December

Now only a few weeks from Christmas I find myself reminiscent of hot summer days and fresh nibbles from the veg patch. The garden wasn't a huge success, but I did have a lot of luck with beans, zucchinis and jalapenos. We opened a jar of canned beans yesterday and I'm sad to say there are none left! I have loads of plum and blackberry jam that will get me through the winter and satisfy my appetite as I scheme and plot a new vegetable garden in my new backyard, with 5 preexisting fruit trees!

Beans and jam, winter staple.

I found some photos from the summer that will warm you up...

 Spiky eggplant, no luck with any fruit though :(

 Peppers! Lots of luck with these little poppers, made chilly jelly (chelly).

 Echinacea.

 Parsely.

 Chive flower

 I had an abundance of zucchini and really miss them now. So sweet and delicious.

 So many plums!

 Lunch.

days gone by

It finally feels like summer and the garden is starting to look like a garden. Too bad it is the end of August, here's hoping for a warm fall.

 

CARROTS! Never tasted so good! I added extra sand to the soil in my carrot patch so they would grow straight and fat. So yummy!

An existing leek in the garden that's gone to flower, hopefully I'll get some leeks next year. It's beautiful and the bees love it.

Speaking of bees, my mason bee apartment has tenants! The holes closed with mud indicate occupancy. Here's some more information on the mason bee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee.

Lots more to come!

northern eats and treats.

I've been away longer than expected, but the Vancouver garden is ok and not doing much with all the rain. I'll return to the urban plot in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime while in the Northern BC bush (in between planting trees) I've found many exciting and wild wonders...

The mighty morel.

 

A hat full of morels. I've noticed more morels in fir forests and of course the very popular mushroom hangout- old burns. I've been frying up fresh morels every other night!

 And what better to fry up some mushies with than wild onions. This patch was hard to miss with their unmistakable fragrance.

 Arnica is definitely not edible (very poisonous!), but when cut and sealed in a jar of olive oil for a few months it can be blended with beeswax to make a salve and used to soothe muscle aches, reduce inflammation, and heal wounds. You can pay big bucks for this at the homeopathic shop.

I started this earlier in the spring. It contains Dormant Cottonwood Buds and olive oil, which (like the Arnica) I will eventually make into a salve with beeswax and the infused oil. The buds contain salicylates (think aspirin) it is useful for pain, sprains and inflammation. Known for its natural antiseptic properties, it also helps with tissue regeneration.

it's alive.

 

Friday morning before I left the city, I stopped by the garden plot and to my delight the radishes had popped up with fervor. I noticed a few broccoli sprouts too (I guess the mulchy soil is a go!). I'll be back in three weeks and can't hardly sleep thinking about what I'll come home to. Grow garden grow!

 

Another small addition dedicated to herbs. I mixed this shallow bed with existing soil and what was left of the mulch/soil. Notice the difference in colour.

Soil arrival.

 

The 6 yards of "soil" arrived last week, it's from horse stables, but looks like it came straight from the horse's arse, it's really mulchy so we'll see what kind of luck I have.

 

Free Food

 

Damo and I went foraging yesterday along the beach and forest floor. We harvested seaweed and all sorts of other (free!) nutritious and delicious delights.

Kelp.

Sea lettuce.

 It all needs to be cleaned of bugs and sand, while your still at the beach thoroughly wash in the sea, you lose all flavor if washed in the sink at home. We baked the sea lettuce in the oven until dry and crispy and cut the kelp into strips and let dry over night.

 

 Store in a tight lid jar- great for miso soups, salads, natural soup thickener etc.

 Next on the menu was Cattail roots. They're best in early spring when the new green shoots are sprouting. I had a small shovel to dig down to the white tender bits.

 

 They look much better after washed and peeled backed. Great in stir fries and raw in salads, tastes just like bamboo shoots.

Stinging nettle.

Springcress tastes a lot like watercress, but milder, it's great in salads and can be found all over the place.

Fiddle head ferns are abundant right now and are delicious when fried up with garlic and butter.

Elderflower.

 

Our loot. yum.

The plot thickens.

 It's happening! We made the first garden box from recycled wood that we gleaned from a construction site. The first layer of wood is secured into the ground with metal stakes we found in the yard and we used recycled nails for the top layer.

 The layer of cardboard I laid down in the winter worked pretty well to kill the grass. I patched up green spots with newspaper. Then I put down two buckets of sand for drainage and then a layer of amazing compost given to us by our neighbor. In the next week I'll have about 4 yards of food grade soil deliver to top if off (our only expense so far apart from seeds).

 

Laying out the next raised bed (many more to come), most likely the home of my sprouting tomatoes.

Rhubarb scooped up from a demolished site.

Along with fennel/anise....

 Lemon balm, chive, sage....

 Lavender and more...

Today,  I also made mason bee homes. I'm hoping to have many helpers for the pollination of the garden. Learn more about Mason Bees! I am also taking a weekend honeybee course in two weeks, so maybe I'll have a beehive soon too!

 The construction of a mason bee home is so easy! All you need is a piece of dry wood (or bamboo) and a drill. Set up your homes on a sun facing wall, that has cover from the rain and a near by mud source, which you can make with a container stuck in the ground, just keep it topped up with water + dirt.

Happy gardening.