The Gardening Benefits of Being Busy

It was definitely harder this year to plant and maintain a garden 

as I was studying to write two exams. 

Not to mention having to manoeuvre around my large belly.

I did it though :) 

The best part about gardening this year is that 

because I'm super busy...

every time I go into my garden there are tons of

fruit and veggies ready to be harvested.

Most of the previous years I would go out into the garden multiple times a week

and stare at the produce...

and harvest most of it before it was ready.

I discovered that when you let gooseberries actually ripen, 

they are delicious!

I thought I didn't like them, 

but it was probably because I was picking them before they were actually ripe.

New things my garden teaches me every year :)

The best part of growing multiple varieties of blueberries is that

when you grab a handful you are delighted by the different mouthful of 

flavour every time. 

In this harvest I had Peach Sorbet, Pink Lemonade, and a boat load of the normal kinds.

Boy, oh, boy were these delicious!

This is actually my second harvest of blueberries. 

The first was right after TheLittleBear came home.

Those blueberries sat around for three days 

as I tried to find time to take a picture.

In the end...

I gave into their deliciousness and dug in before I could picture it for you all.

I dream that next year I'll be better at this whole multitasking caring for a little bear 

and gardening business. 

How My Garden Looks Late in the Summer

This is a late summer shot of my garden. 

The far left is the carrot patch.

The centre is where the turnips and cucumber live.

The immediate right are the tomatoes.

You can see my fall garden on the left. (super small)

And a close up of the tomatoes.

Close up of the fall garden. 

Purple core carrots at the top,

purple beets in the middle,

and golden beets at the bottom.

Garlic, coffee grounds, and hot chilli powder

to deter the bugs. 

Beets, Beets, Beets :)

Cucumber growing...

Egg plants growing...

Salad Bowl Tomato Harvest!

It's hard to tell in this picture, but this cucumber is Giant!

Fun Fact: as the cucumber grows larger, so does the seeds.

Great for seed savers :)

Rory Lately...

Ror Eats Carrots!

Ror gets the baby carrots that I accidently 

pull out of the garden.

Man oh man, does she love these :)

Ror: I. Stalk. Carrot. From. Afar...

Ror: Carrot baby, I own you!

Ror: nom nom nom... carrot prey, you are mine.

Ror: More please? Oh, you mean that carrot is for me?

Ror: seconds, thirds, and fourths? Thanks Friendo!

Carrots... Carrots... Everywhere...

This is the large salad bowl I filled with globe carrots. 

Safe to say, I shall never ever ever grow so many 

globe carrots ever again. 

Mentally I cannot only wash a carrot and feel it's 

clean enough to consume. 

I must wash, peel, and again wash the carrots.

Working on a small scale like with

globe carrots can be very trying to anyone's patience :)

Next year, only 4 rows at most. ;)

Above:

Grated Purple Carrots! 

What the What?

They are so feisty.

As I was grating regular carrots, 

it occurred to me to make my salads more 

adventurous and exotic with grated purple carrots

It turned out wonderfully :)

A Colourful Harvest

This was my harvest a couple of weeks ago :)

I love the colours, and boy oh boy was it delicious!

Cucumbers, zucchinis, tomatoes, and carrots...

Getting the carrots ready to bring inside...

Ta Da... The best cucumber ever.

Fire Flamed Carrots!

Creating these bowls of carrots is honestly

the most fun. 

Carrot close up. Work it, Work it, Model it...

The carrot babies have grown big and strong!

Maybe a little too strong...

Some of them are being stubborn. When I go to pull them, the foliage is breaking off.

It's okay though. I love them anyways and will happily dig them out :)

"Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes..... 

You are so delicious.

Yum, yum, in my tum.

Yum, yum, in my tum."

This is what i sing to myself as I harvest, wash, and devour these beauties.

My neighbours must think me crazy, but hopefully one day

they will sing along :)

I dream of living in a musical. Where I start humming

in the elevator to have a lovely stranger hum along, 

until everyone I come across is singing and dancing down the block.

