Things are coming along nicely. Everything is blooming, the garden is planted , the lettuce and kohlrabi have sprouted in the ground.  My pots of tomatoes, peppers, beats, onions and peas are all doing great. My herbs have taken over and I have just trimmed out half to dry. With the mint I am going to roll and dry the leaves to make my own tea.

or to flavour cold water.  My grapes and peaches have buds, the squash has flowered, Zuchinni too! I am also excited to see the first baby strawberries budding. I am so excited for the Strawberries and peaches.Nothing like fresh fruit.

I already have harvested the Rhubarb and now its time to do it again. Once I get back there and hack some down I will chop it and freeze it for low protein pies on my birthday.  That will also open up the back row of the garden and i can get in the back to check the raspberry cane.

oh and good news! the lemon and the lime trees survived the winter. Apparently they loose all there leaves every 2 years so they didn’t actually die at all! Now they are growing new leafs like crazy and I am really hoping for fruit this year. I am excited for fresh lemons for water and cooking!

Well that’s all for now! Off to do some much needed weeding.

until next time!

 

 

I transplanted 6 tomatoe plants, 6 onions, 6 beets, 6 peppers and all my strawberries into pots and aligned them around the yard.  They have cages to help them grow tall and strong. Everything is doing very well outside. I slowly transitioned them from the living room, to the sun room for  a few weeks, then 2 week of being put outside during the day and brought back in at night. Now everything has been fully out doors for a week. They are doing very well but just have to remember to get outside and water them daily , as they tend to wilt in the sun.  I started weeding the vegetable garden way way later than planned. I am half way through it. Then I need to clear around the rhubarb and raspberry canes. We are in need of some serious weed waking out there. It is looking pretty over grown.  I still have so much to do! I cant believe how much I am actually doing though. Now that my front yard and flower baskets are done, any my seedlings are transplanted I can shift my focus to the veggie garden beds. I have been collecting seed packs from the farmer markets and garden centres. Looks like I am going with lettuce, spinach,peas,beans, carrots,cucumber,cabbage,kohlrabi, in the ground. so I really need to get to work. My plan today is to rent a rolallier and get the soil all ready to plant. Depending on how much I get done today I am hoping to get the seeds in the grown today too! Wish me luck!

 

Wow time sure has gone by fast! I cant believe how many blog posts I have missed and how much progress I have had with my gardening. So Im sorry to flood my PKU blog with all my gardening pics but the next few posts will all be gardening posts.

 

So here we are ending out May and my seedlings sprouted and took off. I have transplanted the stronger plants and the ones I am keeping into pots and everyone is now outside! The flower beds in the front yard are done and seeded. Cole took me up into the mountains to get rocks to make a border around them. The front yard looks lovely and my back yard is coming along nicely now too!

The next few posts will be photos from May 2nd till today of the progress. So like the title says, playing catch up for you!

 

 

Is it totally weird how excited I am that today I got a composter! I spent the day today shopping for tomatoe cages, garden supplies, and than cole and i went with the truck to get a composter at home depo. It was 62 dollars before taxes and I am so happy to finally have one.

The idea has been there for a while , but it was not until my walk with Rae-Anne the other night when I finally decided. I want to be able to make my own fertilizer for our soil , flowers, fruit and veggies. I did some research and learnt about how it works and what you need to do.

We just got it home an hour ago and I have already started using it!  I read the booklet that came with it , on the way home in the truck. We already have a huge pile of dry lawn and garden trimmings in the back yard so that we can use as a our “brown” material. I placed the new composter beside it and lined the bottom with twigs and sticks like the book says. I brought a pale inside to put by our garbage and recycling in the kitchen. Since I made cole a salad for dinner tonight it already has scrapes in it!

It shall be an interesting process. You have to layer the composter with green material ( organic) like kitchen and produce scraps. With Brown material. Such as lawn and garden stuff.  Then you stir it or rotate it every 3 days or so. The composter is black and attracts, adsorbs and keeps very warm. Done right it should not smell or attract rodents which is what I was most worried about. I am just learning about the chemical reactions that take place, and what is produced. I am happy we have finally taken this step , to not only cut back on waste, but for our gardens.

Now I have to organize the kitchen to make it easier to sort through recycling, compost and garbage.

Let’s see what else did I do today? It was 30 degrees today and gorgeous out so I started my day off with a walk with a new friend. Then I ran to walmart and picked up 10 tomatoe cages. As my tomatoes sprouts are getting to big for the kits. I will have to pull off the weaker sprouts this weekend and thin out the ones I am keeping. I am not to sure when I will be able to transplant them outside though.

