My Vegetable Garden

So, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? What’s been going on? Well not much to tell the truth. We’ve been busy with life and I guess I’ve been ignoring The Witch’s Island a bit too much. Thanks to those of you have kept in touch anyway.

The vegetable garden in August 2012, just before the harvest started.

It was a fantastic season for the vegetable garden this year. Lots of sunshine and heat, the plants loved it. Everything produced very well and we had so much that we couldn’t use it all and ended up setting up a table at the end of the driveway to give away the excess. The neighbours seemed to appreciate the gesture and we even received a nice thank-you note from one of them.

The onions were huge this year.

In my last post I mentioned that I had bought most of my seeds from Heritage Harvest Seed. Well their stuff worked great. We planted some of everything I listed except the Steeve’s Caseknife and Jacob’s Cattle beans. There just wasn’t enough room to get those in so they will have to wait until next year. Just about every single seed from Heritage germinated and grew into healthy plants. I always plant more than I intend to grow because there are usually some plants that die but these ones beat the odds. I had so many starters that I was begging my friends to take some. I still ended up putting some healthy little plants on the compost heap. What a shame, but I’ll know not to start so many next spring!

That's one BIG Tomato!

Just about every single seed from Heritage germinated and grew into healthy plants. I always plant more than I intend to grow because there are usually some plants that die but these ones beat the odds. I had so many starters that I was begging my friends to take some. I still ended up putting some healthy little plants on the compost heap. What a shame, but I’ll know not to start so many next spring!

Another thing I learned was that four rows of tomatoes are way too many tomato rows! Even in a poor year it would have been too many and it prevented me from putting in some other things like more beans. Next year I’m going to keep it down to just 2 rows.

Even the ceramic owl seems surprised that that
 tomato weighs almost a kilogram!

I taste-tested all the tomatoes as they ripened but I never did really manage to find a favourite variety. There was obvious differences in size and shape but they all tasted great. I guess if I had to pick I would choose the Bonny Best, Uncle Joe and Sylvan Guame varieties but they were all fantastic!

We used as many of the tomatoes as we could. I made mustard pickles, hot dog relish and even some home-made spaghetti sauce and I ate a lot of cheese and tomato sandwiches this year! I'm going to miss them this winter when all I can get are hot-house tomatoes from the grocery store.

The rest of the garden turned out great as well. It looked pretty, too. Everything was so lush and full that it was hard to get down the rows to do the weeding. I guess that's a good problem to have!

The Red Peanut beans ripened very early and we put them into the potting shed to dry and then shell. we had about 12 or 15 plants (half a row) and they produced a total of about three pounds of dried beans.I haven't eaten any of them yet but we will be baking them this winter. Mmmm...

All the tomatoes from Heritage Harvest Seeds did very well and were
heavy producers.

This was the first time I tried planting Asparagus Peas from Vesey's. The description sounded intriguing:  

"Tasty and attractive addition to your garden. Small winged pods taste similar to asparagus when steamed and topped with butter Red blooms make this plant attractive as well. Low growing and spreading. Continues to produce pods throughout the season. Can be started indoors or planted outside once all chance of frost has passed" 

The plants were very attractive and they were still producing blossoms and fruit right up until the end of October when we cleaned out the garden. They were unusual to eat and were best when they were very young. I will probably put them in again next year just because they looked so nice.

The Asparagus Peas were still blooming late into the year.

So besides the garden, what was I doing this summer? With all the beautiful weather I spent as much time at the beach as I could. The new beach tent worked great and went up and down easily and quickly. It made it so much more comfortable the the old umbrella could have.

I also started geo-caching again and even hid one of my own for the first time. It's a fun hobby and it gets us out of the house and exploring in out of way back roads.

Hubby put the final touches on the gazebo. He added power outlets and a couple of strands of rope lights and then panelled the privacy walls with some nice pine boards. It's a beautiful place now to sit in the evening and watch the world go by.

I guess that that's enough news for now. I'll save the rest for the next time, hopefully it won't be six more months before I write again, but, just in case, Merry Christmas! Haha!

Here are a few more pictures, enjoy!

These are the edible portion of the Asparagus Peas. They look like green
beans with wings and they do taste like asparagus if you cook them right.

