ORC Week #3 – Vegetable Garden

This week I’m sharing some vegetable garden progress. I’ve been dabbling in growing vegetables and flowers for a few years and every summer I try to learn something new, however my knowledge is still very basic.

These are some of the doube early and parrot tulips that I planted in the fall. I filled one planter bed with about 100 tulips bulbs plus I tried adding some garlic too. In the springtime I love to be able to cut flowers from the garden before planting vegetables.

One thing I learned the hard way before is to leave the tulip leaves until they turn yellow. As tempting as it is to tidy up the leaves they are needed to feed the bulb for the next year, otherwise there will be no flowers the next year.

Now that the tulips are almost done I’ve added some spinach where there were some gaps and I direct sowed some kale seeds as well.

Spinach is supposed to do better in cooler weather so I put some here in one corner of the box with the tulips (I still have to paint this side of the planter).

This is about one week after putting the seeds directly into the soil. I figure I have the seeds left and the space so we’ll see what happens. Growing from seed was a first this year and while it was exciting to watch them grow throughout March and April indoors, they haven’t been very successful.

I ended up turning to store bought these seedlings to get a jump start on the limited growing season in Canada. I definitely have a new appreciation for farmers and growers.

These are the seedlings from the nursery first planted.

Now the swiss chard and kale are filling in. I painted these raised beds with dirt in them so it wasn’t the best job but it’s better than they were before.

Also these chives came back from last year, somethingI didn’t know they did. This kale made it through winter and now we’re hoping that these flowers will turn to seed.

A reminder of what the yard looked like last summer.

Back in the early days at our previous home I would plant kale, swiss chard and brussel sprouts in the gaps between the limelight hydrangeas and cedar hedge that I planted. The trees were small enough that there were still big enough gaps between them to let enough sun in.

We also had success with planting zucchini in random spots in the yard too…like this giant one below!

So if you have an outdoor space but don’t have planters maybe there’s somewhere you could plant directly in the ground. Swiss chard and kale are so easy.

Swiss Chard in September, grown beside a cedar hedge.

 

Next week I will have some advice from my friend Isabelle of Paradise Herbs here to give some tips for growing. She has recently set up a farm in the Slocan Valley BC where they promote self-sufficient living and sell culinary & medicinal herbs.

Last summer Isabelle was visiting for a girls weekend here and suggested getting the overgrown mint out of the raised bed in our yard. That idea prompted me to move it into my front hanging baskets where it can no longer spread out of control – plus it means staying home and using what we already have.

To see what everyone else has been working on for the One Room Challenge click here.

 

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Fall ORC – Week 3

Lighting

Lighting has been the biggest change in this room so far. I finally replaced the builder basic light with a statement one. Since the rest of the room is going to be mainly white and yellow I wanted to create a focal point with the light fixture. My plan was to use this bucket style pendant light and adjust the length to the shortest I could possibly make it.

This is what the light looked like with the original long cord and below are photos of it in the room after it had been shortened.

Since this was the only change made to the room since last week, here’s a view of the light from all different angles.

A reminder of what the room looked like before.

This weekend we’re planning to buy a secondhand bunk bed. I’ve been searching for one for months without luck so hopefully this one works out! If not, we aren’t in a huge rush which helps when you’re looking for a specific secondhand piece.

 

Progress in other rooms from the One Room Challenge can be seen here in One Room Challenge Week 3.

One Room Challenge – Weeks 2 & 3

Last post for the One Room Challenge, I shared photos of what our yard looks like and how I plan to build a planter box and trellis to create some privacy. Since this project is all about building one structure, I’ve been working on the design and finalizing measurements before getting the wood. I printed off a photo of the backyard area that I’ll be making the planter for and drew my measurements on tracing paper. Seeing the trellis grid drawn out helped me visualize the final details and figure out measurements.

A lot of the plans I have for our current yard are based on our previous home in Montreal that reminded us of a secret garden. The previous owners had built a pergola and trellises that filled in with grape vines during the summer.

I liked the large squares which I plan to base my trellis on. The dark grey, semi-transparent stain held up over the winters.
We’re still a long way from getting this much privacy in our current yard but the trellis will be a start.
The weather here is still cool and rainy so hopefully next week I can start building.

 

The progress of the other 200 plus participants can be seen here.