In the garden with Henry

Henry and I took advantage of the slightly cooler temperatures this week and did some gardening.  Henry loves to eat peas straight from the garden these days but unfortunately our pea plants are just about done producing (one of these years I will get the hang of succession planting).  So I got Henry to help me dig up some potatoes so we could plant some more.  These are just the potatoes that sprouted from some of last year's sneaky potatoes that didn't get found during harvest time.  So they got a head start and are already quite big.  Just from those sneaky potatoes (which took over my kale area) we got more than a 3 L basket full of potatoes.  

And when the potatoes were all dug up we were ready for planting some new pea plants which will hopefully give us peas before the first frost.  Henry was a pro at doing this all by himself, in fact he kept telling us "I'm good at doing gardening".  Here are the pictures to show him poking a hole, planting the pea, covering up the pea, and admiring his work.  Gardening with my kid is a dream come true for me, I'm so happy that he's into it right now.  

And he still loves watering the plants with his watering can, here are some pictures I love from earlier in the week.

The garden

The garden is doing well so far this year.  Actually it feels like everything is getting a slow start but I think it feels like that every year. 

 a new addition: hops! 

We are excited about these.  I always plant hot peppers in an effort to get Kevin more interested in the garden but it has never really worked, hops however seem to be doing it. 

peas

beans

The plants in the greenhouse are doing great!  I only put a few each of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers in there.  I kind of forgot about the greenhouse, thinking I couldn't start using it till I had done the weather proofing to seal all the cracks which of course is not important in this hot weather.  And I haven't bought or made proper shelves for it yet so there's not much room for much more.  This season should help me figure out the best way to do the shelves in there (hadn't really thought about the climbing plants before now).  So I want to read about growing in pots and do all or most of my cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in there next year and maybe even try eggplants again.  Or I could go crazy and try something fun like cantaloupe!

I am excited wondering how much food we'll get out of the garden this year but for now we are just getting lettuce.


And we are enjoying hanging out back there too!

Asparagus

 We had our first batch of asparagus from the garden on Friday.  We didn't get much and it was mostly the skinny ones that were ready.  And I cooked them in a pasta primavera with lots of other veg so we couldn't taste them too much.  Still, we had our first food from the garden.  And there are some nice fat asparagus coming.

Other than the asparagus, all we've been enjoying from the garden are the spring flowers.  This is the nicest time of year in the garden - no bugs and it's not overgrown yet.  We spent just about the whole weekend out there so we are getting lots of enjoyment out of it.

 

Henry has been practising his blowing.  With bubbles and with these dandelion clocks.  I see him when he's on his own just spitting and blowing a bit and saying "blowing bubbles".  But when he gets the bubble wand or the dandelion clock in front of his mouth he just chokes and can't perform.    He actually just puts it in front of his mouth and does absolutely nothing.  More practice is in order I suppose.

The Soil

We've been spending lots of time the past 4 days moving that soil that was delivered on Friday. Shortly after it came on Friday we had snow so we weren't sure when we'd get a chance to work on it. But we've actually spent a few hours on each day moving soil. Well Kevin does the moving while I find other less energy intensive garden activities to attend to.

We had lots of uneven ground to fill in especially in the front after having work done out there years ago. And the back mostly needed some regular maintenance. My vegetables had been mostly surviving off the fact that the previous owner was a big gardener and kept the soil nice and I hadn't done anything much for the soil in the 4 years we've been here. So some serious TLC was in order.

We have 1 cubic yard (of 5) left and it is the compost I ordered for the vegetable beds. I've been getting those ready the past couple of days - pulling up old plants and doing a little digging in to counteract Henry's having walked over them for months. We are now teaching him to walk on the paths only and he's getting the hang of it.

Henry's going to miss the piles of dirt in the driveway. I've been letting him out there to play with it in the afternoons which he loves. And even more than that he loves helping Daddy fill the wheelbarrow and then dumping it. He loves saying "like Daddy" and "no talking, just dumping."

