Taking Stock // September 2019

September went by in the blink of an eye, though I can't say I mind it. For much of it, I was dealing with lots of fear, self-doubt, and other heavier feelings like these. That being said, I still managed to enjoy some of what this month had to offer. Here are a few things that stuck in my mind:

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cooking with our own vegetables - it just never gets old; we haven't had the best season in the garden, mainly due to the extra long and cold spring weather, but we've still picked plenty of zucchinis and green beans, cucumbers, and some tomatoes too

drinking a mug of mint tea (most often picked from our own garden!) at least once a day, but most likely two or three times a day - I can't get enough of it, and now that the weather is really cooling down, even just holding the warm cup in my hands is so soothing

hoping the snow doesn't come our way too soon, even though it's already snowed in other parts of Canada and the temperatures have been dipping into the single digits several times already

enjoying writing again

loving these apples from our own tree; although we've been living in this house for over 8 years now, and the apple tree has always been here, this is only the second year we get to eat apples from it. They're not the prettiest, as they get attacked by bugs throughout the summer, but they're so tasty

smelling the aroma of holy basil that we grew in the garden this summer; it was the first time we planted holy basil, and when the flowers bloomed, it caught me completely by surprise that they smell like bubblegum!

watching some of the new shows that have started airing this fall - there are a few good ones, but Bob Hearts Abishola and Stumptown seem to be the highlights for me so far

noticing all the flowers that are still blooming; perhaps it's the long winters and grey days that come with them, but seeing the beautiful flowers growing around our house and everywhere I go makes me so happy; knowing that they won't be around much longer this year makes spotting them even sweeter

feeling lighter after a period at the end of summer that felt particularly hard and stressful

giggling at all of Toby & Mikka's antics; they really do make life so much better

listening to Taylor Swift's new music - I can't help it! Lover, Daylight, and London Boy are definite favourites for me from her new album, and this rendition of Holy Ground is so beautiful too

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When I started writing these, I had no idea they would be so garden-centric, but this little space of ours really is such an uplifting place, no matter what else is going on outside of it. There's something really special about helping a tiny seed grow into a much bigger plant, that's not only beautiful to look at, but that we also get to eat and enjoy on our plates too. I'm glad that so many of my happy memories from this month revolve around it.

Tell me, how was your September?

Out In The Garden

After another early morning walk today, we took some time to check on the garden. We've had loads of rain over the last week, so it had been a few days since I went out there, and I couldn't believe what I saw this morning! There has been so much growth happening during these last few days. The beans and peas are climbing up our homemade trellis with a vengeance, the sweet peppers have grown a few tiny fruits and the hot ones are filled with them, the cucumbers and zucchinis are getting established, the strawberries are flowering once again and, what makes me the happiest among all, the tomatoes are growing big and strong and doing really well. They were still quite small when we transplanted them a couple of weeks ago and we worried that we might not be picking any fruit until well into fall. They're already so much bigger though, and we even spotted a few tiny green tomatoes on the vines, so the prognosis is getting better. It also means that there will be lots of extra work to do this coming weekend, tying them up for support, in addition to the original plan of sowing more seeds.

I didn't take any pictures today, but I remembered taking a few at the beginning of the month, after we had planted everything that is there now, so those are the ones I'm sharing here. I'll bring my camera out again this weekend, and I already know there will be such a big difference!

Watching this slow and steady growth in our garden always makes me think of that tendency so many of us have to overestimate what we can do in a short amount of time, but underestimate what we can do over a long period. A red, juicy tomato will not grow in a day, but give it a few months and you'll be amazed by its beautiful colour, wonderful aroma, and incredible taste. In the same way, it might not feel like I'm accomplishing much in a day (it doesn't), but give me a year or two, and you might be surprised by what I can make happen (I am too). I just need to keep doing, keep trying, keep growing - slow and steady. Slow and steady.

Growing More

This is our sixth year planting a vegetable garden here in our backyard, and each year we've learned more about the process, and grown our garden a little big bigger and wider than the last. Of course, this year is no different. In fact, my brother and my dad spent a big chunk of this past long weekend building three more raised beds for our veggies.

