The End Of The Garden

 So today the summer has officially ended.  I've pulled out my garden.  The tomato plants froze the other night when we got our first frost of the season.  So sad!!!  All in all it was a fantastic growing season.

Now the planning begins for next year's garden.  It really helped to plant marigolds in with the other vegetables to keep out the bugs.  I didn't have to use any insecticide at all.  I grew a totally organic garden.  I think it helped to have it slightly raised to keep out the animals because there were no instances of animals attacking the plants.

So to keep my readers coming back over the winter I will post recipes from my personal collection.  So if anyone has any recipes they'd like to share please feel free to do so.

September 23 - Only Tomatoes Left

It is so sad that the latest gardening season has nearly come to an end.  The only thing lift that is still growing in my garden is the tomatoes.  The plants have gotten so big and heavy that they tipped over the tomato cages.  We have had the best crop in the 44 years that I have been growing a garden.  The hanging strawberry plants are still producing a few strawberries as well.

To all of the kind people who have come to view my blog thank you.  Not to worry, I will still put up posts during the winter months.  But instead of gardening news I will post some of our favourite recipes.  If you have any requests kindly let me know.  If you have any gardening questions please also leave me a message.  I will be more than happy to answer them for you.

August 26th - A Ton Of Tomatoes & A Recipe

I have never picked so many tomatoes from my garden ever.  The plants are so big and hearty.  Just about everything else is now finished but the tomatoes are going strong.  The broccoli is also still growing as well as are the cucumbers.  The peas have just about finished.

I am going to post another recipe for you to make should you be interested.

Non-Dairy Broccoli Soup

1 whole broccoli (cut up - use the stem as well as the florets)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 small onion (chopped)
1/3 cup of flour
5 1/2 cups of water
2 tsp chicken soup powder
1/4 teaspoon of seasoning salt
2 potatoes
pepper to taste

Boil potatoes and broccoli in 5 1/2 cups of water.  Save water when done as this will be your soup base.  Add chicken soup powder.  Sautee onion and celery just until soft and add to pot.  Add seasoning salt and pepper.  With a hand blender blend soup until it is the consistency that you want.  In a small bowl combine flour and boiling water and whisk until blended into thin paste.  Whisk slowing into soup.  If the soup is too thick add a little extra water until desired consistency.

August 14th - Last Of The Zucchini

 It's a sad day, we used the last of our zucchinis but on a happier note we made a zucchini chocolate chip walnut loaf out of it.  It's the same recipe as the muffins below but you bake it for 55 minutes in two loaf pans.  The reason that I used two loaf pans is that I doubled the recipe as I had way more than one cup of zucchini.  When the time is up, check the doneness with a wooden toothpick.  It may need more time.

We've had more than enough rain now and the garden is once again very lush.  One small problem is that the cherry tomatoes are splitting as they are ripening too quickly and some of the large Roma tomatoes have bottom rot from too much rain.  You just can't win.

The peas and cucumbers are now doing much better as well since it's cooler.  It's in the 70's instead of the upper 90's.  A much needed relief for all of us.  The upside down tomatoes that we thought were dead, it turns out that they've actually started to grow again.  I'm not sure if they will ever produce a tomato or not but we shall see.

I am in the process of cross pollinating two different kinds of strawberry plants.  The hybrid is just starting to bloom so we shall see how it tastes.  That's all for now!

Just out of curiosity would you like me to post some more recipes?  If you happen by this site kindly let me know.  I would be more than happy to post recipes or answer gardening questions.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Zucchini Recipe - August 1st

 Yesterday we had a nasty storm that brought way too much rain with lots of thunder and lightening.  My zucchini plants were floating after just an hour and now a few of them have died.  But the tomato plants are doing fantastic right now.  These are just a few of them.  The larger ones are Roma tomatoes, then there are Roma cherry tomatoes and then Sweet Millions are the small cherry tomatoes.

