What can you grow in a Zone3 Garden?

Anything you want! Of course :)

Lots of Changes Lately...

... the biggest one being the move from Edmonton (#yeg) back to the country. That's right, this rural girl is back where she belongs!

And look what my sister found for me :)

Cheesepalooza - August Challenge

Farmer's Market

We finally made it down to the Alberta Ave Market (93st and 118ave) earlier this evening. Visited with Amy (OFRE and fruit mob fame) and checked out this small, but diverse, market hidden away in downtown Edmonton.

And I realized I'm a bad market shopper. All these great local vendors with fresh veggies, breads made with grain, homemade pastas and cookies and art... And I hate buying things that I can make myself.

It's true.

I go to markets to buy the base of my baking and cooking (flour, grains, meats, etc), not the finished products.

But I want to support the other local vendors as well. So, I spread the word to my friends to go buy from these great and incredible people instead :)

And thus, I shall continue to go the markets, buy a few things here and there, and continue to make my own foods using ingredients from my favourite farmers and gardeners and my mother's garden that she works so hard on all summer...

To eating local and preparing your own food!

Apple Picking and Backyard Gardening

Today Zac, Londyn and I went out to a BEAUTIFUL acreage to pick a whack of different apples :)

We went with Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton, a wonderful non-profit organization that goes out and collects all the over following fruits from around Edmonton (with the owners permission of course) and then the bounty is shared among the owners, pickers, food bank and the organization. OFRE then makes goods to sell at the Alberta Ave Farmers Market to raise funds to pay for equipment and kitchen rentals (among other things).

Tomorrow, with the apples picked today and throughout the wk, cider will be made! :D

I took home some little red crab apples (i forget the name....) that apparently make THEE BEST! crabapple jelly. So, i will clean and cut and freeze until the weather cools off enough to can.

And I have a collection of larger apples (some from Vala and some from today that need cleaning still) and other fruits in the freezer waiting to be made into an assortment of delicious apple sauces for my little Londyn to enjoy.

She is an Applesauce Monster! :)

This afternoon I finally gave up on my little backyard garden. I picked my green tomatoes, dug up my dz tiny little potatoes (mostly purple), and fluffed up the dirt and DUMPED my entire compost bin on it! and then layered in the now done potato tops and tomato plants.

There was actually quite a good layer of wonderful black humus at the bottom that I'm sure will add lots of good stuff to my soil for next spring :)

The leaves of the trees in our yard will eventually end up on the plot as well, and then i'll cover it all with a tarp while there's still some sunshine to help cook it.

OH! but the most excited thing about my compost (besides all the slugs on the underside of the bin :P) is there was some avocado seeds that had split open and sprouted!

I saved one. I want to see how big I can get it :)

I did take a pic, but it hasn't even made it off the camera yet.

Until next time!

Fall Gardening

Fall Gardening Guide from Natural Home and Garden

We work so hard in the spring to get our plots ready for seed, but what if we planned out our beds so we could be harvesting just past the frost?
Now, in Canada this isn't as realistic as in the USA, as our winters are earlier and harsher than the rest of North America.

But that doesn't mean we can't hold off till the last minute.
Some greens even taste better after having a mild frost! (I remember hearing that on an episode of Jamie at Home... which ones specifically he was talking about, I can't recall).

Between sowing in cold frames as the cold arrives for EARLY spring veggies, and timing out the planting so there's greens right up until the frost, there's no excuse for not having fresh produce all year.

Yes, all year. That's what your coldroom or cellar is for :)
And freezer. Bags of blanched peas, beans, carrots, mixed veggies and many more are a large part of my winter staple.

Pesky Squirrels

My beets are missing their tops, my peas have their leaves chewed off, the spinach is missing chunks off their leaves...

And I saw a squirrel in my yard a couple days ago.

I do believe he used my garden as his buffet line.

*sigh*

Not much I can do about it...

Only about half my plants are doing well, the other half are doing ok.
I don't quite get enough sunshine in my backyard, so the beans are alittle thin and the lettuce isn't growing as fast as it should.

But the potatoes are super tall! And my tomatoes have beautiful green fruits hanging from their branches :D

Waiting for sunshine...

Which we should get this weekend.

YAY!

- Deb

(UPDATE! I have since learned that there are mice feasting in my little garden as well... but that's ok. they eat the weeds too :) )

The Garden is Up and Growing!

Spinach up, check.
Lettuce up, check.
Beans up, check.
Peas up, check.
Carrots up, check. (though some silly person ended up planting them all in a clump...i still dont know how that happened...)
Beets up, check.
Onions up, check.
Potatoes up, check.
Tomatoes planted and making fruit, check!

YAY! by the end of July I should be able to start getting a nice little haul out of my garden plot.