We dried the pods in the potting shed and then shelled the beans. They do
indeed look like red peanuts!

We stripped off most of the foliage late in the summer to encourage
all the stragglers to ripen.

The Sylvan Guames were not only huge but they were also very meaty
and had very few seeds.

Here are five more varieties. There were definitely differences in texture,
size, shape and the number of seeds. 

These are Uncle Joes. We used this variety while they were green to
make Vera's Mustard Pickles. 

Forme-de-Coeurs were nicely heart shaped as suggested by their name.

The Forme-de-Coeurs were beautiful inside as well.

The Bisons were a good size for sandwiches.

Harbingers produced early and had lots of fruit.

The Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes had very distinct foliage on the plants.
The tomatoes were very tasty, too!

 These are Black Hungarian peppers. They produced very well.

The Matchbox peppers were very hardy. They were one of the last things
to come out of the garden this fall.

The Red Peanut beans were harvested when the pods turned bright red.

The Banana Spiders were back this year. They seem to be around whenever
the weather gets very hot and dry.

The gazebo was FINALLY finished this year! It got some
 interior panelling, electricity outlets and lights.

Martha Stewart Arrives On The Witch's Island

So it’s spring again and we’re finally getting out of the winter doldrums. Mind you, it was a great winter here, at least weather-wise and spring came early but the temperatures have been fluctuating like crazy. We had 20 degrees C in February and snow in April, Saturday was 32 C and today it is 10. It’s been hard to figure whether to get the garden under way or to wait for a bit. Last year I started my tomatoes and peppers way too early and by the time I got them in the garden they were very tall and spindly. I ended up restarting a lot of them and I swore I wouldn’t make that mistake again this year. I held myself back as long as I could but it does seem like spring is at least a couple of weeks early so I started them anyway. Let’s all pray that there is no frost in June!

Not that frost is the only thing to worry about. Our entire tomato crop was destroyed by late blight last year and we didn’t get more than 2 or 3 tomatoes from 40-some plants. What a shame as the plants were doing very well until the blight hit. So, this year we are going to mix things up a bit. We’re going to put the tomatoes at the other end of the garden away from the infected rows and we’re going to try a new supplier for the seeds.

Our order arrived about 10 days after being placed.

The packages are plain and simple. Let’s hope that the plants are more specatular.

I found out about Heritage Harvest Seed while reading a post about seeds on the Canoe Corner blog. They specialize in “rare and endangered vegetables, flowers and herbs.” and they had dozens of different varieties of tomatoes alone! The descriptions for some were so compelling that I had to try them. As an example here is the blurb for “Sylvan Guame”:

“An old heirloom from Canada that was obtained from an elderly man in his 80s. The original seed was from Russia. This excellent variety produces gigantic red oxheart shaped fruit. My largest was 3lbs and that was during a dry year! The fruit are not only large but delicious. My absolute favorite large fruited tomato. Indeterminate, regular leaf foliage. (80 days) EXTREMELY RARE. Highly recommended!”

How could a person resist? It was very difficult to pick out only a few types to try so I just went nuts and ordered 8 and then they threw in another for free! Oh, and 3 types of beans and 2 different peppers. What am I going to do with 9 different varieties of tomato, you say? Please don’t ask such difficult questions while I’m busy planting.

Here is a list of what we got for about $54.00 including shipping:

Tomato

• Sylvan Gaume 
• Harbinger 
• 42 Days 
• Forme de Coeur 
• Fireball 
• Silvery Fir Tree 
• Bonny Best 
• Bison 
• Uncle Joe’s – free 

Beans 

• Steeves Caseknife 
• Red Peanut 
• Jacob’s Cattle 

Pepper 

• Matchbox Chilli 
• Black Hungarian

Look, a whole garden’s worth of peppers and pumpkins are growing on my windowsill.

It sure didn’t take long for the seeds to germinate and now I’m hoping that they don’t get to spindly before I can transplant them.

Spring is all about getting back outdoors after the long winter and to me that means in part that lobsters are back on the menu. I’m not a big steak eater but I love Surf and Turf. This little canner was just the perfect size. Hubby took it out to the back deck to break it up for me so that the juices didn’t stink up the kitchen. The body and shells all went out into the trees as a treat for the birds and foxes.

