Back to Basics

Knowledge is so valuable, and no amount of book learning can replace good old hands on experience. When it comes down to doing it, research and planning are a start but it comes down to giving things a shot, working hard, and not giving up. We aren't going for a summer of landscaping and then never thinking about it again; we want a lifestyle that includes composting, working outside, conserving, reusing, re purposing, sharing, and learning. Eventually we want a few smaller animals (the three year old says he wants "all kinds of dogs", but I'm thinking possibly a couple sheep, or pigs, maybe chickens, hopefully bees....oh dear!).

I think that when you are armed with some good advice, a can-do attitude, and a determined work ethic, you do stand a chance at success. I'm so loving the book Back to Basics by Abigail R. Gehring. What a wealth of knowledge and how wonderful to read. The pictures and instructions are easy to follow and even make a greenhorn like me feel capable.

We plan to learn by doing but we are enormously thankful to have resources like this great book to help us on our path. Are you working toward a greener lifestyle? What are some books you've read that have helped?

Drawing and Dreaming

I spent a romantic valentine's evening hovering over graph paper, imagining the view from our covered porch (imagining the covered porch, even, as it won't be built for awhile yet), and picturing a stone path that wanders down the gentle slope, lingering by a pond, then continuing to a firepit adjacent to two, let's make it three, raised beds for vegetables. Ah, 'twas a fulfilling evening of drawing and dreaming.

Right now dreaming is the best I can do. Somewhere beneath five feet of snow is a garden and many, many rocks that will be hauled out to the acreage. Husband is able to scavenge and bring home rocks for me--we have huge ones, pink ones, interesting ones, flat ones, perfectly round ones....of course I didn't think to take pictures before snow covered the yard. Although it will take many years of collecting stones to complete the many projects I'm dreaming of, we have a few to start with and a clean slate to work with.

Until spring arrives there will be much reading and scheming, and posting here so that I don't forget what my plans were!

Are you planning any new beds this spring? What kind of research and planning do you put into a new project?

Lost in the Details

I'm really looking forward to being on our acreage. It's where I plan to live out my days...watch my children grow...see seedlings turn into towering trees. On one hand it gives me a feeling of peace, stability, continuity...on the other hand, it's frickin' terrifying.

Right now I'm battling fear of the unknown. So much of what we have yet to do, and plan, is dependent upon some other thing falling into place first. We can't dig the basement, or get the power or gas out there, until spring. I can't really plan my yard until I know where the basement will be. But I do have a rough idea, so I'm trying to draw and dream and not get lost in the details.

When I sit down to make a list of plants, or draw my yard, I feel intimidated and that it is all too daunting. I don't know where to start and I'm afraid of wasting money on the wrong plants and ending up with an embarrassing mess. It is such good timing, then, that I came across the blog http://www.northerngardenersalmanac.com . I've spent two days devouring the information available there (to the point of child neglect, in fact) and I am just so darn thankful for people that share their knowledge just for the sake of it.

Author and master-gardener Melanie J. Watts says in her July 13, 2010 post "Designing a Garden":

To lessen the amount of work or to avoid undoing mistakes it is better to approach garden design slowly, letting it evolve naturally. Take time to see where the sunny spot is in the morning where you drink your coffee and the shade where you escape to on hot afternoons. Notice how the path to the shed takes the quickest route and how the children's ball...always seems to end up in the flowerbeds. Design your garden for the life you have now. You can always make the sandbox into a flowerbed after the children have grown out of it".

Aaaaaaand....exhale. How silly that I was worrying about putting plants in the wrong places rather than enjoying the opportunity to learn and dream now and tinker with design throughout the seasons. I'm in this for the enjoyment, after all. So nice to have been reminded of that!

Before and After: The Garden

It's February and if I can't be in the garden, I find myself thinking about the garden! We will be leaving this one before planting time this year, and will have to break new ground for a garden at our acreage. As a sort of send off to this yard and house, I'm going to do a small series of before and afters to show off some of the work we did in our four years here.

This was taken the day we made an offer on the property, 2009

While going through pictures I came across one of our first garden. I was pregnant with baby number one and didn't end up working in it as much as I wanted. I was also working shiftwork and the overnights were very hard. But I do remember eating beets almost everyday, and green beans by the pail, so the garden was a success and I have a healthy little boy to prove it.

The first thing we did was build a compost bin (you can glimpse the blue tarp to the right rear of the garden). When we had a little extra money we made the garden just a bit bigger and edged it. That sure helped to keep the grass from invading, but we do still dig out a bit of encroaching lawn every year.

Two years ago we added a second compost bin

As far as yield goes, I would end up with enough potatoes for a couple months when it was just the two of us. I would blanch and freeze beans, make a couple batches of pickles, and we would eat onions and beets to our heart's content. The potatoes and onions were small and the carrots especially started out a failure. After adding compost each year I noticed a great improvement in the carrots and onions this past year. The garden is partially shaded most of the day and the spruce trees steal moisture and shed needles and cones everywhere. Attempting to make more room for vegetables at the "good" end, we cut the raspberry bush back to the point that we didn't get any fruit from it last year. From this little garden I have learned that placement is everything. In the new yard I won't put raspberries or spruce trees so close that they compete for moisture and nutrients. 

