The potato box - up close & personal!

My lovely potato box has garnered a lot of attention from the human visitors to the garden. Everyone has asked me why I have this strange box with all the leaves sticking out of it - and also where they can get one! The basis of a potato box is to grow the spuds vertically rather then horizontally because they take up so much space otherwise. Theoretically you can get a much higher yield on a smaller square space this way.

So far all I can say is that, yes it takes up much less room then an entire row of potatoes!

There are lots of different ways to make a potato box, using everything from scrap wood to old tires, there are even commercial available boxes now. A great link for more info is from The Seattle Times (isn't the internet great?).

This is my first year growing potatoes & I've just used the ones out of my cupboard that have grown too much to eat. I'm hoping for a big bounty but we'll have to wait until late summer/fall to find out.

Saving Nature and the Chestnut Tree

There is a great child-hood family story about my husband getting very upset about his father pouring tadpoles back into a stream. Apparently hubby was "saving nature" and he has been teased about it ever since.

So he's as much a sucker for a straggly little lost soul as I am, which is how we ended up with our cat Peaches (and her son Oscar).

The other day he was working in a friend's basement where he found this little tiny Chestnut Tree growing right out of a conker in the dark basement.

Unfortunately the little guy didn't make it once given sun, and food and water (go figure)! So I killed nature... I'm hopping to save some conkers this christmas and see if we can get one to actually grow!

Sunflowers make my heart shine.

Well it's been a little chillier this week so I've mostly been staying out of the veggie garden, just trying to sit back and let things grow. So far everything I did put out seems to be living, even that one little tomato plant. And that's not the only thing that's growing, my sunflowers are coming up!

Sunflowers are my very favourite flower. They come in such a wide variety of shapes and size and colours, their beautiful foliage attracts all sorts of good creatures to the garden and provides a home for aphids so they stay off my veggies. Most of all they usually last quite late into autumn, after all the other plants have died away my sunflowers shine on, providing a last bit of late summer sun.

This year I'm planting all the sunflowers I saved from last year. Among my favourites are Evening Sun because of the beautiful dark red colours. I also have some large very classic yellow petalled sunflowers. One day I hope to add some lovely Italian Whites, maybe some nice peach sunflowers to my garden, there are some gorgeous forms of miniature sunflowers that I'd like to make a border with, and... I stay away from the sunflowers in the seed catalogues for fear we'll go broke.

I've also got some strawflowers growing, a new flower I added last year. I'm sure it's not hard to understand why they are my second favourites.

I'm just waiting for my lovely blue German Iris to burst through their foliage. I'm expecting them and the tulips within the next two weeks.

Sneaking a few plants outside.

I can not contain my excitement any more. The lowest temperature we've had in weeks is about 3C & if you've never survived an Ottawa winter, I don't expect you to understand. The last two summers have been miserably cold and wet and it's looking like this year is going to be anything but. So I'm gambling and I hope it pays off. We got a nice sunny day today with a few days of rain and warm temperatures expected over the rest of the week it is a perfect time to plant.

Firstly, I replanted a few cauliflowers with seed, apparently my little one doesn't understand why we don't dig up the seedlings, which have surprisingly done very well! The 3 (of 6) that haven't been trampled are going strong; although still very small and only have their first leaves. I would suspect my toddler of sabotaging my cauliflower on purpose, but I'm not sure he's ever eaten it before.

I started on my lettuce garden. The lettuce I'm not too worried about if it does get cold, I can cover it over with plastic if necessary and lettuce thrives on cooler temperatures. I chose varieties of lettuce that specifically do well in cooler temperatures and a spot that gets the most sun; that may come back to bite me if it gets really warm this summer. I've planted:
- Vulcan, a read leaf lettuce for a little colour
- Buttercrunch, a butterhead lettuce I grew last year & harvest for seeds - simply delicious!
- New York Iceberg, also grew last year & harvested the seeds. I don't like iceberg very much, but this one is fairly tasty, I grow it for hubby.
- Viking Spinach, I grew this one last year & harvested. I didn't eat too much but I'm trying hard to incorporate more into our diet; it's so good for you.
- Arugula, my first time planting Arugula, I wanted to try out the spiciness.
- Radicchio, also my first time trying radicchio, I'm really excited to try it freshly grown.
I'm planning a few succession plantings over the course of the summer so I don't get a glut of lettuce, but I will plant extra for the first few plantings so that I can harvest some as baby leaves & still get enough for fully developed heads.

