Garden Update!

Well we are finally past potential frost dates, and have all my plants outside!

The potatoes in the tower have all sprouted and are looking good:

We took chicken wire and zip tied it into a cylinder. We lined the bottom with garden fabric and tied it to the sides of the chicken wire.
The tower was filled with approx 8 inches of organic top soil and we planted the seed potatoes in the soil, then mulched the top with straw. After about 10-14 days, we began to see sprouts!

We also planted some potatoes in a mound in the ground, which seem to be growing a bit slower. There is only one bush of sprouts.

All of the peas have sprouted and are doing great!

The beans have sprouted but are going just a bit slow this year, and the zucchini is in the ground but we haven't had much sun since we put them in so they are a bit slow right now too.

The zucchini on the left was started a few weeks earlier. The ones on the right are growing slow!

Peonies and Green onions are growing like crazy though!













The rhubarb transplant took well and is growing well also.

I bought a blueberry plant and will plant it in a few days. I'm very excited, as I've wanted one for quite a while! I will update once I've got it in the ground. I have learned I should protect it with a net of some sort as the birds like the berries!

And last, here is a photo of my peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse. I leave the flap open most days. The tomatoes will need to move soon to the ground or bigger pots!

DIY Greenhouse and small Kitchen decor

I made a very simple DIY greenhouse for my tomatoes (and maybe peppers) this summer! I took a cheap wooden utility shelf that I found free on kijiji (craigslist equivalent in canada) and bought two plastic drop sheets from the dollar store. I did take two of the shelves out in my greenhouse to give more vertical room for my tomatoes. I ended up not having tacks or a staple gun, so the plastic was attached with packing tape! It has held up quite well, and it only cost me $3 to make.

 Here's the finished product, minus the front flap:

For the front flap I took two screw hooks and put them in at the top of the shelf, hooked the plastic on each one, and it draped down over the front. 

It's worked very well for the last part of May, where we still have cooler nights and sometime danger of frost.

For a small kitchen decor project, I had some small red peppers saved from last summer that were dried out. I am going to try and grind some into a pepper powder, but also used some for this little project.
I took a few of the dried peppers and arranged them on the glass of a picture frame and closed it up. Quick, easy framed kitchen picture... dried peppers! It would really work with any dried item. It is harder with thicker items as the frame may not close well.