My garden life – July update – veggies and growing your own food

BEYOND, Gardens

Veggie seeding started off gangbusters in March and quickly turned into a crisis. First I realized that I didn’t make the soil deep enough so my seedlings outgrew their surroundings super quickly. Next I re-potted them but realized the soil I got was not very good and I didn’t fertilize it. So the next month or so was a constant battle of re-potting and fertilizing to salvage my crop. It’s hard to believe, but I this is not my first rodeo I usually have Beans, Peas, Tomatoes, and sometimes Cukes from seed. I blame the pandemic for losing control of the process, but it was also a very welcome distraction from sheltering in place.

I planted Tomatoes, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Peppers indoors late March/early April and was really pleased at how quickly they sprouted – this is April 10th
two weeks later I realized my soil was too shallow and I ended up with a bunch of leggy seedlings I had to untangle and re-pot – and I couldn’t tell them apart to boot!

Once I got things under control I had too many so sold a few on Kijiji and gave some to friends.

had to shift seedlings into their own pots – it was hard to get pots as pandemic shopping was not the best and I also needed them to be cheap little by little I got a batches and started the rescue – this is the downstairs window
this is the upstairs window – things went through generations of re-potting
what have I gotten myself into!
a little fertilizer helps but then Macy tries to eat it!
ready to play the latest round of “seedling sacrifice” here

Once the challengers survived their 3 or 4 rounds to the winning circle, I quickly realized I wasn’t going to have enough space for even those. I had grand ideas of getting my other half to build some raised beds but when he informed me of the cost I abandoned that idea like a hot potato.

necessity is the mother or invention right?
built this out of old pieces of wood that have been behind my baby barn since I moved in and some loose bricks that I also inherited but some cheap soil and fertilized it to make it usable and voila!

Moved the cold frame out of the garden and into the yard this spring.  The empty bed has gone through a few ideas/changes and next year I think it will be the new Garlic bed.  I’ve been planting Garlic for years and it keeps moving further out of the flower space that I am slowly reclaiming for colour and blooms.  Veggies are moving into the yard to cover weedy spots and create things for Macy to run laps around I guess.  Will try to build some proper raised beds next year perhaps I usually try to spend as little money on the garden as possible and upcycle/salvage what I can so this year was thrown together with extra bricks and old boards that were left by the previous homeowners.  I don’t want my veggies to cost more then if I just bought them at the Farmer’s Market.  If I can I’m at least flush then I am paid in joy.

Broccoli not looking good here back in early June but we’ll see what happens

So far the results are looking pretty promising, especially for the Broccoli.

Broccoli a month later!
and….there is even Broccoli flowerets so we will be able to eat some of this which is great because it’s the veggie we eat the most of in this house
Brussels Sprouts, Peppers, and Tomatoes looking pretty good too

I’ve had good success with Lettuce over the past few years so decided to step it up and made some vertical planters out of rain gutters, we cut them and drilled holes in them and zip tied them to the fence and also on the edge of the deck.

They are great we’ve been eating lots of lettuce and it keeps the slugs out for the most part.

I’d like to try other types of Lettuce next year but we have had great success with this variety from Halifax Seed so far – Black Seeded Simpson – very mild yet tasty – and should produce into November

My supervisor, Macy, likes to run laps though the yard and makes muddy spots in the spring so we installed some runways for her too.

Just when I thought planting was over for the year I was given more seeds! Cucumbers, Beans, and Radish. Will have an update next month I guess.

well at least the Coneflower perennial is easy to plan a spot for

I think making the move over to container planting and raised beds will be good and we’ll pretty it up a bit and plan better for this year.

Just found out you can grow Cukes and Beans in hanging planters so I’m going to be all over that idea.

The one thing I didn’t plant that I had hoped to is onions so hopefully next year they make it into the plan. I’ll probably to something different like Shallots, but will have to do Green Onions too as my other half makes great Salsa. We grow Basil in the window for Pesto too. Yummy homegrown things. We try to buy only Canadian grown veggies in the stores, Nova Scotia when possible and visit the farm markets too. And we get things from our friend Noah at New Caledonia Farms. Food that has been trucked in from far away tastes yucky and we are foodies so want tasty and healthy I suppose 😉

all this gardening makes Macy sleepy

Anyway, what are you doing in your garden these days?

2 thoughts on “My garden life – July update – veggies and growing your own food

  1. I’m very impressed…all that hard work!

    Macy was giving emotional support to the garden…priceless!

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