Tasty Treats Ready for Crunching

Strawberries in forest dirt. By far the best tasting!

Grey Dwarf Peas from the upstairs garden. The larger ones were starting to get tough, so, duly noted, Mother Nature, eat them while they're still baaabaaaies!

Kale and Spinach (from one of the very few plants that didn't bolt). The biggest thing I noticed was the flavour and texture of the kale. It was thicker, crunchier, and had waaay more flavour than the scrawny stuff you get in spring salad mixes. This kale is BRAWNY! ...And the spinach a perfect match, deliciously sweet.

Project: Staking the Peas

Finally, I staked the third batch of peas; the ones that live on a sunny patio a few floors above our condo. I'd been putting it off for the last few hectic weeks, too busy with multiple work obligations as well as homework. That's also why I 'forgot' (Really, my anxiety was just so high I couldn't deal with the garden unless it was all going to work out perfectly without effort.) to water all of the plants for close to two weeks.

The first batch of peas, the familiar bucket peas, were beginning to flower when they dried out and died. When I pulled those plants out to go into the compost, I found what I think are nodules of nitrogen-fixing bacteria growing off of the thin roots.

The big lump you see is the remainder of the seed! I thought it was pretty cool that the whole plant climbed out and around the softened brown shell.

That blurry white blot is what I think are the nitrogen fixing bacteria

close up. couldn't get the camera to focus. 

I disassembled the wigwam-style staking that I had done for those peas and re-used them for the third batch. The second batch I had staked within a day or two of the first plants surfacing, which seems to be the best way to do it. They are flourishing now and getting taller everyday. For the second and third batches, the surviving pea plants, I did a variation of the central-support style of staking.

Way too tall to be unsupported!

 The upstairs peas were so tangled when i finally got to them, I was worried they wouldn't survive the shock of having me pull them apart. The stalks were bent and felt loose, like the insides were turning to jelly.
For my variation of central-support, I skipped the central pole. Around the outside of the planter I placed four sawed baseboards (retrieved from our building's ongoing reno) and tied sticks to them to increase the height. I had to do this because the vines were already taller than the baseboards alone.

Now: Supported and stable.

I chose this style because I wanted sun to come down through the middle and hit all of the plants equally.

OMG! I squealed when I saw the first pod. Very cool to see how the flower becomes a pod; can you see how the flower is wrapped around the beginning of the pod?

A wee little pea with a LOT of flavour!

On a sunny day not too long ago...

Getting ready to mix mushroom compost and "black earth" (humus). I've been learning a bunch about humus and composting from Composting for Dummies. Thanks Kim!

Filling a few of many pots...

SO EXCITED to find a worm in both bags! Living in a condo, you get to miss the dirtmakers :) Chucked him in the compost bin, along with a few others. Even if he's not the right type of worm, he'll have an okay life in there.

Hmm, will the little containers be too little?

Everybody sitting pretty. Also the garlic may be dead... Oops. Guess you can only chop the top for popcorn seasoning so many times!

Photo Update from the Second Garden

 

 

Top: Most promising strawberry plant. This baby has been pumping out big, beautiful flowers like there's no tomorrow. Bottom: The rest of the strawberry plants. The trough has been in need of weeding for a week. Where's the time?

Peas, round 2. Time to walk through the nearby park and find some sticks. Going to try the reverse wigwam method as the peabucket with wigwam is growing at a ridiculous rate surpassing the sticks. 

Red Fig Tomato bush(es) breaking ground. Planted them 4 weeks ago. The weather was very warm and summery, then quickly turned to cold spring rains. I wasn't sure if the seeds would die because growing conditions weren't ideal or if they'd wait until the time was right. Guess tomato's are patient!

2 of 3 (or 4?) bloomsdale spinach plants. I broke off a shoot from another plant and ate it. Spinach is going to be delicious! Way past time to get kale in the ground. Where's the time?

One of two Calypso Calendula containers. I chose to grow them for their anti-inflammatory qualities when eaten.

The other CCalendula container, just breaking ground.

My "fun plant"; dwarf sunflower. Not looking so hot. Guess he doesn't like forest soil.

The Days Accomplishments: Bacon and Buckets

It was a rough start this morning due to the rough night... or more like last four rough nights. As a general rule, I drink at most six times a year and happily so. Alcohol is my least favourite poison: twenty bucks to get dizzy, want to puke, have a pounding headache/nausea and make few good decisions is not worth it to me. I'd rather put the twenty down on my admitted addiction, chocolate. As my mom used to say, " Chocolate is better than sex; you're guaranteed satisfaction."
   Ooohh!
 I haven't got much done in the last few days then, unless you count excessive chocolate, cigarette and sleep consumption as something to be proud of. The rationalization is, and has been for some time, that because my bar is so high in comparison to almost everybody I know I'm entitled to these "Spring Breaks" every few weeks. I certainly don't focus as hard or achieve as much progress as I used to when I had that weird manic-depressive phase-cycle-summer-thing, but I still tend to throw a little too much energy into the things I do. Like with school: doing six hours of social studies reading and questions everyday for three weeks. Some call it excessive, I call if effective; I finished on time while working 30hrs/week and doing the whole teenager socializing thing. It's not working for me anymore though I can admit that, and it's time -- waaaay past it actually -- to get onto a consistent work/living schedule.
have been trying to get the proper version of this post up for two hours. will try later.