Final Pea Harvest

My peas have given me my last harvest...

It's sad that I'm not going to be able to watch them grow, 

but I'm definitely at the point where I can't eat any more peas.

Blanched peas with butter and salt. 

Simple, yet mmMMmm goodness.

All the peas I harvested in the last couple of days

to fill my freezer for the winter months :)

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

This Week's Garden Haul

It's just the best when flowers bloom together so you can make a cute bouquet. 

This one is made up of a mixture of Anemone, Dusseldorf Pride, and Basil Mint. 

I got the cup from a local potterer at Commercial Drive's Car Free Day.

I braved the torrential down pour, but made it home alive ;)

(a better shot of the cute Dusseldorf Pride)

I put them on my desk right next to my computer. A lovely sight for when I'm writing :)

Alpine Strawberries are blooming and ripening in full force. Ror and TheDapperGentleman are mostly benefitting...

Although... TDG doesn't like peas, so these lovelies are all for me.

Delicious dinner with garden fresh peas. mmMMmm mmMMmm mmMMmm.

Fun Fact: If the flowers in your bouquet aren't fragrant, add some fresh herbs to spice them up. The basil mint in this bouquet is giving it something special. Next time I'm going to try Rosemary.

Alpine Strawberry and Two Pea Harvest

(p.s. this is my amateur strawberry styling ;)

Alpine Strawberries are almost a weed. Their strawberry seeds create new 

strawberry plants easily and readily. I would almost call this an infestation, if they weren't 

so delicious.

ROR takes most of the tiny berries as her cut for being my gardening side kick. 

Here are the first and second harvests I've been able to wrangle away from that wily fur-highness (as in royal highness for fur people). 

Honestly, I just made up that nickname and love it! Fur-Highness will be added to Ror's long list of new nicknames.

Fun Fact: Peas are extra sweet when they are half the size they normally should be. I must confess, I only know this because I'm impatient and pick peas before they are fully ripe.

mmMMmm mmMMmm delicious

I see you.. peas

(peas from last year)

Twinkle Twinkle Little Peas

How I stalk you from afar

Up above your stalks you grow

I will eat you, just so you know

Twinkle Twinkle Little Peas

nom nom nom, nom nom nommm...hmmmm

I'm growing impatient for my first harvest of veggies!

Growing and Harvesting is the best part of gardening. It's the clean up after the yields of the decaying old plants that isn't as much fun :)

growing, growing, growing...

they are over taking my neighbours plot... 

Netting for Peas

Peas... are... wild...

They are definitely the party animals of the veggie world.

They are easy to grow from seeds, but you have to make sure there is a good support system for them to latch on to. Otherwise they will fall down like a drunk people at a party.

I used my extra tomato cages, long bamboo stakes, and string to create a nice habitat for the wild stalks of peas.

In the past I didn't provide enough support and they would fall over and grow around the support system instead of in it...  lol...

I dare the peas this year to escape their cage, I dare them :)

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)

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 First Community Garden

Here are some pictures of my first garden plot. 

I had marigolds all around the boarder to ward off unwanted insects. This first year I had an overabundance of peas and tomatoes.