A New Adventure

 

 

There was a time I thought about removing this blog from the internet completely.  At one point in my life it brought me joy to share my journey in what was my new home.  But life moved in other directions and it's been years since I've put it to use.  When I looked at the stats though I saw that it was of use to others.  Weather patterns, seed collecting, the best kinds of tomatoes.  People have found bits and pieces of useful information so I have left it be.  

Now here I am years later and this blog has found it's place in my life again.  The world isn't quite so simple these days.  Changing climate, pandemic and civil unrest.  There is a lot to be anxious about, and frustrated.  In the last weeks I turn on the tv and become angry.  The state of Canada is shocking to say the least.  There's a lot I would like to say about that.  Things I would like to shout from the rooftops.  But there's already a great divide in this country and a lot of people saying a lot of things.  For better or worse.

So instead I will note that when life gets you down you must choose how you respond to it.  I'm choosing to respond by changing course in a positive manner.  Years ago I had thought briefly of working in the agricultural sector, perhaps sharing the seeds that brought me so much joy. That thought was pushed aside at the time in favour of my nine to five job.  I have continued to garden, and save seed.  Many of those seeds gifts from other bloggers and readers.  And now I am making myself ready to try a new adventure.  The garden is expanding this year.  Currently my vegetable garden contains a half dozen raised beds and as many in ground as seen below.

This spring, part of the field beside the garden will get turned over.  Approximately 3600 square feet to start.  My favourite heirloom seeds will be planted with the hope to preserve them for future generations.  Over the last two years people have begun gardening in earnest.  Growing fresh healthy and cheap food for their families.  I hope these seeds will find their way into those hands for people to enjoy for years to come.  

Collecting Mustard Seed

A few years ago someone gave me mustard seed.  I don't remember who was responsible for the gift.  What I do remember was that I wasn't sure I wanted mustard seed.  I had never eaten mustard as a green and didn't know if I would like it.  But I can't resist a seed and so it was planted one spring with low expectations.  

Look what appeared.

Giant Red Mustard

From a tiny reddish looking seedling giant red leaves grew.  This plant is so pretty you might just want to have it as an ornamental.

red mustard  leaves

But does it taste good?  The answer is yes.  It's got a bit of that horseradish kick so we don't eat it in large quantities but when you want to add a little zing to otherwise bland salad greens this is the way to do it.  Ever since that first planting I'm hooked.

Most salad greens are pulled in summer because they bolt and go to seed.  But I'm a lazy gardener so I let the plants grow and grow.  Now I know why it's called Giant Red Mustard.  Not only are the leaves large but these beauties can reach 4 feet tall in mid-summer.  Like other plants in the mustard family they produce clouds of tiny yellow blossoms.

Bright red and green leaves with yellow flowers.  Pretty stylish plant I'd say.  Once it's done blooming the show still isn't over.  Even the seed pods look good.  Green pods ripen to red and then brown as they dry.

Now if you're going to let you plant flower and produce seed you might as well collect some of it.  Dried mustard pods are easily cracked open to reveal small round seeds, around 10 seeds per pod.

So many seeds in a pod makes for easy collection.  I simply grabbed a paper bag and ran my hands up the stem of the plant pulling the pods off and into the bag.  Some pods broke as I did this releasing the seeds.  I wound up with pods and seeds in my bag which I brought indoors and sorted.

Using a screen to separate pods and seeds

Screens are handy tools when cleaning seeds.  Drop the bag of seed on your screen.  Smoosh it around a bit and the seeds will fall through the screen and the pods will lay on top.

If you don't have a screen don't worry.  Just drop the lot on a piece of paper.  The seeds are heavier than the dried pods and will fall to the bottom.  Scoop the pods off the top, scraping out any excess seeds that haven't fallen out.  Even if you miss a few you will easily have mustard seed for yourself and all your friends.

Mustard is very easy to germinate and grow.  I plant it directly into the garden in early spring as soon as the snow has melted.  The plants prefer cool weather and sprout within a week or so for spring salads.  Pair it with young lettuce to spice up your dinner plate.  or if you prefer plant it just because it's darn good looking.

New Additions

Many of you are probably aware of our cats here on the corner.  I have loved cats for years and when we moved to PEI we brought Gino with us, shipping him on a plane across the country.

He's been part of our family for ten years and there was no way he was getting left behind.

When we purchased our home we were surprised to find out that it was already inhabited.  Priscilla, Bug and Funnyface introduced themselves promptly and asked that dinner be provided daily.  Sadly, Funnyface is the only one of the trio that is still with us today.

