Tomatoes and Butterflies

The cute cover of my bullet journal for 2020 inspired by Shayda Campbell beautiful designs   Instead of considering winter a sad season I actually appreciate the downtime. No more rushing to the front and backyard to check plants, water them if needed, weed, harvest, take care of pests, reseed. It is what makes the prolific growing season rather exciting, I know. But it can be tiring if not graced with a lovely season of cozy tea cups and blanket on my lap, rejoicing in the results of the past year and dreaming of the next season. This year somehow I stumbled upon doodling and painting and drawing and we know how the internet is: one thing leads to another and I discovered bullet journaling. I know it existed, I never thought of myself a fan of it. But I guess it is because I had never seen it as an activity for marrying both planning AND creativity together. Not only thinking about the design of the bullet journal we want to make, but actually executing the drawings and do...

Ah, the sweetness of carrots pulled off the ground in the cold season! Especially as some snow starts to accumulate on the ground, making the days whiter and the carrot tops so apparent, somewhat crystallized, mildly flopped. A treat for someone like me, raised in a southern country, who never ate sweet carrots her entire life. Well, in our Quebec reality, though, there comes a time, usually in November, where the ground is frozen solid a good half feet, until it finally freezes for several feet. Getting to my carrots then starts to become an impossible enterprise. This year was rather "funny": harsh and cold temperatures in November and milder weather in December.  I knew in early November I had to start a remediation plan for the remaining carrots. Some of the harvest went straight into packets in the fridge, where we would consume them in the following two or three weeks following. Our carrot bed was not a massive success this year, but it did yi...

One of the seeds company I really like in this Canada of ours  is Veseys . Proudly Canadian now celebrating 80 years, they have quality seeds and many articles to help in the garden, from the weekend gardener to the farmer. What is so impressive is their quality, their legacy... and they are actually rather small in absolute size, but not in operations! This summer, while traveling through Prince Eduard Island I had the pleasure to go in person to the place that feeds my passion. I got to walk through the islands of seeds, checkout a few products I wanted to see in person, wander through their gardens and just dream of flowers and nature while away from my own garden. Veseys store Their flower trial gardens are just in front of the main building and boy, are they colorful!!!   Who does not like blue flowers? What a treat! These delphiniums are absolutely out of the ordinary with such bright blue petals. There is no photo enhancement wha...

At this time of the year, mid October, most of us living in the Northertn Hemisphere have no doubt that we have hit fall. I have to admit that here in the Laurentians, Quebec, it is only starting to feel like fall. Despite some very cold days and nights in early September, the weather bounced back and actually during the day it gets sunny and warm, with temperatures around 16 Celsius! The nights are cool but we have had only 3 frost advisory, 2 that actually happened. It ended up being a merry warm season for of us. There is a mild inconvenience in all this, which is the fact that I planted things in August that actually bolted due to unexpected warm and dry weather, like my spinach and arugula. My garlic went in first week of October and as it seems so far, I would consider that too early! Some of the 12 varieties planted this year throughout my garden When is fall? It really is something to be regarded locally: when fall starts for you, how long does that last and wh...

They say everybody should have a child, write a book and plant a tree! While the first two might not be as straightforward and available to everybody, the last one, plant a tree, most certainly is. You might participate in activities in your community, be it in a garden or park, you might have friends or family who are planting an orchard or replacing a tree or even join a plant nursery as volunteer work. amelanchier canadensis getting acquainted to its new home Everybody should plant at least one tree in their life time. That would account for 7 billion trees. Not too bad! Inspired yet? the beautiful bark of my amelanchier I am! And I have the pleasure of planting a lovely native tree in my yard. FOR MY BIRTHDAY! What a beautiful present I got. Native to Canada and most importantly, Eastern Canada and Quebec, the tree is called Amelanchier Canadensis and it is gorgeous and useful. The tree is beautiful in all its entirety. The bark of a young tree is of a love...

Summer is a great time for vacations! All that sun, warmth, beautiful scenery is everywhere. It is also a great time for gardening: we are either succession planting or harvesting, processing our goods or eating them fresh. We might be dealing with the awful pests that like us adore the heat of the sun. We might even be preparing for the fall plantings if it is late summer! What to do if we need to take summer vacations? It never really dawned on me until I decided to become a suburban homesteader. I had not realized, before booking my first summer vacation, that I would have to do something to guarantee I would come back to a garden that resisted my absence. After three successful trips of different durations, here are some of my strategies to deal with the stress of leaving my green babies unattended. Mulch Raised bed, in-ground rows or pots, all benefit from mulching in the summer. The soil will be hot enough and placing mulch on top will: Prevent water evaporation in hot ...

Between July and August I have one of the happiest moments of all in my gardening life: harvesting garlic. The beautiful plants are now less vigorous and clearly signalling hidden gems await buried under the soil. Hands down, garlic is my single most beloved crop. I love to cook with it, I love its shape, the colours, the smell, the taste. I love planting it, I love seeing it poke through the soil as one of the earliest signs of life in spring. It is a beautiful once it is stored somewhere, be it braided, in baskets, wherever. I mean, just google it and see for yourself! Be used to just have some of your garlic lying around and ready to cook! My first garlic attempt was on fall 2017 and I had built a brand new raised bed, 2 feet in height, and garlic was the plant to open the season on that bed, being planted in late October. I planted a shy amount or Wrenglers Russian and Inchellium Red, from Boundary Garlic Farm . They are extremely specialized offering a great variety,...

Earwigs , like eathworms, are a big help in converting decaying matter. They specialize in what is above the soil though, eating older leaves and thin stems, dying parts of plants. But also like slugs and coackroaches they can be pests. Here in my area they ARE pests, as we have them in big numbers, which means that they turn their eye to anything they can then eat: seedlings, new growth in mature vegetables, flowers. You can imagine the damage when they destroy a perfect healthy cucumber flower of when you beautiful baby beets that sprouted two days ago just disappeared. They literally eat plants to the ground in a few days, or should I say, in a few nights. Earwigs have been here! Napa cabbage, a favorite amongst slugs, earwigs and flea beetles Like slugs, they are nocturnal. Like slugs, they chomp away big parts of the plant in a raggedy fashion, so it is actually hard to know which culprit you have in your garden until you inspect, at night, with some sort of light. ...

Summer arrived late this year, but is no less tasty! And I also grow potatoes, onion, peppers, all sorts of greens and herbs and a bunch of other stuff. Sometimes I actually just let them grow, like the wild raspberries and strawberries we find everywhere in our backyard. Sometimes I grow plants out of curiosity, like the bee blend flower in one of my planters; out of desire to preserve natural landscaping, like the microclover on our lawn; and sometimes to join my husband in his journey of beer-crafting, like when we planted hops. Monarch-to-be chomping away our milkweed This year we got lucky and registered 8 monarch caterpillars in our very tentative, modest milkweed patch. And 2 black swallowtails in one of our many parsley plants. Not too shabby! It is not without its challenges, though. And it is really an act of devotion to establish a garden as a tiny ecosystem and have it grow to be bountiful and healthy. We are a suburban family and all this is done in our ...