Garden update

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s been a little while since I’ve shown what’s in the garden–and it’s awesome.

Our tomatoes have done super well. They just keep growing and turning red. Our cherry tomatoes in particular have grown super tall. Taller than Matt.

Next to the tomatoes, Matt’s onions are getting ready to take their first steps.

Our beets and zucchini are producing like crazy. I have to pick every day to stay on top of the zucchini. I finally tried out the grater attachment on my food processor for the first time and grated up 34 cups of zucchini. They’re tucked into the freezer. It appears that I’m going to be making zucchini something all winter long–and pretty much every day between now and then.

Despite having only four plants, we’ve had a decent crop of beans. Although Matt did make fun of me one night when I steamed just 10 beans for us both. I thought they were pretty much done, especially given that I broke the main stem on our biggest plant, but new blossoms are appearing on the other plants, so I think more beans are on their way.

I’m probably most excited about our raspberries. I have a full row of reds that have all successfully transplanted from my parents. The blacks haven’t done so well, save for this one plant, which has lots of green shoots. I’m going to try to transplant a few more blacks to see if they’ll establish themselves before winter sets in.

The biggest challenge is to protect the raspberries from the squash.

Matt and I are both a little bit afraid of the squash. Seriously. They have ambitions to take over not just the garden, but also the farm… and perhaps the world. Keep an eye out. They’re coming for you.

We have acorn, butternut and pie pumpkins. And we’re going to have tonnes of them. I’ve already notified Matt’s and my families to not buy any squash at any point in the future.

Anyone know how to tell when squash are ready to harvest? Some of these are looking pretty close, and some of the leaves on the vines are starting to die.

The east front of the squash advance is headed by the pumpkins. They’ve broken through the fence and are heading for the soybeans. Matt mows them every so often, but a few fruit have climbed the fence to get out of range. These green globes are my test case to see if the stalks are strong enough to hold the pumpkins while they mature. I’m adding squash trellis options to my Pinterest board as I plan for next year’s growing season.

The northern advance of the squash has already consumed the rutabags and potatoes. My only hope is that both of these crops grow underground, so they might survive the surface invasion.

Just to the edge of the advancing squash are our poor peppers. They’re actually looking a bit better finally. They’re growing bigger and they’re blooming again. I’m hoping that the blooms finally set into actual peppers.

We have one lone pepper in the first bunch of plants that we planted at the opposite end of the garden. He’s a little bit warped, so maybe this is a symptom of the other problems we’ve had this year with the peppers?

The lettuce have officially bolted. We’re leaving them alone as Matt wants to see how tall they’ll grow–apparently he has a thing about height.

A nice touch that I’m also enjoying is the stone bench that we’ve added to the garden. This sits at one end of the raspberry rows–the cross axis of the garden. The curve of the bench fits in well with the curved edge of the garden. I’m looking forward to sitting here and seeing the view across the garden and out over the fields.

For now, the other half of the garden is still under wraps with a tarp and some old carpet. (The rope marks the centre axis, so I can keep the raspberry rows lined up). This photo is definitely about keepin’ it real for all of you fellow non-Pinterest-perfect gardeners.

I’m patient enough to wait for next year to farm this other half. I’m definitely satisfied with what we’ve accomplished this year. And we’re more than satisfied with the harvest we’ve had.

What fresh food are you enjoying this season? Have you grown anything this year? Any thoughts around what might be wrong with our peppers? Have you had any sightings of our squash yet invading your neighbourhood?

Gated

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We’ve crossed an important milestone in the garden. We are now fully enclosed. I finally built the gate last weekend.

The first step, and the most time consuming part of this project, was to plumb my posts. The fence posts were anything but straight. They were meant to be fence posts, not gate posts. You might recall that this only became the gate when my nephew and I cut through the fence rails.

I found two 4x4s and ripped them down for each post. They were attached to the posts with the longest screws I could find. Not too difficult. Just fiddly, but worth it so that I could build a rectangle gate rather than a trapezoid or parallelogram.

So I drew up my plans and got to the easiest part of this project, the gate itself.

I made the outside frame, added a centre brace and tested the fit. It was too wide. I knew my tape was sagging when I measured the opening, but I thought I’d compensated enough. Ugh. Baxter was very concerned.

I unscrewed one end and trimmed off an inch, and that fixed the problem. This still wasn’t a difficult project. I squared the gate and added my diagonals.

Our usual chainlink mesh adds some extra stability to keep everything tight and square. We had both 4 foot and 5 foot chainlink on hand. I picked the 5 foot because I wanted it to run all the way from top to bottom. I’ll borrow my FIL’s heavy duty wire cutters and clip off the excess height. (Allow me to brag a bit by pointing out our extremely tall tomato plant towering over the mesh).

