Gardening DONE (well, sorta...)

I've made it somewhat of a tradition to talk on here about my gardening (mis)haps.
And indeed, 2014 shall be no different!

Well, yeah, it's different.
It's different insofar as I'm not really planning on going into much veggie gardening this year. As it is, I have quite a small garden, but also, I've got ideas that I'll be growing all the flowers for my wedding in October. I figure devoting as much soil to that end as possible is a wise move.

There are the errant garlic bulb and tomato seed that were left from last year, but aside from them, it's MARIGOLDS ALL THE WAY, BABY!

And so when I saw that this past Monday's weather was going to be ridic warm, I seized the opportunity to grab a few perennials, clean up the remnants of 2013, put out all remaining garden furniture, and enjoy the day.

Photo above, from top left: crazy warm!, one of my favourite perennials in the yard, the first flowers of 2014, my nails match my swatching yarn!, kicking back with a beer, and a rogue tulip amongst the strawberry patch.

What are you gardening this year?

Garden-Given Great Gastronomy

This year my garden focus was mainly on tomatoes.
And whoo boy, do I have tomatoes!

Saucy!

I've made a few batches of sauce so far, and the most delicious tomato jam evar.

Here be the recipe:

Tomato Jam

3 lbs fresh tomatoes
9 cups (but I only use 4!) sugar
2 lemons
fresh ginger (1" thinly sliced)

In a large pot on medium heat place the tomatoes, cut roughly into chunks, lemon juice and ginger.
Bring to a boil and reduce the heat.
Cook slowly for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
Boil slowly for 30 minutes more or until desired thickness is reached.

And, to go with that jam, the worlds greatest Cheese Crackers:

1 cup butter
1/3 tsp salt
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1/3 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you prefer spicy!)
2 1/2 sups flour
1 tbs water (approximate)

Blend all ingredients together to make dough. Roll out to approx. 1 cm width and cut with cookies cutters (alternatively, you can roll it into a log and just slice "coins" of dough that are about 1 cm wide).
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 12 minutes.
Best served hot!

Spotty apples!

I've also been gifted loads of pears and apples from my parent's place, with the promise of yet another year of apple butter making ahead!

Garden A-Growing

I've made it something of a habit in the last few years to document (what usually ends up being the failure of) my garden.

My first little community plot.
Exploits of the Evil Cat.
The PumpKings take over.
And they do it yet again.

So, to add to this list!

This is the second year I've had my very own backyard garden. I decided to expand it a bit from last year as well, to give ample, ample room for my butternut squash plant to colonize.

Planted this year was a scant few types: two different tomatoes, lettuce, butternut squash, and garlic. I have my strawberry and raspberry bushes well established, and my grape vines are coming along quite well!

 
So, this is probably where the garden gods look down upon me and blight my poor veggies for my assumption of good growth.

All remains to be seen!

Go Garden Go! Run! Autumn's Coming!

In a short few weeks, this garden's going to be going dormant.

Doesn't look like that right now, though!

Here's a few "last hurrah" shots of the Great Garden Caper of 2012.

Tomatoes, doing their tomatoey thing

Marigolds, being all awesome and orange


Wannabe strawberries (I did get a few this season!)


Raspberry bush, doing what it can.


Ground cherries, hooray!

Squashy Success

Hooray!
Two of the first squash ready for harvesting.
I have plans.
Soup and pie. Oh yeah, soup and pie.

Pumpkin CPR: Dead or Alive

Garden update:

Curiously, there's a grand total of nine (9!) butternut squash on the vine. And, you know, still alive.

The pumpkins, on the other hand...

Not sure what's going down, but I have two (2, sadface).

It's been suggested that they're too crowded, and I suspect that might be the culprit.

The reaching-tentacles of the pumpkin have encroached all the way down the alley next to the house. As of this morning, that arm of this squash-expedition is still dead-leaf-free.

There are flourishing parts o' the garden, and I hopes they yield wonderfulness for me to share.
At the mo, there's just the morning glory.
Seeing it's prettiness always makes my day.

