DANGER WILL ROBINSON...

Second week of May...RIGHT?? Danger of frost?? What about my plants?!! Danger, danger, danger. So, that is where we are. Hopefully, as I look at the weather forecast, the worst of the cold is over. We had to resort to drastic measures in order to protect our more fragile plants for the last two nights. Our watermelons, cucumbers, zucchini, spaghetti squash and pumpkins have been peering at the moon through windows. We scrounged up as much glassware as we could- mason jars, old salsa jars, cups and glasses...thank god I had all that barware on my registry.... As I gaze down at my garden, though, all seems good! All plants are alive and accounted for.

So, now onto better news! So much has happened in the garden over the past two weeks. Not only have we had a lot of plants come up and sprout, but many of our seedlings have been placed in their new home as well. After our semi-large repurchase of seeds, we were able to replant our broccoli raab, broccoli romanesco, cauliflower, iceberg, scallions, quinoa, red and green cabbage and celery. Plus...BONUS...a few of our 'presumed for dead' plants survived! Therefore, we got to plant those as well. That's a good thing, since they will be available to harvest first before our directly sowed seeds will. Talk about maximizing harvest without even knowing it... We were also able to plant our wheat, turnips, mustard greens, endive, black seeded simpson and even more pak choi. Not that anyone is counting. We will tuck our premie-plants into their new found condos for one more night, we decided- just in case.
And finally, I thank the lovely store associate that mans the return counter at Lowes- and may I add an apology as well. This past weekend, we spent more time at Lowes than the birds that poop all over their garden center. Josh and I were determined to figure out a way to layout a sprinkler/soaker system for our garden. This way, we wouldn't have to spend as much time watering and we could rest assured that all of our garden would get the same amount of love, since of course, we would never play favorites. When we realized we were not made of money, at least not yet...that was a joke...we came to the conclusion that soaker hoses will have to wait until next years endeavor. So, off we trotted, down the garden aisle at Lowes. We picked up some nice hoses, some great hose sprayers and we called it a day. UNTIL...cue the music...we realized that it may be possible to set up an automatic system. So, off we went, again, to Lowes, down that damn garden aisle. This time, we were excited. Oh, the possibilities! How high tech we would be! Another swipe of the credit card and our minds were racing- we couldn't wait until we got home...until we did. Apparently, 3500 square foot coverage on a hose doesn't actually mean that. Don't get me wrong, we were not expecting a Vegas casino fountain showdown, but we were at least hoping for, 40 square feet?? 30?? 20? Nope- MAYBE we got 6. Not sure, I'll confer with Josh, but in the meantime, let's get back to the story.
Obviously, these sprinklers totally sucked. So, off we went...to the store with that happy blue and white sign, again. This is where we get to meet our fantastic 'customer service associate'. Let's call him Frank.
"Welcome to Lowes. Do you have a return?" asks Frank, the Lowes associate.
"Why yes, Frank, I do," replies Lauren.
"Any problems with all of these sprinklers?" asks Frank, considering there were 4.
"Yes, as a matter of fact," insists Lauren. "They are the worst sprinklers I have ever seen in my whole life."
"Alright."....
And so the story goes, you get the picture. Please note, that although this part of our story can sound mean and rude, I insist that it was not. All was done in fun- Frank was fully aware...I could see it in his eyes.
Anyway, down the aisle, blah blah blah....another swipe of the card and we were off. This time, we covered all our avenues. Since we were obviously not only good at buying things but returning them as well, we figured we would not only buy the sprinklers that seemed sufficient, but also the ones that seemed ridiculously over-sufficient. Wahoo! We knew that we had done it. Okay, let's make one thing clear. We did have a 50 ft hose going from the house to the garden, we did have a timer with a 4 way splitter attached...SO WHAT if MAYBE we had 4 more hoses attached to those... We were totally planning on just running two at a time....REGARDLESS...even with just one of our sprinklers going (even the one that said it would cover 8500 square feet), we maxed out at 40 square feet. I will spare all of you the details, although I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats...especially to hear more about Frank...we returned the sprinklers, we returned the timers. Now, here we are, back to square one and we like it like that. Nothing wrong with a little quality time with each other as we water the garden. Plus, truth be told, the sprinklers were a bad idea from the start and we knew it. They are inefficient and wasteful. Guess it was karma kickin' our butts....
Well, that's all for now. We can already start to really grasp how big our garden's harvest is going to be- super exciting and it will be really fun to watch happen. Almost as fun as watching grass grow. See? I told you it would be exciting...

