MMM mmm MMM Good

Today I picked a few strawberries and tasted them for the first time. Delicious!!

Only problem is... someone else (something else) is getting to them before me. Hmm... do birdies eat strawberries?

I would share photos but my BF has the camera on a 4 day hike right now :(

My First Harvest

Look what Dolly dug up last night before the BBQ we hosted!

The rest of the pics I wanted to add the other day!

The good and the bad - part 1

With the recent weather being so poopy it really started to have an effect on my garden. Before we knew it 2/6 of our cucumbers died off, which is okay since there's not a lot of room anyway. Here are 3/4 survivors.
The corn was another one that suffered :( We probably lost just under half. The remaining plants look like tough guys though so I hope they'll make it.



Hmm looks like blogger is having issues and wont let me add anymore right now so I'll have to do this update in two parts. Stay tuned....

What to do with some old shelves, a saw, some nails and a sexy BF

When my BF and I put our minds together great things happen. He is very handy with tools and is an engineer so he can build almost anything I ask. We discovered we needed a little more room that what the garden allowed so we had be creative. I suggested using some shelving that had been left outside all winter to build some planter boxes. We took a look out in our shed and found a board out there that would be perfect to make everything come together.


Above is a photo of the shelves we had to work with. We had three like this plus one side support to rip apart and reformat into something beautiful.



After an afternoon of work he had fashioned these beauties for me. All it cost us was some time, imagination and a few nails from the hardware store.

We didn't hesitate to start filling them up and went a little crazy. One is filled with just strawberries. I love strawberries! We bought two extra and gave them to my niece in small pots for her to enjoy since she was such a great help with the garden.

The other one has a few cauliflower and some onions. BF made a mistake and bought big walla walla onions so I'm not sure whats going to happen there, lol. There's not really enough room so I guess he'll have to make some decisions as to who gets to live here and who gets "evicted".

I couldn't resist a macro shot of my first ever baby cauliflower!



EDIT******

Don't mind the mess in the pics.... we are a work in progress, lol

One Week in and the green is popping up

It's been awhile since my last update so here are some pictures I took this weekend in the garden. Later today or tomorrow I will post some more recent pictures. :)




We planted the garden not last weekend but the one before. Within 4-5 days the radishes started to appear. By the weekend (one full week) this is how much they have grown. Very exciting!!!

If you look really hard you can see the corn is also starting to make its way up to the surface.

Last, but not least our cucumbers have also made an appearance!

This picture is very blurry but if you look hard enough you can see where those crazy birds have started pulling the green covers off their perches. They pull them off and throw them on the ground. I have another story to share with you later about what little rascals these birds really are!

Garden Planted - Another May TCOB Goal Completed

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Garden Planted - Another May TCOB Goal Completed

So here was our garden during the first stage. We had to dig up the area that we wanted to plant in. We shook all the soil from the grass to reuse in the garden. We found it easiest to dig up the grass clumps, flip them over, let them dry out a bit and then shake them out. We did this over a few days. We then picked out all the rocks from the soil. We were pleased to find many worms.












Apparently this robin was also pleased that the amount of worms! ;)










The we built a frame. We drove down logging roads to find an area where they leave scraps that people can dig through and my BF managed to fashion some into this lovely frame. We did have to buy nails but no wood. We then drove out and dug up some soil which we mixed into or existing soil along with 2 bags of mushroom manure and one bag of cow manure. Stir it all up and you've got yourself some nice soil. Then we planted corn, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and our already started bell peppers and tomato plants.











In the morning we woke up to find the neighbourhood cats also liked the garden but for other reasons. So we cleaned out that area, replanted and built this fence out of gardening net and bamboo (a very cheap solution). I still want to dig up another small patch for things we didn't have the room for such as zucchini and peas. I have also toyed with the idea of a small strawberry patch in another part of the yard. Oh and a few raspberry bushes....mmm.

I wish this was our home..wait I take that back because I would never buy this house. I wish we were at the stage of owning our own home so that we could invest more into our yard. We'll get to harvest this summer and next but then we'll be off on another adventure. It's hard to hold myself back because I love gardening so much even though it drives my allergies crazy.

Anyway, thats my garden update. I showed you mine, now show me yours!

Dolly's Yard Updates

So do you think the birds like the new feed I bought? We seem to have attracted a lot of birds to it which is so nice. There have been a few different types which is what I had hoped for when I bought this type of feeder and feed. I love going outside and watching them sit on it and munch away.

The other picture is of the front garden area. I don't touch it ever and every few weeks some new type of flowers bloom there. It's really lovely!