Feeling a little under the weather today, so what to do?
Write a blog post of course.
With all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season it's hard to take time for yourself and make sure that you're rested and well taken care of. I think I got a little run down and behold, a cold.
But then again it's a small price to pay for what I got to do this holiday season. Through my family and my co-workers we adopted two families for Christmas this year, which means we help to make their Christmas a little brighter. We all know that hard times can fall onto anyone and at any time. My husband and I don't have any children of our own so it was pretty fun to go shopping for all these little people, 7 of them in total ranging from 4 to 13. I do have a question though, what's with the monster high dolls???? They're kinda creepy, lol. But that's all the kids want these days.
One of the best things about adopting these families has been spending time with our own family. Going shopping together and having a wrapping party to wrap all the presents, which to me is what Christmas is all about. Spending time with family and friends.
So to all of you, have a very safe, healthy and happy holiday season and may the New Year bring much more love, health and happiness!
And on a side note my Amaryllis has started to open up!!
I am so happy with my Aqua Farm! Everything is working excactly as stated, and Perseus (the fish) is doing great.
As you can see I have nice growth on my wheat grass and my lettuce, cilantro and basil are coming up too. My dill is a little behind but I can start to see the seeds split as well. I love this little fish tank.
Perseus is quite the little show off, he loves to flash his gorgeous fins at you when you walk by. I'm thinking of maybe adding a little snail at some point, but for now quite content just watching Perseus swim around!
Happy Sunday everyone!
I finally got my tree, and she is a beauty! I love having a real tree, I almost broke down and got a fake tree but just couldn't do it.
I just love the smell of a real tree! Luckily my husband agrees and said if we are going to have a tree we're going to have a real one.
We picked up our Fraser Fir yesterday and let it thaw out in the garage, it smelled so good when we got home today, I couldn't wait to set it up.
I got all my decorations out and went nuts, listening to Christmas music and dancing in my living room. Great fun!!
Hopefully this year my tree lasts longer, we got a grand fir last year and it started dying very quickly. A couple of years ago a got the Fraser fir and it lasted all season, hoping this one will do the same. They drink a lot in the first couple of days so I have to make sure it always has water.
I had a lot of fun decorating this year and I think it worked out pretty good!
Hope you have a very wonderful and safe holiday season!
I picked up my very own Aqua Farm today!!!
I've been looking at this thing for at least a year now, I saw it once on a twitter or FB post and thought it was one of the coolest things ever!
I had been keeping my eyes on it and couldn't wait until it was available in Canada, and now it is. You can get them on amazon.ca or at Pet Valu stores, I got mine at Pet Valu today.
Here is the link for Amazon.
http://www.amazon.ca/Back-Roots-Aqua-Farm-3600gm/dp/B00CN52TRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417401832&sr=8-1&keywords=aquafarm
Or here is the Pet Valu Website
http://www.petvalu.com/
I've had a couple of Beta fish in my life but never have I been able to grow food at the same time, this thing is so awesome. I love the idea of this little ecosystem, and growing food at the same time as raising a little fish is so amazing to me. The tank is a nice size for a beta and the growing trays on top are well laid out. I love the entire design, my only tiny complaint (and I wouldn't even call it a complaint) is that the top is white. There might be a purpose as to why it's white, but when dealing with plants or anything really I'm not a fan of white. There is no dirt however so the white might not even be an issue in the end :)
There is no light that comes with it but that lets you decide how you want to light it, I bought a string of battery powered lights and taped them to the back of the tank for in the evening. Turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself.
Perseus (the fish) is doing well in his new home and I can't wait to see what starts growing. I planted the organic basil and wheat grass that comes with the tank and also added dill, cilantro and lettuce. I'm so excited to finally have this thing in my house! It's so perfect for those winter blues! If you want to know more about the Aqua Farm here is the Back to Roots link.
https://www.backtotheroots.com/
Good night everyone and happy indoor gardening!!
I planted some more herbs this week, it's amazing how quickly you miss gardening when the snow starts to fly.
I really want to have my own fresh herbs for the winter, I know I'm a little late starting them now but better late then never :)
I have to get into the habit of starting herbs continueously so that I always have a fresh crop, so far I haven't done that. I will grow a batch feel very proud of myself, eat it and then I'm like "now what?" Then I have to wait another 60-70 days before the next harvest is ready.
Most things I've read suggest two week intervals so hopefully I'm going to give that a try, I'm thinking even if I can start a batch once every month that would be sufficient.
So I started from seed, basil, parsley, fern dill, cilantro, oregano, tiny tim tomato and transplanted thyme and rosemary.