I also picked up 4 cages from a lady online and then cole found even more old ones at home.

After I got home from that I started digging out flower beds in the front yard in front of the house. I have decided that I don’t want to miss out on flowers this year but I do not want them in the back yard. So I am going to make some raised garden beds, and plant my sun flowers there. Last year they grew to be about 9 ft tall and reached our bathroom windows and kitchen.  The bed that I have begun digging is approx 16 feet long and I am going to dig it 3 ft out and line it with rocks. So I started that but had to stop when cole got home to get the composter. Now it smells and looks like rain is on the way.

Tomorrow Rae-Anne and I are going to go pick popular tree buds, then go to the garden swap and shop . Followed by the farmers market! So of course another very busy day and I feel very happy with the progress.

I really truly am enjoying myself and the work on the garden!

Here are some photo of my first tulips that bloomed today to end us off! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

I had been holding off for over a week , debating what I was going to write for my 200th blog post. I wanted it to be something significant to mark the occasion and special for this milestone. Yet hear I am sitting here beginning to write yet another post regarding my garden!

I woke up this morning, with a plan in my mind on just what I was going to do today. This was the top of my list. I knew I had all these pots and containers in the back yard that last year did not do so well. I needed to get them new soil, clean them out and give them new life.

So off I went to Art Kapps. Planning only to get soil, but then the out door garden centre was open and who could resist? certainly not I ! I browsed for a while, initially looking for colour to add to my vegetables , thinking that I was going to use the garden beds this year souly for fruit and veggies , my plan was to use my pots and containers for flowers.

Then I walked past the herbs and my plan drifted away! Now I do have an established herb garden beside the vegetable garden , however I have yet to identify what each of them are. They are quit grown over. I have identified the sage. The others are questionable. They smell like licorice. In the year and the half that we have lived here, we have not used them and have been buying the herbs we do use.

I have never really used many fresh herbs until last fall when I started making my own soups, and then this year when I joined epicure. Now I see how truly essential they are!

So of course I had to grab a few. I walked away with many. I first picked up a curry plant, followed by :

Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, basil, and mint! I could have kept going but was trying to be responsible with my funds.

I did however manage to grab a few seed packs of flowers, after realizing since buying the herbs , it was probably best not to by to many more plants on my budget.

So I checked out with my herbs, seeds and 4 40 lb bags of Art Knapps container soil.

When I arrived home I gathered up all my pots and containers, dumped out the old soil, hooked up the hose and washed them all thoroughly and spaced them out to to dry on the front lawn.

Kicked off my shoes, sat myself down on the lawn and cranked up my music and went to soiling, fertilizing and planning what would go where!

I ended up planting my flower seeds. I settled on the St. Johns fire, some morning glory, pansies, and 2 others that names escape me. I planted my herbs, and then I grabbed my strawberry plants from inside, separated them and re potted them in the hanging baskets with new fresh soil and fertilizer. So hopefully they will start to come back. When all was said and done, I had one lonely pot left. So I grabbed a tulip bulb from the garden, re potted it and am going to sit it inside on the dining room table to add some colour!

I still have so much to do and so many big plans but am learning to divide my time, task manage and spread out the work.  I have had to leave it for now. The pots are not to heavy for myself to bring in to the sun room, so they are set outside waiting for cole to come home .

I am making a low protein pasta salad, getting cleaned up and off to run some errands for the PKU event in June.  When I get home I have 3 more pots to do, make dinner and off to our next ball game tonight!

Busy busy! Hope everyone is doing well. Glad its finally warm outside. Its been over cast for a few weeks , even rained in one our games at the ice breaker tournament we had this weekend. Today is suppose to reach 23 degrees! I shall not waste it !

 

 

 

 

 

Apperntly watering with the mister was not good enough for the onions and beets in the one seedling starter kit. So this week I have been watering each section with the lid off the mister getting it good and wet and with in 2 days the onions and beets are spouting through the soil.

on our second kit, the tomatoes are 3 to 4 inches tall now, the peppers are about 1 inch tall and this morning more are breaking through including the asparagus and remaining peppers. Very exciting indeed!

The one strawberry is taking off quit nicely to. However the other pot is not doing so well. I think that it is because it is only soil from last year. I went to Art Knapps today and got new soil so am re potting the reaming strawberries and a hole new inventory I picked up this morning.

 

so more to come later!!

My little tomatoe sprouts have broken ground this morning. Very exciting!

Last year I didn’t grow any tomatoes and this year I am trying a few different types. I don’t eat a lot of raw tomatoes since Cole is not a tomatoe lover , but I do love to snack on cherry tomatoes, and I use them in some cooking, as well as my low protein pizza.

