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...

Refreshing chocolate mint water with cucumber

There is nothing better than refreshing minty water on a hot summer's day.

It's also a great way to use the mint that is probably growing like crazy right now :)

I like Chocolate Mint, but you can use almost anything you are growing, it's all delicious!

Cut 5-10 sprigs of mint from your garden. 

You can also use basil, rosemary, and lemon balm.

Crush the mint. You can do this in your hands or

with a honey comb. Crushing the mint releases the flavours.

Peel and chop a quarter of a cucumber. 

I like to make cute little designs to add a little pizazz  ;)

In a jug add in the mint and cucumber.

(I got this cute mid century glass coffee pot in the antique mall 

in Fort Langley :)

and... voila... 

Delicious water infused with refreshing mint and cucumber. 

You can keep this in the fridge and continually add more water for 3 days. 

P.S. If you like lemon, only add 1 slice. 

The lemon can over power the minty freshness

and other flavours in the water.

Sowing Seedling and Seeds

Normally when I start my garden I directly sow seeds into my garden plot. This year I thought it would be nice to start seedlings for things that I know I'll have to thin out, or seeds that are tougher to grow. 

I started with butter lettuce and cucumber seeds. Because it wasn't very warm when I started these seedlings (Mid April), the cucumber seeds only started to sprout in the last 2 weeks. However, the lettuce seeds came up almost immediately ;)

Below is the progress shots over the past 4-6 weeks. 

I planted a lot of lettuce seeds because I wasn't sure how vigorous they were going to germinate. Once I saw how much they loved life, I knew I was going to have to thin them out. I hate waste, so I gently pulled out the excess seedlings and transfer planted them into the pot above. This is a very time consuming way of thinning, but you end up being able to use most of your seedlings :)

Another method in thinning out seedlings is to cut the seedlings you don't want. If you trim off their tops, they will wither and dye. 

 First 2 weeks, only the lettuce (left) are germinating.

2 weeks ago, I was loosing faith in the cucumbers, but they finally started sprouting.

Full blown cucumber seedlings, I love you :)

P.S. If you go to the garden store and buy a full rack of seedlings, keep the trays so you can create your own. Mine are from the marigolds I bought at the beginning of the season.

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...)