I'm excited to see what happens, instead of starting them in starter mix and transplanting I decided to just grow them in potting soil and leave them in those pots until a eat it. Only the tomatoes I will transplant.
I'm going to fertilize regularly this year with organic fertilizer, I haven't in the past when I started thing indoors and I do believe my plants suffered for it. I will still add the epson salts, worm castings and egg shells but will also fertilize when watering every two weeks or so. Hopefully that will help.
Well time to listen to a little Christmas music and get some house cleaning done :)
Happy indoor gardening!
It was a beautiful day today, and my husband bought me a gorgeous Christmas cactus. I've always wanted one and when I saw this beauty in the local nursery today he picked it up for me.
I'm feeling better about the winter for now, lol. I know that it has just begun but I've set up my light garden for my transplants and with this gorgeous cactus blooming I don't feel so bad.
My amaryllis starting to grow as well so I'm super excited about that, it's also my first one.
Anyway to the kitty proofing. My cat LOVES plants (what cat doesn't) and he loves to pull them out of their pots, especially new baby plants. Twice now he has yanked out my thyme transplants, grrrr. Luckily I've only lost two, but still it drives me crazy. Last year he mowed down all my baby petunias, well this year I wasn't going to let that happen. Oh and BTW it doesn't matter if I planted him his own cat grass, he still yanks out my light garden plants.
So I brought my little greenhouse I bought last year into the house, set it up in my basement and placed my light garden inside, which works out perfect because I can close the door and it keeps him out and the moisture in.
It's a 5X5 collapsible greenhouse house and I think it will live in my house from now on. I put my African violets in there too so I can force them to bloom as well :) I think (hope) to invest in an aluminum or cedar frame greenhouse next year, fingers crossed.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and happy indoor gardening!
My rosemary finally rooted in my window sill and I was very excited to transplant it today. Luckily I have 3 little plants to transplant.
I took my first plant out of the water and went to place it in my pot of dirt and figured because it was such a strong little plant I would just place it into the loose dirt and then pack around it.
DO NOT DO THAT!!!.
Because I didn't make a small hole to place the plant in I striped all the new roots right off the plant :( even though the roots look very strong and healthy they are still VERY fragile.
I did not make the same mistake with my other two rosemary plants. Make the hole first with your finger.
I put the rosemary plant that I striped the roots off of back into water and hopefully it will root again. I planted the other two and placed them into my light garden.
So with that, live and learn. I've transplanted a lot and I still make boo boos and will continue to make boo boos. Point is, learn from them and continue onwards.
Happy winter gardening!
I opened my mason bee house yesterday to see what was inside, I had lovely mason bee cocoons and also a little surprise.
There was a cigar like tube in a couple of the trays, and I thought "What the heck is that?!?"
So onto my trusted iPad I sent my husband and he googled "what bees use leaves for nest cells" the answer..... Leaf cutter bees!
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megachilidae
I am so excited that I have two types of solitary bee babies in my bee house.
I carefully removed all mason bee cocoons and leaf cutter tubes from the trays in my bee house. After reading online about the leaf cutter bee you do not want to get their leafy cocoons wet, so I just removed them and placed them in a cardboard box.
The mason bees however I removed all cocoons individually and placed them in cold water to wash off any mud and mites that may be on them.
I followed the instructions I received from WestCoast seeds where I purchased my first 24 mason bees early this spring.
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/productdetail/Gardening-Supplies/Pollination/Mason-Bee-Cocoons/#sthash.aERY1iCA.dpbs
After washing and drying my mason bees I placed them in a cardboard box then put them in the wooden hibernation box I painted for them along with the leaf cutter bee cocoons and put them in the fridge.
There they will hang out until spring when I will release them for pollination, with any luck I won't need to buy bees again!
I know I have some live bees because when I was washing them I accidentally squeezed one of the cocoons a little to much and it began to vibrate!
This has been one of the coolest experiences in nature I've had. So educational!
Here is a link to the pictures I took while opening and cleaning my bee house and cocoons.
http://youtu.be/4pmDUb-j5Jk
I have A LOT of new growth on my bonsai!
I came home from two days of meetings and watered and really looked at my bonsai, I hadn't really done that since I planted it. I saw amazing growth on it.
I planted it about 1 month ago and it is really doing well, especially for a project that I knew nothing about!
Now I just need to figure out what branches to keep and which ones to discard, but I will let it go awhile and see what happens!
It's very cool to see so much growth in such little time, especially for a bonsai!
I finally planted the cuttings I was rooting in my window sill, it took awhile and my rosemary is still not really rooting yet.
I think it's because the cuttings were a bit thick, otherwise everything else did pretty well.
