Gardening Season in Review

I didn't post throughout the summer, but it doesn't mean that I my garden doesn't make me feel like a proud mama to some baby garlic! Here's the season in review:

This was April...starting from seed. The kids did some watering and planting. But they also upended a whole tray a week later. So much for my careful labeling of the different varieties!
The garden in June...garlic was up nice and early in the season and made it feel like a real garden as soon as the snow melted! Though they are smiling, I think I was more excited about the bean teepee than the kids were!

July filled things in a bit...lots of kale (the nasturtiums and marigolds seemed to help keep the aphids away this year), way too much chard to possibly eat, beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, unusual "banana legs" tomatoes, cucumbers, purple peppers, jalapenos, beets, dill, a few carrots, a failed zucchini (who can KILL zucchini you ask?), and a nice round pumpkin!
The biggest hit of this year was the addition of my garlic patch. You can read back about the planting part from last October here, but really, all that matters is that the results were AWESOME and so easy. We ate the "scapes" in June...

...and harvested 60 heads at the end of July. It was the juciest, tastiest garlic I'd even tried! I ate some right away and was advised that it was starting to smell, then I used some of the garlic to make 2 bushels worth of dill pickles (not my best batch, but I'll leave that for another day), and the rest is hanging in my basement keeping the vampires away.
Other than garlic this *could* have been my favorite harvest. These are my shiitake mushrooms. Dead easy, and delicious if you don't forget about them in the oven when you're drying them. Ahem.


Finally, our pumpkin!

Shroom Harvest!

My first shiitake mushroom "flush".
It was stupidly easy, but not without ups and downs. When I first got my logs, they were longer than I expected. I tried to fit them in the bathtub for a soak, but it wasn't really a great plan. First off, they didn't quite fit. They also got my tub filled with bits of bark and other outdoorsy crap. Then there was the issue of actual bathing. So, the logs soaked for about 5 hours before I moved them outside under the sprinkler overnight. Eventually I did get a few mushrooms, maybe 6 or 7. I'm pretty sure raccoons realized that shiitakes are tasty, because they started scratching out any teeny mushroom cap that attempted to pop out. Defeated, I chalked it up in the loss column of my garden experiment. After a few weeks, I got my second wind and took the logs to my dad's place, cut them in half and gave them a less half assed soak - this time for a full 24 hours. A couple of weeks later just when I'd almost forgotten about my 'shrooms - TA DAAA!
Above is the first true harvest!

Since I use this blog to be positive, I won't get into the story where I put most of my harvest into the oven to dehydrate them - and then forgot about them. I now have a big bowl of what can only generously be called mushroom "crisps". But that does bring us to the best part of growing mushrooms, you only have to wait a few weeks for the next harvest!

Experimenting with 'shrooms!

Okay, so I'm not referring to a foray into hallucinogens...it's a bit more tame than that. This week I placed my order for 4 logs inoculated with shiitake mushroom spawn from Mycosource. Apparently I just have to soak them in cold water, rap them with a hammer once or twice, and forget about them in a shady place for awhile. Word on the street is that I should be able to harvest a couple of pounds of fresh shrooms...ahem, I mean shiitakes, from each log...for the next 4-5 years! To a novice backyard garden geek like me, the idea of growing my own shiitake mushrooms this season with next to no work is mind boggling in it's own (non-hallucinogenic) way.

Shiitakes are gaining recognition for their health benefits. They contain lentinan, a component praised for anti-tumour properties. There is also evidence that shiitakes can lower cholesterol and stimulate the immune system. If that doesn't get you interested in mushrooms, then maybe the fact that they are just so much fun will. Get a load of these cool facts about growing mushrooms:
You soak the log in cold water to simulate winter...then they grow, you harvest them, and you soak them in cold water to simulate winter again which shocks them into growing again. Cooler still is the reasoning behind the hammer raps. The idea is that the jarring from the hammering simulates a tree falling in the forest onto the log. The mushrooms get the message that there is a new log to colonize and to get a move on and grow already!

Oh, the magic of mushrooms...heehee.

Garlic's in the ground!

Garlic is planted! I got my 20 pretty heads of Russian, Salt Spring, Tibetan and Persian garlic in the mail two weeks ago from The Cutting Veg. I spent a day last weekend adding bags of sand to the clay soil at my "allotment garden" at my dad's. Then coating it all with sheep shit.
This weekend it was ready to plant and then cover with leaves and wait a long 10 months til it's ready.
My experiment with patience is about to begin.

