Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Veggie Garden update & we got a new 2nd plot!!!


The community garden is growing beyond our expectations:

lettuces & pak choy

'Lettuce' eat salad!

These happy greens are:
Romaine (the 4 big ones)
& left to right
Pak Choy & Butter Lettuce (very left)
Brunia (the babies) West Coast Seeds
mixed lettuce (butter, leafy green...)
Merlot (also West Coast Seeds)
& in the back, spinach, carrots, 'n' Super Sweet Peas!
(with green onions as a companion plant)

All that digging & amending & tending
is paying off in crunchy harvests.

Hard to believe that it used to be this...
Garden Before

Then we spent some time amending soil
and planted some seeds
&
then it looked like this....

Garden During

When things popped up a little,
it started to look like this...

Garden During 2

now it's flourishing into
this
!
Garden During 3

I can't wait until we can pick fresh sweet peas!
(It's been years since I've tasted one, you?)

And guess what else we are awaiting?
Wee baby grapes:

baby grapes

(We've heard that they'll grow up to be tasty red eating grapes) :)

And we're celebrating another delightful thing
that we never dreamed was possible:
we got a second plot this year!

Normally, we'd have to wait until next year to
get another plot at our community garden
(if there was one available)
but
this one needed a little immediate loving:

2nd plot greenhouse BEFORE

It had an over-sized 7 foot greenhouse that was
shading the neighbours veggies out.
&
Guess what menace lived in that greenhouse?

weeds trying to get out

Man-Eating 14 foot weeds!!!

(That's a dose of hyperbole, of course...
but only a little. The weeds were taller than us!) ;)

I swear they were trying to get out of there:

2nd plot BEFORE

If you look closely, you can see the little ropes
that the weeds have rigged up on the
roof of the green house:

weeds getting ready to climb the rope & escape

They were planning on swinging out of there! I just know it. ;)

Methinks they were trying to take over the world:

2nd plot weedy BEFORE

But we fixed their wagon:

2nd plot DURING

(Well, we're working on it...)

No more greenhouse thanks to our fab Neighbourhood Rep Jim.
And we've made a fair bit of progress.
C's sister, Denise, is helping us out. She's amazing!
We're going back this afternoon to continue
placing & filling the raised beds we built.

Can't wait to show you some more leafy green after pics, in the fall. :0)

Well off to go dig dirt!
Hope your day is a delight,

15 comments:

Sandie said...

Oh, you have made me so reminiscent about the plot we had for two years. I loved growing all the veg and thinking ways of using it all. Sadly the farmer who owned the land died at Christmas and though his son has carried on the plots, the spirit was lost and because we were so busy with life changes (new job, new baby in the family) we reluctantly gave it up last month. I have got some things growing in big containers but I miss my allotment. Your crops look amazing. I had raised beds too. They are so more effective.

C said...

Awesome wonderfulness! Lucky you to be able to grow in the summer. We have to wait until fall to get started here in the sub tropical South.

Great job!!

Loki Made It said...

you are so lucky to get your plot to work so well for you. i have a large back yard but between the possums and the cockies i never have any veges left! (i live in OZ) i wish i had an electric fence!LOL!

Terry said...

Mel....this is absolutely amazing!!
Good for you and hubby.....
I know you will have that 2nd lot up and bloomin' soon.
Keep us updated Girl.

Rufus said...

Mmmmmmmmmm, I can almost taste that salad! Yum! My lettuce never looks like that, deer or other critters tend to get it first.
R/

Pat (mspfd) said...

Wow, all that hard work has paid off. what gorgeous greens. Bet they are delicious. Can't wait to see what your new plot has in store!

Karou said...

hummmm elles ont l'air super bonnes ses salades, quel beau jardin

Holly Saveur said...

Those veggies look very tasty!
have fun with your second plot...maybe some fruits..like raspberry's and strawberry's...courgette's are so easy to grow too.

Dawn said...

awesome, Mel! I'm tickled for you!!

Annapurna said...

Great Job on getting out and doing something healthy for the mind and body!!
It takes a lot of experience to figure out how far apart to plant those seeds, doesn't it?

Kim Etherington said...

Lovely veggies. You are so talented. I wish I liked gardening.

Crafting Queen said...

Wow, well done!! Your veg looks amazing.

Priscilla said...

Your veges look Yummy. Wish I could have a garden but there are too many critters hanging out here to compete with!
Enjoy

Margie said...

Well done Mel - your plot looks fantastic and I'm sure your new plot will soon be the same. Nothing quite like the taste of stuff you've grown yourself!

malia said...

wow what a delicious looking garden... and your blog is adorable ( -: