Daisy wallpaper

Newspaper pots

Here's a clever device: Potmaker from Lee Valley. If you'd rather save the $17 for something else, there's always this device free method of making pots from newspaper. After skimming through the comments, it appears that the water evaporates quickly and the pots get wet (but not wet enough to break it down completely before planting in the soil), so I'm not entirely sure if it's a great idea. We will see : ) I'll give it a try when Spring arrives.

Winter has come: snow is here!

Yes, this means pretty much everything in the field is under a blanket of snow. Goodbye, lovely carrots and peas! The only plants I could rescue were two containers of bok choy, a baby strawberry plant and a small pot of rosemary. Unfortunately, a handful of salt got on to one of the two bok choy containers, so now there are only two small suviving bok choys. Aww, how sad.

I can sure feel that. Bur.

Container plants not liking the new and rather dull looking scenery.

Local links

Fact sheets on gardening from the Toronto Botanical Garden website.

There's a Q&A Ask A Master Gardener forum.

A number of links at the Community Garden Network.

Goodbye, basil

My windowsill basil's life is coming to an end, but it's all good! There is now a stash of little basil seeds waiting to be grown.

How to collect basil seeds.

Carrot starting to form

I cautiously dug around the roots to see whether or not I should green bin it. Pretty much half the vegetables in my field have either bolted or have been eaten by slugs.

Great! I will have to put a giant bottle over it before snow starts to fall

Bok choy flowers


Spinach!

I'm pretty sure they're going to make it this time *fingers crossed*
There's something wrong with the seedlings because they're much too tiny for their age, a shocking seven weeks old. Maybe it's the low temperature that's hindering their growth.

New look

There isn't much to do in the yard, so I decided to surf the internet. I came across this amazing site that lets you download unique Blogger templates. Loving the look of this blog now!

Emptiness

The few plants that are still alive and well

Former runner from my first strawberry plant

The only container of seedlings the squirrels that frequent my backyard didn't raid. I wonder why they chose to spare this one

The peas are in the field, so I hope they survive tonight's potential frost

Didn't think this one would survive, but it did! Yes!

Happy Halloween!

Picked two fabulous looking pumpkins at Pingle's this weekend

Not as easy of a task as I thought it would be. The last time I carved pumpkins was in elementary school~ the memories!

Jackie feeling extra pretty now

"Psst, I hear he's a watermelon gone horribly wrong"
"You don't say..."

...and this is why fall isn't that much fun

What gives?! I just raked it yesterday!

Outlook not so good for fall

Not a lot of survivors. The bok choys in the greenhouse and peas are the only ones clinging on to life. The boy choys that were transplanted to the field earlier on have been gobbled up by some cursed slugs. The lettuce seedlings are alright but have been the size of a dime for the past two weeks. How unnatural is that? One cauliflower is bolting while the rest look terribly wilted. The carrots don't seem to be growing at all. Looks like my fall plan won't work out after all : ( what a bummer.

Last harvest?

One and only fully grown bok choy. It was extra tasty

Spongebob

Never thought I would see Spongebob at the supermarket tending watermelons, but that's exactly what he's doing here.

Even Patrick is participating!

Probably the last harvest

Oh, what a mess

Not sure why the radish on the left is more purple than the other two

Mini bell peppers are finally ready! The grape tomato looks like the red pepper

Aww, how cute. They're nice to look at but pretty impractical when it comes to incorporating them in a meal

Bugged

So it turns out that the funny shaped eggplant really is a Rosa Bianca eggplant, not a black Beauty. It's all good though because this eggplant looks great!

Oh, not so much anymore when I flip the vegetable over

What has been doing this?

Ack

Why????

Oh, it's those cursed slugs

Back from Chicago!

Took several long hours to get there by bus, but it was more than worth it. What a spectacular city with its beautiful architecture and wonderful people!

Greenhouse fell down

The greenhouse got knocked down by the vigorous wind that has been hitting the city by surprise. I could barely make it from Loblaws back to my car the other day and it was only a few feet away. Anyhoo, there is now a wonderful mess in the yard with soil and pots scattered everywhere, most of them piled near the shed hole. Hmph.

Goodbye, bird and plant

I was so thrilled when I found several zucchini flowers at this time of year

Then I saw this poor bird. Sorry zucchini plant but you have to go now because memories of my late birds Elmo and Apple are resurfacing :*(

Stoufville Country Market

The "good things groooooooow in Ontarioooo" song is now stuck on repeat in my head

Aww, look at teeny tiny bunny squished into a teeny tiny corner. He could fit in the palm of my hand

Venus flytrap at work

For the longest time my venus flytrap was nothing more than a windowsill decoration. Then yesterday I got a nice surprise in the morning - look, it finally caught a fruit fly! Yes! Devour that little sucker >:D

Fall garden plan

Got to start this soon or it will be too late

Surprise, I'm here!

Look what I found: a baby marigold flourishing outside the vegetable patch. It's now one with the lawn

Discovered a few sprigs of thyme growing in between the rose bushes

Here's a baby strawberry very much alive underneath a canopy of fallen rose petals and leaves

Garden cleanup

My neighbour's new angry-at-the-world dog has finally taken a liking to me :D Now I can clean up the yard without fear that something will gnaw at my ankles.

Pretty gross looking hole in the bolting lettuce stem

A bit of white mould like stuff growing around the roots of a potted lettuce

Bursting tomato

I really need to relax when it comes to watering my plants. Luckily, less than a dozen out of a hundred have bursted.

Radish bulb

Despite the mess...

...they're growing! Look at it swell up, day 35

Indoor plants

Got to start trimming this basil plant again into a round ball

Second generation pea seedling

Since the Venus fly trap isn't doing its job, I have to resort to sticky tape to get rid of the insects in my bedroom

Bok Choy