Garlic Braid; Garden Harvest Ahoy!

Hooray! Done with the garlic from my garden.
It's all braided now, hanging happily in my kitchen.
I am TOTALLY safe from vampiric attack, peeps.

I used this video to help me figure out how to create this braid (mine's not so lovely as hers).

I'm also happy to report that I made some roasted garlic, using some of these very bulbs, and have survived. Unpoisoned! (though, certainly a bit more stinky).

Those crazy pumpkins and squash are still growing. They've currently taken over my pretty little park bench. It's their bench now.
I should post a pic. It's kind of scary.

Pumpkin and Squash Invade; Or, I Totally Should Have Learned This By Now

Gardening update!
Just a quickie, I promise.

Firstly, what the hell, man?!

See those vines? That's a grand total of one pumpkin plant and one butternut squash plant. Holy creeping crap.

I'm super stoked that they're so happily growing. I'm a little concerned that they'll:
1) take over and kill the neighbour's garden. And cat (though the Orange Cat of Strawberry Death totally has it coming to him) and maybe even my neighbour. Them's some powerful pumpkins.

2) the new nemesis, the cucumber beetle, will decide one night to just demolish the whole thing. Then you'll get this horrible image of me, on my knees in sorrow, crying out with arms raised, "you evil insects from hell!"

3) my oh-so-clever idea of growing them vertically will fail catastrophically, and I'll just end up with under-ripe fruit falling from the vine and making me supersad.

This is not news. It totally happened last year too.

But then there's the garlic!

This stuff is drying out. I'm hoping to have a great little garlic braid to show off in a few weeks, fingers crossed.

Lawn in the Front, Veggies in the Back: Rawr, Watch the Garden Grow

Well, I've stumbled through planning this year's veggie garden.

I originally had these grandiose plans (as I tend to do) wherein I'd outline the steps I took to develop (what was ideally) this vociferously verdant veggie villa.

Then I took the pics of my garden just this past weekend and decided I'm clearly NOT the source for all you good people to get your gardening info.

What I will do is show you the state of affairs.

This is what the backyard/garden looked like in May 2011.

This is what it looks like now.

Here's a crappy panorama, too:

Not the biggest of gardens, but it's proven to be just big enough to yield copious amounts of spinach and rampant weeds that just get out of hand so quickly!

It's certainly a work in progress.
Here, I'll show you some of the fun stuff.

Back in March I started a seedling farm in my basement.

I planted a variety of veggies, herbs and flowers. Most sprouted just fine. Thrived, in fact.

Then I brought them outside. Death visited them swiftly in the night.

What I came out with was a couple strawberry plants and some morning glories.
And oh! Those morning glories. Possibly the most successful plant so far.

See them in all their climby glory.

I've had success with other non-edibles.

The marigolds I direct sewed in the spring are doing just fine.

My potted scottish moss is happy.

And my grape plant is doing well. It's actually digging my faux gothic arch trellising!

My next battle seems to be with some hungry cucumber beetles. Nasty things that they are.
Once I've prettied the place up a bit, I'll post some more pics.

How To: Keep a Cat Out of Your Garden

Dear readers,

Just a while back, I shared with you my ongoing battle with the Orange Cat of Strawberry Death.
Though I have not the ultimate cat-deterring answer, I have indeed tested a few suggestions, and can herein outline their effectiveness, cost, availability and overall applicability.
The battle continues, folks, but there is hope.

Suggestion #1:
Dog pee
Effectiveness: I "tried" this one by default. Only a day or so after my initial post, my parents dropped by with Ellie dog. She, as dogs will do, left some scent in my yard. I saw the cat in there the very next morning. So, not particularly effective.
Cost: free! Just subject to the availability of the dog.
Availability: See comment above.
Applicability: Maybe if Ellie was around more often to "recharge" her scent this method would work, but if you don't own a dog or have one very near indeed, this is likely not the solution for you.

