage (I won't be using it on my gardens this year, I'll save it for next).

There isn't much to take pictures of, it's hard to see all the worms in a picture. But here is what it looks like with the two sides set up. I figure I'll leave it like this for 2-3 wks to make sure as many worms as possible make it to the other side.

My new purse!

I made something for me! Actually it's not as exciting that it's just for me, but more that I actually got to sit down and start and finish something, in only two days. Gareth very kindly took the boys out this morning to give me the last hour to finish it in peace :)

When I go out with the boys, I now no longer need to carry the big diaper backpack. But my small every day purse is still too small. I needed something inbetween. I have my stuff (which really isn't much), plus snacks, drinks and Roans diaper change kit. And occasionally a few extra items too. I wanted something that I could wear over my body to keep my hands free for child wrangling. And something that was easy for me to just reach in and out of (ie no zipper).

So here is what I made. I found an awesome tutorial on Craftster, and it was actually so easy to complete. I added four inner pockets and a key hook so my keys don't just fall to the bottom of the bag. It closes with a magnetic snap (which is decievingly strong) which is nice that I can sneak my hand in if needed. I interfaced it with a lightweight fusible interface, just enough to give it some structure, yet still be soft and light. This used about 3/4m outer fabric, although I'm glad I got a full metre. I might make a matching zipper pouch to keep my stuff seperate.

Anyways, here she is. I haven't taken her out yet, but wearing around the house has been great!

Container garden - wk 10

I've missed posting for a few weeks. It has been a busy summer for us so far. Lots of activities and just playing outside. And we took our first family camping trip! I swore my version of 'camping' included a motel at the very least, but we met up with my best friend and her family and went camping in a tent! And you know what? It was awesome!! We've already booked our second trip of the summer, and hope to even do a third.

And in the meantime, my garden has been growing, and growing, and grooooowing!

So here is the update. I took these pictures last week, about the Week 10 mark.

Here are the herbs and Batch 3 potatoes. I've been harvesting the basil which is doing great. The cilantro seeds I planted a few weeks ago have sprouted and are growing quickly. The potatoes are big, but who can tell what's happening underneath.



The tomatoes!!! My awesome awesome tomatoes! They're all still green, but there are so many of them. It's crazy! We're going to turn red once they ripen as we'll be eating so many tomatoes.





The spinach and lettuce have bolted. The spinach was yummy, I will definitely do spinach again. But I didn't like the lettuce. I did a leaf lettuce (Early Curled Simpson), and I found it limp, wilty and tasteless. While on vacation, we stayed with my sister in law who is growing her first garden, and she had an awesome leaf lettuce and made us a great salad. I'm going to try her variety next year (I forget the name, I have to remember to ask her again!).

And in the same picture is the zucchini. Holy Moly, the zucchini! It's huuuuuuge. It's completely taken over the container, is running over the lettuce, and I have to keep cutting it back from totally covering my carrots. We've been harvesting the sweet tender young zucchini's, and jebus was it yummy. I thought I had some time before the next harvest, yet tonight my stepdad pointed out a huge zucchini that I swear wasn't there yesterday. Grilled zucchini, roasted zucchini, baked zucchini, stir fried zucchini, zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini muffins...




The beets are beets. You can just start to see the tops of them, but they're still pretty tiny. It will be a while yet before we get to eat those.



The potatoes are great. There were flowers, and now the foliage is starting to fall over. It has been super hot here for a couple weeks, I don't think they liked that much. Next week I'm going to try harvesting one. Hopefully they'll be the yummy little 'new' potatoes, yum!! I missed taking pics, but they don't look that much different, just a little bigger then last time.

And my peas. Sigh, my peas. I love peas. I love eating fresh peas right in the garden, shucking them, eating them and thowing the pods back in the garden. I was so excited for my peas. And they were doing well! So well! These picturs taken last week, they still look like they're doing well. Although on closer look, you could maybe tell something was starting to go wrong. And now, one container from Batch 1 is all pretty much dead. And the other two containers from Batch 1 are looking sad. It doesn't seem to be pests, my stepdad mentioned perhaps a fertilizing issue (nitrogen poisoning?). I don't know. There were a ton of peas growing, but they've all stalled and though some of the pods are getting bigger, when you open them, there are no peas inside. Batch 2 is still looking pretty good, so fingers crossed I haven't lost them all!



My peppers are surprisingly great! I have two hot peppers about ready to harvest, and several small sweet peppers. While the plants are much bigger then when I bought them, I don't know if they'll be big enough to make grocery store sized peppers. Right now they're about golf ball sized peppers.