I potted up everything (except the rosemary) in good quality potting soil and put them in the light garden, with luck I will be able to take more cuttings later and I won't need to buy any of these plants again.
I decided to wire my bonsai today, I used a 19GA black coated aluminum wire. I couldn't find the size I needed in a copper wire and online it said coated aluminum would work.
I started by wrapping the wire at a 45 degree angle on my longest branch because I wanted to bring it down a bit. I also snipped a branch off shown in picture 1.
I then wrapped a second smaller upright branch that I wanted to bring down a bit as well, shown in picture 2. Once wrapped I basically just bent the branches to whatever shape I wanted and because those branches are so young the bent very easily.
Next I wrapped a section of two branches (shown in picture 3) because I just wanted to twist them a bit.
In picture 4 you can see the before and after look of the tree, I think it opened it up quite nicely and I can't wait to see what will grow. I have two new branches starting a the very top of the tree and can't wait to see what happens with them. I will give them about 3-4 months to grow and adjust to their new shape.
BTW I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's very neat and I like it :)
So while continuing my fall cleanup I had a really hard time throwing my lemon trees away. I've had these lemon trees for about five years now, they do not produce fruit. Probably because I grew them from grocery store lemons.
Every fall I haul them into the house and keep them for the winter, and every year they are full of spider mites, and every year I regret bringing them back in. This year was no exception.
As I stood there staring at them I still couldn't bring myself to throw them out, so what to do. Well I decided to get rid of one and turn the other into a Bonsai.
I have never had a bonsai nor do I know what to do with one but I figure why not, then I can keep my lemon tree and hopefully it will live.
It was about 2 feet tall but it had a nice little cluster of leaves about 8" from the roots so I cut just above that cluster of branches and leaves and wa la, bonsai... I hope.
I uprooted the whole thing and washes all the roots and the entire plant before bringing back inside, I had also bought a mini evergreen about a week ago and thought it would look nice in the pot with the lemon tree.
Now I wait, I hope it works out. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of youtubing and reading about bonsai's :)
I didn't realize I had so many ;)
But I finally have most of my gladiolus dug up and ready for storage. I placed quite a few in a shallow cardboard box and sprinkled some of the hamster bedding in it. I didn't wash them or dust them with anything because I didn't last year either, so far it hasn't been an issue.
If for some reason I do get a fungus in my stash I will make sure that I don't put them away without dusting them with anti fungal dust again. Right now I don't use anything like that because I have a dog with really bad allergies and sensitivities so I don't have anything like that in my house.
I still have a good day or so of clean up and then I'm done for the winter. Which is good because I've just about had my fill of clean up.
If anyone has any other methods or suggestions please feel free to leave your comments.
I started digging up some of my dahlia tubers and lily bulbs. Our zone is too cold to keep them in the ground for the winter, we can get away with 3b but that's about it.
I'm happy to report that all my tubers and bulbs multiplied this year, I'm especially very excited about the calla lilies. I just hope they will winter nicely, I've never wintered calla lilies before.
My gladiolus's did great last winter, I through them in a paper bag with nothing else in it and they all did great. Last year I put my dahlia tubers in paper bags with moist peat moss but realized that they dried out quickly. I lost a couple and when I realized how dry they were I was misting them every two weeks, sometimes more.
So this year I put my glads in vegetable bags with moist peat moss and hopefully that will keep them hydrated a bit longer, but I will check on them a bit more often.
My calla lilies I put in paper bags with hamster bedding (soft wood chips) and I will do the same with the glads. Hopefully all goes well this year, I really don't want to replace to many bulbs and tubers.
A couple of weeks ago I went to my first hoticulture society meeting, it was great. The knowledge in the room was fantastic, I'm going to go a few more times but I'm pretty sure I want to make it a permanent thing.
Anyway I was given some daffodil (narcissi) bulbs and a cutting from a very fragrant cetronella geranium. I've planted my bulbs and put the cutting in water to root it.
I wanted to root some of my other plants that servived the frost we had, some of my herbs. So as always I went to youtube and watched dozens of propagating videos for rosemary and thyme.
I decided I was going to try to root them in water so that's what I did, we will see what happens in a couple of weeks. I also through some random plant that I love, I can't remember the name of it but when I find the tag I will let you know.
I'm trying to pick the best day of the week for blogging, I would really like to get one entry out every week so that is going to be my goal!
Also if you would like to follow my Facebook page it's
https://www.facebook.com/Gardeningprimalincontainers/photos/a.358390600990782.1073741828.358383327658176/358390527657456/?type=1
And don't forget to LIKE it :)
I'm so excited!!!
I entered a "Name that Dahlia" contest and out of 9000 participants my name for the Dahlia was chosen!