Suggestion #2:
Cayenne Pepper
Effectiveness: Some people have sworn to me that this method worked for them. I suspect this it totally cat-dependent, in that, if your particular problem-cat hates cayenne pepper, this will work. If not, you're barking up the wrong tree. One negative to this method: after any rain (or watering of garden) you've got to re-apply the cayenne.
Cost: Minimal. I think I picked up a little spice baggie of it for under $3.
Availability: Easy to find in any grocery store.
Applicability: Well, I hope for you this is the answer, since it's so easy to get and inexpensive. The applicability, though, depends on the cat-in-question's sensitivity.

Suggestion #3:
Water Spray
Effectiveness: Works like a charm!
Cost: Free! Unless you decide to invest in a Super Soaker, or perhaps want to split hairs and check how much water consumption is used in particular for cat-spraying... pennies, I would think.
Availability: Right there in your tap!
Applicability: This is free/cheap and easy to get, but unfortunately only works if you're there all the time... waiting... Getting a motion-activated sprinkler is an option, but an expensive one.

Suggestion #4:
Bamboo Skewers
Effectiveness: If I was handing out prizes for methods suggested, attempted, and proved successful, ChrisC would be the winner! Shoving the skewers (pointy side down!) keeps the cat out like a charm.
Cost: Inexpensive. I bought a few packs of 100 for under $4.
Availability: Easy to find, I would imagine most dollar stores would have them.
Applicability: Easy to install! And once they're in place, you can garden around them, pull them out and re-use them in other parts of your garden (or for next year's problem-cat...)

Suggestion #5:
Cedar Mulch
Effectiveness: For the Orange Cat of Strawberry Death, this proves absolutely ineffective. I laid down several inches of mulch, and caught him digging, quite happily, in it on several occasions.
Cost: I guess it's pretty cheap, but depends on your budget and amount of space to cover. One very large bag was about $6, and covered about a 3' sq area.
Availability: At this time of year, it seems there's garden centres everywhere selling the stuff!
Applicability: I'll say it looks great, keeps weeds down, but doesn't seem to have any effect on at least my problem-cat.

Suggestion #6:
CatScat Mat
Effectiveness: This works just as well as the bamboo skewers!
Cost: Too expensive. Way too expensive. Each wee mat covers an area of less that 1' sq. I bought 8, and it came to over $50! (I felt like a sucker. I placed the order for this stuff and then the next day ChrisC left the helpful suggestion of bamboo skewers. D'oh!
Availability: Well, you can buy it online, so I guess it's easy to get. Bamboo skewers are better though.
Applicability: It works! But is too expensive. Especially in light of the cheapness of the skewers.

There was also a bunch of great suggestions I did not try, but thought I'd share my input on anyway...

Suggestion #7:
Fresh Box of Litter Next to Garden
Effectiveness: I can see this working. I read this suggestion in several places, some of which also mentioned planting some catnip to make the approved-of poop area even more enticing.
Cost: Honestly, I've never bought kitty litter before. I assume you'd also have to get a bin to put it in.
Availability: Easy to find!
Applicability: Ok, while this could work, it has the unfortunate downside of ME having to scoop a cat's poop. Not my cat, don't want to scoop its poop.

Suggestion #8:
Green 2 Litre Bottles
Effectiveness: Oh sweet chocolate from heaven, I wish this would work. It would be hilarious and inexpensive.
Cost: See point above.
Availability: So easy to get!
Applicability: Please please tell me if you try this one. I'd love to know its success rate.

Suggestion #9:
Orange Peels, Blood Meal, Coffee Grounds, Pine Needles, Anti-Cat Plant
Effectiveness: I've heard this one from so many sources, it must work on some cats.
Cost: Most of the things listed there are inexpensive options, though I've never priced Blood Meal.
Availability: Again, I think they're mostly easy to find.
Applicability: These ones all have a multitasking bonus. If it keeps the cat away, hooray! If not, at the least, these items all either fertilize your garden, or act as a beneficial mulch.
Here's a link to a plant which is reputed to work anti-cat magic.