My front flower garden is doing really great. The scarlett runner beans threaten to attack anyone who stands too close. I've added extra, taller supports, and they covered those in literally days. Not sure what else I can do. I might get a super long piece of wood (1"x1" or so) and pound that in the middle. Otherwise I think they may just reach across the lawn and crawl up our tree! The sweet peas have bloomed and are wonderful. I cut a bunch for my first 'bouquet'. They looked much better on the plant I have to admit! The cosmos are so tall. I didn't realize how tall they'd be. And they're so close to blooming. But nothing yet. One thing I don't like about them is they are covered in ants. I'm guessing they're like peonies where the ants crawl all over them and eat the sap which allows them to bloom. But it's kindof icky when you look really close! The pansies look good. Can't go wrong with pansies. But one thing I did do wrong was try and put a dahlia in the middle of a container and surrounded it by pansies. The pansies grew way bigger, completely covered the dahlia, which is now dead. Oh well, live and learn! The snapdragons are in full bloom with lots of great colours. And the osteospermum are okay. They don't bloom nearly as amazingly as when I first got them, but there are always a few flowers every day, and the greens are so pretty on their own.



And the sunflowers and marigolds are looking great. The marigolds are blooming nicely, and the sunflowers are growing steadily. Can't wait to see what they'll look like!



And that's it for now! I probably won't update this week (it's hard playing catch up), but plan on definitely posting Week 12's update. Hopefully the peas will still be in the picture!

A different kind of deodorant

I enjoy making my own cleaners, and have even dabbled in making some of my own lotions and potions. And one that has been on my mind for a long time is making my own deodorant.

Somehow, it just seems like a really delicate spot on the body to be slathering chemicals onto every day. A quick search of the internet will pop up links to Alzheimer's and cancer. However taking a few extra moments, and you will also find leading organizations who dispel these claims. You can easily find arguments for either side of this claim. I'm not a scientist, doctor, or any other kind of expert. But I like to decrease the amount of gunk I use, so this makes sense for me.

So, putting all those issues aside, lets focus on a few of the other issues. Someone has to make all that deodorant, make all the plastic holders, put it all on a truck, drive it here, there and everywhere. It leaves a footprint. And then you pay $5 per stick. (yes, the only brand I like is Mitchum and was $5 the last time I bought it). That's enough to make me never want to buy it again.

Except I'm also not willing to be all sweaty and smelly. So again and again I shell out for this everyday staple. I did try a deodorant crystal, and it did leave me dry, but smelly, and so that was a very short lived experiment. But wait! Another blog I visit, The Poor College Students Guide to Raising A Baby, recently had a post about making your own deodorant. I followed a few of her links, and came across some different 'recipes' and approaches. Some more complicated then others, some containing ingredients I know I don't have, and I'm not sure where to buy. But then I found one so simple, there was zero downside to trying it out. Absolute worse case scenario? It doesn't work, I'm out approximately 90sec and a wee bit of ingredients I already had in the house, and I'm sweaty and smelly for a little bit until I can go back to my regular deodorant.

So, I gave it a shot, and one week later I'm amazed to tell you I cannot find any difference between this and my $5/stick deodorant. So here is the link, the recipe and my review...

1 part baking soda
6 parts cornstarch

Put in a small container and shake well. Use a brush, pad or sponge (I use an old blush brush) and apply to underarms.

Really. That's it. So simple how can you not try it?

My review... I honestly cannot tell the difference from my regular deodorant. It has been hot outside, I have chased children around and around, I have cleaned my house (and not a daily tidy, a clean for guests heavy clean). I have been in hot stuffy cars, and then in chilly air conditioned stores (always a recipe for that clammy feeling). And I cannot tell the difference. And hubby swears I'm not smelly. I used 1/2tsp baking soda and 3tsp cornstarch for a trial batch (which is easily 2-3wks worth). Put it in a little snack container, shook it up and then I just dab my brush in it, give it a little tap and apply it like any powder makeup, just to my underarms.

My only tip is when applying, the dust does travel a bit. But it easily wipes away. And it will leave a white mark on dark clothing if getting dressed right after applying. But again, this is white dust, not the sticky white residue from regular deodorant. Simply brush it off, use a damp cloth if necessary. And like regular deodorant, if you use it right after shaving, it will sting for a bit. But the next day (and every day since) I have had zero reaction.

Anyways, I am converted. Sometimes it truly is the simple things that are worth doing!