One small canner is all I need for my first taste of lobster this year.

It is also time to get out into the gazebo and see if all the effort the last two summers was worth it because blackfly season has arrived with a vengeance.

So far, so good, the little bastards are staying out but we need something to sit on. We looked all of last summer and the best furniture set we found was the “Lanfair 4 Piece Conversation Set” from Martha Stewart Living . Yes, Martha has come to visit The Witch’s Island and it looks like she might just stay awhile!

The Lanfair set came in one big box in disassembled form. It really is amazing just how tightly packed in it was. We spent one whole afternoon putting it all together and it came out all right. There were a few bent tabs and some pieces didn’t align quite right but we managed to make it work. Also, the fabric cover on the cushions was different than is shown on the box and the display set in the store. Those were a solid green but ours have a subtle striped pattern (which we actually like better).

Here’s Martha arriving on the back of our John Deere.

The picture on the box showed a different material on the cushions.

Even the tools needed to put it together were included in the box.

Here are all the pieces spread out and ready for assembly.

The first chair is done after an hour’s work to get it square and level.

The chairs were finished just in time for a union-mandated beer break.

We’ve also been out to the nurseries again and this time we came home with a “Yellowbird” magnolia, a “Honey Crisp” apple and a hybrid apple tree which has 5 different varieties on one trunk. We were just going to put in the Honey Crisp but it needs a second different type of apple to pollinate properly. We have lots of wild apple trees around the yard but just to be sure we got the hybrid one to keep the Honey Crisp company.

Hubby is planting my Honey Crisp apple tree. We’re soon going to run out of space for trees in the back yard.

Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala and Red Macintosh all on one tree!

Just to finish off, here’s a really quick and easy dessert recipe that takes almost zero effort. Get yourself a package of frozen tart shells and bake them (empty) according to the directions on the box. When they are cool just fill them with some key lime flavour “Oikos” Greek yoghurt from Danone and then sprinkle the top with a bit of graham cracker crumbs. One 100ml tub of yoghurt will fill 3 shells. Key lime tarts, mmmmmm.

Oikos Greek yoghurt.

Key lime tarts. Very tasty.

Putting The Potting Shed To Good Use

Friday was a great day to be outside here on The Witch’s Island. We both had the day off work thanks to the Good Friday holiday and it was also Earth Day so I decided that I should spend the afternoon getting my seeds started for the vegetable garden. Friday was also the sixth anniversary of my Dad’s death and that’s always a rough day for me so I was glad to have something to keep me busy.

After Wednesday night’s snow storm (yes, three weeks into April for crying out loud!) the temperature was back up to normal and the snow had all melted off again. There was a bit of an edge to the wind though so while it was great to get outside I was glad I could get into the potting shed, to dig in the dirt.

There’s no mistaking what goes in this box.

These mint tins are a great way to keep leftover seeds organized.

While I was planting the tomato seeds I started thinking about just how much variance there is in the per seed cost of those cute little packs. The Tiny Tim variety is the best price per seed. You get 200 seeds in a package for just $1.95 or less than a penny per seed. I know from last year’s garden that each plant will produce lots of tomatoes so they are a very good bargain. We also grew Bobcats last year with good success but they are much more expensive. A package of Bobcats contains just 25 seeds and costs $4.35 or about 17.5 cents each.

The trays have all been filled with starter mix. Let’s get planting!

That’s a lot of cucumbers. It looks like we’ll be giving away extras again this year.

We are trying two new varieties this year Tomande ($4.75 for 20 seeds or about 24 cents each) and Applause ($5.15 for 15 seed or about 34 cents each). How can there be a 3400% difference between two varieties of tomatoes? I’m sure that Vesey’s has good justification but it still makes me wonder. I just hope that the two new types will be good producers, too.

The Raiders were very successful last summer.

Okay, you’re all planted. Now grow, my pretties!

Whatever they cost you still have to place two or three seeds together in each cell of the starter tray so you’d better hope they all germinate and grow strong enough to separate into individual plants. I love this part, you know, watering, feeding, transplanting, and then transplanting again into the garden. The watching daily for my little seedlings to sprout is worth every bit of effort. The first one to poke through the soil makes me smile and my heart fills with hope at what my garden will be like this year. All these veggies will be harvested, consumed, pickled, frozen, over-wintered, given to love ones and the local food bank.