Myself along with two other participants came up with the same name, so they put our three names in a hat and drew for the grand prize.
Although I did not receive the grand prize I did get a fabulous consolation prize. $50 gifted certificate and 3 dahlia bulbs for next spring.
Now when people ask me "ooh, what's the name of that dahlia?" I can say, "it's called Dragons Breath and I named it" :)
I can't wait to see it bloom next spring! It's a gorgeous dahlia!
Thank you Veseys for a great contest!
https://www.veseys.com/ca/en/?veseys=468a464a4d512603ce8dd7a3150f5a04
I found a recipe for zucchini chips on Pinterest and decided to give it a whirl. But instead of baking them I decided to deep fry them in coconut oil.
Worked out really good, a few of them were still a little mushy but still tasted great. I made them with sea salt and then another batch with icing sugar, I do like my sweets :) I think I might try baking them next time though.
So here is what I did.
In a large skillet heat enough coconut oil to cover the bottom over low medium heat
Wash your zucchini and slice thinly
When oil is hot place slices into your skillet ( careful, it splashes)
When they start turning brown, flip them
Let them hang out for another couple of minutes then remove onto a plate with paper towel
Tongs work really well
After oil is mostly absorbed in the paper towel throw them in a bowl and sprinkle your favorite seasoning on it. Enjoy!
Yeah! My first melon..
This is the first year I have grown melons, not sure if it will finish this year though. Our weather has started to turn and you can definitely feel fall in the air.
These guys also got a late start, I did start them indoors in my light garden but they received some frost in early June.
They pretty much died off to the ground and started again, but when the hot weather finally did hit they grew very well.
This is a sugar baby melon, I thought I would give it a whirl. I planted it in a 1'x1'x1 pot with my normal mix that I do for almost anything (the mix is in another post), and it seems to be doing quite well. I'm very interested to taste this sucker :)
Wow... Where does the time go?
Well I brought my bee house indoors, I was curious to see how many pods they had actually closed. From the photo you can see that they have closed 4 completely, and you can't really see it but there are another 3 pods that are 1/2 mudded up.
It's so exciting! Now I have to wait until October then I will be able to open the compartment and see if there are any cocoons inside. If there are, I will take them out, wash them and put them in the fridge until next spring!
Again if you would like more info on mason bees or where I got my bees and bee house from,
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/product/Gardening-Supplies/Pollination/#sthash.FpwNI1L9.dpbs
This is the first year I have ever grown ground cherries. I'm not sure what to expect but from what I've read about them they are supposed to taste a little like pineapple.
They are coming along quite nicely, I put two plants in about a 12" pot and filled it with my regular mix of organic potting soil, eggshell powder, epson salt, worm castings, sea soil and sheep poop.
I have fertilized the pot once with an organic fish fertilizer just recently, I did all my pots with it.
I think I might just plant one to a pot next year cause they are stretching quite a bit now but they still seem quite happy.
The rest of my garden is also doing good although I did loose my last row of radishes to root maggots :( so far they haven't touched anything else *fingers crossed*
But anyways I can't wait to try them!
I love camping.. Everything about it, I love the campfire, the great outdoors, paddle boarding and of course cooking a wiener on an open fire.
But not having a bun to put it on has been a bit of a change for me. Since going primal two years ago things haven't always been easy, and saying I don't eat gluten or indulge in a piece of cake evey now and again would be a flat out lie. I totally do but also pay for it later.
I try to live the best I can with the 80 20 rule, that doesn't always work but I think I'm pretty close.
I have to admit I feel much better not eating wheat and when I fall off the wagon I really feel it in my bones, my skin and of course the waistline.
So what to do.. Well for me romain lettuce is the answer, works great so all your fixings stay in one place and you don't have to worry about the bloat factor.
Now not saying that processed hotdogs are great for you, but what's camping without the wiener :)
Btw this is romain lettuce out of my own garden!
I got home from a weekend of camping, unfortunately I was sicker then a dog :( and my radish's had exploded!
I am so excited, they taste great too. So I yanked out the biggest ones and ate a couple and put the rest on the fridge.
The rest of my garden is doing well but with the cold snap at the beginning of June I had to replant my cucumbers which are coming up again now. I lost them all :(
But I'm excited to be eating things from my garden already :)
So another Pinterest idea!
I planted a mosquito planter for my deck, I have to say the citronella geranium smells devine. I used all the same plants that they said to use on the website, except my lemon grass wasn't big enough for the planter and I got two varieties of lemon thyme.
I really love this planter but with the exception of the citronella geranium it stinks, lol.
My purple ageratum is a little lost in the middle but otherwise I'm quite happy with it.
