Direct Composting

Ok I am oddly excited to write this post!!! Am I the only one who gets giddy over burying food scraps? I have been researching direct composting for a few months now and am dying to give it a try. Next I have to convince my fiancé (yes we got ENGAGED!) that the squirrels and bears won’t dig it up.

We have an old ice cream tub on our counter that we collect food scraps in, but I’m considering getting a metal bin like this.

I feel as if I have so much to learn! Does anybody have advice for me when it comes to direct composting? Personal experiences?

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts! My garden is going to thank me…the soil is lacking nutrients for sure! 🍅🌽

Advertisement

July Garden

It’s coming along!!!…which is surprising since I planted a bunch of seeds in March with no luck.

I am growing spaghetti squash, corn, chinese radish(Daikon) and potatoes. Much different than my previous years!

Now that my seeds have sprouted and they are growing well, I am unsure what to do with my spaghetti squash plants. Help! I have 4 of them(the photo above is my largest one). Do I need to fertilize the soil? Is there anything I need to do to ensure these babies grow me some squash?

My corn seems to be doing alright…all 8 plants are looking strong.

Yes I need to weed

My potatoes are in bags, and the plant themselves are so big that they’ve begun to fall over. I believe they need to flower? I don’t see any signs of this happening so far. Potato experts…what’s protocol for these creatures?

And lastly my Daikon is doing as well as I had hoped…my expectations were low.

It’s been awhile since I posted a full update on my garden, so this is exciting! I have been looking through everyones garden posts and feeling inspired! You people are amazing. Tell me what’s doing well in your garden 🙂 xox

Spring Garden

Ahhh horray! Today marks the first day of spring! We’ve had a few sunny days now and it’s totally got me thinking about this years garden. Last year I had some failures and this year I want to keep it SIMPLE.

When I say simple I’m thinking potatoes, corn, maybe peas cause who doesn’t love peas? I’d love to do spinach and some greens but I’m not sure I have the light and right soil for the leafy greens ☀

I did potatoes last year however they only multiplied a few and they were very small. I’ve been thinking about my garden staples, those veggies I want to grow every single year. What’s your garden staple?🌱

I would love to grow daikon radishand lotus root. Lotus root is a Chinese root, it is delicious. Have you had experience growing either of these veggies? I don’t know where to start!

Dehydrating yam and potatoes

HI EVERYONE:) Lately I’ve been inspired to use my dehydrator and have brought it into work(a daycare) to make a few fun snacks with the kids.

At home my boyfriend has an OBSESSION with potato chips and this has worn off on ME(the ex health nut) ugh! So I’ve been experimenting with healthy alternatives.

Meet purple yams, orange yams and a plain old russet potato. I did grow potatoes but I bought these ones 🙈 All for the cheap price of $1.28. Where I live we have tons of ‘asian markets’ which are dirt cheap and local 🙌

First get choppin’! I spent about 45 minutes cutting these bad guys up. Keep in mind knife skills are not strong. Ideally you could use a food processor or one of those fancy choppers but this girl cannot stand having tooo many kitchen gadgets.

I sprinkled salt, set the dehydrator’s temperarure to 125 degrees and left them overnight for 12 hours. AND LOOK!

Ok they are a bit thick(hard on my teeth) but they are soo flavourful! Next time I’d make them much thinner but besides that they are perfect.

Do you dehydrate food? What do you make? Any ideas for me? I’d love to hear from you!😘

Summer garden update

Hi all! I have been reading your blogs a lot, and am constantly amazed by your gardens! I want to learn from you!🌻

My garden got off to a slow start what with the wet cold May & June. By now I expected much more ssuccess from my plamts since last year at this time I was harvesting and replanting. But nope😢 my garden is sad, small, wilting and I’m confused about what’s going on. Here are the photos:

As you can see on the left side my tomatoes and peas are doing fine but the right side is where I planted spinach, bokchoy, radishes, swiss chard, carrots, flowers and they are tiny tiny.

I’m wondering if it’s my soil as I grew tomatoes(LOTS of them) last year in the soil. I added 3 bags of fresh good soil in though so I just don’t know what’s happening. If my soil IS a goner, what can I do to help it? Please don’t tell me I have to remove it all. Because that’s not happening. Help!

Thanks for reading and if you have ANY tips or advice or if this has happened to you…I want to hear from you 🌽🌻🍓