Whirlwind Update

Things have gone a little off the rails for our family since Spring. We have been busy, and are trying hard to find our balance in every day versus our projects and spending time with each other. Anyone with kids will know, add in working and all the rest of the daily things you do, and sometimes it's near impossible to find a moment to yourself.

So... a whirlwind update....

-Mr J man started to walk, holy cow.... and then run.... and then throw everything off every surface he could reach.

-We gutted our living room in March. Since then, we have been living with it in a half finished state, which is great for playing in, albeit not the prettiest! (more on this coming).

-We applied for our second Eco-Energy grant, and got over $2,000 back from the Government.

-We watched two of our neighbours cut down 200 year old trees with sadness.

-JBaby turned "ONE"... holy man.

-We took a trip to Ontario that nearly ended in disaster, but managed to attend One Sweet Love's wedding, see a bunch of our people (including some new babies!), and hit both cottages. 

-Our garden produced mighty zucchinis, spinach and much more tastiness.

-We took our 14 month old canoeing (and everyone survived).

-I pickled 25 lbs of cucumbers single handedly.

-I took my first solo vacation as Mom down to Kelowna to pick up a bestie and see another bestie.

-The new local spray park opened and we had a blast!

-TONS of geocaching. Hit over 300 found!

CITO & a Recycled Cold Frame

The last few weeks have been stressful. Every year in my work portfolio, there is about a month where I spend my overtime budget back to back to back.... I've worked an extra week in hours in the last four weeks. I'm tired; really tired; and need of a break. I found some leisure yesterday, thankfully.

This week is "pitch in week" so we joined the geocaching gang  to clean up an area in our neighbourhood. In geocaching language, we call this a "CITO" (cache in, trash out). The result after about 2 hours was this huge pile of junk. Additionally challenging for me as I squatted with my favourite 20ish lb baby on my back at the same time!

After all that fun and a quick bite with our caching friends, we headed home for a nap and to dig in our gardens. My saving grace of stress relief continues to be some time I can spend messing around out there; and the fact that J still naps.

My brother and dad were here a few months ago and used the windows that we removed from our hobo-chic basement & wood from a floating deck in the backyard we tore out last year to make a cold frame.

The idea for a cold frame is quite simple - basically a box with windows (or vinyl) on that the light can pass through. You can use it to extend the growing season (early spring or late fall). Or in the case of Hinton AB, you can use it to let you start your seeds earlier or protect plants from the unpredictable weather. 

I surfed the Internet for plans, and there is a lot to be had, but we made sort of a hybrid, as my windows were rectangular and not square.

My cold frame met a little accident last week when I put the windows up to start planting it. It was quite a windy day and so the windows didn't quite rest comfortably, and the I ended up breaking two of them. The good news was though, I had more... I got out the handy power tools (gasp, I know, yes, all by myself) and I screwed two more windows on.

Plants from left to right are - one cherry tomato, one early girl tomato, lettuce mix, scallions, stir fry mix (asian vegetables), geraniums.

I also pulled all the weed out of my right side front bed and planted vegetables (more on that and the garden plan is up next), and admired the tulips that are raising their little heads again (a gift from the original owner of the house).

 Had an awesome day enjoying the 16C weather and even got a little sun. How is your weekend going?

Happy Earth Day!

It's Earth Day and a balmy 16 c today so we deemed it time to start getting back outside and starting in on our gardens.

Yesterday, I started in on pruning our Siberian Pea & Lilac bushes. I found after an hour (only having done 2 bushes) that my tools were inadequate. I was using a hand saw and a set of Fiskars gardening shears. I may have to go and invest in some stronger pruners. I gave up on that project and cleaned out my front beds in preparation for planting (more on that later).

Been thinking about my greenhouse boxes for a while now, but it's been getting down to -6 C at night, so I wasn't quite ready to plant them yet (gardening season opened on Apr 1 at the greenhouse). I also have misplaced my seeds from last year in my enthusiasm, so I had to start again from scratch. This time, I went with West Coast Seeds which came highly recommended to me from the greenhouse crew.

I had a laugh when I realized J's outfit matched the West Coast box almost perfectly.

I'm using fertilizer for the first time this year....exciting!!

Our picks of seeds:

If you don't know about the Hinton Community Greenhouse Society, you just go and take a look or connect with our gang on Facebook. Anyway, long story very short - second year for it, and we have two greenhouses donated by Kinder Morgan.

We affectionately call them Southside (left) and Northside (right). I defected to Southside this year. Its still a work in progress, as are many of my favourite places. So the "renovations" going on, don't bother me one bit.

I have two plots this year - one 18 sq foot (3x6') and one 13 sq foot (3.5x3.5'). I chose to add manure to my boxes, I find in my front beds this really helps the moisture stay within the soil, so I opted to try this in the boxes too. I mixed in 3 bags in the large plot, and 2 bags in the small plot. This was overkill according to the bag, but I figured a little dirt never hurt!

The couponer in me was happy too - it was on sale this week at Canadian Tire. I then wet the soil with water that I had to haul in - our taps aren't hooked up yet - and got a good workout in the process and J got a wheelbarrow ride.

Just as I was trying to figure out how to finish and take J baby home for a nap, D showed up and took him home & the dog. Everyone else left the greenhouse at the same time, and it was so quiet, I could hear the wind rustling the poly.

Having a quiet moment is rare for me lately, so it was really relaxing. I experimented with fertlizer, and I added roughly 1.5 cup to my row of runner beans, 1 cup to each zuchinni hill and 2 cups to every spot of tomatoes. The pail says to use about 1 cup to every 10'. Gaia Green is a great mixture that contains alfalfa meal, steamed bone meal, blood meal, glacial rock dust, mined Potassium Sulphate, natural humate complex, Rock Phosphate, Greensand, Kelp Meal, and Gypsum.

After all of that good work, I was soaked in sweat, filthy, and exhausted, but oddly satisified and relaxed. 

More work to come - including my sketches of each garden bed, what I'm growing my cold frame, and building a trellis and planting a little more, but I'm happy with the progress so far.
Are you growing anything this year?

Garden Review 2011

This year, despite being uber pregnant - really went for the gusto with gardens. I had some learnings in 2010 about the temperature in this region. Unlikely Ontario, where you pretty much plant it, it grows like a weed, in Northern Alberta, you have to think about what you're planting and where. Some things can be sown early, some things not. Some things require a greenhouse. We're in Zone 3a for anyone who knows anything about that.

Luckily, the Hinton Community Greenhouse got started this year. Jax and I bought a large plot (18 sq ft) together in May, and sowed it almost immediately - this was a smart move to do early! Jax was lucky and also won a small plot (far left of picture) in the membership draw, and we were able to plant that right away too. The medium plot (middle left of picture) we eventually picked up too when the cost dropped to $2/sq ft when the greenhouse didn't quite fill mid-June.

In the large plot, we planted tomatoes (large and cherry), beets, onions, potatoes, zucchini (green and yellow), and cucumber. The cucumber bit it after about a week. We re-planted cucumber and Brussel sprouts (a gift to J on her birthday), and the cucumber bit it again. The sprouts however, continue to grow.

The zucchini never quite made it - it grew in it's large hills, produced a few small zucchinis, but contracted mould and then got killed by the coolness when the weather snapped cold. In hind sight, next year, we need to plant them in a middle box or end of the large one away from the sides (members of the greenhouse roll these up and down everyday). 

The "free" box (11 sq ft) - we planted strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots. The strawberries grew like crazy, threw runners into our cheap box, and we enjoyed many many salads with all the lettuce. The tomatoes grew (and I did them from seed), and produced large tomatoes, but before we could get to them, Jack Frost took it's toll. 

Well, I have a full window sill full of green tomatoes now, hoping they ripen! The carrots were delicious - but needed to be planted a little further apart. Oh well, we learnt something there!

The "cheap" box (15 sq ft) - we planted herbs, red leaf lettuce, spinach and beans. The herbs grew well overall (although the basil was so-so), the spinach not-great, and the beans just fine.

If you want to read about how other people's garden's went in the greenhouse, I recommend checking out Sarah's Blog. Let's just say her zucchini's fared a lot better!

My front garden beds - left side - I picked up a bunch of perennials and annuals. My mom brought me some last October and planted them in after helping me re-shape my beds. I was pretty skeptical that anything from Ontario would take in my colder garden, but a few plants did, the sedum in particular. In 2010, I had a terrible time keeping anything alive as the back bed (behind cement divider) is under our roof overhang. So it never got water - unless of course, I was at the end of the hose. My lovely MIL visited in July, and we were able to pick up some bushes and annuals at 70-80% off at Canadian Tire which we planted in the back. She diligently watered them while she was here so that they would take in the dry soil.

The right side - used partially for veggies - spinach (grew amazingly tall), peas, beans. We got a fair amount of peas and beans, but not until mid to late August. The spinach plants produced beautifully through July and August. Also had a few annuals and perennials for colour, and bushes at the back to even out the other side.

Still learning a lot. Would like to have some raised square foot gardening boxes along the lilacs in the front or perhaps in the back near where the old deck used to be for some of the more hardier veggies (and more of them), but we'll see what happens! Looking forward to another season of growing again next year.