This is the website I got this idea from
http://its-a-green-life.com/2013/03/05/build-a-control-container-so-you-can-sit-and-unwind-in-the-evenings-without-dousing-in-deet/
We will see if it actually keeps the little buggers away ;)
So I've been working on my fairy garden for a few years now and every year I add a few new things. It's mostly made up of succulents and creepng thyme.
I do have some pansies and I believe English moss in there, and a few other things that I have collected along the way :)
This year my creeping thyme grew perfectly into my fairy house that I made from drift wood, I think I have an earlier post about the house.
I couldn't have planned it better myself, the fairies sure know what they are doing ;)
It's starting to take shape, I'm thinking a couple more years and it will be full.
I'm hoping to throw some more posts up shortly, I've been really busy and enjoying myself this summer so far. I picked up a new hobby that I will write about shortly :)
WE HAVE BABY BIRDIES!!!
So excited, we have baby birds in our bird house that I painted last winter. I heard them peeping today after work, my husband got our tripod attached the camera and recorded them for a second.
Ugly little dudes but they sound so cute! Lol.
I think there are three in there! Here is the video!
http://youtu.be/hnnh45wQ-jA
I planted my veggies last weekend and some have already come up!
I will talk about that more when more are up and I can take some pictures.
Today I planted all my baby veggies outside, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumber and melons. I liked the idea to have them in pots last year. I did that with my leftovers after I had planted the bulk of them in my raised beds. Although I did get zucchini and squash, they took over my beds and I had a hard time managing them up there.
The ones I had done in their own pots later in the year worked out great, so this year I decided to put them all into their own individual pots. The only thing I didn't like last year was that grass grew between them and it was awful to mow (according to my husband) and once the squash took hold of the fence you couldn't move the pots.
So this year my husband put landscape ties on the ground and I put some landscape fabric down underneath so no more grass. My yard is sloped so I put a 2X4 down and set the backend of the pots down onto it so now they are level.
I'm hoping this works better and I get a decent yield :) I will still use the fence for them to crawl up. Every year I learn something new, I really love this hobby!
My first hole is plugged!! Well that didn't sound dirty at all did it, lol.
It's been less then two weeks since I released my bees and they have been busy working around my yard. I walked up to the bee house yesterday and saw that one of the holes in the nesting trays was plugged.
This is so cool, I can't believe it's all working out so fantastically. Now hopefully with a little more luck I will have cacoons to dig out in the fall!
The only problem I'm having is that all my fruit trees seem to be late this year, they are barely in bud. Except my one cherry tree, it's about to bloom but if none of the others go I'm afraid I won't get cherries on it again this year :(
Either way I am totally excited about my bees! They really are a joy to watch.
So I've really been craving wonton soup, and I've been eating it from our local Chinese restaurant. Which is amazing BUT, well you know.
So I decided to make my own, I have to say it turned out not bad at all!
Here is what I did.
1 pkg of ground pork
1 ham steak
4 green onions
3 carrots
1 C mushrooms
1 baby Bok Choy
1 carton low sodium organic chicken broth
1 small brocoli top
1 egg
1 Tbsp apple & sage spice from epicure
A sprinkle of salt
A sprinkle of coconut flour
Celery salt to taste
In a mixing bowl combine pork, egg, epicure spice, salt and coconut flour. Hand mix together and form little balls. In a soup pot bring chicken broth to a boil and carefully drop pork balls in. Turn down to a simmer and cut your veggies. Cut 1/2 the ham steak into chunks and add to your soup. Simmer for about 10-15min until balls start to float. Add your veggies and celery salt, simmer for about another 5 min and wa la, wonton soup. I may play around with the spices a bit more but I quite enjoyed it .
My second orchid, or I guess third, is in bloom! It opened up this morning. I've been feeling a little neglectful towards my orchids lately because I've been so busy with my spring flowers and planting my garden.
My baby orchid from last year finally lost its one and only bloom a couple of days ago. Not bad for a one year old, it bloomed for about 6 weeks. Momma orchid on the other hand is still going strong with no sign of flower drop yet :) so exciting!
I think I have finally done it, I've been able to get my orchids to rebloom, I haven't killed any new orchids in the last two years. I even did a little experimenting with one of my orchids in a wall mount bird cage, and it grew a new leaf. I think I finally figured it out. I guess it's onto the next :). Not sure what that is exactly but I'm sure I will write about it!
So I wasn't sure how this was all going to work, I read about it, followed the instructions, but I didn't think it was going to work exactly how everything said it would work. But it has!
I was sitting out front in my flower bed weeding and moving a few perennials around when I heard them, BEES. More importantly, my bees. I was so excited to see them again, I was hoping I would but you never know they are solitary bees after all. The instructions did say that if I was lucky and all goes well I would see the females return to the bee house.
