... kitchen garden construction continues

Hello everyone,

Sorry to have been away from posting for a while but we have been taking advantage of this unusually cool weather to get as much done in the kitchen garden as is possible for two people to accomplish.  :)

I have lots of photos to show you so you can see what we have been doing and also some to show the various veg beds and how the plants are faring.

We have been building a lot of new beds in the garden this Spring. We have now completed the 2nd row of beds. The last bed is yet to be filled and of course I still have to clear the pathways and lay down the landscape fabric and the pea stone.

We have also begun work on the 3rd row of beds which is in fact the center of the garden. Because I feel that a garden must be food for the eyes and the soul in addition to the stomach I wanted this center section to be a bit more decorative. Accordingly we are placing a long bed at the top and bottom of the row but will have a diamond shaped bed in the very center with two long beds running in the other direction at the top and bottom. Far less beds but much wider pathways to navigate with barrows and such. I am also hoping to put some sort of pergola over the two long wide beds to create a tunnel effect to grow climbing plants like cucumber, beans like Scarlet Runners and also squash plants. As you can see here in this photo the center bed is in and we have just cleared the ground for the first two long beds. They are 11.5 feet long and 4 feet wide each. That width is a bit more than I have used for all the other beds but I can just reach into the center to planting and weeding so it should be OK.

The center bed has already been filled with garden loam and planted out. The very middle of the bed is filled with red Gladioli and around the perimeter I have planted out Pineberries. These are completely new to me. They are white strawberries with red seeds that are said to have a taste of pineapple. They have started to flower and I am tempted to allow them to produce just a couple of berries for a taste. This will not be there permanent home but I needed somewhere to put them for now and this new space was available. As you can see from all the stakes and strings all over the place, we are attempting to get everything lined up properly and evenly.

The 4th row of the garden will spend another year covered in multiple layers of tarps to kill the weeds. Row 5 of which I did not get a photo is somewhat weedy but Frank is in the process of digging them out and that area will be planted with surplus tomatoes and squash as the soil has been amended quite a bit with compost in that area.

And now a look at how the plants are doing this year. This is a photo of the garlic bed. I have removed the mulch in order to get in there and remove the unbelievable amount of weeds that had grown. The beds are now nice and clean. Garlic does not do well with competition from weeds so it is important to keep the beds clear.

This is a new one on me. Broad beans or also called Fava beans. Never grown them before but they are certainly growing a treat. They have begun to flower. I will need to tie them in to their cane supports before they begin to flop over. I cannot wait to try them.

This is one of the beds of carrots. I am growing 4 different varieties and I did find that germination was somewhat spotty. I have since gone back and planted more seed in the gaps. The same was the case with the parsnip which is at the other end of this bed. Germination was just terrible so had to plant a lot more and hope to fill in the spaces if the germination is better this time.

We have planted out three full beds of tomatoes this year. Quite a lot of them are Roma types as we are hoping to do a lot of canned tomatoes this year. We have also spaced them a bit farther apart. I have interplanted lettuce down the center of a couple of the beds. It will be used and out of there long before the tomatoes need the space. The determinate types are in the round cages and the others have been staked.

I have planted out one bed with peas which I am training up this galvanized pea support that I purchased from Veseys in PEI. I only bought one to give it a try but it is working very well and they are grabbing on with their little tendrils to climb up. Will purchase a second one next year. As the pea fence zigzags it's way along the bed it leaves behind triangular shaped areas that I have planted out. I have already harvested an area of arugula and radish and quite a lot of spinach. As you can see this little spot is filled with lettuce and more spinach. The little bare spot in front was radish that I already pulled. As soon as a space is harvested I re-sow it with something else. It is working brilliantly.

These are the two leek beds. I had already done a post on Eliot Coleman's method of growing leeks and so far it seems to be working quite well. All the little holes are completely filled in and the leeks are growing happily.

Since transplanting the rhubarb last year it has taken off and has been exceptional. I have been harvesting from all 4 plants this season and it continues to grow full and lush. This shows the benefits of soil that is tailored to meet the needs of the plants.

This last photo is of the early June bearing strawberries. When I planted them last year I noted in my posts that I was removing the blossom and the runners from these plants in an attempt to have them produce a bumper crop of berries this year. The strategy has worked wonders. Just have a look at all those little beauties. All the plants are just like that... absolutely loaded with fruit. Now the key, especially in this drought we are having, is to give them ample water. There is really no problem with sunshine as we have barely had a cloudy day which of course has caused the drought problem.

