This summer, H and I built a grape trellis for the garden plot. I’ve been wanting to grow my own Cordon grapes for years now, so I’m excited that I finally found time for this project. We went with a trellis that works well for North American and European grape varieties: the High Cordon Trellis […]
Ottawa
Update: Sweet Granadilla Plant
I’ve been growing a sweet granadilla plant for a year now. It stayed in seedling stage for quite some time. Now, it is going through a growth spurt. It is 2 feet tall and still growing! In the past month alone, I have re-potted it twice. I’ve added stakes for support. Since it’s a vine, I […]
Harvesting and Saving Tomato Seeds
So last month I taught myself how to save seeds from garden vegetables. I figure if I’m going to keep gardening, I should expand my knowledge at least a little bit each season. I chose to start with something easy: tomato seeds from the gigantic cherry tomato plant in our front garden. Of all my plants, […]
Love yogurt? Make your own – make it Greek, even!
I have a confession to make. I wasn’t planning to post about yogurt until I had mastered it. The plan was to be like Bruce Wayne in the movie Batman Begins, when he goes off to the mountains and trains to become a kick-ass superhero. Only instead of learning ninja moves, I would learn to make yogurt from all types of milk […]
Just for fun: macaroni and cheese tacos
Normally I try to eat healthy, but last night I said screw that. I had a craving for both KD and for tacos. Instead of cooking each thing separately, we decided it made more sense to put them together. This is how it turned out! I’m sure that someone somewhere must have made this […]
Farewell garden plot, hello new garden, and hello sprouted mango pit!
Hello all, I have news to share! I’ve moved out of my downtown apartment and into a house in a quiet neighbourhood. This has been both sad and exciting. Sad, because I had to give up my garden plot. I now live too far away from it to maintain it. However, I now have a garden […]
Hardening off seedlings: preparing for transplant!
It’s time to transplant the seedlings! For the past couple of weeks I’ve been hardening them off. This means gradually exposing the seedlings to outdoor weather to help them adjust to it. This way, when they are planted outside, they will be more likely to grow well rather than go into shock and possibly die. The hardening off process involves a bit […]
Seedlings growing, garlic bulbs sprouting, and preparing the garden plot
Hi all, In my last post, I had planted seeds. Let’s see how they’re doing! Here are the seedlings as of three and a half weeks ago, April 3rd. A week later I removed the humidity dome and placed the tray in the patch of sunlight near the patio door. I don’t do this every day, but […]
Spring gardening 2015: getting started with indoor seeds!
Hello all, As my fellow Northern Hemispherians must have noticed, the days are getting longer already. We’ve sprung ahead by one hour this weekend and soon enough the snow will be melting and gardening season will be upon us again. Have you started your indoor seeds yet? I just did mine. I kept it to a […]
30 Day Vegan: Days 29, 30 and . . . 31?
Hello everyone, The 30 day vegan challenge is now complete! I did really well with day 29. We made vegan hotpot with mushrooms, baby bok choy, firm tofu, these fluffy tofu ball things, and rice noodles. That jar is filled with shallots in oil, which can be used as a topping. We made two […]