Around our home

 

Things are finally picking up here. It’s hard to believe that a month ago, everything was bare and now, I’m thinning (and eating) greens and eating asparagus everyday.  All our flowering trees are in bloom, our fruit trees as well. The night of frost that hit most of Eastern Canada decided to pass us by and our lilacs, crab apples, apples, plums and Japanese quince blooms came through unharmed. The dandelions are everywhere, growing tall and waiting to be picked, dried and infused. It’s been gray and rainy the last few days so we’ve been waiting for a warm dry morning to gather them all up. This year, in addition to making soap and salve, I’m trying my hand at dandelion syrup. Not sure I’ll put the rhubarb in (it is optional after all), but I’m very excited to add this to our pantry for warm breakfasts on colder mornings.

You’ve probably noticed on the first picture that our new front yard garden is already producing. We’ve been having a bit of issues with the soil, it seeming a bit more “sandy” than we would like.  We are hoping to be able to amend with some more compost as soon as the plants get a little taller. We have a few patches reserved for tomatoes and peppers that are going in this afternoon. But for now, we’ll be thinning out Mesclun greens, our beans are putting out their 2nd sets of true leaves and our peas are a few inches away from starting their climb.

On the last picture here, you get a peek at our new “living fence” in the making. We decided this year to try our hand at instant garden beds using top soil bags over thick layers of newspapers. We punched holes through the bottom and proceeded to plant sunflowers and corn. The roots will easily find their way down through the holes of the bags, the newspaper softening as it’s killing off the grass and weeds. In fall, we will remove the plastic and leave the dirt in place. Next Spring, we will double up “the trench” (as we are calling it). We will be planting grape vines in the 2-year-old row and planting annual veggies in the 1-year-old row. And so on until the trench is 4 bags wide. So in 4 years, we will have added another 200 sq.ft of gardens with very little effort. We’ll keep you updated!

Last but not least, I leave you with a little sneak peek at how our fairy garden is coming along. More on that later… But I can promise, it will be something!

Have a wonderful week everyone.