Author Topic: Our Wee Little Gardens  (Read 2420 times)

Offline CdnGuy

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Our Wee Little Gardens
« on: June 27, 2010, 06:52:06 PM »
Our home is on one of the town's smallest lots, but my lovely wife makes pretty good use of it. I'd like to say I do the gardening but really it's all her. Sometimes I chip in with the heavy lifting type stuff.
Here's a few pictures of how things are going so far:

These are the Evans Cherries trees I talked about in one of the podcasts. My lovely wife got them at Canadian Tire for $40 each. The nice thing about these trees is that this cultivar was developed in Edmonton, Alberta in the 1920's or so. So, they're very hardy and suited to colder zones.


The front garden - it's quite small, but it's amazing how much we can harvest out of it. Maybe 100 square feet? I never really measured.
Tomatoes, beans, peppers, brussel sprouts, etc. Almost all are from heirloom, non-GMO seeds. We'll save some seed this year.


Here's the herb garden in Puerta Back Yarda.  Some are for seasoning and some are more medicinal in nature like echinacea. Just for a test, to see what we can do with it.


Some tomatoes in a container, just to show you that you can produce food even in small, apartment size spaces. We have two of these and I would expect to get at least 10 pounds of tomatoes from them.


Another bit of an experiment - nasturtiums! Many people grow these for purely ornamental reasons, but we're going to try them as a food stuff. Check out the bit from Wikipedia after the picture.


"All parts of the plant are edible. The flower has most often been consumed, making for an especially ornamental salad ingredient; it has a slightly peppery taste reminiscent of watercress, and is also used in stir fry. The unripe seed pods can be harvested and pickled with hot vinegar, to produce a condiment and garnish, sometimes used in place of capers, although the taste is strongly peppery. The mashua  (T. tuberosum) produces an edible underground tuber that is a major food source in parts of the Andes.

Nasturtiums are also considered widely useful companion plants. They repel a great many cucurbit pests, like squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and several caterpillars. They have a similar range of benefits for brassica plants, especially broccoli and cauliflower. They also attract black fly aphids, and are sometimes planted in the hope of saving crops susceptible to them (as a trap crop). They may also attract beneficial predatory insects."
« Last Edit: June 27, 2010, 07:35:08 PM by CdnGuy »

Offline Soapy

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2010, 04:40:27 PM »
Nice gardening photos, Guy! Thanks for sharing.  You must feel great knowing that you're living it!  I'm looking forward to hearing how the nasturtium experiment turns out.

Soapy
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Offline MyOokpik

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2010, 05:47:19 PM »
I look at these pictures, and it makes me a little sad that we had such a terrible growing season so far.  But the herb garden is doing beautifully though.

Offline Foxglove

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2010, 12:04:11 PM »
Great little garden!  It's been a really strange year for gardening, we had a cold & wet spring on the West Coast.  I had trouble with getting some seeds to germinate, especially the corn which is basically a write off for this year.  I've gotten into seed saving as well, great way to save some money when heritage seeds can cost up to $5 a packet. 

I've got half of my tomato plants in grow bags which sit in a hot sunny area that has gravel, cheap and easy way to get more planting space without building planters or digging up the yard.  I do have to water them a couple of times a day when it's hot out since they dry out fast.  I also have three planters with peppermint growing in them, made some mint jelly this year and I get enough for tea year round, if we were in an emergency situation and I use up my stored coffee at least I know I've got some kind of hot beverage available. 

Other things in the garden is rhubarb, horseradish, potatoes, zucchini, brocolli, cabbage, kohlrabi, carrots, cucumbers, peas, onions, beans, pumpkin and watermelon (my kids wanted to try growing those).  We live on a suburban lot but it's amazing what you can cram onto it if you try  :D   

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Offline CdnGuy

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2010, 05:36:04 PM »
Very nice! I like the idea of growing mint in containers because it can take over a garden really quickly! Of course it does make a great tea and as a tea is a great stomachic. That's supposed to mean stomach soother.

I'd love to try growing horseradish because I love it on beef and it has some neat medicinal qualities too.

Offline Foxglove

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2010, 08:55:12 AM »
Mint is terribly invasive.  I'm still weeding out lemon balm that was planted well over 10 years ago which I can't seem to get rid of completely and which I hate the taste of, reminds me of lemon pledge.   I have my mint pots on concrete, if I had the pots on the ground the mint will grow out of the drain hole and into the ground from there.  I've also had a lot of success growing things in hanging baskets, lettuce, strawberries and I'm sure mint would be fine as well.  I have also seen on the internet where someone attached lengths of rain gutter to the side of their house to make long planting trays without taking up garden space, http://www.homegrown.org/profiles/blogs/repurposed-raingutters-as 

I got my horseradish from another gardener but apparently they grow easily from a piece that you can buy in the grocery store. Horseradish can get invasive too but so far I haven't had a problem with it.

Foxglove

Offline Frazer

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2010, 07:06:19 AM »
Excellent, yer making the space you have work for you!  The essence of modern survival!
~ Frazer

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Offline CdnGuy

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2010, 10:24:55 PM »
Exactly! Make what you've got work for you today and tomorrow.

I've eaten a few nosturtium leaves right off the plant. Pretty good - a little bitter like a deep dark green leaf should be, with a bit of a black pepper taste. I'd totally recommend these for a mixed greens salad instead of radicchio or other bitter greens. I haven't ventured to eat a flower. Too pretty to eat.

Offline Frazer

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2010, 06:42:00 AM »
Exactly! Make what you've got work for you today and tomorrow.

Bob from Today's Survival Show always quotes Theodore Roosevelt who said "do what you can with what you have, wherever you are" I love this quote!
~ Frazer

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Offline CdnGuy

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #9 on: August 08, 2010, 12:55:17 PM »
It's a good quote - succinct. I'd call it a universal truth even.

The more I go into preparedness living, the more I see the waste in my own life. For most of my life I've lived a pretty spartan life, yet even still there is so much crap that gets in the way of the needed and important things.

Learning the difference between need and want is a huge lesson we all need to practice. It's good to have things we want, but to do so at the expense of what we need is what often gets us in trouble.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2010, 05:19:32 PM by CdnGuy »

Offline sarah5baker

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Re: Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2011, 12:51:59 AM »
looking nice photos of your garden. You have maintenance towards it is good. Thanks for sharing. Keep updating.

Offline Johenyst

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Our Wee Little Gardens
« Reply #11 on: July 02, 2011, 02:39:27 PM »
Ive been using led grow lights for almost a year now. Im amazed at how well they work. Ive been using a 90 watt and a 300 watt and these lights make my garden explode.
 Im currently growing peppers,wheatgrass,tomatoes,romaine and butterscotch lettuce,ornamental roses,Iris and african violets. My wife and I cant believe the yields and are getting ready to plant eggplant,avacado, string beans,chive and basil. Our wheatgrass is ready for juicingfull trays in under 5 days under the leds.
 Since the day we plugged the lights in....our kids are infatuated with the lightsthey emit a beautiful pinkish light We spend the time to teach the kids about lighting,soil,photosynthesis,chlorophyll production...its great. Theyve had their teachers ask about the lights as well.
 Is anyone else using leds?

 

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