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.

My New Composter

I set up my first composter today. It's hard to believe that I've never had a composter before since gardening seems to be in my blood. But where to put such a big item in such a small space? So I tucked it under the stairs. Apparently it's a myth that you need sun for a composter, so I'll see if that is in fact so since that is in quite a shady spot. I originally thought about getting a composter because I seemed to have so much good compostables, due to my new raw vegan diet. I was totally shocked when I put in my overflowing compost bin and it looked like a drop in the bucket. Hmmm!! I'm going to have to find more compostables. Any ideas?

Rawlicious

Imagine my surprise and delight when I decided to transition to a raw vegan diet and discovered that I have a raw food restaurant in my neighbourhood called Rawlicious. I definitely took it as a sign that I was "in the flow". So of course I checked it out right away. It is awesome! The ambiance is so peaceful and relaxing. I love wood so the beautiful wood details really added to the tranquility for me. My first couple of visits I got a smoothie to go. When I finally had an eat in meal I ordered the collard wrap with a salad, which was delicious. If you're ever in my neighbourhood I definitely recommend you check Rawlicious out. The address is 3092 Dundas St. West, Toronto, Ontario

A Heavenly Match

A raw vegan diet and organic gardening: what could be more perfect than that? There could be nothing more ideal than growing your own fresh organic produce and herbs and edible flowers. Then not only are you eating things grown locally but you are also ingesting the loving vibrations which you've been tending your garden with the whole growing season. Who knows what kind of vibrations agribusiness grown produce has been subjected to, both in the growing and harvesting as well as the long transport to market. Gardening is truly uplifting to the spirit and a perfect way to commune with nature. Happy Spring!

AeroGarden Update

It's been way too long since I posted and now "spring has sprung" so I'm feeling inspired again. I have to admit that what also inspired me to post on a regular basis was one of my favourite blogs that I follow which I linked to on my previous post. The blog is called RawketScience and is well worth checking out. I've gotten into eating raw vegan foods again so I am thoroughly enjoying the constant posts on this blog.
As you can see from the accompanying photo I've gotten quite a nice little crop from my AeroGarden this winter. The biggest success, as you can see, was the basil which just went wild. The dill did well and also the thyme. The oregano and mint made a very poor showing and the chives were non existent after their initial growth. I believe this was due to them being overpowered by the basil, which I constantly had to trim. I love basil so it was so exciting to trim some to use in my salads in the winter.
I came across a very interesting idea on The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center's Website. They are using a dome greenhouse and also using EM (Effective Microorganisms) which is something I used to use years ago, when I worked at the Omega Centre. So that got me looking into EM again and I discovered that EM Ceramics can also be used in Aquariums to eliminate algae as well as to help restructure the water for increased oxygenation. I have guppies in my aquarium and they are extremely prolific which means that I quite regularly have a LARGE school of guppies which makes for some very challenging water conditions in the aquarium. My local aquarium store is due for another donation of guppies. I will definitely be looking into EM to help with my water problems in my aquarium as well as for my garden and houseplants. I've found a supplier in Canada for the EM-X, which is used for gardening, called The Organic Gardener's Pantry. The EM America website sells all things EM, including the EM ceramics, which they will ship to Canada. Both of these websites have a wealth of information on EM which I would recommend for everyone to check out. There are many uses for EM including cleaning up our waterways. Personally I'd love to get together a movement to use EM to clean up the Don River and the Humber River here in Toronto, where I live. It can also be used in water features in your yard and used in the water for your house plants.

RawketScience: Power of 3 - Sunlight, Biophotons and Quantum Physics

RawketScience: Power of 3 - Sunlight, Biophotons and Quantum Physics

Aero Garden

My AeroGarden is a northern gardeners dream. I got it for Christmas from my 2 sisters. It is easy to set up and then it requires almost no maintenance. The AeroGarden turns the light on and off according to what you have growing and it tells you when to add nutrients and water. My AeroGarden came with the herb kit so what you see growing in the picture are dill, basil, chives, mint, oregano and thyme. I just filled the basin with water; inserted the grow cones into the holes; put the little plastic domes over each grow cone; put 2 grow tabs in the water and turned it on. This picture was taken 3 weeks later and the only thing I had to do was enjoy the beauty of herbs growing in my kitchen. This is such a boon to anyone who lives in a northern snowy region. I'm tempted to get another AeroGarden to grow some salad greens in.
I first came across the AeroGarden last winter while vacationing in Sarasota in the Sur La Table kitchen store that had just opened up downtown. I fell in love with it but did not think I'd have any room in the car to bring it back to Toronto. I was very excited when I saw it in the Canadian Tire sale flyer just before Christmas and immediately put it on my Christmas list. The rest is history. I can't wait to snip my own fresh herbs to use in my cooking. Stay tuned to see how my AeroGarden grows. You can buy the AeroGarden at Canadian Tire, Amazon.com and I would assume at other Sur La Table locations as well. When I find other places to buy the AeroGarden I will post them.

My First Square Foot Garden

Pictured here is an extremely productive square foot vegetable garden I created for my mother. From this small plot she harvested fresh organic produce all summer and into the fall season. This garden consists of 2 plots each 2 feet wide by 10 feet long with a brick walking path between them. Each plot has 20 individual square foot planting plots, hence the name square foot gardening. I came upon this incredible idea from the book entitled "All New Square Foot Gardening".

Welcome to my Gardening World

Welcome to the wonderful world of organic gardening. I hope you'll follow me through the seasons and share some of your gardening experiences. I believe that to garden is to connect with the earth in a creative way.