Well I saw at least three different bees return to the house, and one fat local. I'm pretty sure she wasn't one that I released. The other females all seemed to give each other their space except the fat local one, she was a little mean and went in after one of my bees, there was a short scuffle and then the big local bee left. My little bee seemed ok and flew off then came back shortly.
I hung my bee mud close by and hopefully things will continue to go well and I will have new bees for next year. The video to there release and where to get them is in the previous post. This is so exciting, I sat there for almost an hour watching them. They are the cutest little bees I've ever seen, I had them flying around my head and I was really close to the house. Such a gentle bee. I love it, this was definitely worth doing and I would recommend it to anyone with a garden!
Ooh, I also have a nesting pair of birds in my bird house.
So I'm writing my second post for today, wow I'm on a roll. Lol.
I released my bees today, it was so awesome! I've never seen this or have been lucky enough to be part of it even though I grew up on a farm. I decided to release them today because it was a beautiful day and things are slowly starting to get green, I've also seen other little critters around the yard.
I put out my petunias and a few other flowers to give them a little head start, I will put them out daily for the bees. I'm so excited I'm hoping that this year my fruit trees and shrubs will be pollinated a little better.
This is the video I made, hopefully it works :)
http://youtu.be/biFEJNtfWcE
Here is the website I got my bees from
http://www.westcoastseeds.com/product/Gardening-Supplies/Pollination/#sthash.jVOmh0KE.dpbs
Thank you West Coast seeds for an amazing experience!
Although I'm not a mother to any human variety children I do have some four legged ones. I just wanted to wish ALL women a happy Mother's Day, and whether you have human children or not I think all women should be appreciated on this day!
I for one stalked my greenhouse full of flowers this weekend and transplanted about 100 plants yesterday, now I know that doesn't sound like a lot especially when professionals do thousands in a day. However it was still a lot of work and I loved every second of it!
I did buy a few things, only because I only have so much space to start my own, I did transplant all my veggies the other day and yesterday I did all my flowers. Marigolds, morning glories, moon flowers, sweat peas and planted about 24 strawberry plants.
I'm very happy with my little greenhouse, I just bought a little 5x5 pop up plastic greenhouse and it's been great. I was very careful of what I put in there at first because we are still getting freezing temperatures at night. I did put a little heater in it for the evenings and that's been working out great so this weekend I moved everything I could fit in there.
So Happy Mother's Day to me and all of you!
So it's been just over a month and they are still in a beautiful bloom!
One of my other orchids is about to bloom as well, I will post a picture when it does. I don't remember what color it is, lol.
It's been so busy that I have completely forgotten to write. My house has exploded with plants and I'm finding I'm having a little trouble keeping up. I have a little plastic greenhouse set up outside but it's been pretty cold in the evenings so I have put a heater in it for at night. I still don't trust it completely so I only have bulbs out there right now, I would be devastated if I move all my petunias, snapdragons and marigolds out there and they froze one night.
I did start my veggies, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers, cauliflower and celeriac. But again they have grown so big in two weeks under my lights that I need to transplant again but am running out of room! I might just pop them in the green house because if I loose them I can start over, my flowers not so much.
Well have a fabulous Sunday everyone!
I'm not afraid to admit it, I don't like fish. However I'm always willing to try new things.
So I've been asking friends and co-workers what type of fish to eat that doesn't have that really fishy taste.
Halibut seemed to be the one that kept coming up, now I know what you're thinking, how could you not have tried Halibut yet! Well I was sure I've eaten it, but then when I thought long and hard on it I don't think I ever have. I love lobster and crab just not a fan of fish.
Well I decided to try it out, so I bought myself a nice little halibut steak and this is what I did.
Placed the halibut onto a piece of parchment paper and seasoned it with,
Salt
Pepper
Thyme
Lemon
Garlic
And butter
As you guys know I'm not a measurement kinda a gal so I sprinkled a bit of everything on it, and it was about a tablespoon of butter.
I closed the parchment paper over the fish and put it in the oven for about 20min at 400 or until it flakes under your fork.
I sautéd some spinach with butter and pepper and wa la, dinner. Now I have to say, I would definitely eat this again, so if you don't particularly like fish but want to eat it (because it's good for you) then halibut is a good choice.
Sorry I haven't been doing the step by step on my petunias this year, but they pretty much went the same as last year. With one exception of course, the light garden!!
So this year my petunias look fantastic. They are nice and full and not leggy at all, for me it was a great investment. And since they are selling plants my size for $3.99 at the local nursery I have about $150.00 dollars worth of petunias, all of which I collected the seeds from last year.
