First salad entirely from my garden this summer. 

Butter Crunch Lettuce

Museli

Spinach

Red Swiss Chard

Radish seedlings

Basil

Oregano!

 :D

Ok, so here are some pictures of my radishes.



                                                 Here are my radishes before I thinned them

Here are some radish seedlings 

Here they are washed and ready to use!

I put some on my honey ham sandwich. Mmmm Delish! They gave my sandwich a wonderful zing and crunch!

Radish Tips:

Small space gardening with Radishes:

Sow radishes in the same rows with Onions and parsnips. The radishes maturity time is 20-25 days so the radishes will be long gone before the onions and parsnips reach the size to need more room!

You may also want to sow more radish seeds every 15 days or so, to keep up your radish stock all summer and fall. (Depending on how much of a radish lover you are! ;)

Today I am going to look at thinning some of my radishes. I think I will thin some each day this week as opposed to all at once. This way I can have fresh Radish seedlings in my salads for dinner! :)
 Here is a little video put on my Osmocote on thinning Radishes.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Smkv2Sew7sM

So tonight I got to weeding my garden and lost track of time. It felt so cleansing and renewing. It was so refreshing and I enjoyed myself. Pulling out the weeds, making room for new growth of the plants that are going to give us yummy veggies for our salads and table this summer and fall...

Note to self: get nail brush and hand lotion!!

Funny hey? Weeding and planting were some of my most dreaded chores for the garden when I was growing up. (Thank you mom and dad for making me do it anyways. I know the basics of gardening because of you two. Do you remember telling me, "trust me, one day you will want a garden of your own. You will need to know how to do these things and you will thank us for it!". You were right. Thanks. I do appreciate knowing what I know. I must admit that I didn't pay too much attention to many details other than the basics but I did pick that up and now its time to grow my knowledge.)

I am thinking about putting mulch around my tomato plants here soon. I think it will help with the weeds and hold in some of the moisture.

I also think I need to start deciding what I want to get my peas and beans to vine up. The plan was to have them grow up the corn. At this rate, though, the corn won't be anywhere near the height I need them to be in a few weeks. What can I do for the mean time? I don't want to do a chicken fence. Too chicken-y. Maybe that green mesh stuff? But what to attach it to? Hmmm... better not wait too long though!

Also need to trim my trees. And find out all what I have back there! I don't know, but I should! Imma watch some youtube vids on trimming trees when I get a chance. I could go in all half assed, but I want to learn the correct way. Im sure there are techniques and reasons behind them. Ill let you know what I find.

May 28th 2012 I planted the largest garden along my West side of the house. It gets shade in the mornings and very little wind but still lots of sun during the day.
I didn't have a rotor tiller so I did it by hand with a hoe and garden spade. I don't know how much nutrients are in the soil or what was planted here before. I guess I will find out!

So I planted:

                                                                      (N)


-------------------------------------------------------corn----------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------beans---------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------corn----------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------peas----------------------------------------------------





         squash                    watermelon                  zuccini                     cucumber





     ----------------------Parsley---------------------------------                     dill            dill         dill
                                                                                          --                   dill           dill
                                                                                                 --                 dill           dill
                   Butter                                           -                                   --            dill          dill
                                                                  -                                           --               dill        
                                                                -                                                  --               dill
                                                              -                                                         --              dill
              Lettuce                                -                                                                 --
                                                      -                    Museli                                          --
                                                    -                                                                              --
    -                                             -                                                                                   --
          -                                    -                                                                               -       --
                                          -                                                                               -              --
                  -                     -                                                                           -                     --
                      -                                                                                         -                          --
                           -                                                                               -                               --
                               -                                                                      -                                    --
                                -                                                              -                                           --
                                    -                                                   -                                                  --
   Radishes                                                                 -                                                        --
                                              -                           -                                           Beets            --
                                                                   -                                                                       --
                                                       -                 Butter Lettuce                                            --
     

If anyone knows of a way to outline a garden easier and for free, let me know :0)

So I watered and waited. After about a week I found some miracle grow Quick start 4-12-4
that I mixed with water and fed to my plants. I waited a week and then applied again.

So far my garden is coming up.

Radishes are flourishing and need to be thinned.

Corn is slow to come in but i see it growing.

Beans and peas are about two inches high.

Beets are coming through but only about 5 cm tall now

Lettuce is starting slowly, especially the muesli.

Dill has sprouted as well.




Parsley is coming in very slowly.(I think this is the parsley...its growing in an arch like I planted it! Although it kind of looks like a weed! Haha!)

Here are the beets. They look like swiss chard hey? :)

Radishes and lettuce

corn, beans and peas. also the squash

West garden. 

its cloudy in this picture. 

It gets sun. Honest!

                                                             

Hello! 


So this blog is going to represent my adventures with gardening. 


As I grew up, I always joined in at the garden back on the farm. Not necessarily always by choice. I was young and it really wasn't my thing. I could do it, but i didn't particularly enjoy it...other than eating the peas and carrots that is! 


Now my husband and I just moved in to our home here in Edmonton, AB late last summer and we have a small garden in the back. And so, this spring, the experimenting began. I will use this blog to sort of journal my gardening journey or growth and learning! I will be trying to educate myself through books, websites and youtube stuff and will be documenting my learning path on this blog, making it easy to look back and reference. If you have any tips or comments, please feel free to speak up! Your input is welcome! :D I hope you enjoy my blog!