Veggie Basket

It has been a few days since the sudden onset of the cold weather, and I'm glad to announce that everything is fine and dandy :D Cool crops are much more hardy than I thought.

The ten week old cauliflowers are looking rather stunted. Maybe it's due to the lack of sun in their shady territory.

One and only strawberry plant looking even better than before.

Poor lettuces are the only exception. The ones that were transplanted as small seedlings are fine, but it looks like these big guys have just encountered a twister.

Posted in cauliflower, field, fruit, lettuce, patch, strawberry, winter

The sticky note attached to the side of the container indicates it contains 4 basil, 2 mesclun, and 6 thyme seedlings. Only the lettuce isn't doing too well, which isn't a surprise considering how they're not indoor plants

Tiny thyme seedlings don't want to talk to me.

Neither do the mesclun seedlings.

Posted in basil, herb, lettuce, mesclun, patch, pot, seedling, thyme, vegetable

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.

Posted in bok choy, patch, pot, vegetable, winter

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!

Posted in bok choy, fall, fruit, lettuce, patch, peas, seedling, strawberry, vegetable

Got to start this soon or it will be too late

Posted in fall, illustration, patch, plan

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

Posted in basil, bug, herb, patch, peas, pot, seedling, vegetable

Cherry Belle Radish. A few holes, nothing major unlike the poor neighbouring cauliflower and broccoli plants

Some sort of carrot, perhaps one of the "Nantes." I really need to go on a weed rampage soon with all the wild plants and grass everywhere

Laxton's Progress Peas. Got the seeds from a shady dollar store, so my fingers are crossed that it won't grow into a mutant plant

Posted in carrot, patch, peas, radish, seedling

Since the gardening season is coming to an end, there are only two things on the to-do list: cleaning up and scrapbooking. Been feeling extra lazy recently, so the garden looks like a giant dump infested with all sorts of bugs. On the other hand, the scrapbook is coming in quite nicely.

Seed packets in magnetic pages for easy access

Leaf pressing: slip several leaves in between thick paper towels, place paper towels in pages of heavy book, wait for two weeks before removing them

Stick pressings in scrapbook and voila! What a great way to "mummify" your plants

Posted in misc, patch, seed, storage

Veggiebasket: lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, beans and zucchini. Talk about a productive harvest : ) Got the handy wicker basket from my cousin's garage sale

Toperbasket. For some odd reason only one out of several dozen chili peppers turned red. Hope the ones I left alone will ripen soon

Posted in bean, harvest, lettuce, patch, pepper, strawberry, tomato, zucchini

Posted in lettuce, patch, vegetable

Herbs and seedlings watching cars pass by

Posted in herb, patch, pot

Tiny Tims can survive anything from undersized pots to droughts to devastating bug attacks.

My puny tomato plant feels even more inferior than before as the neighbouring tomato plant looms over the fence. At least there's shade on a hot, summer day

The virgin lettuce is bolting under the glaring sun

Even with all the weeds surrounding them, the chili peppers are looking great

Posted in harvest, lettuce, neighbour, patch, pepper, tomato, vegetable

The GTA was hit by a disastrous storm and tornado that tore off roofs and flipped over cars. Fortunately, the Eastern part was spared and everything in my garden is still standing except for these two tomato plants that tipped over, squishing the neighbouring pepper plants. I staked them up this morning and all's well again!

Posted in event, patch, pepper, tomato, vegetable

June 14 was impulse buy day: two cute globe basil plants

July 24: both were so round and cute but neither reached their full "giant poof ball" potential

August 11: first time successfully propagating a plant - hooray! In less than two weeks the roots have reached the bottom of the pot and the leaves are looking mighty healthy

Posted in basil, herb, patch, pot

When I first started to garden earlier this year, I was afraid to intercrop in case something went wrong and the entire field had to be dug up - but aha! I'm feeling confident enough to give it a try *knocks on wood*

No sight of carrot seedlings yet, but radish seedlings have been popping up between the rows of lettuce. Before I googled "radish seedlings" I thought I had accidentally sown broccoli or cauliflower seeds in the field. It's weird how they all look alike despite their final appearance

Posted in lettuce, patch, radish, seedling, vegetable

The roses are great, attracting numerous bumblebees (and unfortunately freaky wasps) to the garden

My uncle threw this mini greenhouse in the garage after he found it to be too clumsy and fragile for his garden. I salvaged it, making it more stable by pounding the steel together with a hammer and holding it down with bricks. The plastic cover is half ripped, but it still works for the most part

This photo is from awhile back when the now already harvested lettuce were baby seedlings. I miss spring, my favourite season, so much!

Posted in patch, pot

I really should stop by LCBO soon before another swarm of snails invades the garden

We sliced up some store-bought sweet potatoes, planted them a few inches apart and voila! A canopy of sweet potatoes

Even with the crazy amount of weeds we were able to grow some pretty healthy looking peppers

Posted in patch, pepper, sweet potato, vegetable, weed

Posted in patch, pet

Ashley just went upstairs for a nap, providing me with a good opportunity to After-bite my five itchy mosquito bites and do some much needed research.

New garden plan:
Trying out a new mix of SFG and conventional method consisting of rows of vegetables contained in tight spaces. For example, three lettuce heads in every 12'' x 24'' area and one eggplant/pepper/tomato in every 9'' x 9'' area.

Mini vege patch at my place

Tiny vege patch at my aunt's place

This may solve the flea beetle problem my eggplants are experiencing:
Eggplants and flea beetles
I'll probably start with the water-garlic spray and resort to growing dill everywhere if the former doesn't work well

Leaf lettuce seedlings aren't sprouting:
Need to pregerm them indoors rather than outdoors like the current batches because the greenhouse is way above the maximum germination temperature of 27 degrees Celsius.

Posted in bug, illustration, patch

It's like a jungle in there

Repotted some of the seedlings to free up some room. I'm thrilled that they're growing the way they should, not all tall and leggy like the previous batches

Repotted giant pepper plant. It took an entire afternoon to repot half a dozen plants! Am I slow or is it a long, tedious process that will one day take a toll on my back?

Repotted the rosemary plant in a pretty pot that my Grandma found hiding in the garage

The shoe-slipper area has now become an indoor vegetable garden in preparation for the upcoming storm. As long as the vegetables don't smell like feet, I'm happy with the new arrangements : )

Posted in buttercrunch, herb, lettuce, patch, pepper, pot, rosemary, vegetable