Here is what one does when they have way too many zucchinis all coming at the same time.  You make some yummy muffins.  So far we've made the muffins, latkas and then just grilled them on the BBQ.  So for your zucchini enjoyment, I will pass along a really easy muffin recipe.



Debbie's Zucchini Muffin Recipe
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of shredded zucchini
3/4 cups of sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice (optional)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped walnuts and 1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Put all of the dry ingredients together in one bowl.  Put all of the liquid ingredients into a separate bowl.  Then add them together and stir just enough to mix everything together.  Do not stir too much, the batter should look lumpy.  Then bake for 20 minutes. Test to make sure they are done with a toothpick.  It should come out cleanly.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!!!

Tomato Time Has Arrived - July 27th

I came home this evening after our big rain storm and found that all of the tomato plants had beautiful red tomatoes on them.  By tomorrow we will have a ton more.  I think all the plants needed were cooler temperatures and lots of rain.

Unfortunately our zucchini plants seem to be not doing very well.  I think the end is near for them.  Oh well they did a very good job and gave us many huge zucchinis.

July 25th - Salad From The Garden

 For dinner tonight we had a salad with the cucumbers and tomatoes from our garden.  I also made some chocolate chip and nut zucchini muffins.  They came out so good.  I also made a zucchini and mushroom ratatouille.  It was really good too.

Here are my very first cucumbers.  They are kind of small and I can't find the tag to find out what kind they are.

Here are my Roma tomatoes.  There are baby Romas and regular size ones as well.

What To Eat For Dinner?

So we had come home early from our vacation and needed to have something for dinner but we hadn't gone grocery shopping yet...what to do?  I went out to the garden and picked some broccoli, peas, cherry tomatoes and a zucchini and made a really nice dinner from the food in our garden.  I have to tell you, broccoli that is freshly picked sure tastes very different from the crap you buy in the grocery store.  It just tastes so much better.  Everything does.  I realize now that the fruit and veggies you buy at the store don't have a nice fresh taste.  It has no taste.  I'm sure most of the nutritional value is also gone by the time we buy it and eat it.

July 15th - Things I Harvested

 This summer's heat has not let up for even a day.  It's been well into the 30's for two months straight now with very little rain.  I've had to water the garden every night just to keep it healthy.  As you can see here my broccoli is doing extremely well.  This morning I picked a whole crown and we will eat it on Monday.

 The peas are just starting to grow and they seem to be a weird shape.  I thought we had planted snow peas but they look more like broad beans instead.  I think next year I'm going to use another company's seeds as this brand isn't reliable.

 The cherry tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and there will be a lot of them.  The Roma tomatoes are also just starting to turn from dark green to yellow.  Any day now we will have a lot of tomatoes.

 Here you an see two of the zucchinis I picked this morning, the broccoli, peas and cherry tomatoes.  I'm not sure if the cucumbers are going to do well or not.  Right now I think it is just too hot and dry for them to do well.

July 7th - Friends Visit Wolk Farm

This is Xavier who has one of our zucchinis that is almost bigger than he is and also a little broccoli.

Here is Whitney, Xavier and Quinn visiting the garden.  Gardens are a great way for kids to learn where their food comes from.

July 6th Our First Zucchini & Cherry Tomato

 As you can see we've picked the first of the zucchinis.  There are a ton more out there just waiting to be harvested.  I'm pulling out all of the zucchini recipes that I have.  If anyone has a favourite recipe that they want to share please send me a post.

 Here is a photo of the Wolk farm.  Everything is doing so well right now.

 All of the broccoli plants now have broccoli on them.

 I am so happy here is the first cherry tomato that has ripened.  There are a ton more to come.

 Our cucumber plant is starting to flower and there are tiny little cucumbers on the plants.  YAY!!!!!

Here is our strawberry plant.  As you can see we should have a strawberry ready to eat by tomorrow.

June 28th update we have zucchini

 So here we have our happy Hosta plants that have some really pretty flowers.

