Garden Updates

On Father's Day I went home and spent some time with my parents. About once a week I get to check out the garden and how it is doing, but this is the first time I had my camera with me so I took some pictures. With all the rain, most of the plants are growing like crazy! There have been a few flops, but also some pleasant surprises with some plants that didn't look like they were going to make it.

I think the rhubarb got a little damaged in one of the thunder/hail storms that we have had since planting. Hopefully it will regain it's strength and we will get some decent stalks come Fall.

Here is the basil, which has flourished quite a bit, and some newly planted rosemary. The first plant died from who knows what. I think you can actually see it's skeleton in the bottom left of the pot there.

Here is the bay leaf tree provided from my Nonna. I have never used fresh bay leaf before, but I have a feeling it is best used dried. We will probably dry the leaves at the end of the summer.

The kale is actually doing quite well. At first it looked like it was getting nibbled by some kind of bug and looked like we wouldn't get much of a leaf. It is looking better though and I look forward to some nice full kale bunches this summer!

This is some baby swiss chard coming up from some seeds we planted. Another newbie for me, so hopefully it turns out.

Here are some leeks planted by seed. Last year, our leeks (we planted seedlings) did not grow very much. It may have been their location near a cedar tree, but either way, we were not planning on planting them this year. However, we got a free pack of seeds in one of the other packages we bought. So, here they are. The fact that they have sprouted is promising to me. I guess even if the leeks don't get that big it is still okay and we will still enjoy them.

These are beets planted from seeds. It looks like someone has been nibbling on the greens. I hope they survive those cunning little rabbits.

The lettuce on the left was grown from seedlings and the other lettuce that is sprouting is from seed. A lot of lettuce has been lost to bunnies. I hope they leave some for the rest of us. The lettuce that was planted between the tomato plants has been untouched and is ready to be harvested. Maybe that is a good strategy to prevent rabbits from eating it?

The outside plants are cabbage plants which seem to be doing well. No sign of the cabbage yet, but soon it will emerge, and I will wonder how on earth I will be able to deal with so much cabbage. In the middle are some radishes. I was astonished with how well they have done (from seed!). Last year our radishes were a huge flop. So it was a pleasant surprise to see some nice big radishes under all those greens.

I picked a few of the bigger ones to add to our salad at dinner. They were so fresh and soft. It was nice to  enjoy the first produce from our garden on Father's day. That along with some of my Grandfather's leaf lettuce.

These are all the pepper plants with some cherry tomatoes at the back. In this photo you can see the little irrigation system my Dad put in. All he has to do is plug in the hose, turn it on, and all the plants get some watering right on the soil, where it is needed. I like to think this saves some water.

Here is the pepper plants that I planted in a pot to bring to my own house and grow on my patio. It seems like one of the plants is not very happy. I think they are just planted to close together. Originally there was a third plant but one of the neighbourhood critters took it. I probably should have redistributed the plants, and I guess I still probably could. 

These are the tomato plants. They are doing quite well and have been tied a couple times already.

It is hard to see the comparison in these pictures, but the plant in the pot on my patio is not quite as big. It may be as tall but the stalk is not as big, and there are not as many "branches." Normally we have to be concerned with removing the "suckers" (as my Dad calls them) from the branches to make sure that less energy is put into growing the plant, and more is put into growing the fruit. I have not had any suckers yet (the vegetable bed plants have), and I am not sure if that is predictive of anything or not. This plant will definitely not get as big as the others but I am sure I will get a few good tomatoes out of it. It will definitely be worth it. That is, unless some city dwelling animal steals them from me. Anyone have any tips on how to keep the animals away? I have considered wrapping the pot in chicken wire, a few feet high. A bit much for one tomato plant?

Lastly, here are the squashes, melons, zucchini, and in the back are the beans. The initial honeydew and watermelon did not survive, so some butternut squash and cantaloupe have been planted as a replacement. So far so good!

Last week my parent's went to my Nonna and Tatone's (Grandmother and Grandfather) house and the topic of this blog came up. My Aunt mentioned that I have been posting about the garden, and he suggested I put up some pictures of his garden! I have only been sent one picture from my Mom but here it is:

This is inside the greenhouse beside my Tatone's garden. It is heated throughout the winter with a wood stove and inside he grows seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, marigolds and other plants from seed, to get a head start on the growing season. The real reason for the greenhouse is this fig tree. When my Tatone emigrated from Italy, the one thing he missed the most was fresh figs. Importing of figs became more common shortly after his arrival to Canada, but the high price made it an occasional treat. So, he took matters into his own hands and built this greenhouse. When the weather is warm in the summer, the sides of the greenhouse is removed and exposed to the Niagara summer climate. In the winter, the house is closed back up and kept warm enough to survive through the winter. I have been spoiled to have access to such fresh figs and didn't really appreciate it until recently. I only started liking figs in the last couple years and  now I can't get enough!

I look forward to when I own my own house and not only can grow my own garden, but also build my own greenhouse. I only hope that my future gardening ventures are half as successful as my Nonna's and Tatone's have been.

Vegetable Garden Update

I meant to post this a few days ago, but, life gets busy, you know? Eight o'clock comes around and the stack of library books on my desk screams, "hurry up and read me!" My crazed book requesting at the library got out of hand and I have bitten off more than I can chew. Along with my current minesweeper kick, life has been busy.

In all seriousness the evenings have been busy this week with various errands, and even some softball. I have a very busy weekend coming up, which once is over, I will be heading to Denver, CO for the week. So, without giving any more excuse, here is a recap of planting the vegetable garden on the Holiday Monday:

With all the rain that we had the previous week, the ground wasn't looking too hot for planting. The garden bed is raised, which is what really saved it. A sunny day on Sunday was enough to dry the bed up just enough to allow us to plant on Monday. There was some drizzle on Monday but for the most part, it was a beautiful day for some gardening. My Dad picked me up at 9:30 am and we headed to Canadian Tire and Sharples to pick up seeds and plants, of course after a Tim Hortons run. We were able to get almost all the plants we wanted. Unfortunately eggplant and rosemary could not be found.

This is what the garden looked like already:

Herb Garden (L to R: chives, lemon balm, oregano, sorrel)

Vegetable Bed

All the plants we have to plant:

The box on the left is what my grandfather gave us from his greenhouse (Marigolds and Romaine Lettuce).

L to R: Marigolds, Romaine Lettuce, Petunias(?)

 The box on the right are the tomatoes and peppers my grandfather grew in his greenhouse from seed:

Basil, Red Pepper, Cabbage, Kale, Melon, Zucchini, Cluster Grape Tomato, Tomatoes, Peppers, Hot Peppers, Rhubarb.

When you plant lettuce from seed, you usually plant a lot of seeds, and then thin it out once it grows. We had romaine lettuce seedlings, so I separated each sprout and planted them separately (as you can see by my feet). I also planted beside the romaine, red leaf lettuce and spinach seeds. Often we forget to thin the seedlings out and never really get heads of lettuce or large spinach bunches. This year it is my goal not to slack off on thinning out the greens.

Although I am not a fan, my Mom loves rhubard. She loves it so much, she may even venture into the garden, bugs and all, to harvest it when the time comes. So, we decided to plant this rhubarb for her. The plant will exist for years to come and will be harvested twice a year. She is excited about it!

The vegetable garden had no more rooms for rent so these kale seedlings got shafted to the herb garden. As far back as I can remember we have never grown kale. It is my favourite green so I am really excited!

The herb garden. A new addition is the basil plant. We plant basil every year but it doesn't last through the winter. Normally we plant the herbs in pots in the ground because they tend to spread like wildfire. This year, I thought it would be nice to plant the basil in a pot that can be taken indoors. It fits nicely in an indoor pot holder that we have. We also plan on planting rosemary in it so that throughout the winter we have fresh basil and rosemary, two of my favourite herbs! Another addition to the herb garden will be a bay leaf tree that my grandmother will be bringing us.

Another herb garden veggie is swiss chard which was planted from seed. Some leek seeds were planted somewhere in the herb garden too but I cannot remember where. We will soon find out!

After all the plants/seeds were planted I took a picture of each bed as some nice before pictures.

L to R: Romaine Lettuce, Red Lead Lettuce, Spinach, Parsnips, Beets.

Garlic planted last fall, Marigolds line the entire garden.

From Front to Back: Green and Red Cabbage, Hot Pepper, Cluster Grape Tomatoes

Various Green, Red, and Hot Peppers

Tomatoes!

