Heloodles sweetpea's!
I am back with wonderful and fun-filled gardening adventures! This May 2019 marks 1 full year out of the toxic black mold environment and I am so happy to announce that I am doing great!!! Not 100% but man am I healing and growing, in leaps and bounds! I feel so very blessed and grateful.
An unfortunate side effect of the mold poisoning, was that I had been truly ill with constant autoimmune response, and thus unable to garden since summer 2016. I tried in 2017 but had no energy and was in such debilitating pain all the time, that it made the rigours of planting and harvesting unlikely.
Well, this year there's nothing holding me back from getting my green thumb on!
Where we moved to there's a lot of backyard space and my landlord is super chill with my gardening, as long as I don't dig up his terrain. This worked out perfectly, as I have been wanting to use felt pots for my "raised bed" garden. I discovered Smart Pots and Vivosun pots, which are fabric containers that allow you to garden in a very affordable manner and frugally. Double win!
For those of you wanting more of a visual, there are pics, a write-up, links, and video of these pots in use, that will be posted in the 2nd part of this 2019 gardening post.
Will link it here when it's up:
Here's what I have been up to for seed & seed starting part 1:
I am over the moon with all the varieties and cool produce I may be enjoying. This is a small portion of the seeds that I finally received, and am trying out. Out of all the seeds I got only the Scotch Bonnet hot peppers were not organic. I have a friend who has callaloo seeds and we have planned an exchange for some of my mango pick-a-peppa jelly.
Oh! yeah! It's all coming together hehhehheh.
I believe in all, I have planted, started, or am about to plant, 30+ varieties of fruit, veg, and herbs.
Admittedly, I went a little bit crazy on the variety of plants I have chosen to take on but as I was out of commission for the last 3 year's, I want to go all out and have a blasty blast!
I purchased some organic seeds on-line, from our local greenhouses and specialty garden stores. I managed to score some unique varieties for my neck of the woods, along with cool heirloom seeds and some trusty standbys.
I wanted green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes and chutneys.
Red celery, this is supposed to taste sweeter than green varieties.
These watermelon radishes are going to get the pickling and fermenting treatment.
I will finally have organic watermelon with seeds, as nature intended, and as Dr. Sebi says is alkaline/best for us humans.
These red florence onions are a variety from France. Gonna be great in soups and stews!
I chose an heirloom and organic rainbow carrot mix, they have sprouted and I am hoping for happy tubers.
I also got this super cool Save the Bee's seed packet from my grocery store, that had them to give out for free. I had read last year that Veseys Seeds had partnered with Cheerios, to provide free sunflower seed packets to help people plant pollinator friendly plants.
I found out about them too late, however, this year I saw them on the counter near the checkout at the grocers and asked for my free seeds.
It was kinda cute watching the staff and managers scratch their heads in confusion.
They literally had no clue what they were, how they got there, and had difficulty with the whole FREE concept. After about 10 minutes, I left with my trusty seed packet in tow, quite happy.
Some people felt that Cherrios was being rather hypocritical, as their GMO products with insecticides are doing more harm than good to ravaged bee colonies, along with some of previous year's packets containing species considered invasive in some parts of the U.S.
Here in Canada I got sunflower seeds, do not eat cheerios as they are gluten full, stick to my organic cereal brands, and am planting non-invasive support plants to help bees and protect my plants from predation. You decide for yourself what you need.
I am thrilled to report that those sunflower seeds have germinated and are growing stupendously. I have big plans for those tall, pretty suckers.
Can't wait- but I will.
We found this great place not too far from me, called La Shop Agriculture, that specializes in locally grown, produced and sourced products for your garden. I will do a whole blog post on them another day, as I adore them and want to showcase their awesomeness in a post that will be all their own.
Unfortunately, it has been really rough, weather-wise here in Quebec; and it's caused delays for all of us in the green growing community. Our last frost was supposed to be April 25th and here we are May 10th and still getting frost advisories.
Wah Wah Wah...
And May apparently...
Decided that I will work smarter, not harder, and achieve some gardening baby steps while I wait for sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.
Here are my beautiful seedlings that I started and I know it sounds garden dorky but I am one proud green sprout Momma!
I will have more coming up and am excited about sharing some recipes and loads of growing tips and tricks. For now I leave it here and am going to snuggle in with my cozy blankets and a good book on this wet, cold and rainy.
God bless all you gardner's out there and remember to do your part to help encourage and protect our pollinating bee colonies!
Take care, be well, live freely.
Chef Kiki