Five years on he has completely won over our hearts.  Going from feral barn cat to cuddly lap cat.

Two cats would be plenty for most people but I always feel sorry for the vast number of cats that head into shelters or are euthanized.  We have plenty of space and lots of love so an addition has been considered. Recently a co-worker told me she found a litter of feral kittens in her barn.  Of course I volunteered to take two. (why take one when you can have two?)

What can I say, I have a special fondness for barn kitties.  Meet Teddy (Theodore) and Archie.

These brothers have kept us entertained for the last month and I'm sure will continue to do so for many years to come.  There was a small situation with ear mites at first but they are healthy and happy otherwise.

Kittens are good for smiles and laughter

They excel at kitten olympics

I can climb ladders!!

and ease stress

Kittens however are bad at cleaning seeds

That should have been obvious but clearly I didn't think this through.  Turns out dried bean pods are the perfect kitten toy.  Crunchy and they make excellent rattle noises.

They meant well.  Although it made me consider what I'll do about a Christmas tree this year. It could be tricky keeping them away from shiny glass ornaments.  Perhaps we'll save the tree for next year.

Spring has finally Sprung

It's been so long I don't even know where to start.  How about with a big thank you to those of you who have stopped by and left a comment to encourage me to come back to writing.  I missed you too!  This winter was the longest and snowiest we have experienced since moving to PEI.  I shoveled, then shoveled some more, did my school work, and split firewood.  All by myself.

I saw this view many times this winter

I haven't mentioned that Jody was away in British Columbia for 3 months working.  Only just returning a couple weeks ago.  At the time he decided to leave we did not anticipate how bad the winter would get.

I wouldn't want to take care of this house by myself on a permanent basis but the good news is I managed just fine for a couple months.  A lengthy vacation home to BC helped too.  I walked away from the constant storms and stepped off the plane to this.

I can't tell you how relieved I was to see my husband and green grass all at the same time.  Vancouver is about two months ahead of PEI when it comes to spring.

I made good use of my time in Vancouver ....  shopping, eating and..... looking at flowers... of course!  A day was spent at Van Dusen Botanical Gardens.  I stopped by various community gardens, shopped for seeds and plants and took copious amounts of photos.  But that will be another post.

When I finally did come home the snow had almost completely disappeared.  There was grass.  It was brown but still .....  I could SEE the grass in my lawn for the first time in months...  and there was work to be done.

I immediately set to work planting seeds.  I was several weeks behind schedule due to my vacation so there was no time to lose.

The dining table looked like this for a few weeks

Tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, pumpkins, and zucchini all had to be seeded.  I cut back a bit on my seeding this year since I was so late starting but regardless I still managed to plant 9 varieties of tomatoes.  I met the most fabulous man in December at a seed swap and he had HUNDREDS of tomato varieties to trade.  So really, planting 9 varieties was quite restrained of me.

After the seeding I went directly to the great outdoors.  I surveyed the damage.  Lots of chewed and broken branches from heavy snows and voles.  In retaliation I planted trees.  Hemlock, larch, spruce, birch and ... a magnolia!  While we were in Vancouver THIS caught my attention.

So very pretty, and yellow.

Jody took note and brought me home a Yellow Bird magnolia from a local nursery.  Of course now I'm planning a whole new bed around this tree.  More work to come!

After the trees came the vegetable garden.  Currently I'm still working away on getting the beds ready but I did manage to get my spring veggies in.  Claytonia, arugula, mustard, lettuce, garlic, spinach and kale don't mind some chilly temperatures and it means we'll have spring salads in no time at all. 

One half of this veggie plot is dug over but there's a lot more to do yet...

The flower garden is the biggest chore to tackle this year.  After 3?  4? years the flower garden is still not complete.  At least a quarter of the space is completely covered in weeds.  I swear, this is the year I completely dig over and plant up that garden.  You have that in writing.

This flower bed may be my undoing ....

I have started work cutting back last years perennials and digging weeds.  Making discoveries along the way.  The lamb's ear has grown so large the center has died out.  However, the sweet woodruff has decided it will happily take it's place.

Look to the left and you can see sweet woodruff growing under and around the stump

While some areas of this garden haven't been planted at all, the plants in other spots have grown too large.  As I clean up the debris I'm also dividing.  That's a good thing as the Canoe Cove Plant Sale is coming up quick on Saturday, May 31, 2014.  We need all the plants we can get.  If you're local and reading this, please consider donating any extra perennials you might have.  Plants can be brought to Inman Park in Canoe Cove on Friday, May 30 at 6pm.  All proceeds from the sale go toward maintaining the Canoe Cove Schoolhouse.