Container Garden Week 7

So it has been seven weeks since I started planting. That's about 49days (give or take, not everything was planted on the same day). Which means, harvest time is coming for a few things soon, and already here for a few things as well.

Everything is growing amazingly well. I didn't know what to expect when I started out doing this, but so far it's more then I thought!

So here's the updates...

Here are my herbs and Batch 3 potatoes. The basil is doing great, which is good because I'm learning it can actually be a tricky herb to grow. My cilantro seeds have sprouted, maybe I'll get some more this season. Chives are a-thriving. And Batch 3 potatoes are nice little bushes. I'm done topping up all three batches, so now I just get to watch them grow. I used a bunch of different things to top up with, starting with a peat/container mix mixture, but that was $$$. Then I tried a 3in1 mix, but again, $$. Then I went to straight compost. Cost effective, but I was a tad worried it was too heavy. So then I just used a topsoil. I fertilize them once a week anyways, so hopefully topsoil will be enough. I had no idea the containers would take so much to fill up!! Next year I will have to preplan everything, and buy in bulk.



Next up are my tomatoes. My wonderful tomatoes! They are all flowering and huge. And both my Champion's (a cherry variety) have little green ones. I hope we get lots, cherry tomatoes are a favorite food in our house.




And here is my spinach. All my spinach. The prolific spinach. So much spinach! It's awesome. It's been starting to bolt a bit, I've been pinching. So time to harvest harvest harvest before it's too hot and it's done. Please share your favorite spinach recipes, spinach salad gets a little boring.



Leaf lettuce. I haven't actually had any yet, but it's ready! And I have to start harvesting it soon, Calgary will start to get it's hot weather soon.



Here is the zucchini. Interesting to note, these four plants came from one 4pack. They were all the same size when planted. The two on the left get a little less sun then the two on the right due to the shadow of the shed. And you can tell! The two on the right are bigger, and both are starting to flower/fruit. The other two are healthy and growing, but they are definitely behind. All because of a difference of maybe an hour or two of sun a day. But the two on the right are each growing a little zucchini!




My carrots are growing fast. In fact I can't even thin anymore, there is just too much foliage to dig through. So I don't know if they'll harvest well. But I love the carrot tops now! And next year, on a tip from my mom, it's seed tape all the way for the carrots and the beets!



My potatoes are HUGE! Batch 1 you can no longer even see the containers underneath. The bag is pretty much rolled all the way up. Batch 2 is not far behind. Emily happily took a picture to give you some scale as to how large these plants are now. Unbelievable! I hope there are a ton of yummy potatoes soon. Being in containers, and possibly planted too close together, I think I will harvest a little early and enjoy 'baby potatoes' instead of waiting for the full sized ones. They're norland variety, so that may be in the next few weeks I can do that. I can't remember, so I have to go a-googling'.



The peas are looking good. One or two flowers are starting to appear. Can't wait to start snacking!



And we have strawberries! They started as little green ones, and now they're starting to ripen a bit. We have quite a few wildlife pests in our neighborhood including squirrels, rabbits and birds, so I just hope we get to enjoy a few!



My beets are looking good. There's never too much to report on them. I just hope they're growing under that dirt!



And last are my peppers. These I bought just a few weeks ago, but they are also starting to flower. If everything goes well, I will have some hot ones for salsa, and some sweet ones for snacking. I've never had success with sweet ones, so fingers crossed!



That's it for the veggies! Now for the flowers. Again, it was fun at first to watch the seeds sprout and grow, but I really want more colour by now. Next year I will either start the seeds indoors early, or just buy annuals.

The sunflowers and marigolds are slowly but surely growing.



The scarlett runner beans are getting huge! Can't wait for the flowers, I think it will be quite the show.



The cosmos are doing great and are quite tall. The foliage looks nice, but again, I want the flowers!



And my sweetpeas are climbing, can't wait until they flower and we smell them everytime we go in/out of our house.



And I bought and planted a few snapdragon plants a couple weeks ago to replace the seeds that never sprouted (seriously, not one!). And I'm about to get some blooms!



So I am still loving this whole 'gardening thing'. I love seeing the changes every day, the anticipation of the next stage. And hopefully soon eating the bounty. And using containers has been awesome. When we finally move to our own house, I will be building raised beds, but using a lot of the stuff I'm learning now! And the potatoes may always be in containers!

Oh, and Happy Stampede to all my fellow Calgarians. We will be staying as far away from the brewhaha as possible, but I hope those who do enjoy the festivities have a great time! Yahoo everybody!