Suggestion #10:
Chicken Wire (above or below)
Effectiveness: I would imagine this would be very effective indeed, especially when placed above your plants in a protective cage/wall.
Cost: Chicken wire is one of those things all our fathers have tucked away in the basement or barn, no? It just grows naturally, appears suddenly, and is readily available through the magic methods of "stuff-dads-always-have". Other items that fall into this category are twine, random wires of unknown origin or use, tools that are older than your grandparents and, my favourite, duct tape.
Availability: See above! (No, I joke. I'm sure chicken wire is reasonably priced and easy to find).
Applicability: I would imagine its price, availability and effectiveness would score it high points and make it a viable option for many gardeners.

I am my Father's Daughter: Or, Karma Chameleon

When I was a kid, my family and I were amused by the ongoing, ceaseless and hilarious yearly battle between my father and the local raccoons.

With a substantial garden and glorious grapevines, our yard must have been a raccoon foodie's paradise. This, as you can imagine, was extremely frustrating for my father. The keeper, planter and carer of these plants, foiled every single year by those sneaky, tricky and really rather intelligent fat-bottomed critters.

Unkindly we would tease my father. Outwitted by the raccoons again, eh dad? Those stringed up tin cans didn't scare them away, huh? Yeah, I saw them playing some calypso music on them and having a grand old party, your garden as the buffet!

Well, don't karma come and bit ME on the behind!

Here's what I'm facing:

Karma has dictated that one of my neighbours chooses to allow her pet cat to wander around outdoors. This is a nice enough cat, but he's a cat. He likes to poop in places, whether those are places he should poop or not.

I awoke Tuesday morning to find my newly transplanted, spindly wee strawberry seedlings had been... fertilized? by said cat.

So now, the battle of Teresa and the Orange Cat of Strawberry Death has begun.

I ask of you, wise gardeners, knowledgeable cat-owners:

How do I keep the Orange Cat of Strawberry Death out of my garden?

Here's a sampling of the suggestions the interwebs has given me:
-a cat-safe produce called CatScat (though admittedly it does resemble some sort of medieval torture device)
-ultrasonic machines that emit a cat-repelling sound (out of the range of human ears)
-orange peels, scattered around the garden edge
-cayenne pepper, scattered likewise
-cages/netting to protect garden
and, my favourite
-green 1-litre bottles filled with water. Yeah. Like, empty 7-Up bottles, just placed around the garden. Supposed to scare the cats off.

Where's the Ugliest House on the Block?

Someone told me once that if you can't find the ugliest house on your block, it's likely that you're in it.

Methinks that's the situation for my place.

Here's the wee property as it stands.

I've worked and worked on the interior: now that the weather's turning well, it's time for me to focus on the exterior.

I'm a total newb when it comes to gardening, home reno and the like, so I thought it might be fun (maybe more for you, dear readers, than for I, especially when you get to laugh at my foolish failures!) to design, dream and hopefully create this new lawnscape along with ya'll.

First thing I did was peruse magazines, other neighbour's lawn-scaping, and a hefty amount of Pinterest ogling.

I'd LOVE to be able to have a verdant, confusing muddle of a cottage garden, but logic tells me 1) I'm too lazy for the properly cultivated upkeep a seemingly muddle cottage garden needs, and 2) I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

Other constraints include:

-North-facing front lawn
-Zone 4 gardening (I do believe that's North-America-wide, if not: it's the same as the Niagara Region of Ontario).
-and yes, the aforementioned ignorance and possibility that I'm the Angel of Death for plants. Let's hope that's not true.

Herein lies the beginning of the beginnings, with many a (successful!?) update to follow over the coming months.

If you have any gardening tips or suggestions, favourite plants (simple to care for is key for me!) I'd love to hear them.

Thanks everyone! I look forward to reading and learning from your planty knowledge!

Ultimate Fruits of 2011 Gardening; Or, How I Have Learned

I'm not a gardener.
My dad is, but I'm not.

I'm hoping that there's some sort of positive, genetic connection that will give me great talent, wisdom, or perhaps even luck, for my planned 2012 garden.