This year I am looking forward to canning my own tomato sauces, pizza sauce, spaghetti and  pasta sauces. There is just so much you can use tomatoes for. Even for soup bases and salad dressings and my low protein chilli recipe. So it just makes sense to grow my own this year.

I hope they succeed and do well. I am have so much I want to do with them!

did you know 1 cherry tomatoe has 4 mg of phe? and only 3 calories?

a raw hole medium  tomatoe such as Italian or beef, has 16 mg phe and 11 calories!

So I say the more tomatoes the better!

 

 

My beets are already sprouting! I cant believe it. So awesome to see there progress. I didn’t expect to see anything for at least another week.

I never use to be such a fan of beets. But Cole’s mom grows them and many years ago when I had knee surgery Cole had received a few cans of his mom’s and he friends them up for dinner for me, He fried them in olive oil and garlic. I fell in love!

Last year Cole’s mom Tracy showed me how to boil them, skin them and preserve them. We just recently ate the last of our beets from summer 2013. I don’t cook them quiet as well as Cole but I still find them as a good vegetable to eat with my mashed potatoes. I really like the taste of them.

cooked or canned beets have 49 mg of phe for 1/2 cup and 20 calories.

Beets are also used shredded in salad or in Malathy’s recipe from taste connections for “vegetable meat balls” that I fell in love with a few weeks ago at BC PKU Day 2014!

 

Going to have to hurry up getting the vegetable garden outside set up!!

 

I haven’t done any work in the garden the past 2 days. While I was waiting for our friends and family to arrive for the BBQ on Sunday I did get the back yard rose bushes pruned. As well as the flower beds pulled, cleared and raked. I also pruned the raspberry canes. I didn’t think any where still alive. I thought I would be pulling them all out. However there are many that are still doing well and beginning to bloom.

It is raining tonight so when it clears up and is warm again I will get back at it.

So much fun to watch my seedlings grow and sprout knowing what they will grow into becoming!

 

Day 4 of working on our gardening projects today.

Did not get as much as done as I had hoped but we did manage to get a load to Cinnamon ridge, I weeded and cleared the tulip beds and cole raked the front yard . We took away the bags of leaves from the fall too.

On the way home from all our running around today, I just had to stop in at Art Knapps. I ended up leaving with 5 strawberry plants, a new hanging planter and some organic fertilizer. Last year I did not use fertilizer at all and was very iffy about what to use and how much. This year I have decided to give it a go only with organic of course. So I repoted my strawberries and misted them as well as my seedlings. I have the covers off so they can dry up a bit and dont get to damp or mildew.

It is a beautiful day. plus 18 the last time I checked. I have the music on the doors and windows open and now after re potting the strawberries I am working away in the kitchen as we are having our first BBQ of the year. I am of course making lots of low protein options and will share photos and recipes in my next post!

Happy reading :) 

 

Well yesterday was a perfect day for yard work. We got tons done. Cole got out his chain saw and trimmed all our trees back, as well as taking out all the Chinese Elm trees that where growing along the back of our house. Which are more of a obnoxious tree/ plant. They take seed very easy and grow like weeds. Cole also pruned the peach tree way back and some of the branches on the pear tree that was growing straight up.

I had some chores to do inside then I joined him outside to prune the 3 rose bushes in the front yard and dig away the debris and rotton wood. We also took down the old rotten fence between our house and the neighbors. We took a few loads to Cinnamon ridge. Which is a free location for yard clippings, trees, bushes, grass, weeds, and gardening clippings.

Today is free landfill day as well as Cinnamon ridge is open longer. Our plan today is for Cole to re rack the front yard and side yard from tree and pruning debris that was left behind to small to go in the truck. I am going to clean out the floor beds in the front and side yard and pull away debris from where the tulips , lilly and daffodils are starting to grow.

If we have enough time today, after working in the front yard,  I also hope to start in the back yard.  The front yard is more landscaping and flowers. The back yard is all the hard work. The fruit ( strawberries, blueberries, grapes) peach tree and vegetable garden.

I may also make a trip to home hard where again for one more seed starter kit. I realized yesterday I would like to start some strawberries and blueberries . My raspberry canes do not look like they are going to come back this year. I would like to be able to make my own jam and jelly this year. I also love to bake with strawberries and add them to my low protein waffles , and smoothies!

It is also the day to water the seed kits inside as well as the lemon and lime tree. we are misting them every other day so as not to over water them.

Will of course report back later what we have actually accomplished today.