Even though these are just 2x4s, the gate is pretty heavy–a factor of being 7 feet wide and nearly 5 feet tall. I’m considering adding a little wheel on the underside so that we don’t have to muscle it all the way open and closed. I just don’t want the wheel to be too tall because I don’t want much of a gap between the gate and the brick threshold I put in. As well, if the wheel ends up tangled in the grass, it’s not going to be much help. I may end up with just a handle of some kind to make the gate easier to lift.

While I’m still sorting out these details, the gate is just propped in place. The other details I’m trying to sort out are the best hinge solution. Between the narrow 2x4s of the gate, the tapered 4x4s of the posts and the excessive weight of the gate, there isn’t a clear hinge choice. I really value Home Depot’s easy return policy in this situation. I can buy pretty much every option and bring them home to see what will work best. (And I did buy a handle and small caster as well).

Hinged, handled, wheeled or not, the gate is still doing its job.

And the vegetable garden is continuing to take shape.

What have you built this week? Have you ever constructed a gate? Any thoughts on whether the wheel will work? How long do you think it’ll take for the new wood to weather so that it matches our fence?

Finally finished the fence

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The benefit of using the old longe ring for the garden meant that we already had a fence. However, it was a beautiful sturdy weathered wood fence. Perfect for form, not so good for function when it comes to a garden.

The ring was used to exercise horses. Meaning anything smaller than a horse could fit through the fence.

Matt and I decided to add chainlink to keep the bunnies and other hungry creatures away from our garden.

I had collected a few rolls of chainlink from the ends of various people’s driveways, but the ring is so big that I had to buy three more rolls. So this project was definitely the most expensive part of the garden so far coming in at nearly $300.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to buy posts or anything else besides staples. We made use of the wood fence and stapled the chainlink to the existing posts.

Lesson learned, we should have thought a bit more about who does what.

I stretched the fence, and Matt hammered the staples. I have less muscle than Matt, so stretching the fence was hard for me. Matt has bigger fingers than me, so he hammered his fingers a lot while he was holding the staples between the links of the fence.

Matt wasn’t going to give in though. There was no way he was switching roles. So we worked our way around the garden taking breaks to hammer the ground in frustration or slap mosquitoes who just won’t go away this summer.

When we reached the end of a roll, we joined it to the next section by weaving in a single strand of fencing. Just twist, twist, twist until the wire reaches the bottom. (To separate a section of fence, you just reverse the process and untwist one piece of wire. Your fence will easily split in two.)

Eventually, we got a rhythm. A lot of it consisted of us asking each other, “Ready?” And then, “Hold it, woman!”

Our marriage survived, and our garden is fenced.

Fenced, but not gated. We bought wood for the gate last week but haven’t built it yet. So we are still welcoming the hungry creatures–horse-sized and smaller–to our garden.

The thing that I like about the fence is that the chainlink is pretty much invisible, so we still have the aesthetic qualities of the wood fence that I fell in love with from the start.

And to be honest, our garden isn’t really under threat from the local wildlife. Our beans were munched shortly after they sprouted, but the rest of their gardenmates have survived… and thrived. In fact, I think Matt would be happy if a hungry hoard descended on the zucchini.

Harvest!

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I know this blog has turned into more of a gardening blog over the last little while as opposed to a home reno blog. We have many more renos to go, but in our limited Canadian growing season, I am going to garden. I appreciate you all sticking with me. In case you can’t tell, we’re loving our new vegetable garden. We’re especially loving all of the food that we’re harvesting.

We were a little late on planting (the whole building the garden thing delayed us a bit). So I’ve been trying to be patient when it comes to looking for edible vegetables. However, I’ve perhaps been a little too patient.

I thought the zucchinis were still at the blossom stage. A closer look revealed we were past the harvest stage for some zucs. Yipes. There were nine good-sized (really fairly large) zucchinis. And two days later, I harvested seven more (and there’s been one more since then).

So far, I’ve made grilled zucchini, chocolate sour cream zucchini cake, zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread, zucchini soup and zucchini parmesan. I even snuck a few into my parents’ car when they came to visit the farm. More are coming though. Anyone have any good zucchini recipes?

Out of a whole package of bean seeds, only four plants have grown (the others were nibbled right after they sprouted). That means our harvest has not been huge, but we’ve had a few lovely yellow beans.

Beside the beans, the tomatoes are turning red. The cherry tomatoes blow me away. I’ve never seen tomatoes grow in clusters like this. And of course, they’re my favourite sweet tomatoes. Very few make it to the house. I eat ’em like candy right in the garden.

The potatoes plants are blooming. I hope potatoes themselves grow in time for harvest this fall.

And beside the potatoes, in a mass of leaves and vines, squashes are starting to form. I’m absolutely going to figure out a trellis system next year for the squash. They’re taking over. Good thing we have a big garden, but there are lots of other plants on the wishlist for next year. The squash are going to have to learn to share.

We’re picking lettuce, beets and green onions as we need them, the red raspberries have transplanted successfully, and I have hope that a few of the black raspberries are going to make it. It looks like even the peppers may be perking up.

This is the closest I’ve ever been to being a farmer. And I have to say I like it.