This week, the new beds are getting filled with soil, and by the weekend we should be able to add the plants that we started inside and the seeds that we'll be sowing directly there - if, fingers crossed, the weather cooperates. We already have quite a few eggplant and pepper plants started (we've never had much success with any of them in the past, so this is new and exciting territory!) and, if it's even possible, even more tomato plants than last year, so the additional space will be very welcome.

Another new thing that we're doing with our garden this year, besides adding more raised beds, is trying out both spring crops (seeds and starts went in the ground mid-April) and fall crops (that we'll be planting mid- to late summer). These are all those veggies that don't do very well in the high heat of summer, things like lettuce and all sorts of greens, spinach, kale, beets, radishes, and cabbage.

Speaking of spring gardens, last night we picked our first harvest of spring crops from the garden: a small batch of Ovation Greens that we mixed into a salad with some sliced red onion, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil - it was delicious!

I'd love to know, are you growing any of your own food this year?

Garden Tally

It's the end of February, which means that it's time to start planning our vegetable garden for the year. We need to start the seeds indoors as soon as possible (we're likely a little late already) to give the plants a chance to grow as big and strong as possible before we transfer them outside into our raised beds in late spring. Part of the planning process is reviewing our efforts from last year and trying to improve on them.

This was by far our most productive year yet (our 2012 garden is the only other one that maybe, but not really, comes close to it) and we are so happy that all of our efforts have been rewarded so fully. Getting to eat vegetables from our garden is, honestly, one of the most rewarding feelings in the world. Of course, not everything went according to plan; there have been so many lessons learned, and there is still so much room for improvement this year, both in the quantity and variety of fruits and vegetables that we grow, to better reflect what we eat day-to-day.

We picked tomatoes quicker than we were able to eat them - and, yes, we did eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for several weeks. The squash plants were, thankfully, as predictably productive as ever, if not more so. We tried out pumpkins, melons, and potatoes for the first time and, although we got a reasonable yield from each, we realized that the large space that they took up can be better used for other plants. Our basil plants were quite productive too but, although very fragrant, they were not really flavourful - and we're still trying to figure out why. We also weren't as successful with some of our favourites - cucumbers (just over 2kg), eggplants (none!), and sweet peppers (there were 2 green ones on the vines but they didn't have time to ripen) - as we would have liked, so that is something we'll have to work on this year, along with many other changes and additions.

My hope is that we also get better and more creative with using all our produce in the kitchen, and finally, I'm looking forward to sharing even more of our gardening (and subsequent eating!) journey here this year.

Are you planting a vegetable garden this year? If not, what are your favourite veggies to pick up from the farmer's market?

Apple Goodness

A few weekends ago, we picked the apples from the tree in our backyard. We've been living in this house for a bit over 4 years now, but this is the first time we have been able to get some apples from our own tree. In previous years, they were completely compromised by some sort of insect that comes out in the spring in our area but, for the first time this year, plenty of them made it through and ripened. Sure, they are not the perfect-looking kind that we find in grocery stores - in fact, they're filled with bumps, bruises and imperfections - but it feels so great to be eating apples from our own garden.

All in all, we had enough to fill the box to the brim, which I thought was pretty good for a tree from which we hadn't picked a single apple before.

The boys - my dad, my brother, and Toby, who mainly helped with eating - were in charge of picking them from the tree, and my mom and I are now busy turning them into pie, sauce, and butter before they go bad.

Video proof of Toby "helping" with picking (read: eating) the apples. He polished off 3 of them, one by one, that he found on the ground underneath the apple tree. The video shows him enjoying his third apple, and I wish that my camera's battery hadn't died before he finished it, but I got such a kick out of seeing him turn and eat it so carefully, almost like a human.

I'd love to know, what are your favourite apple recipes?

Our Raised Bed Vegetable Garden: Early Summer 2015

A few weeks ago, we were finally able to bring out our vegetable plants. After a very long and harsh winter (coldest February I can remember!!) and a particularly cool spring, it finally warmed up enough to start planting just a few weeks ago. Needless to say, we got a really late start this year and so, we are still not picking much yet. That's not to say the garden is looking lackluster though - quite the opposite actually, because we have big plans and we've been working hard to make them real.

