Ouch

It even hurts to type. I snipped my left pinky finger cutting back my tomatoes.

My neighbour gave me some tips on my tomatoes, and the big one was to trim back the parts that aren't a part of the main plant but of course keeping any of the flowers. She showed me the ones in her greenhouse which helped. It is quite difficult for me to trim anything back so it was good to have a visual. I have always hated to trim plants even though I know they do better with a haircut. She said that if I wanted beautiful tomato plants then don't trim them but if I actually wanted lots of tomatoes, well you know....


I also brought the walls up on my tomato cover as it was kind of steamy in there which didn't allow for the air to circulate. I was merrily trimming away and snipped my finger with my very sharp scissors. OUCH. One thing I did learn from this is, bring bandages and some kind of tissue. We had brought our lunch but I hadn't packed any napkins. I still had some work to do so we wrapped leftover wax paper around my finger and tied it with some plant ties. Afterwards I realized two of my fingers were wrapped but I thought I would leave it as is until we could get home.

I picked some more kale and intend to make kale chips with it. There sure is a lot of it. With the leftover kale pasta that I made the other day I decided to shake it up by sauteing some onion, mushrooms, ham, cream and more parm cheese. It was pretty tasty. Doesn't look too hot but better than just kale pesto.

It tasted better than it looks

The Great Kale Experiment

Well, the kale pesto was interesting to say the least. It wasn't horrible, but I can't say it was something that I would probably make again. I added some sun dried tomatoes to the mix which I think added something nice but I don't know, it just wasn't as good as basil pesto in my opinion.

My meat loving husband I don't think was too impressed but he is pretty good about trying new things and said he liked it. I think he would have liked it with some meat in it. It made a lot and I still have almost a cup of it left. This after tossing it with quite a bit of pasta (special Italian pasta at that).

I hate to waste anything so I think I will make a nice sausage lasagna and throw the rest of the pesto in with that. I think that might do the trick.

BCLiving has a great website where I found the Kale Pesto recipe. There are lots of other recipes there for kale and it looks like I will have a lot of it to experiment with!

Adventures with kale!

My little greenhouse has certainly done the trick. My dollar tomatoes loved it and grew so big that they were touching the walls and top. It was time to set them free (at least for a little while). The tomatoes still have to be covered so my trusty companion and I rigged up a little tent for them. It isn't the best and we had to go back today and adjust it a bit. Wouldn't you know it, we had a big rain storm which filled it with water so it now has a pole in the centre to allow for the rain to run off. It isn't the best, but hopefully will last the season. I am amazed at how quickly these guys grew. It isn't even July yet!

Hopefully I can grow tomatoes at our new place next year. That should eliminate the blight problem. I could start them in the mini greenhouse and then use it at the garden for the cucumbers which seem to be lagging in the garden. They just don't like the wet it seems.



My kale is growing like crazy and the spinach is starting to seed so it has to be eaten as well. The zucchini has a small one growing with lots of flowers so it won't be long either. I planted scarlet runner beans around the zucchini so we will see how that goes. It is kind of pretty and a good use of space if it works.



The radishes are going crazy so I gave a bunch to my friend Allison (whose dad built my boxes) with some lettuce for a salad. I made a radish salad tonight and it was pretty good but what the heck do you do with a bunch of radishes. Something I will definitely have to investigate. They have a nice mild flavor to them. Not the bitter ones that I remember. The name is French Breakfast and they are heirloom seeds put out by West Coast Seeds. Quite nice. They are quite large and still not bitter. I still have a few left to pick so hopefully will be okay. Something has been nibbling on the odd one but as long as they don't take them all, I don't mind sharing.

I am making a kale pesto tomorrow for pasta. I am trying to find recipes for kale as it grows well and is very good for you and apparently good for your eyes as well. The recipe called for roasted garlic and roasted red peppers. I did the prep today so if it works out well I will post the recipe. The kale that I have been growing doesn't seem to be as bitter as the store bought stuff so I think some kale chips might be the next thing. It is great as it just keeps growing and growing no matter how much you pick it. Lettuce too! I bought a great mesculun mix which I have been picking a lot of and it doesn't seem to be too bothered with slugs. I see holes here and there but not as much as the romaine that I used to try to grow.

With the big move and packing I hope I can make use of all the veggies that are coming up. It is hard to be creative with all that is going on. I have this week off to pack so hopefully will be able to get a lot done.

On our way out yesterday we stopped by the honeysuckle which the hummingbirds love and I was able to take a picture of this little girl with her head cocked. She must have been listening for bugs.

Rain rain, go away!

It is still very wet out there. I had to go water my tomatoes even though it has been so wet. They are probably good now till next weekend. The weather is supposed to stay wet all week. Yuck!

I feel so sorry for the owner of this plot. Some areas of the garden are really really wet. There are pools everywhere. What we need is a few days of solid sunshine to dry things up. Birds are having baths in the grassy areas. Cute but kind of scary at the same time. My plot is still fine. It is a farther walk but on higher ground. I would rather walk and have it higher than be at the front and be under water. I now see why raised beds are so important.

Supposedly we have another week of wet wet weather and then summer comes. It is about time! I still can't complain, my tomatoes are outgrowing the greenhouse. I think I might have to take it off soon and rig up something a bit higher for them. I don't want to expose them to the rain but they are quickly outgrowing the tent. Can you imagine what a little sun could do.