A sample of the plants I have dug for the sale so far 

For those of you wanting to attend the plant sale we have already bagged a trailer full of mushroom compost for you.  There will also be manure, the canteen will be open serving coffee and baked goodies, there's a raffle and of course, plants!

In short, I'm a busy bee these days.  There's much more to catch up on and I hope to get back into blogging as much as I can throughout the summer.  I have taken a semester off school and have until September to garden to my heart's content.  Hope everyone is well and I will attempt to visit you at your blogs soon.  Until then, happy gardening!

Missing in Action

Hello folks, it has been a long dry spell in blogland but I swear I haven't forgotten about you.  This post is for all of you who have emailed, called and generally wondered what the heck is up with me.  I am still in school and that is continuing to eat up my extra time.  I finished my second course about a week ago and will start a third course beginning in January.  So far so good.

Unfortunately the minute I was finished with school this happened.

The flower garden under the first snow of the season

Our first storm of the season brought 110km an hour winds and a load of snow.  Now a week later we are sitting through yet another storm.  This has the looks of a bad winter ahead.

Snow days mean we must find new ways to entertain ourselves indoors.  I've decided to start training Gino for the circus.  I've managed to get him to stand up on his back legs.

Now I just need him to learn to twirl.  Funnyface is not as cooperative.

He would much rather take a nap in my bed.  Clearly I have my work cut out for me. 

Other fun activities have included attending PEI's first Seedy Saturday.  Seeds of Community is a new group on PEI that is creating a grassroots network that promotes seed sovereignty.  They held their first Seedy Saturday on December 7 and I was delighted to attend.  First some sorting needed to be done though.

All this came out of my fridge

My fridge is overflowing with various packets of seeds so I took some time to do some sorting.  I put aside extras and seeds I was no longer interested in for trading, and sussed out what I would like to add to my collection.  Then off I went.  The event was a big success and I met some wonderful people and took home some fascinating new seeds.  Many more tomatoes are now in my collection, as well as a couple new beans among other things.

Which reminds me, about those tomatoes.  I know I promised you a tomato post and I do intend to write one.  However, we've come up against a roadblock.  As I was sitting down to write this particular post my old macbook ground to a halt.  I tried to reboot but alas, it seems it has bit the proverbial biscuit.  The problem is that all my garden photos from this year are on that computer, including all my tomato pictures. We should be able to retrieve the photos off the hard drive but at this point we have no new computer to move them to.  A new mac was definitely not in the budget so it may take some time before we get this worked out.  So hang in there please.  I have plenty to say about our heirloom tomatoes but seeing a  photo of them - well, a picture is worth a thousand words right?

What I do have pictures of is pumpkins.

Look what I found!!

While out on a weekend walk we discovered a treasure trove of abandoned pumpkins in the woods.  Wee baby ones like the one I'm carrying in the photo, and monster big ones, as well as a variety of colours.  After Halloween they were dumped like a basket full of kittens into the woods, left to fend for themselves.  Don't you people know you can eat those things?

You might recall I grew pumpkins this year.  Very pretty but they taste good too.

Remember these beauties?

This was my first year growing Long Island Cheese Pumpkins so I wasn't sure how they would measure up in the kitchen.  My first experiment was to carve them for Halloween.  I wouldn't try that again.  As pretty as they are, the walls are quite thick and ripply making them an absolute nuisance to carve.  So we chopped them up and cooked them down.  That worked wonderfully.  Slowly cooked down on a stovetop the pumpkin turned into a very thick paste which worked well in breads and cookies.  Then a co-worker suggested we try stuffing them.  What?!?

Did I mention it slices beautifully too?

I have never heard of stuffed pumpkin before but I am glad I know about it now.  The stuffing is a combination of ground beef, onions, mashed potatoes, cinnamon and all spice.  Very easy to make, very filling and very tasty.  I still have a couple pumpkins on standby so my next venture will be a curried pumpkin soup. 

Hoping this post finds you all happy and healthy, and looking forward to a wonderful holiday.  I'll be coming round and visiting your blogs over the next couple weeks and with any luck we'll get a new computer up and running so I can share more garden photos with you soon.

Vegetable Garden Review 2013

The weather's good and cold and all the plants have withered.

Must mean it's time to do my yearly review of the veggie plot.

Let's start with the bad things and end on a high note, shall we?

The biggest tragedy by far this year was the perennial plants.