Bye Bye to Chinese Garlic

This summer I got my first delivery of fresh Ontario garlic from Mama Earth. I didn't recognize it...it tasted and smelled, well, fresh. It seemed barely related to the dry supermarket imposters (Product of China) I've been buying for years.
I started going out of my way to look for local garlic. It was nowhere to be found in supermarkets - the closest I found was Mexico, and that took some time. At my local farmers market there were plenty of choices, however, I had to be ready to pay up to $3.50 a head. Shocking to be sure...especially since I could fill my car with Chinese garlic for approximately the same price. But I bought it whenever I could find it. And now, I can't go back. Especially after stumbling across an article about how difficult it is for Ontario garlic growers to compete. How Ontario had 4000 acres devoted to commercial garlic production in 2001. Now there are less than 500. How Ontario garlic growers have been devastated by Chinese imports which flooded our market in 2001. But Canadians like me are beginning to get a taste of the fresh stuff, and we're excited to bring Ontario garlic back to the mainstream.
I just placed my order for 20 heads of organic "seed garlic". I belatedly discovered that you plant garlic in the fall (which explains why my spring planted garlic gave me cloves the size of TicTacs), let it "overwinter" and then harvest it the following summer. Fingers crossed, I'll have evil garlic breath this time next year. I ordered 4 different varieties from The Cutting Veg and can't wait till it arrives. It's going to get it's own bed! It's obvious now that I did not take the photo in this post, but I'm hoping it counts that it is my imagined harvest for next year...no? Photo credit here)
I also ramped up my weekly garlic order from 3 head to 15 heads of fresh organic Ontario garlic for next weekend's (hopefully) annual Tomato Stock. My backyard and kitchen will play host to a group of likeminded friends getting together to make tomato sauce and "put up" (haha..just testing out my new lingo) about 5 or 6 bushels of tomatoes. Since I've been experimenting this summer, I guess I'm the expert. Uh oh, I hope no one gets botulism.

Colourful Harvest

This is what I picked from the garden today.

I'm pleased to say that we have been eating salad with our homegrown lettuce, making zucchini bread with our own yellow zukes, and getting totally sick of green beans. Awesome. I'm in awe of my beets, chard, and kale for their productivity and hardiness. The green and purple beans have produced more beans than 3 families could possibly eat, and I'm not sure what I'll do with 40 giant beets...but these are nice problems to have.

The downside is that my expected glut of tomatoes may be smaller than I had hoped. Many of the tomatoes are rotting on the bottom as they ripen (known, I discovered, as blossom-end rot)...but after a bit of research I learned that I only need to add "hydrated lime" to the soil and the problem should disappear. I also had a drainage issue in one of my self watering containers that has a couple of plants teetering on the edge of survival. The soil blight (virus...?) at my "away" garden is spreading and is affecting some of the cucumbers and squash plants. I have no idea what to do about this, but I'm sure the solution is very labour intensive! I kind of hoped that once I planted my little seedlings I could just put my feet up until it was time to pick stuff, but alas, it doesn't quite work like that!

My big step for this week will be buying and beginning to use a composter. Since I live in a city that composts for us, I'm in the habit of just throwing all my food waste into the green bin. But I guess this gardening thing gets under your skin because I now looks at all my peelings and think "what a waste to not have this in the soil".

Anyway, hope everyone is able to eat some fresh, local food this month whether from the garden or the farmer's market.

Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes

My thumb must be rated at least khaki now. Six months ago I was having trouble keeping my cactus alive and now I have grown tomato plants that as of today are taller than my almost 5 year old (seriously, she's not even crouching!). The veggie patch is a jungle of tomatoes, many already with green fruit. My pseudo-earth boxes on my porch are also doing spectacularly, in fact, I can barely see out my front windows. It's not even the end of the school year and we've already harvested spinach, bok choy, lettuce, chard, and a handful of peas and beans. My cucumbers are now visible, the zucchini and squash plants are set to take over the world.
And to think I doubted that my seedlings could ever actually produce food! Now I'm starting to doubt my ability to eat and preserve the glut I see coming down the pipe!

Ups and downs of the urban garden

Here is my first tomato of the season. I guess my research paid off. This is a Stupice tomato, an heirloom variety from the Czech Republic that is supposed to be the earliest maturing tomato. Go figure, it really is. Hopefully this bodes well for the ones that are supposed to be the most sweet and delicious. I'll let you know if they also live up to their reputations! If you ever wondered where you find the details of seed varieties, you can peruse the seed catalogue from local, organic Terra Edibles.

In the "news-of-the-weird" category, I must also report the bizarre basil theft that occurred on my porch. It was a plump and aromatic plant purchased for the bank breaking price of $1.99 (at the convenience store at the bottom of the street to supplement my somewhat wimpy home seeded plants). It was neatly dug up, and the less robust plants were left behind. Racoons? Squirrels? I think not. Apparently there is a neighbourhood plant thief on the loose. Last year my next door neighbour had two shrubs go missing, down the street I saw a sign from someone lamenting the overnight disappearance of a favorite perennial. Weeeeeird. Where does one plant their stolen treasures? If you love basil so much, why don't you just spend the $1.99? Ahh, what's an urban garden without a little mystery?

