The benefits of ripping apart our old, unsightly deck continues to have benefits...like the raised beds that we were able to build last weekend with the wood that we saved.  Here I am sitting on the edge of our new 3x10' bed along the north side of our property.  In this space

The bed was lined with mattress protector as a barrier to the treated wood, then lined with landscape fabric to hold the soil in and wick up water that typically settles near that section of the fence.  

 In the space in front of our shed, we had a difficult time getting anything to grow there in the past 2 years perhaps from the spruce tree roots.  We built another raised bed here, lined with mattress protector, added compost, sprouted potatoes from a friend, and topped it off with leaves that we rescued from a neighbours trash pile.

The finished product as of May 19, 2012

                        There is Juliet cherry tree to the left and strawberries in front of the planter.

DIY Free mini greenhouses

If you have walked by, looked over the fence, or driven past you have likely noticed the large plastic sheets over 2 of our 4 beds.  What you were seeing is thick clear mattress protector that we got free from a nearby mattress store stretched over the beds held up from the inside by tomato cages and on the bottom edge with scrap wood.

The 2 beds were covered over in late February and were completely thawed before the other 2 showed any signs of thawing.  They were planted with spinich, chard, garlic, lettuce and various other seeds by the first week of March and within 2 weeks of planting, here is what it looked like inside the tunnels:

Even though many days have not been too warm this season yet, our greenhouse regularly gets over 35 degrees C by 10am.  With proper ventilation early in the day, we prevent the plants from getting stressed.  There are TONS of seedlings of all types from beans to okra in there just waiting for another 2-3 weeks to be planted!

The Jungle gets a new roof

When we bought the Concrete Jungle, we were told by our property inspector that we had 3 years of life left on the roof.  Over the past 2 years we have been interviewing roofing companies and researching different types of roof materials.  FINALLY we found Claw Roofing that had competitive prices, great customer service, and they even recycled the shingles at ECCOpave.

We are VERY happy with the outcome of our new roof and the quality of the job they did.  No money was collected until we were completely satisfied with the job they did.  If you need a new roof, please tell them we sent you!

End of 2011 gardening season

We had such a productive summer in transforming our garden and getting a high yield of tasty veggies.  

A snapshot of what was harvested in one day in September.  

 Teaching our friends how to can and pickle.  After all, your harvest is only as good as your preservation methods!  

After the first major frost in October.  What a long ways the garden has come in 2 seasons!  We grew all of the veggies that we needed from July-October.  Tons of great salads, dried herbs for cooking and tea, frozen rhubarb, dehydrated and canned tomatoes, and preserves.  

Growth on the RV pad

All of our work finally started to pay off in late July when we were able to see some growth and harvest some greens. Here is our attempt at protecting our food from hail damage.

Growth of the herb spiral--lots of harvesting and drying has been done to these herbs.
Strawberries, red currants, and rhubarb--which made an amazing jam when honey was added :)
Crookneck squash--not nearly as productive as the zucchini, but a fun addition to the garden anyhow.

Zucchini plants, 2 blueberries, and a relocated gooseberry near the concrete.

One of 6 zucchini plants

Tree spinach 2 months after planting, it grew to over 5 feet tall by the end of the season!

Siberian Honeyberry bush that we bought in Claresholm, AB early July. It will grow to about 1 meter tall and wide.

The volunteer sunflowers grew much hardier than those I planted, but the bees did not seem to mind one way or another.

Harvest Time coming up next!

Kijiji Queen Wood Mulch

I do not take my nickname of "Kijiji Queen" lightly. I take a lot of pride on being able to get items inexpensively or free if they are reasonable driving distance from our house. Additionally, I LOVE to get rid of things on the site as well (remember all of the wood from our deck removals??). To add carbon matter and ground cover to our future food forest and beef up our outdoor compost bins, I began the search for wood mulch. Within a week or so, I found an arborist that would deliver 4-6 yards of mulch only for the cost of delivery (about $65).

Other than about 1.5 yards that friends took to use, we made use of all of the mulch. Here is a close-up of the mulch. It was steaming and already full of fungal growth--perfect for our pending food forest!

The future food forest looks a lot more polished and ready for some cherry trees.

Next up: Growth on our urban farm

Hot Tub Wicking Bed

After renting the concrete saw for the THIRD time (pity our neighbours!) we finally unearthed all of the blocks from the 4th bed. There was no better sound than the last block being lifted out!

Here is the 4th bed dug out:

After lining the bed with the bed with pond liner, I tried to convince Tim to fill the bed with water and make it into a hot tub instead of a garden bed. At 14' long and wide enough for 2 people, I thought it was a great idea.

Tim won this debate, and we began finishing the bed. Here is the weeping tile being laid:

A total of 200' of weeping tile was used in the 4 beds and garden swales. Next we added chunks of concrete, larger rocks and rock debris from a neighbours pile in the alley to hold the tile in place and to create the overflow area seen towards the bottom of the pic (above).

After weeping tile came the landscape fabric and 1 cubic meter of soil.

After MANY, MANY months of work, our four beds are done!!!

Summer garden update pics are to follow soon!