YummMMmm, purple carrots!

Not going to lie, I did close my eyes to smell 

and caress this (my first of the season) purple carrot.

I would have snuggled him all day, but my mouth was watering.

So, I chopped him up and shared him with TheDapperGentleman and Ror. 

Weekend Garden Harvest

laa laa laa, lee lee lee, loo loo loo 

weekend garden harvest time 

(read this as if someone is singing it to your in a high pitched tone deaf voice ;)

Weekend Day One:

Globe Carrots, so delicious!

Garden Tip: When peeling small carrots, 

leave the green part on to use as a grip. This makes it so much easier!

This makes it look like little carrot homes 

for tiny fairies or gnomes

ahh ahh, a tsunami of peas has take over the town

Weekend Day Two:

When The Dapper Gentleman works on the weekend...

One has time to play with the harvest to create these:

Peas heart You

Bee Love

Little Carrots, Little Carrots...

Dear Little Carrots,

As I patiently watch you grow, my stomach grows hungrier and hungrier to gobble you all up...

I watched as your seeds sprouted into seedlings..

I watched as your leaves started to grow...

I watched as your leaves glistened and shimmered after I watered you...

Know that the day you are ripe, I will reap you from the ground with glee. 

That day will be so awesome. I'm dreaming of it while I watch you plump.

Your doting caregiver,

BeesintheGardens

Garden Happenings in April

Gardening is like a slow moving art piece. Over the season you start to see the performance unfold and the beauty take place.

Here are the things I'm doing in April:

1. Digging out weeds and preparing for the new veggie garden

2. Folding in Coffee Grounds and new soil into the garden

3. Placing the bamboo/stake infrastructure to hold up the veggie vines

4. Planting carrot, beets, tomatoes, and pea seeds.

I have found that things almost never go as planned. I'm still looking for some space to plant zucchini and eggplant.  Maybe, just maybe I was a little over zealous with the carrot seeds. ;)

Wait a minute, a plan is forming... once the peas have been harvested I'll replant them in half the space leaving room for zucchini! Bing! Problem one solved, now for the egg plant. Where shall I put you? A problem for future Bee to solve :)

(the burlap at the entrance is to help me not track dirt past the entry way of my garden)

(egg shells surround my tomato plants to help ward off slugs and to give them calcium) 

(sturdy steaks and bird netting surround my garden to keep out the cute neighbourhood cats)

Found in Last Year's Garden

As I was cleaning out last years garden I found this large carrot! How amazing is it that this little guy survived winter. I Love It!

I'm definitely not going to eat it because it's a little gross looking, but I love that my garden wanted to give me one last gift before I weeded it and planted for the new year.

Planning Out My Garden

I am a huge planner in life, school, work, and.... in the garden. I find a well laid plan will help utilize my budget and hard work.

Every year I take what worked and didn't work and use it to plan the layout.  It can be difficult to predict how sunlight and soil quality will affect the kinds of plants you want to grow. So, sometimes it can take a couple of years to get the feel for your garden plot.

I have found that my garden plot likes tomatoes, peas, and carrots carrots carrots! I also like to add new things to experiment for future years. This year I'm adding cucumber, zucchini, and egg plant.

To ward off weeds and pests, I'm experimenting with lining the non-growing parts with black plastic or burlap.

I'm also trying a new double netting technique for peas. (more to come later...)

My Second Year Garden

Because of my success in the first year, the powers that be gave me a larger garden plot in my second year.

I regret to say I didn't take pictures of my plot set up, however here are some of my garden hauls.

The carrots were the major success of this year. The best trick of the trade for carrots is to plant then right after the last frost of the year. It's amazing how the March/April rains germinated most of my seeds to produce carrots for the entire summer.

If you are planting carrots later, try germinating the seeds in a smaller pot, then transferring them once they are seedlings. I did this later in the summer because I wanted the carrot train to continue, and it worked like a charm :)

Purple carrots are my favourite. Pulling carrots is like finding your first grey hairs and pulling them out. The satisfaction you feel is almost indescribable.