First, since our soil is quite literally sand and plants don't grow very well directly in it, we are limited only to raised bed planting. This spring, my brother and my dad built a few more beds, so we've practically doubled their number. Second, after a very small and not so tasty yield last year, we've been doing lots of research and realized we needed to feed our soil and plants with some really good, natural plant food.

It's only been a few weeks since the plants have been in the ground (some of them barely two weeks), but we can already see quite a bit of growth happening. A few days ago, I went out with my camera to capture a snapshot of our garden - because, let's be honest, it's looking so different already - and wanted to share it here as well.

Our herb bed is filled with some cilantro (ugh! I'm not a fan and this was definitely not my choice, but at least it's pretty to look at), lovage and tarragon, as well as lots of basil.

For the first time this year, we are trying out potatoes, and so far they seem to be doing really well. We have both yellow potatoes that are growing like weeds, and sweet potatoes that went in the ground a few weeks later but are slowly catching up.

The zucchinis are, not surprisingly, thriving. We already have one ready to pick, with no less than ten more starting to grow. This might be my favourite plant of all: once it gets started producing, it's hard to keep up with it, and you have to check the zucchinis every day or you'll end up with huge ones you didn't even know you had practically overnight.

Another first this year are strawberries. We have one entire large bed mainly for them and while we're likely not going to eat too many of our own strawberries this year, we'll definitely get a taste; we've already spotted a bunch of flowers and 3 or 4 berries ripening.

The mainstay in our vegetable garden every year are tomatoes. We are particularly proud of the ones we've grown this year that are looking really strong and healthy. Lots of little yellow flowers are blooming already, so tomatoes are not very far behind either.

Some of the plants we're most excited about are melons; we have a few different kinds, including watermelons! Right now, they're growing quickly and we've even seen tiny little melons forming already. They definitely won't be as big as the ones found at the market, more likely in the 1 to 2 pound range, but hopefully they'll be much sweeter.

The green beans were the last to go in the ground but, like always, they're growing incredibly quickly. I took this photo only about a couple of days after we planted them and they were already peeking through. Now, almost a week later, they're a few inches tall!

Finally, I can't end without mentioning the green onions and green garlics that have been our champions so far this year. We've been growing them for a few weeks now and have already eaten well over a hundred of them with, obviously, lots more to come.

The last time our vegetable garden looked this good was all the way back in the summer of 2012. Since then we've been struggling, but after lots of research and work during the last few months, we've got our fingers crossed that we'll be eating even more of our own homegrown veggies than three summers ago.

I'd love to know, do you have a vegetable garden? What is your favourite plant you're growing now or that you would like to grow?

Mikka In The Garden

I was looking through iPhoto this week and I found these photos that I took about a month ago of Mikka hanging out in the garden beds among our vegetable plants. While the rest of my family was doing a little bit of work in the garden - tying tomato plants to poles for support, pruning said tomatoes and checking out the progress with the rest of the plants - I took a few minutes to follow my sweet girl around and capture her sense of curiosity.

The garden is on the far side of the backyard from the balcony where she usually hangs out when she goes outside and it took a little convincing to get her to stay with us (she's a homebody this one, never too far away from a quick run to the safety of indoors!) but as soon as she had her paws in the mulch, she started exploring and was having a good time.

First Harvest

We had high hopes for this year's garden. We started many seeds inside, built a dedicated space for them in front of a window that gets lots of light throughout the day and even bought grow lights to compensate for the not-quite-enough sunlight of early spring days up here in the northern hemisphere.

The seeds responded well to our efforts and care and grew very well - and very quickly! But, just like best laid plans often do, things started to go array soon after, when the weather decided to misbehave: first there was the unusually long (even for Canada!) winter, and then the unusually cool spring days stayed until late in the season. In short, it has been a difficult year weather wise which, when combined with the little spare time that our full-time jobs and long commutes allow us, meant that our garden was planted outdoors only a few short weeks ago.

• photo taken by my mom •

Now, even though they are still small, our plants are finally starting to show more signs of growth - thanks in part to our Agrogreen fertilizer that we picked up during our roadtrip, and to plenty of rain - and last week, we picked our first veggies, two good portions of green beans that amounted to almost 1 kilo in total.

If history (read: last year's garden) is any indication, pretty soon we'll have more green beans than we'll know what to do with. Better start researching recipes now!

