Winter Gardening

The vegetable garden has been all dug up and I must say, I'm pretty surprised at how many things grew, especially for my first garden but just because Winter has arrived doesn't mean you have to stop growing vegetables. There are two options; the first is to bring it inside and the second is to create a cold frame. You can easily grow micro greens and various herbs and lettuces right on your window sill. Just be sure to place the planters in the sunniest part of your house. And while I will certainly be doing that, I'll also be attempting the cold frame.

There are many great articles on building and using a cold frame here, here and here so I encourage you to check those out. A cold frame is essentially a raised bed that's covered with glass such as old windows or thick clear plastic. The cold frame generates heat from the sun creating a greenhouse effect and if given enough sunlight can maintain high enough temperatures in the Winter months. Since I already have the raised beds and we have fairly mild winters in Vancouver, my new project is attempting cold frame gardening. Now, I'll just have to cross my fingers that we'll actually get some sunshine throughout the Winter. That will be the ambitious part. I'll keep you posted.

Potato Box

In digging up the vegetable garden today I was so excited to get to the potatoes. I've been waiting all Summer for them. I guess I'll be waiting for a very long time because WTH happened here? That's what I want to know, Mister Potato Box. Mister, I'll produce 100 lbs of potatoes for you in a 4 foot square space. Oh really? Because what I see here is 6. Not 6 lbs of potatoes, SIX POTATOES. I don't know what went wrong. I followed the directions to a tee. We did our research on potato boxes because we didn't have room for rows and what we found in our research was that a whole lotta people were raving about the potato box. So my hunka husband built the box and I got to planting the potatoes. The deal with the box is that you keep filling it up with dirt and when you need potatoes you can either remove the bottom pieces of wood and dig out what you need or wait until fall and take the box apart in which case you will be showered with countless potatoes. Not so. Not in our case anyway.

Okay so I'm sure it was something I did wrong and that's fine with me. Maybe it was the type of potato I used, maybe I over watered. Afterall, that's what this journal is about, learning. But please, to the cheer team that says growing a potato box is oh, sooo easy, it's not. And I am super disappointed. I was really looking forward to our own potatoes. Oh well, that's nature I suppose, you win some, you lose some. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of that dirt. Oh, and my 6 potatoes. Feast at my house everyone, dinner's on me!

Pickling Cucumbers

Well, it only took 4 attempts at sowing the seeds but here we have it, Cucumbers! I don't know why it took so many tries. We did have a major heat wave this Summer so perhaps the soil couldn't retain enough water to sprout the seeds but I tried twice in the Spring too and nothing. That's okay, I have them now and it's been relatively warm with a good amount of intermittent rain falls so I think we'll get a nice yield. By the way, did you know that pickling cucumbers are extremely prickly? They should call them prickling cucumbers. (I did just say that, I can't believe it myself.) Oh dear, anyway, don't try to pick them with your bare hands. I did, and it hurt.

If you're wondering why pickling cukes were so important for me to grow it's because of Ome, my husband's Grandmother and her famous Dill Pickles. I really wanted to make them this year and I did with pickles from a farm but soon I'll be able to make my very own homegrown pickles and I can't imagine anything more rewarding. And with that, at least one thing I learned with gardening is that persistence pays off.

Click here for Ome's Dill Pickle Recipe.

An Update on The Topsy Turvy

I thought it was time that I gave you all an update on the progress of the Topsy Turvy. Hmm, how do I put this nicely...It ain't nothin' special. Yes, that was nice. I have one tomato plant in the Topsy Turvy and one in a container. They were planted on the same day from the same group of seedlings and they have been side by side this whole time. The container plant has 15 tomatoes the Topsy Turvy, 10. So much for the "rapid tomato growth" that was promised by the Topsy Turvy folks. Another thing I noticed about the Topsy Turvy is that it requires so much watering. Much more than the container plant. Oh, and when you do have to water it, it leaks water everywhere and I have tried many different approaches to try to avoid this.

So I suppose the only plus to the Topsy Turvy is that you don't have to stake it. And boy, oh boy, staking is the hardest part of growing tomatoes right? NOT! There you have it, for $19.95 you can buy a hideously ugly tarp bag that will require you to place a towel underneath it every time you water it which will be, like, every 5 minutes so I hope you don't have to go to work or anything crazy like that. Or you can buy a $5 pot and get some sticks from the tree in your backyard. Sorry Topsy Turvy but you FAIL.

Lettuce

Given that we have had to work around our septic system, it meant that a lot of our planting had to be done in containers. Luckily we have a large balcony to house all of the containers. I wasn't certain that we could effectively grow enough food in containers compared to vegetable beds but I have been pleasantly surprised at the progress of the containers, particularly the lettuces. This is great news for any of you who live in apartments. You can have a great little garden right on your balcony.



