Life is abloom and there is a bouncy spring in my step as I run around looking at everything, taking note of what looks to have survived winter, what needs surgery and what will need replacing. I'm fixing and cleaning, planting and pruning and it's just a frenzy of activity because I want to do it all - right now!

@xwalkran and I launched into garden work like two formerly caged prisoners starved for the freedom of the outdoors. Our bodies are aching but its a satisfying sort of agony.

Come take a walk with me and I'll show you some of the sights around the homestead gardens, For us. this is the most essential part of our operation. It's what fills the pantry and keeps us living this lifestyle.

Horseradish Mania

We've harvested some horseradish and boy was it pungent. We had to take turns grating as our eyes watered and our sinuses enjoyed an intense and deep cleansing.

We have six jars of horseradish sauce in the fridge and @xwalkran has been enjoying it in his ceasars. He tells me I am not officially Canadian until I like drinking these horrible concoctions but I just can't choke them down. Not even my love of horseradish can help me.

You can find our recipe for horseradish here.

The Raspberry Field

We've got two rows (about 60FT long each) planted and all of the canes seem to have survived winter. These canes were literally poked into the ground and given a light dressing of manure and then straw mulch. It really doesn't get any easier! We have room for three more rows and we'll plant the blackberries in one and then just wait until we have more cuttings and suckers to fill in the remaining rows.

The initial investment that I made was $45.00 for nine Raspberry canes three years ago and I think we have around 100 in the ground today. (I am guessing ...too tired to count them today). You don't have to spend a fortune on perennial food, you just need a bit of patience.

If you want to read more about how we've propagated so many raspberry bushes you can find more info here.

Seedlings In The House

The tomatoes are huge! They are totally ready to be planted ...but last frost isn't until May 21st. I might have been a bit eager beaver on this.

Basil!

Chamomile

I have some other herbs started as well and some flower seeds. If you were my neighbour I would give you some tomato plants ...as per usual I have grown a few too many. We have 17 varieties of tomatoes growing this year!

The "Shabby Chic" Garden Boxes

One thing about buying a property in the dead of winter is you don't exactly know what's beneath the snow. We would have bought this place either way but one of the challenges we've had is rotting fences, rotting garden boxes, even the greenhouse foundation is rotting. This is our fourth summer and we inevitably spend a lot of time repairing ...everything.

We spent a lot of today patching up the garden boxes. It was a lot of work but they should last us another five years or so (fingers crossed). I know it looks a bit shabby but they do their job which is to hold the soil in place! When everything come alive you don't notice the containers at all! This place is a jungle of food in the summer!

Today I got the first bed of root vegetables planted: beets, parsnips and some bunching onions. This is a full two weeks behind when we normally could start planting the cold hardy seeds. Spring was very late this year. The soil is still cold but it's finally thawed.

Flower Bulbs in the veggie garden

I plant flower bulbs in the corners and random places in the garden. It adds a welcoming pop of colour in the spring.

The daffodils are whispering secretes to one another

Perennial Food Love

I grow some perennials in the raised beds. They really thrive in these conditions and some of them play an important role in keeping the garden healthy by repelling certain insects and attracting bees.

Strawberries

We've had a lot of luck growing strawberries in raised beds. We are getting great yields and it's been easier to protect them from birds and other critters that like to nibble on them. We have decoy strawberry plants growing along the path as well as wild strawberries that don't really produce much.

Overwintered Kale

The kale that we overwintered came back again. This never ceases to thrill me.

Oregano

I grow an excessive amount of oregano around the property. It grows into big shrubs with gorgeous purple flowers and the bees get drunk on it in September. I didn't realize it was a perennial when I planted a few seeds in the corner of this raised bed. I'll have to keep it managed.

Garlic

The garlic that we grow in raised beds is always larger and ready for harvest sooner than the garlic we plant in ground. Apparently garlic repels things like: root maggots, Japanese beetles, weevils, fruit tree borers and spider mites (and many other things).

Lovage

A cousin to carrots lovage tastes a lot like celery. It's a really large perennial and all parts of the plant are useful. The flowers are extremely appealing to pollinators. I have a hard time growing celery but I find lovage is really easy and effortless.

Horseradish

The horseradish is relegated to individual containers because it is extremely invasive. We have quite a few different areas where we grow horseradish because @xwalkran really loves it. It is another excellent pest repellent.

Rhubarb

We have rhubarb planted all over the place! I planted some along the walkway to the vegetable garden and it's really thriving. I would like to grow a patch in the back near the raspberries and blackberries as well.

Growth on Plum Tree

A neighbour brought two plum saplings over last year. One has developed this growth. I'm wondering what It is and if I need to dig up the tree, prune it down, cut the growth off ...anyone know the answer?

Roses

The roses got beat up a bit over the winter. I've been cleaning up broken stems and will need to give them some love this next week. If you read my blog you've probably noticed that I really love roses!

The Greenhouse

We have spinach, kale and many weeds growing in the greenhouse. I'll spend some time tomorrow cleaning up in here. It's too soon to plant tomatoes but this year the greenhouse will mainly be growing tomatoes and peppers. There is some winter savoury growing in a corner and lavender in another and rogue peas. I always plant nasturtiums in here as well.

Greenhouse Kale

Greenhouse Spinach

Worzel Gummidge

Even Worzel the scarecrow is happy as can be although I think he could do with some fresh stuffing and a few touch ups.

Vegetable Garden Expansion

We've got three areas that we have been working, amending and building up the soil on that will become the expanded vegetable garden. I am looking to add a lot of manure and black earth this year because the soil is heavy clay and even with our efforts of growing cover crops etc, it's taking too long and we need to grow more food!

This area closest to the garden has nothing planted in it yet. It's still very wet and we can't risk compacting it. I've noticed that the dandelions that grow in here are really easy to pull up so I'll have an easy time of harvesting some dandelion root this year.

The area behind this has one long row of garlic (where the straw is) I hand worked that soil and amended just that one row before planting. Nothing else is planted here.

Herb Spiral

This patch of land is also un-planted. We need to wait for things to dry out before we can aerate it. The stone circle in this photo is my herb spiral. We've used stones we pick out of the fields to build it. I'll write about growing in an herb spiral soon. There are also three cherry trees planted in this area.

This third area will be for garlic someday. We'd like to have a cash crop but we are waiting to build up the soil before we get going with that.

Apple orchard, lavender & happy tired ...

I forgot to show you the lavender patch, the apple orchard and some other things but I've run out of steem (lol - pun intended). We are so exhausted! The dogs, the humans, the chickens, everyone has had a wonderful weekend digging in the dirt, and feeling the sun on our skin. There's some pretty heavy snoring coming from downstairs where the dogs are crashed out.

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed the walk through our gardens and got a little taste of our world.

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[@walkerland ]
Building a greener, more beautiful world one seed at a time.
Homesteading | Gardening | Frugal Living | Preserving Food| From Scratch Cooking|

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