Luckily Henry is mostly content to play around the front and back yards and help Daddy. But he has also been asking to go on walks and go to the playground which we haven't been doing much. I'll have to make sure to do some Henry fun things today. Fun stuff has been happening over here too though. Swinging with Daddy and chasing ducks through the yard at least.

Carrot Harvest 2011

We had a nice warm day today. So Henry and I took advantage and got out to dig up the last of the carrots. (It's been getting increasingly unpleasant to go out and dig up a few before each meal.) We've been eating them regularly since August so this shows about 75% of the total. One day I plan to weigh every piece of food that comes out of the garden in a year. I have visions of the kids getting really excited about this idea and doing it along with me - now I just have to hope I end up with the right kind of kids, the ones that don't use words like lame.

This year's harvest is not as great as 2009 (2010 carrot harvest was non existent due to a lack of watering in the spring) but I think we ended up with a pretty decent amount that should last us most of the winter. Of course though this includes lots of annoyingly small carrots which don't keep as well and which require a lot more prep work per pound of food. And I did separate them so that I can use them first but I foresee many afternoons in which "I am just not in the mood to deal with tiny carrots". I must remember that I don't like small carrots next year when "I just don't feel like thinning the plants".

Henry wasn't enjoying our time in the backyard. He spent a bit of time helping me with the carrots and then enjoying the sandbox but mostly he just kept saying "no carrots", "no outside", and "open door". But he did enjoy the other activities we fit in on this nice day.

We went to the playground, played with some big sticks, and did some hiking too. Henry always points to paths through trees he'd like to investigate and says "hike". I hope he keeps doing this for the rest of his life.

The greenhouse

We actually did it. We made a greenhouse with the windows that we've been collecting from people's garbage for 3 years. 3 years is a long time so at the end of the summer I decided I had to actually make the greenhouse or get rid of the windows that were taking up so much space in the garage. And I'm still surprised that I ended up doing it. And even more surprised that it turned out so awesome.

We ended up using just 4 windows thanks to those 2 huge ones that made up the one big wall. And try as I did I could not find a storm door for free so we ended up buying one from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. The free windows helped but we still ended up spending a lot of money on this project: the lumber, the plastic roof, the door, the paint.

It is done, all 3 walls are complete. There are of course lots of little things left to do. I have to add weather stripping, spray foam, and sealant to keep out drafts, but I think I will leave that till Spring. And I want to find nice pebbles to cover the floor. And I have to make or buy shelving of course.

And when I tell people about our project they all ask what I want to grow. And I don't know, I just figured it would be awesome to have a greenhouse and I'm sure it will help in the veggie garden. So I have to figure out what I want to grow in there too. I know I will use it for tomatoes, maybe eggplants and peppers because I've never had much luck with those. I am also thinking about maybe a potted fig tree that could overwinter in there. And I'm sure one summer I'll experiment with melons. And I want to do extend greens season further into spring and fall. See I don't need to decide, having a greenhouse is awesome and there are loads of awesome things I can do.

We started working on it in September and got most of it done then. But then in October we were stuck waiting for it not to rain forever so we could do the painting. And then finally last weekend we had nice weather and we did the roof and then this week I finally got round to filling a few holes - one with a sliding wood panel for ventilation (seen below) and one with plexiglass.

Here's Henry helping me clear out the area back in September.

Here's Henry helping us paint in October.

Hopefully he will help with the finishing touches in the Spring.

Squash

I went out in the nasty wet garden this morning to pick all the squash. We didn't get a single butternut squash from the seeds that I planted this spring but we did get plenty of these mystery squash that seem to be a hybrid of some squash I've planted in previous years. Even though I've read that these surprise squash hybrid never taste good, we've tried these already and they're delicious - very sweet and nice texture. So overall I think the squash were actually a success this year. I plan to make the first squash coconut curry of the season later this week.

There have been a few beautiful fall days the past couple of weeks but mostly we've been getting this nasty wet weather so Henry and I have been spending lots of time indoors.

We are still having fun. He often requests painting these days by pointing at his artwork on the wall and saying more. It is fun to paint with him except when he gets into the mode of just asking you to put more and more paint on his paper and not doing anything with it!