Sunday, June 21, 2009

Main Computer Down

As the title indicates, my main computer is down.  I am working on a couple different blogs but can't get at any of my pictures.  I hope to having it going soon.  

Its nothing to serious, just an incident with a glass of water and the keyboard.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Container Food Gardening

Last weekend was a busy one, as has been the week so far hence I'm not getting to writing this blog until Wednesday.

I had Friday off work, I have been working late hours so having the Friday off gave me a chance to catch up on sleep so I could spend Saturday with the family instead of taking up temporary residence in snoozeville.

So Saturday morning we got up and headed out to the Trout Lake Farmers Market.  Our Kits market doesn't open until this Sunday, but the Trout Lake Market is a great market and arguably the most popular in Metro Vancouver.  Lots of Fruits and Veggies for Suzanne to pick from and plenty of flowers and other plants for me.  One vendor was selling Corn and lettuce plants.  I picked up 5 corn stocks, 3 red leaf lettuce and 3 green leaf lettuce for $4.

Next it was off to 2 and half hours of house hunting.  With the down turn in real estate in Vancouver and the low interest rates its a pretty good time to buy if you can manage it.  We have been looking since January.

Once back home it was time to get my corn and lettuce into the soil.

As we are hoping to move sooner than later I have taken up container gardening.  I already have three tomatoes in containers, the aphids are gone by the way, and as we are on a tight budget these days anything I can find to use as a container, is a container.  
I started with a trip to my favorite local garden center David Hunter.  I picked out a bag of stones and a bag of outdoor soil mix for under $10.  
I started with a couple inches of stone at the bottom of the pot.  This will weigh down the pots so they don't fall over from the weight of the top heavy corn.  It also helps with drainage.  The soil on top will hold moister until ever particle is wet.  After that the soil becomes too saturated, like my tomato.  The water will then filter into the stone and then out the bottom of the pot.

Next I mixed the garden soil with some of Keefer Soil Energizer that I had left over.  About 4 scoops of soil per scoop of Energizer.  I planted each corn to its crown and the lettuces I just covered the roots.

I lined the corn up in a row and put the lettuce between to shade them a little.  I moved the strawberry and tomatoes out front, the corn will protect the tomatoes from direct rainfall and the tomatoes will further shade the lettuce.  I am happy to report that after only a couple days the lettuces have almost doubled in size and the corn has grown as well.  A couple of the corn stocks starting to lean over so I added a stick into the soil to hold them up until the roots get a better footing.

Once all this was done, my realtor called to let me know that we had bought a house!  Soon these little guys will have a permanent home in the raised bed of my south facing back yard.  Still getting the financing straight and we have an inspection tomorrow, but I am considering myself, a home owner!