Just as I had just noted that we have had uninterrupted sunshine for some time now, in fact, it is completely overcast today and softly raining. I hope it rains all day long but I doubt that it will happen. We really need a week of rain to try to catch up.

That is all from me for today. I think that I will go and run errands today and let the rain do the garden some good and give me a day of rest. :)

Thanks so much for visiting with me today. If you ever have comments or questions, please do leave me a note. Cheers.

 ~ Melanie ~

... first heat wave of the season

Hello everyone,

Well, it is still only May and we are in the midst of the first heat wave of the summer season. And in the middle of a drought. We had an hour or so of rain a week ago but basically no rain for weeks. The ground here is bone dry. We are out in the garden watering every single night. Frank is wondering just how much water there is in our well. At least it is deep... 220 feet. Hopefully there will not be a problem. I do not know how people with shallow dug wells are managing in this weather.

We ordered wood to continue building raised beds and it has arrived. Frank began to cut it up yesterday. The heat is supposed to break completely tonight so construction will begin tomorrow, along with planting out most of the remaining veg plants.

The leeks we planted are doing wonderfully. All the veg in the bed with the peas are also doing really well. We will be eating spinach, arugula and radish this week. This year I started some spinach and beets from seed in the house and then transplanted them out. I also direct sowed spinach. The plants that were transplanted are not doing anywhere near as well as the direct sown plants. Lesson learned. I will not bother with the time and trouble to start spinach and beets to transplant. I will just direct sow in the future.

The parsnips have finally germinated so I can weed out that bed now that I can see them. The carrots are doing well. There are a few misses in the row so I will sow a few additional seeds in the spaces. Need to clear and re-sow beet seeds as few of the transplants survived despite our extra watering.

Once again this year something is eating my brassicas. Actually, not eating but just biting off and leaving the leaves lying on the ground. I made some hoops from some galvanized wire we had and covered the two brassica beds with some row cover that I purchased this year from Early's Garden Center (mail order). It is wonderful and thick. I have covered the beds and we checked last night and did not see any further damage. Fingers crossed. I will go out today and purchase a few plants to fill the gaps.

I have found a new source to buy my garden loam. I stopped in at this landscape company while out running errands last week and the woman who owns it is just a treasure. I checked out all their products, all the mulches, soils, etc. Their garden loam looks wonderful, just like Devils Food Cake. Rich and crumbly with a great earthy smell to it. She said they are very particular with their soils and the are sifted over and over to try to eliminate as much weed seed as possible. She gave me a bag of soil to take home. I immediately filled a seed tray, watered it and set it in the full sun. I have been watering it every day since. NOTHING has come up other than a wind blown dandelion. The soil I had been buying was utterly filled with perennial weeds... the very same ones I am fighting against and the reason we are putting in these raised beds in the first place. Needless to say, I will be getting my garden loam from her from now on.

Not too much else to say today. Still waiting until tomorrow for all this heat to break completely and then will be back in the garden working away.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to have some pictures of the rest of the garden planted out and the new raised beds. Cheers.

~ Melanie~

... planting leeks

Hello everybody,

The time has come to get the leeks planted. Actually we are a bit late but the weather has been so odd that we waited a bit.  In past years we did it the traditional way which was to create a deep furrow down the center of the bed and leave a large bank of soil on either side. We would plant the leeks at the bottom of the furrow and then gradually over time fill in the furrow with the soil on each side.

This year we are trying something new. This is the way that Eliot Coleman plants his leeks and if it works for him, I am sure it should work for us.

We begin by making the bed surface quite smooth and then watering it well. You want the soil to be wet enough to hold together but not sopping wet.

Because I like my garden to be orderly, I use a tape measure down the center of the bed and then down each side to be able to make my planting holes exactly 6" apart. The planting stick I am using is merely a broken handle from a shovel that Frank has cut the end straight and then tapered one side. I plunge it into the ground about 6-7" deep, give it a twist around and lift it out. It makes nice clean holes.

The leeks are separated and one is gently inserted into each hole. If their roots are particularly long, I trim them off a bit. They are long enough that quite a bit is sticking up out of the hole. 

After they are all in the ground the entire bed receives another very thorough watering. A bit of soil washes into all the planting holes and they are snug in the ground and all ready to start growing into beautiful white leeks.

That is all for today. I have some beds to weed and then I need to get some beans planted. Have a terrific day. Cheers.

