My 2019 Organic & Heirloom Garden Adventures!

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

There Be Lilac's Out There!

                                 

Morning Folks!

That top pic is not mine but it was so purdy, I hads to shares!

Bad grammar aside, I am having some funventure's in homesteading. This week has been busy busy!

Our neighborhood has become a fragrant lilac wonderland and I am taking full advantage. The other day I had walked and they were just starting to bloom, so I grabbed a few an enjoyed them as I ate my breakfast and read. 

            

Well, it turns out that yesterday, my auntie called to say her tree of lilacs was ready and to come on over and snag as many as I like. I wrangled her and my mom together so I could get as much help as possible to tackle the full and pleasant scented loveliness.

                    

We cut most of the bottom one's we could reach, by the time I remembered to snag a pic. It was hot and sunny, didn't want to repeat sunstroke city, so we worked quickly and I scored big time!

          

We filled two huge bowls and fit it into a large plastic bag, which I gently closed and placed in the fridge overnight to keep them fresh and happy until I could start processing them today. It promises to be a long task but I saw some pics for lilac jellies on Pinterest, and have decided I must make some! 

                      

It looks so fabulously special, I am hoping for a more purple hue for some pots. Like these:

                       

It's quite the job though to get to the jelly making stage. It means slowly and very gently pulling the petals out of the base, then pouring a steeping liquid of choice, and drawing out the flavour overnight. It is a bit more painstaking but as I am new to canning and jelly/jam making, this is exciting in my mind.

Today is all about lilac petals and taking care of our little pooch, The Rockstar aka Rocky. He had a bit of vet drama yesterday and was not well for the last 4 days. I am happy to report that he is right as rain and in full recovery mode. Plus he's still a cutie and very loveable-vet says there is no cure for that! 

Oh well, guess we just have to keep him. Heh heh.

Here he is all snuggled in between my legs and nestled in the blankets, as I write this post.

              

Love that cute little punim!

Mom, why are you disturbing my sleeps?

              

Yeah, tough life alright. He was not too interested in being awake yet, he started drifting back to sleep pretty quickly.

                         

I am back to doing these purple beauties:

             

Keep coming back & don't forget to subscribe! Have a lovely and blessed day, May Abba guide you and keep you.

                               

Finally Seed Starting for 20017 Garden!

                               

Good Morning Lovelies!

It's April and I will admit to being a tad bit behind on starting my seedlings, however, this is the month when many people start. I have also come to find that many of the gardener's I have been so impressed with, upon seeing their gardens, have been using starter plants from nurseries. We bought a few herbs and berry bushes last year but I assumed that most people started everything basic from their own seed stores. Good to know for when I have a much bigger garden, I came across some pics on Pinterest of some pretty inspiring gardens/homesteading idea's:
                       

                      
       
           
Definitely not there yet but I have plans, I have plans...
For this year I have been smarter and have learned from last years mistakes, thanks to my trusty garden journal I also remembered the difficulties encountered. I managed to save containers and egg cartons, I am really aiming for the whole, recycle/reduce, reuse, homesteading/gardening approach. It made for some really great holders for my seeds and I got an organic mix to make sure they got an awesome start on their plant journey. It cost me between $10-$14, can't be more specific, I lost the receipt.
         

These are the what my seeds went into, I got it at the local hardware store for less than $5:

I set out all the cut up carton's, individual cups were lined up, filled half-way, seeds placed in, and then gently covered with some more organic starter. I also added some crushed organic egg shells, great for tomatoes and roses! If you do any seedlings, do not forget to label as you go along, you will forget. Trust me, I learned the hard way last year, it honestly slipped my mind as I was a bit too excited. Not clever but you live you learn.

     

 

Uber important to put down a plastic table protector where you work and wear gardening gloves, dirt stains but smells soooooo good! The plastic cover the tray comes with, allows the seeds to be protected, keeps in humidity, and makes it feel like a mini green house. I finished off with a light spritzing of my diluted, organic, DIY fertilizer concentrate. 

If you would like the recipe for that it is here:

http://bienconfitglutenfree.blogspot.ca/2017/03/garden-starting-diy-fertilizer-recipe.html

 

There were big sets of seed starters that I recycled fruit and vegetable plastic containers for, I kept the one's with lids because I wanted the same thing as the large one above.
Planted a few varieties of tomatoes, along with mixed carrots, purple celery, parsley roots, and garlic! I kept seeds from the most delectable Québec field tomatoes we bought two boxes of last year, I am going to try my hand at growing some red orbs of goodness!
       

It was imperative I get a shelf to sit these trays in front of the window, luckily some went on special from $40, down to $20. All of the seeds have a sunny spot, plenty of organic support, and loads of love going into their humble beginning'. That pic on the bottom right was from my first attempt at baby tomatoes, I started them late but they came out beautifully.
They really began to thrive when I learned about pinching plants, it made a world of difference. I went from flowers-thanks bee's for being awesome pollinator's,  to having fruit pop out! Here are some more pics of my newbie 2016 garden and picking's:

Well, my Amy Winehouse has just stopped playing,(miss that voice, really wonder about what beautiful music she never got to make; she's singing in heaven now, God rest her soul) that means that it is time for the rest of the days work, some cooking, prepping for my big Spring Cleanse, (blog posts about that are up and coming after Easter) laundry, and some serious unicorn daydreams.
Have a blessed week, and don't forget to subscribe.

Take care, be well, love freely!