There was thunderstorms and big fat raindrops and a little bit of hail yesterday evening... my spinach has thus been pinned to the dirt and the lettuce looks a little beaten, but I see a full recovery in their future. The rest of the garden was none the worse for wear this morning.

Here's some pics of my upcoming bounty :)

Almost ready to eat!

The fat raindrops and a touch of hail flattened my spinach... but it'll recover.

Mmmmmmm... peas :)

Tops of the onions growing high to the sunshine! And some wicked tall (in need of larger hills...) potatoes in the background.

Fresh beans are one of my favorite summer treats!


My sister Kristy and our aunt attended the Summer Mushroom course last weekend. Ate puffballs and whatnot :) We'd all like to take the Fall course as well, but it wasn't on the list yet when we were registering and now it's all full up... next year maybe...

Nelson of Rose Ridge Land and Cattle is attending a Market at the Edmonton Garrison tomorrow. Londyn and I will make a stop there to sample some wares on our way out to see my parents for the long weekend. Mmmmmmm, farmer's market goodies...

- DJK

My Garden Plot

My little garden plot was finished a couple wks ago now... the frame was filled with soil and the seeds were planted.
There's potatoes, beans, peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce, beets and onions.
As well as some transplanted full grown tomato plants from the Strathcona Farmer's Market :)

The spinach is the first to come up! :D


Isn't cute?? :)

My compost bin is also completed and in use. No smell, as all good compost bins/piles should be lol
It's quite large. I'm hoping it'll last through the summer and winter no problem, breaking down and shrinking as it goes....

Now all that needs to happen is bright sunshine, but not too hot, during the day, and lovely rain all night for gardens everywhere to grow! :D

Are you eating local yet?

Spring has finally come to Edmonton!
We had a bit of a rough start with more snow than usual over the winter and a cooler than normal spring, but most of the snow is gone and the sun is shining bright :)

I'm taking the Spring Mushroom course through the Devonian Botantical Gardens May28th with my Aunt and Sister. It is now full, so if you haven't signed up by now you're out of luck.

My family and I went out to the Strathcona Farmer's Market this morning. We walked/squeezed our way through the crowds of people (spring fever? I think so!), sampled goodies from the stalls and bought a carrot cake (the sample was REALLY good! The cake didn't disappoint.)

I've been interested in Lamb lately. One of my favorite FoodNetwork shows is Jamie at Home. He's always cooking and really enjoying it! When I look for it at the grocery stores there's hardly ever any selection and the price is always ridiculous. So, when I found a vendor at the market that does ONLY lamb, I grabbed a pamphlet and checked out their site when I got home.
Farm Fresh Lamb
I sent them a msg asking the price on a whole lamb and what age they take the lamb for slaughter.

I'll let you know what I find out.

For all you gardeners, Bedrock Environmental Services Ltd. has a wide selection of native flowers, grasses, shrubs, etc for Alberta.
Just one more way to go LOCAL!

Thoughts of Spring Run Through My Head...

Let's start with a link from Canadian Living website on...
Wild Edibles in Canada

If you're a mushroom fan, like my family :), then you better sign up with the Devonian Gardens just south of Edmonton for one (or BOTH!) of their mushroom courses.
Mike Schulz is hosting a Spring Mushrooms May 28th, and a Summer Mushrooms June 25th. Both are already starting to fill up!

We moved to a new townhouse this fall, with our baby girl Londyn. This one has enough green space that I can have a garden! yay!!
I've already started planning what I want to grow (peppers, tomatoes, herbs, strawberries, onions, garlic, beans, radishes, turnips, lettuce, potatoes, corn, squash, pumpkin, beets... ) and how to build my planters.
Not everything will go in ground planters, some I'm planning for pots. My herbs I want to do in pots on a stand that I can move inside during winter so I can have them all year round. I even have a spot picked out in the living room for it :)

If you've read any previous posts you know that we're using cloth diapers. It's so easy I don't know why more people don't use them. As long as you have a washer and dryer at your disposal (we do a small load a day) then you save SO much $$$$$!
I decided to use Mother-Ease diapers. It's a Canadian company that is owned and manufactured out of Ontario. The styles and colours are great and I haven't had any problems with them leaking. Londyn is now just over 4months old.

Nelson and Maria at Rose Ridge Land and Cattle have invited us out for coffee and a tour of the farm this spring, right when all the calves are running around and Londyn will be old enough to be excited about it. She already loves to "pet" our kitten, Miss Harley Quinn. By the time we're out at the farm she'll be 7 or 8 months old and ready to explore, in her own special way from Daddy's arms lol

And that's all for now, as I watch more snow fall upon Edmonton, adding to the pile we got last week. I hope that means lots of moisture for the fields this spring... :)