What are you growing, harvesting and eating at your house?

Pepper problems

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Anyone have tips for growing peppers? Our plants aren’t doing so well over here.

Remember this picture of the little pepper and blossoms from a few weeks ago?

Well, the plants haven’t grown at all. In fact, they’ve regressed. See the little green nuggets laying on the soil?

The little peppers fell off their stalks. (My finger is in the shot for scale to show you how little the peppers grew).

The peppers are the only things that aren’t doing well in the garden.

I thought maybe they weren’t getting enough sun, but we’ve planted two different batches in two different locations.

We’ve tried jalapenos as well as sweet red bells.

None of them are growing.

Do you have any tips?

Bounty of berries

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

This year is an incredible year for raspberries. We have canes growing all around the farm, and they’re all loaded with tiny berries.

I’ve never picked this many berries any of our previous summers.

It took me awhile to pick them–not just because there were so many. I had to do it all one handed because this was happening on my other side. Oh Ralph, so helpful.

After harvesting the berries, I decided to harvest some canes. The plan is to have two rows of raspberries in the vegetable garden: one red and one black. I had already started the red row with canes from my parent’s garden,and they’re doing well. A few days after transplanting, though, the black canes aren’t looking so hot.

I’m hoping I can convince them that they’ll be happy in the garden. I also have hopes that with a little domestication, hydration, fertilization and cultivation, I’ll not only have healthy canes but big and juicy berries.

Do you grow raspberries? Are they black or red? Who else has a four-legged helper for picking? Any tips for domesticating “wild” berries?

Snapshot

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Baby pepper and a pepper blossom growing in the garden.

The pepper plants are not doing so hot so far. Hopefully this baby grows up.

Odds and sods

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I took advantage of the mid-week Canada Day holiday to turn this week into a bit of a vacation. I’ve been trying to embrace the “summer time and the living is easy” mantra, so I don’t have a DIY or farm update to share today.

Here’s some of what we’ve been up to instead:

We spent Canada Day with Matt’s brother and sister-in-law, as is our tradition. I cannot say that Baxter the Canadog embraced his adopted country. He tolerated his patriotic kerchief, the parade, the crowds and the fireworks. He wanted to meet all the dogs and smell all the smells, and was a bit disgruntled that he didn’t get to spend every second socializing. He got lots of compliments on his kerchief though.
I planted some more peppers–4 more red and 12 jalapeno plants. Matt and I both keep adding lots of plants to the garden. Good thing we have a big property.
I’ve visited a few antique stores–not my usual haunt–during this vacation. I think I might have found a set of dining room chairs. They’re on hold until Matt can check them out later this morning. Fingers crossed he likes them.
Chiot’s Run is a new blog for me. I don’t have a lot of gardening blogs in my reader, and I’m really enjoying this one. After spending a fair amount of time yesterday thinning my beets and rutabagas, I’ve decided that next year I’m going to follow Susy’s lead and make myself a square foot gardening template for root vegetables.

What have you been up to this week? What’s your definition of easy summer living?

I wish you all a wonderful weekend. And to my American readers, happy Independence Day.

Guess what

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I used to do guess what posts every so often. Always on Fridays. And I always revealed the answer on Monday.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these posts. In fact, it’s been more than a year. I’m doing one today, but it’s a bit different.

You see, I don’t know what this is.

We uncovered it in the garden.

It’s metal (obviously heavily rusted). It has a hole in the rounded end.

Anyone know what this might have been used for?

Garden update

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Unlike Mary, Mary, I am not feeling at all contrary. I am feeling quite excited. Our garden is growing!

Matt and our rototiller Fairfield were hard at work again this past weekend, and they got the whole garden tilled (or at least the half that we’re using this year) for the second time. I weeded where Fairfield couldn’t reach and went over everything with the cultivator to pick out the last of the roots.

We still need some more chainlink for the fence, we still need a gate, and we still need to pull out the weeds along the rest of the edge (and of course there’s the whole other half of the ring to clear), but it’s already looking like a garden.

And we’re going to have a harvest.

The tomatoes are big enough that Matt had to put the cages around them. Blossoms are forming and even a couple of very small tomatoes.

Squashes are our main crop. First is the zucchini.

Then there’s the butternut, acorn and pie pumpkins.

In the middle of the garden is the beginning of the first of two rows of raspberries. I got them from my parent’s garden last weekend, and they all seem to have rooted.

What’s not doing so well are the bush beans. I don’t know what’s happening, but they don’t seem to be very happy.

Also not so happy are the peppers. I think maybe they’re not getting enough sun because they’re up close to the fence, and they were a bit shadowed by weeds.

However, one in particular has been grievously abused by two weekends in a row. First Fairfield uprooted him, and then I got a little too close with the cultivator and pulled him out again. Hopefully he recovers.

The crop that seems to be thriving the most are the rutabagas. I think every single teeny tiny seed sprouted. I still have no idea what one does with rutabagas. I’m going to need to figure it out, though. Look at how many there are!