Do you have competing interests in your garden and, if so, how have you managed?  



Granny's Zucchini Relish

I enjoy the process of pickling and canning more than I enjoy eating the final product. A pickle on a burger is okay, and I love my homemade summer sausage with a cheese, cracker and pickle tray at Christmas, but I've never stood at the counter and polished off a jar of dilled carrots. Husband has. So the arrangement works well, I get to do something I enjoy and he equally enjoys the results.

Ever since my granny gave me her zucchini relish recipe when I was about 20, I have loved making relish and pickling. But since having kids, especially the little crawly-type ones that are into things, I have found relish to require too many steps (so I don't have a picture of the relish to share). I've stuck to just pickles and jam the last couple of years. Next year I intend to make relish again--the boys will be that much older and we will be in the country where they can play on the deck or lawn where I can see them. Although this is a sleepy town our yard is not fenced so they haven't had the freedom to play without me right beside them.

Granny's zucchini relish is a nice golden colour and just sweet enough in a sandwich...well, it is one of my very favourites. I don't make it or eat it without remembering getting it from her basement--how grampa helped her with the canning because her arthritic hands could no longer turn the rings. I think the type of teamwork that older couples like that use to stay independent in their own homes is a real lesson to us. It takes commitment and love to help each other fill the gaps in our capabilities, and you don't need to be a senior citizen to admit that. They were married 58 years when grampa passed away in 2003. Granny is now immobilized due to a stroke this past summer. I take some comfort in keeping her old recipes alive, and in passing them on for other families to enjoy. I have several of her recipe books and many handwritten recipes as well. Some of the handwritten recipes are duplicates, so I plan to decoupage a memory box for my mom using the recipes and notes that are in granny's handwriting. I will also pass on some other favourites as time goes on, but for now:

Granny's Zucchini Relish: 

• 12 cups ground zucchini (I peel it and remove seeds)
• 4 large onions, chopped
• 2 green peppers, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup coarse pickling salt

Let stand overnight, rinse well, transfer to large pot, then:

• Add 3 cups vinegar
• 4 cups white sugar
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp mustard seed
• 2 tsp turmeric
• Boil 20 minutes and put into hot, sterile jars

I hope you try this recipe when you are searching for things to do with your zucchini glut next fall. What do you do with your zucchini crop? Are you fortunate enough to have inherited family recipes? If so, what ones, and have you done anything special with them?

Our Flowering Crabapple Tree

As near as I can tell, the tree that was in the front yard when we bought this house is a "Thunderchild Flowering Crab apple". http://www.thehoneytreenursery.com/Flowering-Crabs.php

The beautiful blossoms have been a real treat every spring, except last year when it did not bloom at all. We had  a LOT of snow in March and April, so that might have cost us this beautiful view in the front yard.

Although the fruit is inedible for us, it is common to find deer feeding around it in the fall and winter. It hums with the activity of bees while it is blooming, and is a year-round shelter for different birds. We want to provide beauty and habitat in our new yard so I will definitely plant a flowering tree or two, hopefully where I can see it from my kitchen window as I could this one. In the four years we have lived here, I've spent countless hours admiring this tree from my kitchen and out on our deck.

The pink blossoms are such a cheerful contrast in the spring when all the different shades of green explode in the yard. It is equally as beautiful when it sheds its leaves to provide us with a week or two of raking and playing. Yup, gotta get another one in the new yard!

Using What We Have

I have a couple different types of tea that I enjoy, and the Husband has one alone that he likes. We are out of all of these, and since our local Co-op had to close due to issues with the building, it is 65kms to town for groceries. (We could go 13kms to the nearest town but would pay higher prices). In February, and with two kids to bundle up and haul along, it is my intention to use up what we have before going anywhere.

The tea we still have to drink

There are many reasons to use up these last bags of tea, although we would prefer to go buy our favourites. For one thing, we will be moving in a few months and I can't see packing them up, hauling them, storing them, unpacking them, and then still probably not drinking them. It's either use them up or throw them out. As I mentioned, getting groceries is a distance in the cold, on often slippery roads, with two children. I go once a week or even less often if possible. Until we have a sizable list, we aren't venturing out on the highway at this time of year. Another reason is the cost of fuel and the intent to make the most of our miles. We grab our groceries on the way to gramma's house.

These remnants of tea are just one example of the things I intend to use up before we pack and move. There are a couple bags of rice that we didn't love that eventually worked their way to the back of the pantry, some cans of vegetables, likewise in the freezer. The list goes on. It is easy to just pick up more of our favourites when we get groceries, but if we find ourselves here in a snow storm with what we have, we thankfully use it up. I want us to carry that attitude forward this year: be glad to have it and use it up so that we don't waste time, fuel, money and food.