..and more tomatoes! With cucumbers in the back. Romaine lettuce planted in between the rows for now, which will be harvested once before removing.

Honeydew, Watermelon, Zucchini (yellow and green), and Cucumber (along the back so it can climb the fence).

There is another row which I didn't take a picture of. It is all just beans planted from seed so not too exciting to see. We planted more this year than usual so I am looking forward to drying some of them to have some dried beans for the winter. 

Not living at home this Summer is going to make it more difficult to help out with garden maintenance and harvesting. Since I don't live far away (20-30 min bike), I will be able to make it home at least once a week, so I will get to see the progression of the garden still. Often times we have more produce than we can handle, and I hope to make sure none of it goes to waste. Also in the spirit of not wasting, we had some extra plants which I decided to plant in pots and take home. I now have two pots with two tomato plants and three pepper plants on my porch. So far, 2/3 nights, my pepper plants have been dug up by some pesky animal, probably the neighbourhood cats. Unfortunately, to my dismay, I report the loss of a hot pepper plant. Poor thing. No capsaicin to defend itself against animals yet.

Anyway, this post seems long enough, I hope I didn't bore you. I hope to share more updates throughout the summer, and some recipes with the resulting vegetables. Have a great day!

* I would like to note this is the second time writing this post, as the first one didn't save and an error occurred (ugh..). At this point, zero editing has occurred, and you can blame errors on my lack of patience, not on my lack of spelling/grammar ability.

Peaches Galore

There are peaches galore right now. I think it is coming to an end but a few weeks ago they were everywhere. My parent's picked some up in the Niagara region and I wanted to use them in different ways than usual. The usual would be as they are, in some yogurt, or in my oatmeal. After reading some recent posts in some food blogs, I settled on Whole-Wheat Peach Scones and Peach Wine Coolers. That is one advantage to reading a ton of food blogs, often you find recipes to veggies and fruits that are in season. This is especially true if you read blogs from people who live in your region. I particularly like: OhSheGlows, Posts by Doug Di Pasquale and Joy McCarthy on Thatsfit, and Seasonal Ontario Food.

Whole-Wheat Peach Scones from www.danispies.com

These scones are not the sweetest out there, which is why I like them. A nice healthy scone when you have a craving for baked goods. These scones taste best warmed up with a little bit of butter.

2 cups whole-wheat flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp of raw sugar (turbinado sugar)
1 1/3 cup milk (I used soy)
1 heaping cup of chopped peaches
1 tbsp melted butter

Makes 6 large scones

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 cup of sugar together. Add milk while stirring until it just comes together. This batter is very sticky. Add peaches and mix until just incorporated. I found the dough far to sticky to form into a mound and cut into wedges like the original recipe described, so I just made individual mounds on the greased baking sheet. Brush the scones with melted butter and sprinkle with 1 tbsp of turbinado sugar (this step is optional). Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until lightly browned.

These scones are very versatile. The original recipe was with blueberries. I could see adding just about anything to these scones to make a delicious new variety.

Peach Wine Cooler from www.annie-eats.com

2-3 fresh peaches, peeled and chopped
1 ounce of peach schnapps
small pinch of kosher salt
750 mL bottle of dry white wine
ice for serving
sliced peaches for garnish

Makes 3-4 servings

In a food processor, combine peaches, peach schnapps, salt, and 1 cup of white wine. Puree for about 1 minutes, until frothy. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. To serve, pour over ice in wine glass and top up with white wine.

These coolers where very refreshing on a hot summer evening.

I would like to leave you with some photos I took yesterday. While gardenning, a Monnarch butterfly came around and landed on the marigolds in the garden. I immediate ran upstairs to get my camera. Thankfully, it was still around.

I also snapped some pictures of all the veggies from the garden that I picked today. We are overflowing!!!

Basil, chives, oregano and thai basil from the herb garden.

A cute stunted chili pepper and a normal chili pepper, first of the year.

Freshly picked baby lettuce in a cool water bath.

All picked in one day. Look at all that red!

Well, I am off to enjoy a nice afternoon with my friend Will. I am going to take him to Montfort's in Westdale in Hamilton. They have the best falafels! Then we are off to the Rogers Cup to see ROGER FEDERER play IN PERSON!! I am very excited.