Garden Update - 3 1/2 weeks

I know I promised I would take a picture of my garden at week 3 - but I got busy and did not get around to it - so this picture was taken on Sunday night - 3 1/2 weeks from initial planting.

This past week was busy, on Monday I planted the second crop of peas, carrots, spinach and green onions.

Sunday, I finally put the last of the tomatoes into the ground - I am sure they will be much happier in their new home.

Yellow Onions

Peas

Green Beans - these guys finally came up - and look at what they did - considering a week ago it was hard to tell anything was there at all.

Tomato Alley - in total here I have 7 tomato plants - they might be a bit crowded, but this is my first year so we will see.

If you are noticing that they are in a corner and might not get the best sun - this corner actually gets mid morning to late evening sun - so it is a pretty good location - now I am also hoping that the hail comes from the opposite direction so they are protected!

Strawberries - I intended to buy 5 of the same type of strawberries - I accidentally bough 2 different kinds - I realized this as I was planting them - so it will be interesting to see what we get - this one is Eversweet.

This strawberry is called Fraisier Tristar - can't wait to try it!

Rhubarb

I know a lot of people that have a rhubarb plant growing out of control in their back yard.  I have seen these people bring grocery bags of the stuff to work and beg people to take it off their hands.

I have heard: "Come on over tonight and take as much as you want, we never eat it ourselves."

I grew up with at least one big rhubarb plant, and I remember us having way too much too, but that did not stop me.

I wanted my own.  I wanted to be able to make jam, pies, tarts or platz (breakfast dish I grew up with) whenever I wanted and not have to wait for the bag of rhubarb to show up at work.

When I bought this baby a few weeks ago from a local greenhouse, the big leaf in the middle (the one with the arrow pointing at it) was not there at all!

Jackie has been so happy to see this little guy start growing new leaves.  Already we have another leaf well on its way, see the little guy at the bottom.

If you are nice to me, I just might give you a jar of jam in the fall.

Garden Picture - week 2 1/2

I want to post a weekly picture of my garden, I missed week one - but since there was nothing new, it was the same as the first picture.

This one shows you where I put the strawberries, the tomatoes are hard to see, but they are one the other side of the pea fence.  Right now there are still only the 3 cherry tomato plants in the ground, the 4 Roma plants are going in this week.

I also missed taking this picture right on week 2 - it was raining a lot and the picture would not have been very good.

You can see though we have a lot of little sprouts.

The carrots are coming up nicely along with most everything else.  We are still waiting for green beans (but I can see they are coming), my green onions are not up at all - do they normally take this long?  I planted them from seed with a seed tape - is that why they are taking longer than everything else?

I also planed garlic - no sign of that yet either, but I am not expecting much - it does much better if you plant it in the fall.

On the plan for this week:
- transplant the Roma tomatoes into the ground
- plant the second row of peas and beans
- plant the remainder of the lettuce, spinach and green onion rows

I should be able to get a week 3 picture on time this week!

We Have Sprouts!

(Yellow Onions - planted from bulbs)

We came back from the long weekend away at our trailer and discovered things had changed dramatically in our little garden.

I had not been expecting anything to pop up until I hit that 2 week mark (still a few days away), so I brought the kids into the back yard to check out the tomatoes and strawberries.

When I saw not one or two sprouts, not one or two rows but lots of rows up and showing me their little green babies.  
I was jumping up and down, doing a little dance, showing the kids and then pulling hubby into the back yard to show him. (There might have been an eye roll, but he did come and looks and express mild excitment).

Yes I know – maybe a bit too much excitement, but I was just thrilled!

Here is what we have popping up right now:

-          Yellow onions

-          Lettuce

-          Spinach

-          Beets

-          Peas

-          And a little, little bit of carrots (only 1 variety so far)

We also got another leaf growing on the rhubarb, and lots more little tiny baby tomatoes have shown up (cherry tomatoes), the grape tomatoes (the ones in pots) are now showing us their beautiful yellow flowers.  (Rhubarb post to follow soon.)

 Beets

Carrots

These pictures were all taken Monday - May 23rd.

A Reading Chair

I love to read!  I love books and someday I would love to have a house with an actual library.

I am lucky, I can read almost anywhere – I do not need a quiet place to read.

So I hang out with the kids while they are watching TV and since as good as Diego is, I find it a bit more interesting to read my books.

I read laying down on the couch when they are in bed, I read in my bed, I bring a book with me to work every day and sometimes read over my lunch hour.

But what I would really love is a reading chair, preferably in my library, but someplace that would be mine, where a cup of coffee (or glass on wine) and a book are meant to be together.

What about you?  Are you a reader?  Where is your favourite place to read?  Do you have a special reading chair or place?

Tomatoes

I have decided to plant quite a few tomatoes this year,

First I picked up 3 rather large (1 gallon pot size) cherry tomato plants.  Then I picked up 4 much smaller plants (not sure the pot size) - grape tomatoes.  And last but not least I am waiting for my garden centre to bring in the one gallon size Roma tomatoes (should be here around the long weekend).

The cherry tomato plants were well established - one plant actually had 2 small tomatoes on it when I brought it home!

I planted the 3 cherry tomatoes in the ground and the 4 grape tomatoes are in pots on my deck (where they will stay), the Romas will also be put into the ground when I get them.

Here are some pictures of my little babies!

Cherry tomatoes & flowers

These next 2 photos are of the 2 tomatoes that were on the plant when I bought them, it was very hard to take the picture since there is a fence right there, hence my face in the second picture.

The grape tomatoes are obviously a little behind, they were about 1/3 the size of the cheery tomatoes plants when I brought them home, but we are starting to get our buds on all 4 plants.

** Note - these pictures were all taken last week when there was actually sun in Calgary. **

Strawberries

Little Girl and I are both super excited about our garden project this year, we check everything every day looking for sprouts from the seeds (even though I know it is way too early), but we are also checking the strawberries and tomatoes (all planted as plants).

I picked up 5 strawberry plants - 2 of one type and 3 of another.  They all came with flowers or about to have flowers, so when we spotted our first strawberry and a few days later the slightest bit of pink in that strawberry I think I did a dance around the yard.

Here are a few pictures of my strawberries.

You can barely see the pink in this one, but trust me, she is blushing a little bit.