The Best Cure

It seems that cold and flu season had one last virus up it's sleeve and I've been the lucky recipient of it since last week. On top of that I've been dealing with some family emergencies recently as well. My brother in St Catharine's had a near disaster with a table saw a week ago Friday- he caught his wrist with the blade and did serious damage to his soft tissues (thankfully not the bone). The surgeon was able to repair it and he should have near full function once it heals but he's looking at two months in a cast! Then my mom who has heart disease, had some issues and was hospitalized overnight -again thankfully it turned out to be not as serious as first thought and she's home again but worrisome just the same. It was a downright miserable week and I feel like I'm still recovering.

Not surprisingly I haven't had the inclination to post much and all of the challenges fell by the wayside. Of course life still goes on and stuff still got done so I thought I'd do a brief check in to prove I'm still alive and kicking.

One thing that's always guaranteed to shake me out of a slump is getting my hands dirty so I've been spending as much time as possible in the garden or preparing for it. The garden beds have been raked, the composters emptied, the rain barrle's hooked up again and a winter's worth of debris is gone.


The farm cats are ecstatic to be outdoors again. They follow me around the yard, happily rolling in the dirt and climbing everything that can hold them.

I even managed to coax some help from the Russian, trimming some branches and chopping them up for other projects. He works best on creating stuff and prefers to leave the actual gardening to me. I have some new ideas for trellising that I'll suggest to him to come up with the working model- he's usually pretty ingenious!

I'm excited to see the garlic I planted in the fall is already up- it's the first time I actually remembered to plant some!

The strawberries look healthy as do the raspberry canes and the rhubarb is up too.

Up on the deck, the herbs are making a comeback- the mild winter allowed them to winter over even in the shallow pot so we are already eating fresh oregano, thyme and sage. Things are moving towards a bountiful growing season!


I still haven't managed to get any seeds for cool weather crops in the ground yet but I have rapini, peas and lettuce seeds set out to plant this weekend. It may still be a bit too early now that the temperatures are seasonably cool but I'm going to chance it anyhow since the soil is warm and the beds are ready. If they take a little longer to germinate so be it, at least they're in the ground.


Inside things are moving along as well. About 50 % of the tomatoes I pre-germinated survived being transplanted in soil- more might have survived had I been paying better attention and planted them earlier/ kept up with watering immediately afterwards. I still have a respectable amount of seedlings, just over 20, but I have only a small number of a few varieties, and a couple varieties of which none survived. There's still plenty of time to reseeded thankfully. I've got a couple of things started in the greenhouse at work as well and I'm looking at what needs to be seeded next- it's still a bit early for most things but I'm anxious to get going.

It's Easter this weekend and I hope you all enjoy the time off with family and loved ones, and puttering around in your own gardens!

Hints of Things to Come

The expression April is a cruelest month has never seemed more fitting than this year; not only has the weather been a major tease but this prolonged cold has everything growing slowly as well. Even Easter is late this year although I can't really blame that on the weather! (I'm looking at you, moon)

There's nothing so cruel as longing for the tastes of spring and knowing that local asparagus is still weeks if not months away from hitting the markets. Of course the stores are full of not-so-local asparagus and rhubarb and it's difficult not to succumb; those of you further south of here who post gloating photos of your spring harvests are rubbing salt in my wounds! My rhubarb is barely up, my herbs declined to return this year and aside from a few spring onions I won't be nibbling on anything freshly grown for a long while yet.


My gardens are still looking bleak and mostly barren but a few things are peeping up including this pleasant surprise I know I didn't plant - they just appeared in the grass thicket!

Even my seedling trays are decidely retarded this year and who can blame them? Every time the weather's warmed up enough to consider putting them outside for a bit, Mother Nature goes and sends something dramatic like thunderstorms or snow. Today it's only slightly above freezing, raining and gusting winds, with a chance of snow tonight. Fantastic, thanks for that.


On a more promising note I do have some fun stuff to share! These lovely eggplant seeds arrived in my mailbox last week and are about to be seeded.

They are a gift from the Ottawa Gardener at The Veggie Patch Reimagined and I'm excited to see if they handle my somewhat shady garden.

My bee nesting box is due to arrive next week and I am excited to know I'll be creating a habitat to encourage more pollinators to my gardens this year. Now if only we can convince Shadow not to eat them!

The Canning season is gearing up again and the folks at the West End Food Coop have put together a guide on how to set up a community cannery, similar to the one I taught at last year. It includes details of budgeting, planning, using local produce and a whole lot of recipes that we taught last year. It's available free of charge to non profits and community organizations by emailing katie@westendfood.coop

And here's the highlight of my week- remember the tomato plants that accidently sprouted from worm compost and have been growing indoors all winter? I ended up with two distinct varieties- one is a small detirminate - I'm hoping it's a ditmarsher which gave such lovely early cherries last year. The other is obviously NOT a detirminate as it is currently about 5 ft long and wound around a lamp among other things. Against all odds it's thriving indoors and just recently these appeared!

I suspect there's not much of a chance that they will pollinate and even if they do the stem isn't strong enough to support much weight in it's current state. If and when I can get it outside I will have to stake it well and hope for the best

So all is not lost, just delayed. Which is probably a good thing since I haven't had much time to think about gardens recently. As all of my fellow Canucks are aware, we are heading for a federal election in May. As an occasional Elections Canada employee, I'm currently working long hours on the voter's list, making sure everyone who's eligible and wishes to has the opportunity to cast their vote. Recent world events have made it very clear how blessed we are to live in a democracy and I encourage you all to take advantage of that and vote!