Growing Up - Trellises and Other Garden Structures

I don't have a whole lot of space to garden, so I try my best to make the most of my vertical space using trellises and other structures. We're also renting our space, so nothing can be too permanent. I've designed my whole garden to be able to be taken apart if we need to move - we'll undo the raised beds, and the grass that is seeded there will be so healthy from my lovely garden soil. I say that as a preface because there are other great options out there, but for us it is most important that they work well, are cheap, and are easy to remove when needed.

We work with bamboo poles and twine, for the most part. This year we wanted to do some low tunnels over our raised beds, so we bought some PVC pipe and rebar stakes. We cut them too big last year, but that worked in our favour because I am enjoying using their length for trellising. In the above photos you can see my twine and PVC archway (left) that I have peas growing up one side, and cucumbers and squash on the other. In the photo on the right is a square trellis for peas that I made by weaving thinner bamboo stakes (6 ft. length) and leaning it against the wall. You can see it more fully in the photo below.

The above photo is a bit cluttered, but it does show what the garden actually looks like on a day to day basis - not just when I take a beautiful photo for Instagram! You can see my potato tower here, which I am still enjoying using. I've actually added another bin to grow potatoes in this way since it worked so well. I've got some chicken wire for things to grow up, and the long line of poles and twine is something I am trying for tomato supports. I've seen a lot of people use farm fencing for this, so I sort of made my own thing using six foot hardwood stakes, bamboo poles, and twine. The stakes are drilled into the raised beds, and the poles are keeping each tomato plant upright. The twine running between them keeps everything together and strong. 

We're also using plants as trellises - I put in a lot of sunchokes this year, and I've got beans planted below to climb them. I've done the same elsewhere with sunflowers. I'm hoping the corn will grow tall enough to help some of my beans out as well, but I've got some other supports ready in case it fails me again this year.

What are some of your favourite ways to use the vertical space in your garden? I'd love to hear all about it in the comment section!

May Harvest Totals

Asterisk Denotes Foraged Item

• Chamomile: 9 g
• *Dandelion Greens: 394 g
• *Dandelion Petals: 120 g
• Douglas Fir Cones: 120 g
• Green Garlic: 12 g
• Lemon Balm: 7 g
• Lettuce (Volunteer): 6 g
• *Lilac Flowers: 482 g
• Mint (Mojito): 8 g
• Mixed Greens: 145 g
• Pansies: 3 g
• Pea Shoots: 10 g
• Rhubarb: 151 g
• Sage: 1 g
• Strawberries: 11 g
• Tarragon: 2 g
• Thyme: 1 g
• *Wild Lettuce: 180 g

Total: 1.662 kg

This month was an interesting one for me, because usually the bulk of what I harvest in May is wild Asparagus, and this time for some reason I never made it out to my spot to gather any.  Initially the smaller harvest total was a bit discouraging, because ideally I'd like my self sufficiency to increase over time.  However, when I looked at last year's harvest total and subtracted what was asparagus, I found that this year I'd quadrupled my non-asparagus harvest!  The other thing that amazed me was that last year my "May" totals were actually April and May combined.  This year we were able to gather enough earlier that I tallied everything up for March and April's harvest so this year is already bringing in a more plentiful and diverse harvest.

One of the most interesting new things added to my spring harvest totals are these Douglas fir cones (pictured below).  I picked these while they were still green, and they have the most beautiful aroma.  I'd seen a few people posting on Instagram that they were using them for flavouring, so I decided to blend them up into a flavoured sugar.  They have the most beautiful aroma and a bright citrus/crabapple taste with forest notes that is really hard to describe.  I'm imagining making Christmas cookies this winter from sugar flavoured with a Christmas tree!  I also think these would make an incredible sorbet flavour too so I'm hoping to get out before they mature too much and gather some more to experiment with.

What are you harvesting these days?  Leave me a note in the comments and I'd love to hear how this spring of gardening and/or foraging is going for you!

