Garden is Full

Completely filled up both tiers of the garden on Friday. The tomato plants are in, and I finished planting all my seeds. I can't wait until everything pops up and starts filling out!

The Next Tier

Over the weekend, we added a second vegetable garden tier below the original. And it was just in the nick of time, as my seeds from The Cottage Gardener arrived today and the top tier is now officially full. I'm so excited about these seeds - Rossa di Milano (red heirloom storage onions from Italy) and Small Sugar Pumpkins, which apparently make THE best pie in the world.

So what exactly have I filled the top tier with? Well, from seedling we've planted yellow peppers, two kinds of zucchini, and pickling cucumbers. And from seed, we've got Scarlet Nantes carrots, a 20 lettuce blend (green, purple and polka-a-dot, oh my!), a rainbow carrot blend, and garlic.

There's a row of space left, but it's reserved for the heirloom tomatoes which are currently being hardened off.

A third tier is definitely going to be necessary though, as I currently have ground cherry, chives, lavender, chamomile, and pea plants growing from seed indoors.

An Update in Pictures...

Festina Beans

Scarlet Nantes carrots

Potato

20 Lettuce Blend

Garlic

Spinach

Kale

Merlot lettuce

Books

The Bowen Island Library has a nice little gardening section, and I've found 2 books in particular that are very helpful. Seed Sowing and Saving not only teaches how to collect and save seeds from plants that you have grown, but it provides step-by-step instructions (with pictures!) on how to then successfully plant those seeds the next year. Root Cellaring is especially great because it teaches how to live off the produce of your garden all year long, even in the dead of winter. Very 100 mile!

Seedlings

The kale and lettuce that I planted 2 weeks ago has sprouted and is coming up nicely. The kale looks great, but the lettuce is the real star - it's dark purple! I planted the carrots about a week ago, but they haven't come up yet.

My order from Salt Spring Seeds arrived yesterday. Last night I planted the Bali tomatoes and yellow lavender in pots to start indoors. The tomato really should have been started weeks ago, but I'm going to give it a go anyway. Today I planted 2 rows of the 20 lettuce blend outdoors. It'll be interesting to see what comes up from that blend.

I'm waiting on a few more seed packets to arrive. I wanted to grow fruit from seed, but berries and pitted fruit take years to establish. Then I found something great from Sunshine Farm in Kelowna - ground cherries, which are actually tiny sweet tomatillos. The flavour is described as a mix between strawberry and pineapple. But the best part is you get fruit by the end of the season.

100 Mile Challenge

Watching 100 Mile Challenge on FoodTV. If you haven't seen this show, I'd recommend you check it out - it's what got me excited to start growing food at home. 100 Mile chronicles a number of families in Mission, B.C. who undertook the 100 Mile Diet. The challenge is to eat solely local food (i.e. within 100 miles of your home), not only to reduce your carbon footprint, but to encourage a healthier diet. An easy way to eat within 100 miles is to shop for produce at farmers' markets - think Granville Island and Lonsdale Quay, but there are lots more across the Lower Mainland. Check out these resources for eating 100 mile in Vancouver.

Potatoes & Carrots

Just planted 2 rows of the carrots in the main garden bed. I was reading Jamie at Home earlier, and he suggests planting batches of carrots in 2 week intervals to ensure carrots all summer long. That seems sensible to me, so I think I'm going to do that.

But what I'm really excited about are the potatoes that I planted yesterday. It never would have occurred to me to grow my own potatoes, but I read somewhere that you can get a huge yield from planting just a few seeding potatoes. I also love the idea of just reaching into the potato bucket for a spud whenever I need one. I can't wait to make some fries and dip them into Jamie's homemade ketchup. There are some pretty cool varieties of potatoes out there (Russian Blue anyone?), but we've got a pretty basic red-skinned potato called Norlands which is supposed to be quite tasty. Eagle Creek Seed Potatoes in Alberta has an amazing selection, and if the Norlands work out this year, I'll probably order something really cool from them next year.

I'm growing the potatoes in buckets w/ holes drilled in the bottom b/c I read in a veggie garden blog that it's a great way to reduce the chance of the spuds getting a blight. It's also simple, b/c as the potatoes grow up, you just keep covering with compost. I've got 7 buckets going on the deck outside my bedroom, as it gets full sun and I read that potatoes love the sun.