Gardening 2011

I can't believe that it has been over a year since I last posted. Where does the time go? The garden is mostly planted for this year except for a few squares which I hope to plant with a salad mix. Everything is growing nicely thanks to the rain and now the sun. My mother and sister have done a good job of keeping the seed beds watered and now all the seedlings are reaching for the sky. This year making their appearance in the garden are; yellow and green beans, tomatoes, peas, zucchini, english cucumbers, carrots, red peppers and 1 green pepper, beets, swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, red cabbage, onions, leeks, basil, parsley and of course the perennial herbs oregano, tarragon, sage, thyme and lemon thyme, chives and a huge, in need of thinning, crop of dill.
I finally got stepping stones and natural cedar mulch in the new garden walkway which is a huge improvement upon the mud and weeds. Happy Gardening!

The Raw Chef Blog | Raw Food Recipes – Raw Food – Raw Chef Russell James

The Raw Chef Blog | Raw Food Recipes – Raw Food – Raw Chef Russell James
I just discovered an amazing raw chef and checked out his blog today for the first time. Lo and behold isn't he collecting raw water and he posted a few fun vids on collecting spring water. Enjoy!

Sprouting

Since I live in a place where I can't grow things outside except for in the summer, I thought what better way to have fresh, living greens year round, than sprouting. Last week I went to a sprouting class given by Marie from Toronto Sprouts. It was awesome! The thing I worry about with sprouts is mold and mildew but with this method of sprouting there should be little chance of that problem.

Jar Sprouting Method

The secret to this method is sanitizing everything, even the seeds. Marie recommended fiberglass screening because this type of screening better facilitates sterilizing. The lids you can buy for sprouting are quite often made with metal screening which will rust. So sterilize your screening and elastic bands in boiling water and swish boiling water in the jar(s) you are going to use. Make sure you use a jar with a wide mouth to facilitate removal of the finished sprouts. To sanitize the seeds you use 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide, which is available at most Health Food stores or online. Put your seeds in the jar, then water and finally the hydrogen peroxide. Or use a hydrogen peroxide solution that you have premixed. The ratio to use is 1 unit hydrogen peroxide to 10 units water. Let your seeds soak in this solution, covered, for 10 minutes. Then put the screen on the jar with the elastic (the wide elastics that are quite often used on produce work well), drain and rinse well 3-4 times.
The next step is to soak the seeds to get rid of the enzyme inhibitors. You can use this soak water to water your plants. Fill the jar that has the sanitized seeds in it with water and soak overnight 6-12 hours. Generally 8 hours soaking works for most seeds but no more than 12 hours soaking. Drain the water out through the screen and and make sure there are no fold in the screen where bacteria can collect. Put the jar on an angle in a dish rack and rinse at least 2 times a day but more often if you can. In 3-5 days your sprouts will be ready. Alfalfa sprouts take 3 days. You can use them as is or spread them on a plate and put them under a grow light for 2-3 days to green them up for use in smoothies and sandwiches. Be sure to spray them with water so they don't dry out. To use them as is just put them the grow jar in the fridge with the screen lid in place to allow air flow so that they don't mold.
For anyone living in Canada who doesn't have access to a Health Food store (or just likes the convenience of online shopping) you can obtain high quality seeds for sprouting and food grade hydrogen peroxide from Upaya Naturals. They sell Mumms seeds which are the seeds that Marie recommended to us in the sprout class.

The Ringing Cedars Series

Wow!! I'm reading the Ringing Cedars books after coming across a deal through Angela Stokes' site. I received the whole set from The Raw Food World website. I'm going through all this preamble because these books are so awesome. I'm looking forward to using her hints for gardening come spring. Basically Anastasia states that the plant kingdom is (indeed all of nature) provided for Humans well being. When planting seeds if we give the plants information about ourselves they will provide us with optimum nutrition. This is achieved by holding some of the seeds in our mouth for a few minutes and then planting them without any other supplemental watering for a few days. Also rinsing our feet first thing in the morning and watering the plants with this water is recommended. These two methods give the developing plants information about our state of health. They can then procure from the soil all that is needed for our individual bodies health. How exciting is that? Of course being with your plants in a loving way everyday is beneficial for all.
Nature is so amazing. Here I am looking out my window at the leafless trees in my back yard with a bit of fresh snowfall from last night, and within a couple of months there will be leaves on the trees again and there will be new growth everywhere. What a joyful thing it is to be a citizen of this beautiful gem we call earth. Let us all cherish her and enjoy our time here.

New Garden

I'm back. My youngest brother got married out in Vernon, B.C. this summer so it was a very busy summer. This is the latest extension to the veggie and herb garden. The large plant against the fence is a castor bean. This plant gets the most comments from people who pass by.
It was another bountiful summer except for the root crops. The beets and carrots were coming along nicely before we left for B.C. I had one of the beets grated over my salad and it was delicious. When we returned, though there was nothing left except the carrot and beet tops above the ground. Below ground the roots were decimated. Very curious indeed.
I love kale so this year I planted 2 different types. One was a cross between russian red kale and lacinto kale and the other was lacinto kale. Both are a flat leafed kale and very tasty. I'll get pictures next time I go to the garden. My favourite way to eat kale is in a kale avocado salad. I got the original idea from the raw food chef, Chad Sarno. Basically you chiffonade kale and then add a chopped avocado, some lemon juice and some celtic sea salt. Then get in there with your hands and massage the whole thing until the kale is wilted. For a variation I add garlic and cayenne. If I'm making it for my family I'll quite often add grated carrots to sweeten it a bit for their sweet palates.

Rainy Day Catch-up

Well it's a rainy day in the neighbourhood so all I can do in the garden is admire it from my covered decks. The picture is of my garden last year. Yesterday I got some more plants planted in my rock garden and improved my steps down into my woodland garden. I also planted some Sweet Woodruff and some English Ivy. I'm hoping the ivy will grow up the trellis and help to cover the huge cement wall that borders one side of my yard.
Finally my little green house is in use. These kits are not always as easy to put together as they should be. My next big project for my yard will be to construct a netted structure to enclose my small patch of garden. I love the wildlife and neighbourhood cats that live and visit my yard but I don't love what they leave behind in what they perceive to be their large litter box.
I finally found something durable and easy to work with that should work quite nicely to delineate the squares in the square foot vegetable garden at my mothers. It's some white plastic edging for counters, I believe but should work quite nicely and last for years. The peas and radishes have made their appearance and the lettuce was just poking up out of the soil on Monday but with this rain things should really start to grow.

Spring Gardening

Well, I will not be gardening today due to the rain. Oh well. April showers bring May veggies. Yesterday I planted the first plantings of lettuce, radishes, mesclun mix and peas. They will love this rain. I did some landscaping on the herb plots and got the stepping stones positioned into the side garden. The new garden plot is ready for the next stage as soon as I can figure out what the next stage will be. It is another 2 foot by 10 foot plot which I was readying for another square foot garden, but now I'm wondering if I'll do a more traditional garden and put all the root veggies there. Stay tuned for my decision. Unfortunately I was so busy gardening that it got dark before I could take pictures. That seems to be my pattern: I garden until I can't see any more. However I did find a picture of my first Square foot garden. In the area by the green car is where I'm working now.
And then I made some adjustments on my nephews bicycle under the glow of the street light. I love days off.