I also have about 30 snapdragon plants and I planted 40 marigolds today, so I figure I will get my money back out of it within 3 years. Maybe even sooner but to be perfectly honest, I don't care :) I love starting my own plants, it's my very happy place so to me it's worth every penny.
I forgot to mention the pansies, dahlias, herbs, eucalyptus, forget me nots, lavender, carrots, cucumber and tomatoe. Lol. Although my cucumber doesn't love it under the lights, it grows a couple of leaves then they dry up and fall off.
The carrots are doing well, I was trying to see if I could grow them through out the winter. Not sure if I want to do that, since there are plants I can start in January I might forgo veggie growing in the winter.
I might just do micro greens and herbs.
Yeah! They are both in full bloom, and I actually have one of my other phals sending out a bloom spike from an old spike.
I have had to move them back from the south facing window so they don't receive direct sunlight anymore. It was getting to much for them and the leaves were burning a bit.
Our days are getting longer now and the sun is starting to get its kick back for the upcoming spring. But still no artificial light for these guys, all natural sunlight!
I say upcoming spring because is was -20 this morning :( I'm really anxious for it to get warm outside.
So I was in the mood for pesto today, and I really wanted to use my lovely basil plants that I transplanted this weekend.
I bought a small pack of ground turkey, provolone sliced cheese and some romane hearts. I had everything else at home, my co-workers told me about making provolone taco shells and since I don't eat wheat this seemed to be a perfect taco shell alternative. For those of you who don't eat dairy, sorry.
By now you have realized I'm not a stickler for measurements, and again I didn't really measure this so I will try to be close ;)
For my pesto,
Two tops of a basil plant (about 10 leaves) I think more would be better
1/4 C pine nuts
2 Tbsp almond oil ( I just don't like olive )
1Tsp garlic ( I used freeze dried but fresh would be awesome)
Salt and pepper to taste
Like I said not a stickler.
I put the provolone cheese on parchment paper in the oven for 10 min at 350, when they brown take them out and peel them off the parchment paper and drap them over a wooden spoon until cool.
I put all the pesto ingredients in my magic bullet with a little water and let er rip.
Brown your turkey in a pan then add the pesto mixture and let simmer for a few minutes. Cut up your tomato and romane hearts, stuff your taco and wa la!
Transplanted some herbs today, I started these guys from a little herb starter kit I got from my local nursery.
The basil and chives I started about a month ago and the ginger I started from my kitchen scraps, also about a month ago. I did what it said to do on Pinterest and wa la, new ginger.
I did start all these guys under my grow lights but I'm thinking you could start them just as easily in a window sill. For the basil and chives I followed the instructions on the package, and it came with dirt and a little dome to cover them.
Now I will put them in my window sill to make room for more baby plants.
It's almost spring, I can feel it or at least dream it ;)
My baby is blooming! And mama is on her way as well. Very exciting at my house right now, well for me anyway 😉
So this little guy bloomed in its first year, it will only produce one flower, maybe two. But it's doing very well and I still can't believe I grew a keiki and then it bloomed, and without grow lights!
I'm so excited!!! My bees have arrived! Of course they will remain in the fridge until May, but still it's so awesome.
These are mason bees, they won't produce honey but will pollinate my garden. I seem to miss the good pollination every year, and there weren't very many bees around last year so maybe I can add some.
I'm hoping to release them a little earlier so that all my fruit trees get pollinated. The regular bees don't seem to visit until it's a week to late.
Can't wait to see them do their magic!
I will tell you more about them when I'm not so tired :)
Good night.
Wow, the time really just gets away from ya. So just a quick update on my orchids. Both momma and baby are almost ready to bloom, so awesome. This will be my first phalanopsis rebloom. I haven't used any grow lights of any kind on these orchids since they have been with me, they are about 6 feet away from a south facing window and get about 3 hours of direct morning light. It's still very much winter here so our sun isn't very potent, I will be moving them back a bit in a month or two.
So far so good! The bulbs are doing great and I added a few daffodil bulbs as well. I did notice a little mould on a couple of the bulbs and made sure I didn't water them for a few days. It's very tempting to add water but I have to refrain from doing so.
This was the stage I got my tulips to last year before I killed them with to much water.
As you can see my narcissus is doing really well, and the daffodils are starting too. Not sure about the Hyacinthus, but it does look like they have some growth.
I think the most important thing is to make sure to keep the water well away from the bulbs, even though it's tempting to fill the water right to the bulbs.
It's a nice little piece of green in my living room because as you can see in the background I have a lot of snow.
Happy Sunday :)
I really wanted to mount at least one of my orchids on the wall, ideally I wanted to attach it to a nice piece of drift wood. I might still do that with one of my other orchids.