Garden Update

It's growing!!! Above you can see my tomato plant collection, the experimental "self watering" container system, trellised peas and beans, and my earliest crop - spring onions and garlic grown on my deck (more successfully than in the ground surprisingly)

We've been eating lots of green onions this spring already. Chives and mint from the garden made their way to my salad last night. My spinach is just teeny tiny, so I'm supplementing with some hearty garden centre plants. I forgot to plant kale, so I'm doing the same with that. And I had the nice surprise of finding some sturdy looking baby bok choy plants yesterday which I will also plant this weekend. My indoor spring grow-op has yielded some presentable tomato plants which go into the ground this weekend.
I did get around to building my "self contained garden boxes", which are homemade versions of the commercial EarthBox™. They were reasonably easy, though not quite as cheap as I had hoped. I planted some cucumber seedlings in them which just sat and sat without really growing, so they have been replaced with tomatoes and peas. Hopefully my earthbox luck improves.
We'll be heading over to my pseudo allotment garden at my parents' place this weekend to check the progress and plant the tomatoes.
My dad warns me that his next door neighbour's garden is suffering from some sort of weird blight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not spreading, since it is only separated from "my" garden by chain link. Geez, imagine if this was your livelihood. Gotta hand it to farmers. They work hard, and face financial risk and ruin if they encounter bad weather, drought, blights or infestations. Makes me think of the bumper sticker "Eat today? Thank a farmer."

The seeds you sow

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you sow.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

I'm sure that if I took a moment to think about it, I could extract a meaningful life lesson from this quote. Today I prefer to take it at face value. That way I can judge these last few weeks as very successful since the seeds I've sown are sprouting.

This week I added lettuce, melons, beets, zucchini, and dill to my herd of tomatoes and herbs. My tomatoes are coming up beautifully, especially my funky Rainbow Blend and the early ripening Stupice.

Before I start peeing myself with excitement over my hypothetical harvest, I suppose I must remind myself about last year. Last year I purchased five huge pots of the most gigantic, healthy and unfailable cherry tomato plants at the garden center. Within weeks I had killed them all. I think we got about three tiny tomatoes for the bargain price of about $40. This year I'm hoping for a slightly better ratio.

But I suppose if I heed Robert Louis Stevenson, the harvest doesn't really matter.

Yeah, right.

Squirrels in the Ointment

The recent "clean food" kick I've been on lately has led to a relatively surprising turn of events. I've become a reader of gardening blogs, magazines and seed catalogues. I've become familiar with Chioggia beets, Rainbow Chard and Riesenstraube tomatoes. I have been growing seeds under grow lights that must have my neighbours wondering if I'm running a grow-op in here.

The only irritant in this new idyll is squirrels. Yesterday I planted onion and garlic bulbs. This morning I saw a squirrel munching one, chased it away, then realized the rest of the bulbs were already gone. I've been warned by many experienced gardeners - squirrels will make me crazy.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of operation Red Hot. I found a recipe for homemade squirrel repellent which calls for Murphy Oil Soap, Cayenne Pepper, and hot sauce. You spray it everywhere and the squirrels are supposed to dislike the taste - you have to reapply after each rainfall. It apparently doesn't hurt the plants. We'll see, it stinks and makes my eyes water...so hopefully it will do the trick. Racoons chewed a hole in our roof last year causing $4000 of water damage - I am likely to lose it if "urban wildlife" attacks my garden too! If anyone has any tried and true squirrel repellent ideas, I'd love to know about them.

And no, the squirrel in the picture is not real.

Urban Garden

I don't have much of a garden. It's more of a postage stamp with partial sun. My gardening attempts have never amounted to much, and I blame it on only partial sun and my watering neglect. I figure I need somewhere sunny to plant, and someone to help me keep up with watering. An arrangement has been brokered with my parents to make use of part of their expansive suburban backyard, apply my dad's vigilance with the garden hose, and share the harvest (assuming there actually IS one).

Today was a glorious early Easter Sunday. We had one of the best family days in my recent memory, even thought it included digging up a 12x13 foot patch of lawn, getting blisters, and aching muscles. The great parts were heat and sunshine, camaraderie, worm hunting, listening to my son boast that he's "digging just like Daddy", and watching my daughter pretend to be a pig rolling around in the dirt.

Ahhh.

Overenthusiasm

I can't deny the fact that I sometimes go overboard on new projects. I've mentioned my black thumb, the photo above is one of my most recent plant kills. But every few years I decide to start a garden. It never works for me, but this time, I'm willing to work for it.

I almost universally hate non-fiction, but I've spent the last week savouring "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver brims with enthusiasm (about things like heirloom seeds and seasonal asparagus), and I couldn't help but catch some. I found myself researching and ordering seeds, buying seed starter kits, and generally getting ready to have a clue what I'm doing.

I'm hoping part of the fun is in the trying. And if not, maybe it will teach me patience.