Adventures in Gardening: Part 1

So much has happened since our last blog- some good, some bad. First of all, Josh built a beautiful ladder for our peas to climb. He fashioned it out of old branches and hemp we had laying around. This will help to maximize our crop by allowing the peas to grow upwards instead of all the plants crowding each other. The other picture is of our tomato and pepper flat. All of the plants are looking great, although we had to construct a hanging light in order to give them the light they need on days we cannot get the plants outside- due to weather or work.

Hmmm...what else is new...? We realized that dogs prefer to be inside fences rather than out, which led us to increase our fencing a little. We added more branches and secured all of the poultry fencing around the base, since apparently our dogs like to enter the garden through the gate- even if that means to tear down the fence. :) But, have no fear- we have reconstructed and perfected the fencing.

So far, we have quite a few plants popping up in the garden. All our lettuce plants have sprouted, along with our carrots, brussell sprouts, radishes, swiss chard, peas, dill, spinach and cilantro. We're happy with the progress, thus far, and hope to see more and more plants coming up due to all this natural watering! We also started some flats with plants to transplant once the roots are established. This is where some of our disappointing news comes into play.



It turns out, those trays get REALLY hot, really fast. This unfortunately led to the demise of some of the seeds we started...We lost: broccoli raab, broccoli romanesco, cabbage and quinoa. We are still hoping for the best with our celery, strawberries and melons- Josh just informed me that one cantaloupe sprouted today! Wahoo- celebration here at the Heald household... We do have some nice looking seedlings of cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, zucchini, spaghetti squash, asian greens and thyme. The picture up top is of some of the seed trays, pre-sprout. I'll update the picture ASAP. We did just put in another seed order, since we obviously don't have enough to do. So, arriving sometime between Friday and Tuesday are: red and green cabbage, romanesco and rapini, okra , rhubarb and tropical (warm weather) lettuce for planting during the summer months. I'm sure we forgot something else- I don't doubt we'll either be placing another order soon or running down to Pickering Feed and Farm to browse the supply.

I think that is all for now- we will try and be more regular with postings- especially since this one was so long! I guess it really is excited to watch things like grass grow....Happy belated Earth Day everyone and happy gardening!

Getting Started!

So here we are!...First post- kinda nervous...oh, where shall I start??

Hoping to upload some more pictures, but here it is- our mini-farm. It has come a LONG way. So, I guess we should start with some background information. This will be our fourth year managing our own vegetable garden. Josh and I (Lauren) both share a feeling of respect for the earth and take full responsibility for our impact to it. So, in our continuous quest towards eventually living our dream of getting 'off the grid', we'll be taking small incremental steps, including producing our own grub!

So far, we have already stocked our far garden (in the picture) to the max. We have directly sowed arugula, miners lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach, salad bowl mix, cilantro, carrots, beets, swiss chard, iceberg, radishes, scallions, lentils, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and dill. I must mention, of course, that we already have onions, parsley, oregano, leeks, chives and sage coming up- which you may be able to see from the picture. I know it sounds like a lot already, but just wait until we start planting into the other gardens!...

I guess it's worth mentioning that we are planting all organic, self pollinated seeds and we are using no fertilizer or pesticides on our vegetables or plants. It makes for a lot more weeding, for sure, but I'll take a little dandelion or clover over arsenic any day :)

So, why, you may ask, are we making this totally, boring blog?? Well, our goal is NOT to bore you, of course, but instead to reach out to our families and friends who want to know what is going on in our lives and also to teach a little something to everyone. We hope to share tips and tricks we have learned for not only organic gardening but for living greener, reducing energy and water consumption, and other ways to 'green' up your lives! Hope you all enjoy reading and please feel free to comment! More pictures to come soon- so check back!