A few days ago friends of mine invited me over to make a string garden, there are some cool tutorials on youtube on how to make them. We used spider plants, but I decided to bring one of my orchids and an air plant to make my string garden. They were a great success and a blast to make.
When I got my mini phalanopsis home I was trying to figure out how to hang it, I didn't really want to hang from the ceiling. So I went out today in search of a hanger to hang my little plant from.
I found one!!
Well a wall mount bird cage, I love it. So rather than suspending the plant in the air I decided to arrange it in the the bird cage with a couple of other little foliage plants from Walmart.
It worked out really well and I think it looks great. I used some sphagnum moss on the bottom of the cage to hold in the dirt from the house plants and then some decorative moss to make it look pretty. The orchid was all wrapped up in orchid mix and sphagnum moss then held together by string just like in the youtube videos.
Now I have a mini living wall :)
I have found an alternative to soy, eating primal you don't eat soy and legumes or at least limit them as much as possible. However I do like soy sauce.
To read more about legumes and soy products and their affects on health visit;
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/lectins/#axzz2pYatgN8s
So I've been searching the internet and have found coconut aminos, it's basically coconut sap and sea salt. Tastes similar to soy sauce with just a hint of sweetness. And if your worried about the coconut flavor, don't be, it does not have a coconut flavor. It's gluten free, dairy free and non-GMO.
I'm going to try it out tonight on some duck thighs I bought at the grocery store later today, I will let you know how it turns out.
For those of you that have tried it and have recipes please feel free to share :)
OMG!!! I'm so excited, my new toy arrived today! My amazing husband put it together for me and it looks amazing.
It's a 3 tier deluxe light garden... I love it.
I am so ready to get gardening :) one of the main reasons behind this purchase is that my husband and I enjoyed our home grown food so much this year that we wouldn't mind having it all year round. I went with the large one so I can start all my seeds indoors and also grow some veggies year round in it.
I have it set set up in my kitchen and will be growing micro greens, lettuce, carrots, beets and if I can find them a dwarf tomatoe and cucumber. I can't wait! I will let you know how it goes as things start growing.
If you would like to know more about the light garden, here is the website :)
https://www.veseys.com/ca/en/store/lightgardens/deluxe3tier
I have searched high and low for a deodorant that works well and isn't full of chemicals and perfumes. I don't like antiperspirants because they clog your pores and don't allow you to sweat, now I know none of us like pit stains but let's consider the alternative. We were designed to sweat, to release toxins through sweating, now I don't know about you but I'm inclined to allow my body to do what's natural. Also antiperspirants have a bunch of things I can't pronounce in them so I decided I wanted something more natural.
Eating clean has helped a lot with my own odor which is pretty exciting to me, but after a day of being outside I've been known to be a little rank ;).
I have tried many kinds of natural deodorants and have found you need to reapply several times throughout the day to make sure that you're covered. I didn't love the idea of carrying my pit stick with me all day, so after years of searching I finally decided to make my own. I went to my iPad and searched for homemade deodorant and came up with a few recipes very quickly. This one is my favorite.
http://wellnessmama.com/1523/how-to-make-natural-deodorant-beating-the-b-o-with-natural-deo/
I followed their instructions and having been using the second recipe for about 3 months, made a new batch today. I love it and don't have to reapply during the day.
Just a quick update. I updated my blog today with a new look, let me know what you guys think. Also I have added a labels column on the side so it's easier to find your favourite posts. For examples if your following my recipes you can now look on the side labels tab, click on recipes and only the posts that have recipes will pop up. That way you don't have to scroll through all posts.
Thanks for reading :) Night Night.
This tomato plant I've had since spring, it's given my about 140 cherry tomatoes. Yes I counted ;)
It just started to bloom again but it's looking a little sad. So I gave it a haircut, fertilized it with a bit of Epsom salt and gave it a big drink. If you do use Epsom salt to fertilize your plants I would use the human grade edible kind, not the commercial bath Epsom salt. I'm not certain one kind is better but if you can't eat the bath stuff why would you give it to your plants and then eat the plant? Just a thought.
I'm experimenting to see if I can get another season out of this little plant.
So I didn't exactly leave empty handed on Saturday from my local nursery. My cactus pot was looking very sad and I lost all but two of them. I decided to get a few new ones and repot them, I think my soil mixture wasn't right the first time, to much sand.
This time I did 1/2 sand and 1/2 potting soil, hopefully that helps. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but I have to tell ya, gloves really do help when potting cactus's ;)
It was a bit of a pain positioning them and getting them all settled in, but if you take your time it's all worth it in the end.