Growing Pea Shoots and a Couple Ways to Eat Them

They are rising in popularity these days - and have long been popular with some cultures outside North America - but pea shoots still aren't something you find on your average grocery store shelf.  I've snipped a few here and there from the peas I've grown, but this year I tried growing them in flats kind of like you would with micro greens and I'm not sure why I didn't start doing this earlier!  

Growing pea shoots this way you have all the deliciousness of fresh peas without waiting until the pods are ready to harvest.  I can't believe I didn't start doing this earlier!  

The variety I used (linked above) is an heirloom pea that actually has beautiful red flowers if you let it grow longer.  It is known for its' strong, succulent tendrils which is why it is a great candidate for growing in this way. All you need to do is fill a flat tray like the seed starting tray in the photo below (linked above) almost to the top with a good quality potting soil suitable for growing vegetables (I used promix and I've linked it above as well although I will say I've seen it cheaper elsewhere).  Scatter the pea seeds on top.  You can crowd them in pretty closely because you're going to cut them when they are only a few inches high so you don't have to really worry about them competing for nutrients.  Cover them with a bit more soil, and then water thoroughly, but not to the point of creating a swamp.  

After you've got them planted the upkeep is really simple.  Just make sure to keep it moist without letting it get waterlogged.  You really won't need to water much as there is no drainage, but you do need to keep the seeds moist so that they actually sprout.  Once they are around six inches tall you can harvest them at any time, but don't let them get too much longer or they will be a bit tough.  Use these as you would use any other spring green - in salads, as part of a sandwich filling, in a frittata - you name it!  Here are a few things that I've been making recently to give you a few ideas.

Pea Shoot Green Sauce

If you can think of a better name for this give me a shout in the comments!  The yield will vary depending on how many pea shoots you have.  For this recipe I'm just giving ingredients adjust it all as you like the taste and make it your own!

• Pea Shoots
• Green Garlic (can substitute garlic cloves but go easy as they will be stronger)
• Lemon Juice
• Salt
• Olive Oil

1. Put pea shoots, green garlic, juice of half a lemon (go easy here as it can be overpowering and you'll have a chance to add more later), teaspoon of salt (again, you'll have the chance to add more later if you need to), and enough olive oil to make it liquid enough to blend in a blender or food processor.  Pea shoots are soft enough that a mortar and pestle would work as well, but it would take longer.
2. Blend until you like the consistency.  I keep mine chunkier because I like to spread it on toast (adding a fried egg on top is an incredible idea as well).
3. Taste and add more salt, lemon juice, or olive oil until you like the taste and texture.  Spread it on toast, use it as a dip, or put it on a burger - the options are endless!

Ginger Miso Sautéed Pea Shoots

In the photo above my miso paste is a bit chunky since I added the ginger and miso after starting to sauté the peas.  If you forget to add it earlier like me it won't look as pretty but it will still taste great!

• Large bunch of pea shoots (overestimate how much you need as they wilt down quite a bit)
• Small thumb of ginger, minced
• 1 Tsp Miso Paste
• Butter or other oil for sautéing 

1. Heat the butter or oil in a frying pan on medium-low heat.
2. Whisk the ginger and miso into the butter until it blends into a sauce.  
3. Add the pea shoots and sauté until wilted, but not mushy.

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March and April Harvest Totals

Shoes available here.

March and April Harvest Totals

Asterisk denotes foraged item.

• Bunching Onion: 24 g
• Carrots (Danvers): 802 g
• *Dandelion (Greens): 74 g
• *Dandelion (Roots): 14 g
• Kale (Russian Red): 1 g
• Kale (Winterbor): 22g
• Pea Shoots: 93 g
• Sunchokes: 2354 g

Total: 3.384 kg

I think it is amazing that I am able to do a substantial harvest total update a full month earlier than last season.  I remember it being particularly cold, and although we had a somewhat delayed beginning to spring this year as well the temperatures seem to be right back on track for everything.  A lot of the substantial stuff on this list was overwintered in the garden from last season.  If you can do that, it can be pretty handy in early spring when you're wishing for fresh veggies!