 ~ Melanie ~

... the chicken coop continues

Hello everyone,

Work on the chicken coop continues. We are really taking our time and making is very safe for the birds. Our neighbour just lost the last of her guinea hens, this time to a raccoon. She texted to me and told me I had better be building Fort Knox to keep mine safe, she was giving up and would get some eggs from me. I feel bad for her to have lost all her birds. We will do everything possible to keep our ladies safe from predators.

As you can see from these photos, the walls are on and so is the roof. Frank used 1/4" plywood for the walls. We intend to cover the lower portion of the walls with hardware cloth so nothing can try to chew it's way into the coop. After that we will cover the entire coop with rough cut pine board and batten. When we put up the hardware cloth we will sink it into the ground about 6" as well.

This small area will be the feed area and also for storage of an extra feeders, rake, boots, etc. It is not very big but it will certainly work for what we need.

The coop is nice and snug inside. There are two chicken pop holes for them to exit, two windows (one of which faces south) and of course the "man" door which also has a window. I plan to put on a screen door, covered in hardware cloth, so there will be added ventilation into the coop. The screens in the windows will also be covered in hardware cloth. It should be a nice bright place for them to live because naturally we want them to be happy chickens. Happy chickens lay lots of eggs.  :)

That is it for me for today. The weather here in eastern Ontario is very warm... much too warm in fact. I have been trying to get the garden planted out with a lot of the veg but can only work for limited amounts of time in this heat. It is supposed to get much worse as this week progresses so I am not  looking forward to that.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great day.

 ~ Melanie ~

... worth the wait

Hello again everyone.

I was out in the garden the other day and something caught my eye as I was walking past the asparagus beds.

Take a look.

This is what it is all about. That first glorious asparagus spear poking it's head up out of the soil. 

I have done posts before about growing asparagus. It is a long slow process but, oh my, it is completely worth the wait. The flavour of fresh asparagus is superb. Nothing like the stuff you can buy in the supermarket that has been shipped from who knows where and was actually cut from the ground ages ago. I cut the spears, bring them into the house, and we eat them right away. Utterly delicious.

Thanks again for stopping by. I did want to thank all of you who have been in touch by posting comments or emailing me to express your kind wishes about the loss of my sweet dog Teally. It really means a lot to me. Cheers.

 ~ Melanie ~

... building a chicken coop

Hello everyone,

We had decided some time ago that this year would be the time for us to get some laying hens for eggs.

The one problem that we knew we would have is that predator pressure is quite high here. All of our neighbours have lost chicken, ducks and guinea hens to various predators like foxes, weasels and fishers.

When we began work on the chicken coop one of our primary concerns was that it needed to be safe. Therefore we have put a lot of effort into taking precautions as you will see from these photos.

We began by selecting a level spot not too far from the house. Frank laid down a base of cedar 6 x 6 and then he proceeded to dig out the bottom of the area that will be the coop. As is always the case here, he dug up lots of rocks as well.

 Once he had dug down far enough he laid 1/2" hardware cloth along the bottom and up the sides of the cedar. It was all secured and attached together with plastic tie wraps. We want to be sure that nothing can tunnel it's way into the coop.

After the hardware cloth we laid down some of the smaller stones that had been dug out and then a layer of pea stone. We have decided to have a dirt floor in the coop so after the pea stone Frank began to back fill with the soil that he had dug out.

Then construction of the walls began. We were fortunate that we had a couple of windows given to us by friends and we will be able to use them in the coop. We purchased the doors from the Re-Store. The door to the feed room is a solid steel door and the door into the coop is a wooden door with a window which will allow in a bit more light.

It took the two of us a couple of hours to get the four walls lifted and installed in place and then we needed to square it up.

This area that you can see on the left and in the photo below will be a feed and storage room. There is a base of crushed stone and pea stone and then Frank will lay down a floor of patio slabs to keep it rodent proof. It is not a particularly large area but certainly big enough to keep the feed and the tools needed to keep the coop clean.

The area on the right side is the coop portion. It is 8' by 8' in size and it will house 12 chickens. That will give them ample room to move around. We also plan to allow them to range outside so they will only be locked in the coop at night for protection. There will be the human size door into the coop and two chicken pop holes for them to use. They will stay open all day so that they can come and go as they please.  There will also be two windows for light and the necessary ventilation.

So there you can see what we managed to get done today. I think it looks great and I really hope that the ladies will be happy in there.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. If you have any chicken tips to pass along, I am all ears. Cheers.

 ~ Melanie~

... so very sad

Hello,

In the time of just over a week my beautiful dog Teally became very sick and yesterday he died. He was a very special and unique dog.

I will immerse myself in the garden and work as hard as I can to overcome the sadness.