The above picture is pretty much the height of success I had last year in my community garden plot.

I spoke briefly (but sadly far too soon) about the rambunctious growings of my pumpkin plants this summer.
The suckers ended up getting fuzzy mildew and I got one good, ripe pumpkin out of it. Well, two, but someone stole one before I harvested it.

This picture below is one I took (clearly months ago!) of my backyard.
For this year's garden, I suppose it's not human thieves I need to be concerned with, but rather the local cats (a number of which I've already met, as has Elbie!¹) and likely ravenous birds.

This L-shaped strip of garden will, with hope and plans and fingers crossed, become my fruitful joy of the season.
We'll see.

But for now, I've ordered my seeds, and am anxiously awaiting their arrival.

I think I just like getting mail, since it's certainly not because I can plant them. I can't even start the wee ones out for months!
____________
¹ At the risk of sounding like a doting mother, I have another Elbie story for you.
When I was moving in to the new place, I was parked across the street and physically toting a couple boxes or two to the front porch, and then would lug them inside.
Well, didn't I just take the risk of leaving Elbie on the porch for a very short second, to jog across the street and grab one more box.
And don't you know, without a lie or hyperbole of any sort, three neighbourhood cats appeared mere moments after his cage was set down and began, very interestedly, trotting up to my poor lovebird.

My Pumpkins Are Colonizing The Garden

Setting out from their wee pumpkin seed mound, four strong and fearless seeds bravely took on the new territory of soil surrounding their land.

The pumpkin(g)s are now Emperors of the Garden, and have renamed it their Patch¹.

The new colony of Patch, this, the Patch of the Pumpkin(g)s, has a very few subjects, including the Purple Pod Bush Beans, the struggling Tabasco Peppers, and the young but rugged Broccoli. The beautiful flowers of Marigold and Hollyhock are attempting their own uprisings, but the might and power of the Pumpkin(g)s appears to be blotting out their efforts.

I must try my best to keep these Kings in check; they aren't satisfied with the Patch, and appear to be enamoured with development outside the garden bed.

But lo, we shall see who laughs last. The hour of October draws nearer every day, and the prophesy of the sage pumpkins, those horror stories they tell their young sprouts of vicious humans plucking them from their vines, heartlessly scooping out their delicious innards and placing (of all things!) candles in their bodies, just may come to be fulfilled.



Muhahahaa!

But no, really, I'm way stoked about how healthy my pumpkins seem to be. I hate to count my pumpkins before they hatch, but methinks a collection of sweet, sweet pumpkin recipes may have to be collected!

____________
¹ I have to apologize for the colonialist metaphor here. Perhaps I've been doing a touch too much research at work regarding those centuries of European empire building.

So I Can Sew a Salad

I'll tell you what I've had luck with, and that's my lettuce!

The photo you see here is a couple weeks old, when my salad green garden was very happy. The current oppressive heat has pretty much done in any remaining bits, but I'm quite happy with the bit of harvest that I was able to obtain from my first sprouty endeavours (incidentally, so are the birds! They quite appreciate lettuce, as their green-stained beaks will attest!)

I've also recently learned that I've let my spinach, which I was very much looking forward to eating, bolt.
Well then, a gardener lives and learns.

I'm Interviewed!

Hey all!
Just a quick howdy, hello and check-out-this-link today: it's an interview the talented WorstedKnitt asked me to be a part of on her blog. She does a designer of the month feature. Very cool :)

Also, this picture, right here? That's me garden. Not much right now, but whoo boy, I have plans! This past weekend was the traditional go-ahead herald for garden-sewing in this here part of the planet, and I'll be putting in my seeds and wee started plants directly.

I Plot my Plot; Or, Wheeee! I Get to Garden!

There's a sordid past of plant murder on this blog.

As has been my claim, it's not me! It's my north-facing balcony.

So, with little hope of acceptance, I joined the süber long waiting list for my community garden last autumn. Hundreds of names were ahead of me.

*le sigh, methoughts, I suppose I just wasn't meant to plant and tend and harvest.

