Atlantic Gardener: Year Five

During the winter I further increased my research and garden planning. The biggest addition for spring was to be 4 raised cinder block beds, two 4' x 8' and two 4' x 17'. What I love most about the cinder blocks is that you can make them as long as you want. I also love the holes for planting herbs and flowers, but in hindsight wish I had put landscaping cloth underneath the holes as grass and weeds growing up through them is quite unsightly. I had a landscaping company bring a dumptruck full of potting mix to fill the beds, cost was around $300 with delivery and I had some left at the end of the year. I amended the in-ground beds with some as well and built them up a bit after tilling them well. I also purchased a Mantis 25 lb tiller this spring which helped quite a lot in breaking up the weeds and loosening the soil.

Three of the four raised beds that were added to border the in-ground garden.

In January I eagerly ordered new seeds, making sure this year to only order heirloom vegetables and ordering only from companies that have taken the "Safe Seed Pledge".

I planted tomatoes, peppers and alliums (leeks, onions, shallots) in February. They grew very well, as you can see.

I purchased a 4' grow light system as well and that proved to be very useful for my seed starting.

I continued growing tomatoes and peppers in the large south-facing picture window. They do get quite leggy, but I actually like that in pepper/tomato seedlings because they will grow roots all the way up their stems. So if you replant deeply, right up to the first leaves, they will grow even more roots, and more roots = more nutrients = stronger, healthier, more productive plant.

This year I wanted to incorporate planting more fruit along with the vegetables. I decided that the cinder block bed closest to the house would be my first perennial bed. Perennial plants are those that come back every year and do not need to be replanted. I added two haskap and two blueberry bushes to this bed at one end, and twelve alpine strawberry plants at the other end. Alpine strawberries thrive in our climate, and produce prolific amounts of tiny, sweet strawberries all summer long.

Haskap or honeyberry bushes.
Borealis (left) has a spicier flavored, rounder berry.
Northblue (right) has a tarter berry but delicious
raspberry/blueberry flavor.

Alpine strawberries when first planted.

A few weeks later they flowered.

Unripened haskap berries on the bush.

Ripe, sweet, tiny strawberries

Another new thing in the garden this year is potatoes. My first time growing them and we had a decent harvest. Plus I learned a lot about growing potatoes. Growing potatoes isn't about putting away enough potatoes to last us for the winter for me, it's about having interesting and delicious organic potatoes to try. I bought my seed potatoes from Canadian Tire this year, on a whim. A box of red and a box of white were planted.

I had no troubles with them until one day when I came home and saw this in my potato patch:

I ran inside and googled "potato beetle larvae" as this was the only potato pest I was aware of. Images matching the ones I had taken matched up. Yuck! I spent the next couple of weeks picking them off one by one into a bucket of dish soap and water. Nasty little things and they can totally decimate your potato plants in a short amount of time. I was lucky and got them in time, my harvest was still pretty decent. I decided next year to plant in a deeper bed for a larger harvest.

This year was also the year I let myself dabble in a few more flowers. Mostly focusing on edibles and pest control, I planted marigolds and calendula in the holes all around the cinder block beds, nasturtiums in the in-ground garden.

I plant a basket or two full of petunias every spring for my Mother who passed in 2012.
She loved them and planted basket after basket full of them each spring.

I love fresh herbs. I love smelling them, nibbling on them, tossing them in a salad and cooking whenever possible with them. Basil is one of my favorites, so I grow a few kinds every year, along with dill, summer savory, thyme, parsley, rosemary, sage, marjoram, oregano, mint and cilantro.

Flat and curled parsley.

Mint

Sage

Herb garden in full swing.

Onion bed

Full garden once it was planted.

We didn't use the far bed of the in-ground garden this year.

Another first this year, Sunberries. They are an annual, and seemed to be quite tasty to the flea beetles which nibbled the heck out of them as you can see in the image to the left. The berries were unharmed though and I froze them to make a decent tasting jam. Berries are supposed to be good for cooking, but very bland when eaten raw. I can attest that this is true. A pretty plant though and was interesting to grow. It is a relative of the tomato.