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Spring 2018 Garden Tour

Those of you who have been following along with my Instagram stories voted that you wanted my next post to be a garden tour, so here it is!  I don't think I've ever shown the whole thing completely like this, so I'm happy that a garden tour was something you all said you wanted to see.  Things are a little bit haphazard, and not completely tidy and manicured, but I wanted to give you a sense of what it looks like in real life on a regular day.  There is a lot I still want to do - and a lot more I would do if we weren't merely renting the space, but for now this is what it looks like.

The area I have for my garden is all north facing, so I am having to be creative with how I arrange it, and what I grow.  I am starting a lot of things inside that my neighbours would normally succeed with by direct seeding.  We've been adding on a few raised beds each season, so the layout evolved organically.  In the photo above you can see the four newest additions.  I think we have room for one more (beside the furthest bin in the left photo below).  Since we are tenants, we wanted everything to be affordable, and easy to dismantle in the event that we needed to move out.  We chose to make all of our raised beds without bottoms or lining of any kind so we can simply unscrew them, spread out the beautiful soil, and reseed with grass.  If you follow me on Instagram you can see the process of how I put them together in my saved stories.  We buy 10"x2"x12' boards from the hardware store and each bin is one board.  It's not the most elegant solution, but it's very affordable, and keeps things in small, manageable sections.  It's also easy to walk across, or stand on their walls if I need to reach something, or don't want to walk all the way around a path.

You'll notice that a few of the beds have PVC pipe hoops over them.  We were planning on doing some poly tunnels over a few of them to extend the growing season last winter but ran out of time.  I'll be using them as trellises for the vining plants this summer, and then we'll do them as low tunnels this coming winter and see what we can overwinter.

So far there isn't all that much planted this year.  I have some perennials - raspberries, bunching onions, strawberries, haskaps, blueberries, rhubarb, mint, chives, hyssop, lemon balm, and yarrow - and a few other things like brassicas that were just put in the ground very recently.  I am excited to see how my haskaps and rhubarb do now that they are well established and in their third or fourth years.  Bunching onions are a recent favourite I got last year from a neighbour who was dividing their plant.  I haven't had very good success with growing regular onions, so having them in the ground, basically ready to eat all the time has been a revelation!  They don't have much of a bulb, so I still buy regular onions, but you can use these any way you would use a spring onion, or a shallot.

In the above photo you can see a few of our bins that don't match our other basic square ones.  The three small ones near the wall were made for me by a friend from Church who had some spare wood and wanted to make some for me.  The really long raised bed is one we did before we realized that it is really hard for me to reach all the way to the back of it - especially now that we have the potato bin and other beds blocking the access from a few directions.  I also filled in the space behind the three small bins with dirt for some perennial berry bushes.  You can see this better in the photo below.

As far as what is growing right now, below are a few snapshots of the perennials (and some overwintered brassicas) coming back to life for the spring.  The one I am most excited for is the rhubarb, but I am also watching the progress of the Bianca hops (top left photo) closely as it is my first time growing them, and I think hops bines are really beautiful. 

As always, I am so grateful for the gorgeous view of the valley I have from my garden.  The best mornings are when I have a mug of coffee, and I get to wander around the garden and check on everything.  We have quite a few birds and other animals that come to visit, so I enjoy watching them and marking the seasons when they come and go.  Right now the warm weather is bringing back the tree swallows, and I love watching their swooping flights.  We have deer, and bears (mixed blessings there as they can also be quite the nuisances), and last year a whole bunch of garter snakes were born right in the garden.  Little forager enjoyed watching them, and I enjoyed that they helped take care of some of the pests.  I love that I have a garden that encourages biodiversity.   

I'd love to hear about your gardens in the comments below.  Or if you don't have a garden talk to me about what you wish you could do if you had a garden!