I planted a few germinated strawberry seeds. My germination rate on the temptation strawberries was very low, but I've heard they can be hard to get going. I've buried them in the composted straw the farmer gave us, so that should help keep them warm as well as keep the weeds down. I have to start some more in a few weeks, but if these guys live & bear fruit I may have some early berries. I'm so excited about making fresh strawberry jam, although I suspect I'll be fighting the kids for the strawberries!

There is a 1/2 acre plot beside the house that belongs to the farmer, but it is too small for him to bother with. So, I've decided to throw all our squash into it, hopefully that will reduce the bush-hogging he has to do & it keeps the squash out of my vegetable garden. I did choose a few bush-varieties of squash this year, but they still get quite large & take up a lot of room I'd like to use for other plants. So I went out & dug up at least 2 dozen mounds to plant the squash into, then planted 6 with jack-o-lantern pumpkins & transplanted 2 Atlantic giants that were getting too big for their pots in the house. I've got soda-pop bottle halves at the ready should I need to run out & cover the seedlings to protect them, but tonight we're having a thunderstorm in early April - the weather is so warm and beautiful, I'm not too worried. I will be planting the rest of the mounds with acorn, butternut, small sugar pumpkins, zucchini and watermelons in a few weeks.

I also planted a row of Honey Select corn out in the field. I accidentally ordered the fungicide treated corn seed, but no harm, no foul, it will survive if our temperatures do dip. My row is so crooked though, it's going to be a little funny when the corn does come up. I think I'll throw in some Scarlet-runner beans after the corn starts growing, I'll have a 3-sisters field. The only thing I am worried about with that field is last year the cows got into it over the fence & from what I've heard cows love pumpkins! I may have to man the fence with a large-stick and a flash light towards the end of the summer.

I potted up all my herb seedlings. I really only had success with the sage. The rosemary, and oregano did sprout but they are very small. So I re-seeded and hopefully I'll get some herbs soon. I chose to grow them in a pot this year, so at the end of season I can bring them into the house & keep using the fresh herbs over the winter. Last year I kept a pot of parsley in the window-sill, it was a really nice addition to a few special meals over the winter.

Lastly I grew really brave and threw some peas & beans into the soil. I have lots of extra seeds so if it is too cold and they don't grow it's not the end of the world. However, I am remaining optimistic! I can't wait to see beautiful scarlet runners twirling up my fences again this year, as well the humming birds they bring in.

My garden is sprouting all sorts of name-tags, hopefully soon to be followed by plants!

Cow poo makes me happy!

Maybe a little too excited, but when the farmer came by this weekend to ask if we were too busy to help pick up a few loads for the garden, I had to take a few deep breaths to keep from dancing about the yard (the farmer already thinks I'm strange enough, I don't need to encourage that notion). I've been waiting for this very moment for a few months now. To me, the completion of the garden beds is a true sign of spring; time to get growing!

I have to say as hubby & the farmer crossed the field in the tractor, laden with manure, I fell in love with him all over again (my husband, not the farmer - although he's a sweetie-pie too!). This is the way my man shows me just how much he cares, taking time out of his day to do something that is only important to me. Hubby doesn't even like vegetables .

Now my garden beds are top-dressed with a few inches of 3-year old & well rotten manure. I used the old straw included to create mounds for my strawberries. I also filled in to the wet spots in my garden between the rows so I shouldn't have any more issues with mud-puddles.

Of course, since the farmer was happy to get ride of it and help out with the garden, the cost of all this lovely nutrient rich soil was my favourite price - FREE. I am expecting a great bounty from the garden this year; it will certainly be well fed. I may have to visit the farmer with a few jars of sauce and maybe a pumpkin or two in the fall.

Now, if I could just keep the cows off my back fence & away from the tomatoes.