Tis the Season...

...to get creative with zucchini, great recipe for baked eggplant, zucchini & tomato gratin and an excellent zucchini bread (courtesy of Canadian Living). I found another 3 pound zucchini hiding in my garden...what now?!

Happy Fruit

I'm still at the cottage in PEI but Martin wanted to show me the haul from the garden yesterday. He titled the email " Happy Fruit". Wonderful!

Happy Fruit on Table, 2014

Cornucopia of Tomatoes - Yum

I made it up to the roof this afternoon, after my conference call and before the thunder storm started. I can safely say, tomato season has officially begun on the roof. A have a lovely variety of tomatoes including a Beef Master (top right), Early Girl (left of that), San Marzano (some with blossom end rot) and lovely little Orange Sunshines. I am delighted with the Orange Sunshine which are pretty and sweet and plentiful. I made a mistake this year and planted Tiny Tims instead of Sweet Millions at ground level garden - the Tiny Tims are flavourless so I'm glad I have the Orange Sunshine to make up for it! I haven't tasted the Beef Master yet so will report on that variety later.

The Zucchini Monster Strikes Again

Everything on the roof is going great guns, loads of tomatoes & blossoms and pepper plants laden with peppers.

That said, we lost the first few ripe tomatoes since they had blossom end rot due to problems getting the water level right earlier in the season. The new fruit all looks fine though so we should have tonnes of tomatoes in August - yum!

And at ground level the zucchini monster has struck again!

Intensive Container Gardening

In an effort to keep Salta and her canine pals out of the ground level veggie garden I decided to plant in containers and put a temporary fence in place. It's been pretty effective,  although last week Salta snuck into the enclosure through a whole in the fence and then wasn't sure what to do to get out.

I had another motive for using containers which is to try out intensive gardening in our small urban backyard. After quite a lot of research on containers I came up with the design outlined below. Although the rooftop garden has an irrigation system and self-watering reservoirs I didn't bother with that at ground level. I have planted most things in containers but have put the zucchini, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes right in the ground and will need to water - likely every day. We have a timer for our hose so it shouldn't be a big deal when we're away for extended periods.

Growing holes cut in the sides

I've used a mix of containers, some clay pots, some plastic tubs from a grocery store bakery (again free!). I drilled drain holes in the bottom and drilled some 1.5" holes in the sides. The filled the container to the side holes with Pro-Mix HP and a slow release organic fertilizer to start things off.

Newsprint to stop the soil from failing out

I used a piece of newsprint with an x cut into it to keep the seedling in and soil in place and then filled the container to the tope once I had planted the seedlings on the sides. Then added another plant in the top, generally something that would be a companion to the ones in the sides.

 

Swiss Chard Seedling peeking through Newspaper

So the seedlings peek out the sides of the containers and when they're settled in the start going up - reaching for the sun.













Here's one container fully planted. It should be quite pretty when it fills in with greenery.
















.....and to add some colour to this otherwise somewhat bland posting, here's Mister Cardinal who visits our garden regularly. Also, I was up on the roof this morning and all the plants are doing extremely well, I can't believe how much the tomatoes have grow already and I saw the first signs of buds starting!

May 2-4 Planting

Officially it's The May 24 weekend even though it's only May 17th. Oddly, we in Canada celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday although they don't in England. The May 2-4 is an important date in Canada as it is usually the date when people "open their cottages" for the season, youngster buy and consume a 2-4 (case of 24 bottles of beer) and gardeners can usually safely plant their gardens without fear of frost. Although it was 3C in Toronto last night, I think it's time to start planting if for no other reason than the tomato seedlings I started indoors in March are now too tall for the soil they're standing in. I have had them out in the sun (and rain, lots of rain) for the last 10 days to harden off the seedlings.

Beefmaster tomatoes on the top right planted March 3'14

Martin and I have been repairing containers, replacing the soil. Some of the grow buckets have been on the roof for 3 years and the plastic is getting brittle from all that exposure to the elements. We've had to get a few more buckets from our local Loblaws (thank you very much!) and replaced those that are cracked and broken. Also,  this year I made sure I used PRO-MIX HP (High Porosity) which is supposed to have better water retention properties. Last year I bought BX by mistake. The containers are ready to go and connected to the irrigation system. 

Spinach in homemade Terrarium

The terrarium has worked extremely well for starting seedlings! I started spinach indoors under the grow lamp as well as outdoors in the homemade terrarium. Although they were both planted at the same time, those planted outdoors are larger. No electricity required - just sunshine and a little water.

Spinach seedlings from Indoor (Fluorescent Light)

Overall, the seedling have done very well, both those started under grow lights and those in the homemade terraria. I have only started my own seedlings once and so am pleased with the results and will do this again. 

I'll post some photos from the roof this weekend. Happy May 2-4, one rule though, I have to save the beer for after my final trip up the ladder!

Seedlings and our pup Salta!

It's been a very long winter in Toronto. I was wearing my skidoo boots from early December right through to Early April. It's sometimes hard to contemplate that gardening weather will ever come when there's two feet of snow in the back yard but I kept busy reading seed catalogues and  new ways of sowing seedlings without grow lights.

The tomatoes coming along very well inside under grow lights. (San Marzano, Early Girl, Beefmaster, Delicious and Orange Sunshine).

In-door Seedings

Outdoors I planted beets, bush beans, mustard greens and spinach in whatever containers I could find (i.e. 2 litre vinegar & soya sauce containers). These are essentially mini greenhouses for the seedlings. I put in some soiless mixture and the seeds with a light watering and some drain holes in the containers. The bean and mustard have already sprouted (within 2 weeks).  If I was doing a proper experiment, I would have planted two of the same seeds to verify the success with both methods but  I'm trying to getting my garden ready, not do a science experiment.  I think you can start them very early but I started mine in early April when the night time (and sometimes the day time) temperatures are cold (-7C). The heat and moisture is kept in the greenhouse and they get loads of natural light. Apparently this method produces sturdier seedlings. My inspiration for the greenhouses came from here and there's a very good description of how to make them.  http://www.gardendesign.com/seed-sowing-snow?pnid=122085#gallery-content.

Outdoor Seedlings

Another change this year will be how I plant things at ground level. Usually I put things right in the garden but we have a new puppy who loves to run fast through the garden, pounce on things and dig! So this year, I will plant several things in containers to keep curious a curious puppy at bay. It's a small price to pay to have Salta running around the garden :-).

Salta