 We are going to have a ton of zucchinis on all of our plants.  At least this year we bought the correct kind.  None of those Italian zucchini that grow like weeds, flower and then don't give me any zucchinis.

 Here are the cucumbers.  We finally found some and they seem to be doing nicely.  Cross your fingers that we will get some this year.

 You can see the peas have started to do much better.  They seem to be growing very slowly for some reason.

 Here you can see some of my little Roma cherry tomatoes that are just starting to go from green to yellow.

 Here is a brand new strawberry plant that is doing so well.  It seems to like it's new home.

Here is our upside down tomato plant that isn't doing very well.  I really didn't think that growing plants upside down was a good idea but I just had to give it a try.  You just never know unless you try.  Epic fail!!!

Extra Triple Mix

When we installed our new shed we needed an emergency delivery of rocks to help level the paving stones.  Angelo's Garden Centre wouldn't just send us a few rocks we had to get a whole truck full (which we didn't need).  So instead we got them to give us half stones and half triple mix.  So last night in the middle of a heat wave, I carefully added the extra triple mix to the garden and all of the planters on our property.  By the time I was done I was totally exhausted.  At least our shed builder who is also a farmer was very impressed with my garden.  YAY!!!

Eating Our 1st Broccoli

 June 19th - Today I picked my very first broccoli.  I figured it was time to pick it as it started to flower.  It didn't exactly go as planned because as I was cutting it with a knife I seriously cut my finger.  Boy does it ever throb.  I flat out refuse to get stitches.  Yes folks I'm a great big chicken!!!

Here I am eating the cooked broccoli.  Talk about eating locally.  You can't get any more local than your own backyard.  It just tastes so much better than the crap from the store and there are no chemicals in my garden.  It gives a new meaning to just add water.

June 16th

 Well once again thank you for joining me for my adventures in the garden and around the house.  Sadly this may be the last year for my Queen Ann rose bush.  It seems to be dying off for some reason.  I've only got one lone rose left, but it is a beauty.

 Here we see two different kinds of very happy Hosta plants that are just about to flower.





Here are the cucumber plants that I finally managed to find.  Let's just hope they do better than last year.

 We've got the very first zucchini flowers on some of the plants.  I can just see the very tiny start of the zucchinis.  They are about the size of my baby finger.

The broccoli is growing a bit bigger.  One can only hope that the amazing growing weather will keep up for the entire summer.  I've been feeding the plants lots of water and some Miracle Grow and turning the soil often.

June 10th Progress

 So today is June 10th and it's extremely hot out.  The garden is going amazing.  Here you see some of my strawberries.  I think the birds have eaten more than we have but the taste is so sweet!!!

 Neal is holding some of the freshly picked spinach that really tastes great!!!  I mean how much more healthy can you get than this.

 On the side you can see some of the flowers on one of the many tomato plants.  I think, if all goes well we will have a lot of tomatoes.

Here you can see the start of a tiny broccoli just starting to grow.  The other 3 plants don't have anything yet....cross your fingers that they will soon though.

I don't have a photo yet, but my dark green Hosta plant is just about to flower.  It's all very exciting!!!  I will post photos when the big days happens.

June Garden Update

 After 3 days of heavy rain, everything looks really colourful and lush.  Neal's flowers are in full bloom as you can see here.

 My two Hosta plants are doing amazing.  They've more than doubled in size since I planted them two years ago.

 After the rain storm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the cooler temperatures the garden is doing amazing.  I gave it a little Miracle Grow just before the storm started and the broccoli has doubled in size and there are some flowers on some of my tomato plants.  The zucchini plants are really doing well.  The peas have just started to come up along the right side and back wall.  Still no cucumber plants but I will keep looking.

These are the pink roses.  I'm sorry to say the Queen Ann rose bush beside them seem to be dying off and I'm not sure why.  Maybe they're an old plant or maybe something is wrong with it.  There is only one branch left.