One thing you can't have however, is my lovely handy husband. He built me a bunch of lettuce boxes and salad tables and according to him, it was very easy following the design for the lettuce tables from University of Maryland Gardening Expert Jon Traunfeld. I planted Romaine, Green Leaf, Tom Thumb and some Mizuna, as well as spinach, chard and beet greens. While I don't get whole heads of lettuce, I just cut off what I need for salads and mix them all together. The lettuce grows back extremely fast and so far I have had enough for what we've needed. So there you have it. Buy yourself some lettuce seeds, get some hunk to build you a box, or do it yourself, (but the hunk is an added bonus) and grow yourself some lettuce. And with that said, Septic tank 0-Suburban Hoe 1 zillion! Fine, it's like 0-4 but whatever.

First Peas and Cherry Tomatoes

I have some exciting news to announce, I have my very first peas and my first cherry tomatoes! I did it, I actually grew something. Okay, so you're probably rolling your eyes but when I first started these seedlings, especially the tomatoes, I was certain they would be dead in no time. Not a very good attitude, I know, but considering I have never grown anything, and I basically did everything wrong, I think I was being realistic in not getting my hopes up too high. I can't begin to express how rewarding it was to eat that first pea. I swear, it was the best pea I have ever eaten! Just wait until those cute tomatoes ripen, oh dear. I started my garden with love and good intentions but now that I have come to know the sweet taste of success, there's no looking back. This Suburban Hoe is a certified gardening junkie.

Arugula

I planted Arugula seeds in January...there I said. It may have actually even been late December. Don't hate me. I did it because besides being curious to see what would happen, I don't have any patience, none, nada, ZERO. I've come to terms with my lack of patience and I don't see things changing anytime soon. Trust me, I've tried. So yes, I planted Arugula seeds in January (ahem, December.) In my impatient defense we have very mild winters here and it usually only snows once a year but this year we had record snowfalls. Therefore I didn't have high hopes for the seeds especially considering we have had 2, maybe 8 blizzards since I planted them. But low and behold, those little seeds grew into cute little bushes of green. Now, they didn't grow large, but grew they did and for that I give those Arugula seeds a round of applause. I was lucky enough to be able to have a couple of handfuls of Arugula in my salads.

I've heard that like Rhubarb, growing Arugula is very low maintenance but to withstand that kind of adversity is truly impressive. See, sometimes being impatient does have it's advantages. Considering the Arugula grew in rather small heads, I've let the remaining plants flower so they will go to seed and replant themselves. And this time it will be In a decent environment, I promise. Consider me guilty of seed abuse 101, I shall redeem myself.

Getting Crafty

Now this is just plain brilliant. Using rain gutters to grow lettuce?! Color me impressed!


(Photo by Suzanne Forsling)

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is a sure sign that Spring has finally sprung. The previous owners of our house must have loved rhubarb because we have 4 large plants growing in the back yard. Probably one of the easiest things to grow, rhubarb is pretty self sufficient. It's time for us to start harvesting the stalks, which should ideally be done by cutting the base of the stalk when the stalks reach 10-15" long. Just remember that the rhubarb leaves are poisonous so unless you're looking for a little excitement, probably best to stick with eating the stalks.

If you grow rhubarb you are probably looking for more ways to use it than just rhubarb pie, which I love by the way. The first thing I made was this delicious rhubarb crumble. But that's the last of the butter laden rhubarb desserts for me because something tells me I won't be fitting into that bikini this summer if I eat too many of them. Okay, by bikini I actually mean shorts but still, one too many rhubarb pies and we're looking at sweatpants. All summer long.

In addition to the Rhubarb Crumble I made,

Here are some other great Rhubarb recipes I have come across:
Homemade Granola with Stewed Rhubarb
Rhubarb and Raspberry Gelato
Rhubarb Daiquiri
Rhubarb Ginger Chutney
Persian Rhubarb and Lamb Stew

Green Bean Sprouts

The green beans have finally sprouted! They sprouted about a week later than the peas and they are beautiful. The weather here has been pretty mild so I've been hardening off the tomatoes, green beans and peas and they are responding very well. I planted one of the larger tomato plants outside permanently the other night but I may have done so hastily because it's supposed to rain for the next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her. I came across a cool idea to strengthen tomato plant roots called "tickling." The process basically involves tickling the plant leaves every day, therefore promoting them to grow stronger roots. I like the idea whether it holds any merit or not. After all, who doesn't like a little tickle every now and then?