I'd love to know, what's you favourite (preferably healthy) green bean recipe?

The Garden Chronicles vol. IV

As much as I wish we celebrated Memorial Day here in Canada too so that we could enjoy another day off from work and daily duties, for now the memories of last week's long weekend will have to do. It was a wonderfully relaxing time, and we were able to get to many of the things on our to-do list, while also enjoying ourselves and relaxing a little bit. For me, one of those things was to experiment with my new camera so, besides our visitor ducks, I also got a few shots of the flowers that are now in bloom around our house. Some of them are new this year (a Mother's day gift for my mom), but some are from last year and have come up on their own - easily one of the best surprises we've had so far this spring.

• Sadly, it looks like the end of the tulip season has already arrived in our parts •

The Garden Chronicles vol. III

Now that I've said my goodbyes to winter, it's time to focus my attention on the season ahead, wonderful spring. One of my favourite parts about this season is that our surroundings are once again injected with a healthy dose of colour and livelihood. And you best believe that, after such long and harsh winters, we make sure to have A LOT of colour around us. This year, in addition to vegetable plants, we'll be experimenting with starting flowers from seeds as well, but there's still some waiting to be done on that front. So, to hold me over until our house is surrounded with beautiful bright colours, I thought I'd take a look back at the flowers from last year; they were everywhere and, to this day, looking at photos of them makes me smile.

On the fence of our backyard

At our front door

In the frontyard

If this year our flowers will be even half as beautiful as this, we're bound to have a fantastic spring and summer.

I'd love to know, what are you most excited about this spring?

Garden Talk

Now that winter is on its last legs, I'm thrilled to start thinking about our garden - and gardening, in general - once again. Although we'll be using the raised beds we built last year to grow our veggies, over the last few months I've come across a few inspiring TED Talks that show interesting, innovative and truly admirable ways that people have found to add a little green to their lives regardless of the space they have or their situation; not only that, but they've created thriving communities around their ideas.

These are the kinds of stories that truly fill my heart with joy and pride to be contributing - even in my own small way - to such a worthy cause: the health of our world and of ourselves. I hope that, if you take a few minutes to watch each of these videos, you'll enjoy and get inspired by them just as much as I did.

Britta Riley: A garden in my apartment // This video is all about hydroponics - a dirt-free, small-space-friendly way to grow some veggies - and the idea of empowering ourselves to find solutions to our problems (instead of waiting for the experts to present them to us!) through collaboration.

Stephen Ritz: A teacher growing green in the South Bronx // This is probably the most entertaining and fast-paced talk I've ever watched, but the work that this speaker (and teacher!) is doing with kids contributes to a brighter future both for them and for our planet and is so inspiring that it makes me want to get off my chair immediately and just plant something.

Pam Warhurst: How we can eat our landscapes // In this talk, there are such beautiful examples of people turning unused land all around their cities into vegetable gardens that benefit the entire local communities; it's incredible to me how quickly an idea like this can turn into a movement in our time, and it's so awe-inspiring when that idea is such a positive and rewarding one.

Summer Tally

Throughout the summer, whenever we picked something from the garden, we did our best to weigh and record it on paper. It didn't take long to realize just how much our garden was repaying us for our hard work; we were very impressed with the numbers especially since the list only includes a part of the vegetables we picked from the end of July to the beginning of September. When that month hit, we were picking tomatoes and peppers, along with a few other things, faster than we could count them, so we gave up weighing.

From our experience these last few months, I'm now more convinced than ever that growing as many of our own vegetables as possible is the way to go, not just to make sure they're completely healthy and organic, but also because the amount that we gathered would have cost quite a bit at the supermarket, or even the farmer's market. I'm sure that we have already almost covered our initial costs of setting up our raised beds, which makes me that much more excited for next year's garden.

Now that the cold temperatures have settled in and our garden is not producing anymore, I've been thinking of and researching ways to bring a few edible plants inside for the duration of the fall and winter. So far, I've found quite a few interesting methods that I hope to share on here in the following months.

Did you plant a veggie garden this year, or have any plans for a few indoor pots this winter? If yes, what's been your experience and what have you learned in the process? I'd love to know!