But lo!

At the beginning of March I got a joyous email, approving me for a plot this year. Huzzah!

Much of March has been devoted to me cramming as much as I can into my brain about gardening. I've picked brains, read articles and gone a-purchasing.

I bought several types of seeds (vegetable, flower and herb) from this website.

Wish me luck! I want no more herbicide attached to my name!

The Sad Tale of Bob the Tree

Ways back whens in September, I bought a sweet wee tree who told me to call him Bob.
I live in a north-facing apartment, and so was concerned for Bob's well being and ability to thrive under such circumstances. I asked the employee at the nursery, and was assured that Bob would survive the winter on the balcony, and be able to take the lack of sunshine with nary a problem.

This is apparently not the case.
I felt sorry and fearful for Bob out on the balcony, where he would have to reckon with whipping winds as well as shelter-seeking pigeons.
Bob came inside.

A few weeks ago, just as I was decorating my arborious friend for the festive season, I noticed his inward-facing side was dropping needles.
Now, his backside is almost entirely bare.

He's retaining needles on the side facing the window, so my theory is that it's the lack of sunshine that's making him go prematurely bald.

Now, I wonder: is this needle loss permanent, and should I be preparing for an impending coniferous funeral?
I need to find a tree doctor.
They aren't that easy to find in the yellow pages :p

Stag; Or, How I Love the Local Video Rental Joint

Pattern: Stag (my own, improvised, and rather uncreatively named!)
Yarn: Berroco Inca Gold, 8 skeins

I've made a habit of issuing myself yarn challenges, and, as of late, it's been bouts between me and yardage. This round of playing chicken with the yarn turned out just dandy.

I wanted to see if I could make a tunic-length, cowl-necked, long-sleeved sweater - with cables, no less. And indeed, I did. Though it ended up a touch shorter than envisioned, and the sleeves were a smidge tight, they still work! And the upside? The snugness of said sleeves disguises the unsightly "ladders" left behind from my sloppy in-the-round dpn work (the trick to avoiding that is pulling tight on the stitches when switching needles, correct? I must remember to try harder next time).

Incidentally, this be the first (as well as the last) long-sleeved sweater I've ever made. The second-sleeve syndrome was avoided through a good supply of dvds (including the Indiana Jones hotness mentioned in an earlier post, as well as the first 3 seasons of How I Met Your Mother). Without those dvds, I'm afeared those sleeves would still be unfinished.

Stag Constructions, for those Interested:
In the round, bottom-up raglan. I'd never attempted a sweater in this particular manner before.
Because of my playing chicken with the yardage, I decided to do a provisional cast on when it came to the sleeves, so that I could assess the yarn situation after I had begun the cowl and see just how long I could get away with making said sleeves.
I do not suggest this construction, or at least, not on a single set of circs. It was extremely awkward and tight the first 5 or 6 rows after joining the provisional-sleeves.

Also, the sweater would have benefited from my thinking through what I would do with the cables when I got to the sleeve juncture. I could have made the transition much more smooth by altering the staghorn cable pattern slightly, and turning some knit stitches into background purl stitches (see the second photo in this post. The slightly awkward decreasing around the armpit is visible there).

For waist and bust shaping, I simply hid my increases and decreases directly beside the cable pattern.
The cowl is a progression of 3 different needles sizes, getting larger as you near the edge of the neckline. I wanted it to be a bit bigger and floppier, but with only the 8 skeins I knew I'd have to compromise.
The greatest upside to this project? Stashbusting!

At the "photoshoot", I frolicked among the gardens of a nearby historic home and civic museum. I got a few cool snaps, and wanted to share.

On the gates in the garden yard. The pineapple was a symbol of welcome that was in vogue in the 19th c., when this home was built.


Backyard water tap, with some cool weathering, hiding among what's probably close to the last bits of green green sprouts of '09.


A pear tree has been dropping its fruit, and the bees have been feasting.


Lovely beautiful snapdragons. Nature has an amazing sense of colour.