Monday, April 18, 2011

Cukes, Woodle and Greens

Yes, I know it's been days and days since I posted on blog.  You see, my other favourite occupation is family history research and well...have found new cousins!!! So with emails flying back and forth and photos exchanged and catching up for years lost...it's been a marvelous week or more. However...seedlings don't stop growing while I am exploring the past.. and making time to nurture them is a must.  'Tasty Jade' cucumbers have germinated nicely so I hope they will prosper on the back bean wall. Trellising cukes will be new to us but gardening is partly about experimenting isn't it.

This year, I'm excited about  'Woodle Orange' tomato from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I've read so many good things about this heirloom variety... early cropping, great taste, round perfect globe fruit, brilliant tangerine color. Already, they are in their their Big Girl pots, and others, OSU Blue, Wentzell and Mortgage Lifter are lined up waiting. 
    
We are growing new families of tomatoes, from seeds saved year after year for decades by The Wentzells, original homesteaders here in Nova Scotia and  Radiator Charlie  who developed the Mortgage Lifter. Listen while he tells you how he developed it and the story behind it.

A plus in the garden, are the hardy salad greens we are harvesting. You will need a fleece or cold frame/row cover to protect them at night but goodness...they've made big strides. One of our last sunny days, showed the growth this variety 'cool weather' mix has already produced.


Although some folks like to just grow flowers and others are purely food focused..we grow both and couldn't imagine it otherwise. Flowers attract all kinds of  beneficial insects and birds that help the vegetables prosper. Bulbs are making a show...amazing the structure and power of this Hyacinth pushing through the soil.

Hope You're having a Great Gardening Day

8 comments:

  1. The sun is out today, but am I gardening no - I am taking advantage of the dry weather to get some laundry done!

    Those seedlings look strong, especially the cucumbers. Please give them a little stroke from me :)

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  2. Your seedlings look very well loved.... maybe they didn't miss you too much?? How exciting to have found some new family members! Any of them living very close to you??
    ~Michele

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  3. Bren, you mean to tell me there's more to life than gardening!! shocking, LOL! I love how you refer to their 'big girl pots'. Almost all of my seedlings have now made the shift. The ones that haven't, well, they should have been but I've been lazy. So much to catch up on this time of year. How in the world to manage it all?

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  4. Hello again, Brenda. Sounds like you’ve had a very exciting time away from your blog. Enjoy :-)

    Your young plants are looking like they are enjoying the conditions you have given them! It’s good that you have areas that you can grow both veg and flowers and I can see how they all support each other too.

    I too love ‘Big Girl pots’ I’ll remember that now! Wishing you a great weekend and lots of happy moments with your newly discovered family members :-D

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  5. How exciting to discover unknown cousins! I have a cousin out in Vancouver, whom I met for the first time last summer.
    Your enthusiasm for growing vegetables must be contagious, because I am thinking of adding new vegetable beds to my garden. I like the idea of eating fresh salad greens and pea shoots. It would be wonderful to have tomatoes that taste like the tomatoes I remember as a girl. Have a great Easter long weekend!

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  6. Nice seedlings :-).

    I am having a good gardening day too, I got little bananas!!!! I wander if they will ripen, we are getting into winter now, I'll keep my finger crossed :-)

    Happy Easter

    Alessandra

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  7. Ciao Brenda, thank you for your reply, I answered in my blog, but I copy here as well, as the climate here is quite different from anywhere I have lived:

    Here in Auckland Rhubarb is ready in Autumn, and I can harvest it for most of winter, strange eh?

    Also I am getting my irises popping up now!

    ciao
    A.

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  8. I've got a gardening day planned for Friday with some help...
    I haven't started any seedlings. I'm so discombobulated - thanks for continuing to be an inspiration.

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