My strawberries had to be dug up

Asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries were all a bust.   A complete and total bust.  I did not collect one single asparagus spear this year.  That's because sheep sorrel took over.  This invasive plant has to be removed out of the veggie garden on an almost daily basis.  There's no escaping it as it's everywhere on our property and it spreads like wildfire.  The majority of the annual vegetable beds get dug out at least once or twice a year which helps combat the problem but I can't do this with perennials.  I simply don't have the time to weed them consistently and the result is all these plants have been choked out.  You can see in the above photo, on the left there's more weeds than strawberries.  I had to completely dig out the entire bed and start over.

I am working on a plan though.  I have begun, in a very small way, to eradicate the grass and weeds in the paths of the veggie garden.

I started laying down layers of newspaper and cardboard in the spring.  (I knew those flyers were good for something!)  I followed that with a 3 inch thick layer of sawdust.  Then straw.  The hope is that I end up killing the weeds underneath so they stop sneaking into the veggie beds.  The small sections I was able to complete did well so I hope to continue with this next year.

The next tragedy feels minor in comparison.  I discovered that spinach seed doesn't last very long.  3 years in fact.  I should have known that, but now I won't forget.  I planted my spinach and waited, and waited, and waited. Thank goodness I was paying attention and got myself to a store to buy fresh seed. Unfortunately the weather was getting a bit warm by that point and I didn't have great germination.  So a less than stellar crop of spinach but now I know better.

Another problem with germination was beans.  I was in a hurry and just couldn't wait for the weather to warm up.  So into the ground they went and it rained and rained.  My poor beans rotted.  

Dragon's Tongue on the left and Purple Peacock on the right

I did manage to get a couple plants to come up but it was a pretty lean year for beans.

Thankfully, the tragedies aren't life or death.  Every year has surprises, and some of them are good.  What we lacked in beans we more than made up for in peas.

I had very good germination rates this year, followed by tons of blooms and bees, which resulted in LOADS of peas.  I think I spent most of my summer picking peas.  Every second day starting in June straight through August I picked peas.  August?  yes, August.  The plants had almost stopped producing in July but then we had a spell of rain.  And the vines grew, and bloomed some more, and then there I was in August still picking peas.  Good thing I like peas.  They're an awful lot of work.

Another great surprise was onions.

You know, the fact that I was actually able to grow some.  For 3 years I have been trying to grow onions with no luck.  They rotted, they withered, they refused to grow larger than a marble.  Through a combination of starting seed early, improving my soil, and not burying the plants too deeply I was finally able to produce some proper onions.  Every time I visited the garden this year I did a happy dance around the onions.  I grew those!!

As noted in my previous post I finally managed to grow pumpkins this year too.

My pumpkin patch

Whatever issues I was having last year are gone.  Good thing we have some space.  There's a manure pile under those vines somewhere.  Our weedy meadow was no match for these plants.

Aren't they the most beautiful pumpkins you've every seen?!  BIG big thanks to Brenda @ Gardeningbren for gifting me with the seed for these Long Island Cheese pumpkins.  The whole neighbourhood is enjoying the proceeds of this crop.

That's a wrap for 2013.  This was our fourth year gardening here on the Corner and it was the best yet. For those of you dying to know what happened to the tomatoes.... you'll have to wait.  I grew approximately 25 plants this year so they get their own post.

just another beautiful day in the garden

till then....

Perserverance Wins Out

Some people might say I'm stubborn as a mule.  I might even agree to that.  But there's something to be said for refusing to take no for an answer.

Five years ago we were living in Gibsons, British Columbia.  Renting someone else's home and tending someone else's garden.  During our time there I got hooked on some local salad greens that included a rather unusual looking plant.  I wasn't sure what it was but I remember thinking - one day I'm going to grow that in my own garden.

It wasn't long after when dreams became reality and we moved across the country to Canoe Cove, Prince Edward Island.  I had found my garden at last.  That first summer I decided to put in a vegetable garden and that salad green was on my mind.  It had an unusual leaf, looking something like a fused four leaf clover.  I assumed it wouldn't be hard to figure out what it was and added it to the list of things I wanted to grow.

But when I began seed shopping I ran into a problem.  I looked and looked and nowhere could I find the leaf I so vividly recalled.  I combed through the seed catalogues, searched google and in desperation finally called the produce company long distance in Gibsons.  I felt like a bit of a mad fool asking for the secret ingredient to the Colonel's recipe.  Was it poor etiquette to demand what was in their salad mix?  Perhaps it was but the teenage boy who answered the phone told me the plant I was looking for was Calendula and that was all I cared about.  I had the secret ingredient and no one could stop me now!

Except that wasn't the ingredient.  Not even close.  It didn't look remotely like the plant I was looking for.  What now?  Did I try calling again?  Should I just accept fate and give up?

I procrastinated instead.