While I was prepping the seed trays Hubby was not just sitting back drinking beer. He replaced the top surface of the tractor shed ramp which had rotted out. The original surface had been made with left-over pieces of plywood that he had on hand but 5 years of exposure to the elements had been too much. The plywood was badly rotted and some of the supporting structure was also in poor condition. He replaced it all with pressure treated material and then covered it with adhesive backed roofing roll for added weather proofing and traction. Hopefully, this will last for quite a few years.

He also put the clothesline to work for the first time this year. The bed was stripped and the sheets and blankets were washed and hung out to remove a winter’s worth of staleness and farts that tumble drying just can’t touch. We slept like babies that night!

The new ramp for the tractor shed now has a non-slip surface thanks to some leftover materials from the gazebo.

While I was sowing seeds I had my laundry boy hang out the wash.

It was just so nice to have my hands busy while I thought of my father. I remember the one year he came for a visit and I was dead-heading some marigolds as he was watching. I turned and looked at him and said “You’re not just a pretty face you know, you can help out.” He burst out with laughter and started helping me. The poor marigolds lost their heads, some dead and some new blossoms, but we had fun. Thinking of the look on his face still makes me laugh to this day and I’m laughing and crying now as I miss him so much.

This happy little frog is going to greet me at the potting shed until I can get some flowers for this urn.

I hope your Earth Day was great. Happy Easter and I hope the Easter Bunny found you.

Its Gardening Time!

It’s gardening time, sort of.



My little tomatoe seeds were planted about 3 weeks too early. What was I thinking? I guess that’s the point, the weather was so nice in April that I went crazy and started planting. Look at my babies, all 5 different varieties of them. There are “Juliet”, “Bobcat”, “Beefsteak”, “Tiny Tim” and “Sweet Millions” in there. I do end up giving away a lot of the extras to our other gardening friends because there’s no way we are planting all these tomatoes! I always start extra and transplant the cream of the crop.



You can also see how thrifty I am by saving my yoghurt containers and salad tubs. These work great for this task because you start your seeds in a small windowsill cultivator and then transplant to the yoghurt containers as the plants grow. This way when you are ready for planting you just push the bottom of the yoghurt container and out comes your plant, roots intact, ready to go into the garden or a bigger pot. Save the containers for next year or a second round of planting.











The salad trays are really cool because they work like mini greenhouses if you close down the lids. That makes for perfect conditions for my babies.

I have also started some pumpkins. In the one picture you can just see them starting to pop up, so I guess the container lid will have to come off. But it really did its job and no worrying about water leaking because there are no holes in the containers that would allow water to leak all over my beautiful hardwood floors.



Next, I’m going to start my cucumbers, bottle gourds, scarlet runner beans, sunflowers and sweet peas. I find that the birds will eat my sunflower seed if I plant it directly in the ground so that is why I start them indoors now. Also as they grow I can space them where we want. The scarlet runners I put in last year were eaten right away by the slugs so I do the same thing and plant them indoors and then place them around our power pole when they have grown to about 4” or so. I always make sure I sprinkle slug bait (we use Safer’s) around the base of the plants to keep the slimy little buggars away.

If you’re going to try growing scarlet runners don’t plant them too early because they grow really fast. They might have even been the bean used in “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Last year the vines climbed all the way up the twenty feet of string we gave them and then started back down again when they couldn’t find any more support. They could easily have grown 40 feet if Hubby could have gotten the guide ropes that far up the pole!



Speaking of Hubby, he did the first grass cutting of the season. There were lots of dandelions to mow down, the lawn was almost more yellow than green.

My Tree Swallows have returned once again and they are debating over which house to rent, the “High Rise” one on the power pole or the “Duracell” one on the clothes line pole. It’s something like the “House Hunters” TV show; only I can’t show you inside shots. They both have hardwood floors and great curb appeal but which one did they choose? I’ll keep you up-dated as to which house they pick.






Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures of my happy plants and some of last year’s garden. Oh, and don’t forget to get your hummingbird feeders out and get them ready for these tiny jewels, they should be arriving shortly.