The soil must be okay. The potatoes are getting huge and I see a small zucchini on my zucchini plant. My cucumbers aren't doing that well and I think I might have a mole digging outside my plot. I see the tell tale signs of a pile of dirt. I sure hope not. The second plantings of sunflowers are coming up so all we need is some SUN!

Work Party

The backs of my legs are very very sore. I spent two hours doing my community garden work for the work party on Sunday. I spent two hours pulling weeds. It wasn't really much of a party. At least these ones were pretty easy to pull as it has been raining so much. It was a cloudy day so it wasn't too hot. There were three of us and we managed to get quite a bit done. I had two full wheelbarrow loads for the compost. It looked quite tidy when I left. I wonder how quickly they will grow back. It didn't look like they had been done for a while.

One of the "weeds" that one of the other gals was pulling was foxglove. I took a bit back for my flowerbed which is kind of bare at the moment. I know it does tend to spread but since I have never had any success with it I thought I would give it a try. My flowerbed is pretty much a hodge podge of stuff and my poor rhubarb is keeping everything company.


There was nothing too much to do in plot except for water my tomatoes which are busy flowering and pull the odd weed. I decided to steal (thin) a few radishes and some mesclun greens. Just enough for a wee salad to go with dinner. Very simple but quite yummy.


I wonder when I can start stealing potatoes?

Still Life

I love taking pictures in the garden, especially of the flowers and wildlife. I like to use them for my paintings as well. Perhaps a few vegetable still life paintings might be in order. Why not? I do wish I was a better painter. I tend to do a quick wash which I like and then start painting and tighten up and get bored with it. I find that I usually like the wash better. I see paintings that are incredibly detailed that they look like photographs. I do admire being able to do that, they are amazing to see. In our new place I will finally have a place to paint again in the winter months of course, when I can no longer garden.

The weather has continued to be quite dull with on and off rainy periods. The garden is doing well despite the rain and it promises to get nice again next week so hopefully will see lots of growth. It was pretty quiet and peaceful tonight when we went. Just a few brave souls out there puttering in their plots.

The gal who had my plot previously has three plots now and seems to be building a small city on them. The pictures of before and after are quite amazing. She has already built a fence, raised beds a greenhouse and plans to put in a little patio for her and her dog. I will post pictures of it when it is finished. I'm lucky, I inherited her old plot and it was very well cared for.

I threw in a few more sunflowers in the hopes that they don't get eaten by the birds before they can grow. Despite the cool wet weather things are doing well and I can't complain. It will be interesting to see if I can coax any eggplant to grow. The two plants I bought are doing okay but they have been under milk jugs until tonight. My cucumber plant is gone, eaten I suppose by slugs. I bought some copper but it was too late for it. I did put it around my seeds so hopefully something will happen. I have never been able to grow cucumbers for some reason and if something does grow I will have to put in some supports.

Apparently there are some wood chips now at the garden which were just delivered and are free for the taking. I hope there is still some there on Saturday morning. I would love to get some for my pathways. They are getting seriously muddy!

Oasis

The giant rhododendron tree at the entrance to the garden.

It has been a rather stressful few weeks. Thank goodness for the garden. It is an oasis in the middle of my life right now.

We have been in the middle of selling our townhouse and trying to purchase a home the second it sold. At the 11th hour it finally came together mostly last weekend but not without a few glitches. I have to admit I have been dragging my heels on this one. I didn't especially want to move and although I wasn't overly happy space wise I figured financially right now I didn't want to do it. There are a lot of things that I won't miss and thinking about it the only things I will miss are the wonderful forest walk nearby, the hummingbirds fighting at the feeder and our nice neighbours on the one side of us. The neighbour on the other side is another story...

We were going to buy quite a nice house with a boring little yard when within a few hours of deadline we found something even better. At least I'd like to think so. The best part for me was the garden and I was instantly smitten. Sometimes that isn't a good thing and your heart rules your brain but I pray that this time it will be a dream come true. It is the back yard of my dreams and I just hope that I can keep it as nice as it is now. It even has a little pond. No fish, but a couple of frogs. I don't think I will get fish as the herons just come and eat them and I think I would be too upset at that. We move in only six weeks.

Meanwhile lucky for me my raised beds at the garden are quite maintenance free at the moment. I see a few weeds trying to surface but so far they are manageable. I want to get some wood chips for the pathway but I can't use cedar so have to look for something else. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get some and put it on the path. It will make it a little less muddy when it rains.

My little tomatoes are still loving the mini collapsible greenhouse. It rained so hard one night when I went the next day to water the tomatoes I found that it was full of water and flattened down a bit. It popped right back after I dumped all the water out. I don't know how long I will be able to keep them in there as they are really growing fast. My basil seeds are also sprouting so they must be happy too and I planted them earlier than they suggested.

I had to plant a few more peas as some seem to have "disappeared". Not too many of the sweet peas have come up and only 5 of the sunflower seeds. Not quite sure what happened to the sweet peas but I think the birds got to the sunflowers. I guess they don't realize that I am planting them for them? I guess not... I bought another pack today and will try again. My cucumber plant also has been eaten but the seeds seem to be coming up. Everyone at the garden has copper wires around their plants so I will follow their lead if I can find any and put them around my cucumbers. I only really want a couple of plants. Otherwise I guess I will do the eggshell trick.

Happy gardening!