Then one day my dear spouse brought me home a book on vegetable gardening.  The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith.  An out of the blue purchase for no reason at all.  Not a book I was thinking of buying, not even one I had heard of before.  The world works in mysterious ways.  As I flipped through the pages of my new book I found it ..... and started yelling.

Needless to say my reaction left Jody somewhat surprised.  There among the vegetable descriptions was one for Claytonia perfoliata, also known as Miner's Lettuce.  It was the plant I had been searching for all this time.  The common name refers to the fact that this west coast native plant was eaten by California gold rush miners for it's Vitamin C content which prevented scurvy.  It has an unusual leaf pattern as the leaves unite together around the stem as the plant grows and appear as one circular leaf.  It was this distinct leaf shape I remembered.

Thrilled I immediately went online to look for seeds.  AND FOUND  NOTHING.  I searched every seed company I could think of and Claytonia wasn't for sale at any of them.  Little wonder I had so much trouble identifying it.  I wasn't going to be dissuaded though.  Someone somewhere had to have those seeds.  Eventually, after a very thorough search, seeds were found and we were in business!

Come spring, seeds went into the ground and I waited patiently for my salad greens to become a reality.  I thought I saw a hint of green at one point, but then it disappeared.  I kept waiting.  I really am stubborn.  But nothing ever happened.

The following spring I wondered what to do.  I still had half the packet of seeds and I wanted to try again but didn't know where I had previously gone wrong.  Lucky for me fellow blogger Niki Jabour had just written her book The Year Round Veggie Gardener and I attended the release party.  Amazingly, Niki also talks about Claytonia in her book so I accosted her on the spot and demanded to know what I was doing wrong.  Niki was a good sport and told me Claytonia prefers cool conditions - her advice was to plant as soon as the snow was gone in April.

Once again I headed back to the garden, determined this was the year I would get my way.  Come April I tucked the seeds into the ground and happy day - we had seedlings!

Smaller than a thumbnail and rather yellow looking

Tiny sickly looking seedlings though.  How could I have gone wrong this time?

A normal person might have thrown in the towel at that point but not me.  Back to the books I went.  Re-reading the plant description I noticed that Claytonia is a spring plant that prefers cool damp conditions.  It is often found in sandy peaty soil in the shade.  Shade, of course.  My veggie garden is in full sun.  Try again.

This spring I had a tiny amount of seed left.  One last chance.  I decided in order to have optimum conditions a container would be the best choice.  A plastic laundry sink that had been basking in the garage was called into duty.  Large, with good drainage it could be filled with loose peaty soil and moved to a shady spot.

My stubbornness perserverance finally paid off.  Little seedlings popped up and grew tall and happy.  Flowers bloomed and we ate as much as we could stand.  Then when we couldn't eat any more the heat struck and the plants faded.

There'll be more next year though.  My seed rack is sitting next to me as I type and I occasionally hear the pop of seed capsules releasing.  Little black seeds dropping onto the newspaper, waiting to be collected and planted next spring so we can do it all over again.

Hundreds of tiny seed pods formed once the heat set in.

If I haven't completely scared you off with this ridiculous tale and you're interested in trying Claytonia for yourself there are a couple places you can find seed.  For those in the US Claytonia is available from Johnny's Seeds in Maine.  Canadian residents will find it at William Dam Seeds.  With the right conditions it grows really easily (I'm laughing as I say this now!) and is a tasty addition to spring salads.

GOOPS - Don't Kill Your Seedlings

This is the time of year when my windowsills are covered with little pots of green shoots.  Shoots I have nurtured and coddled from tiny seeds.  They have sprouted leaves and soon will leave the nest for the big outdoors. 

Well if they survive my haphazard gardening regime that is.

A couple years ago I forgot to water the tomatoes and they collapsed.  That's a really bad thing to do.  Rule #1 - water your seedlings.  Not just once either - check them every day.

This year after weeks of fussing over my onion seedlings I began to put them outdoors to harden off.  A couple hours at a time, then a wee bit longer, until they were out all day long.

and then I forgot them....  outside .... all night long.  

Rule #2 - Don't do this either. 

Luckily I've been suffering a bit of insomnia lately (never thought I would say that) and I was laying in bed at 3:30am with nothing to do but think about gardening and I realized - ohmygod the onions!

So while they were a little scorched by frost they didn't perish entirely.

The upside of all this is that the moon was putting on quite a show when I went out to retrieve said onions.  So here's a little Skywatch thrown in for good measure.

GOOPS (aka Gardening Oops) are brought to you on the first of each month courtesy of Joene at Joene's Garden.