no place like home.

i'm back! finally.. well i have been for a few days but unfortunately returned to a wet basement and i've had little time to post. being gone for over a week the one thing i was worried about was no one remembering to water the garden in it's youthful freshly planted state.. but mother nature took care of that for me. apparently it rained almost every day.

besides mostly everything still being alive, the biggest surprise was this sprout! i have tried to grow these scarlet runner beans a few years now and they either get knocked down or torn out mistaken for something else, or they just don't sprout! my guess is that they'd rather be in the ground than started in a cup, but with my track record i thought if they won't start this way, i'll never start these beans. and voila! not only did it sprout but it seems to grow super quick.. gotta get it in the ground soon!

Matt's lettuce patch is doing really well too. it seems something else besides us is enjoying it, but we've snagged a few delicious crispy leaves for ourselves. i love the colour! i'm hoping i have more seeds to throw down to continue growing lettuce later in the season.

besides the garden, another thing that is flourishing is the community around it. this house has always have five or six tenants, but the back yard was rarely used, it was left to become overgrown. since Matt and i have moved in, we have converted it into somewhere nice to hang out, grow food and relax. now when i arrive home from work more often than not everyone that is home is in the back yard either cooking on the fire or coals, hanging out with the dogs or checking out the gardens. i love it!

 [upcycled truck tire rim into fire pit]

the culture part of permaculture.. the human connections, those are just as important as the networks being built in the garden. somewhere along the way people are losing touch with the sense of community and working together, and i think these things are just as important to cultivate as the food is.

that being said, we have done a lot of networking at the farmers' market, and if my timing is right, i should be able to get in on the good stuff today. gotta fly! it's good to be home... <3

sprouts of sunshine.

i'm horrible at starting things from seed. especially in trays. especially indoors! if it can go right in the ground i'm alright but otherwise... i need some practice. so when i set out a huge tray of seeds out back, i wasn't sure if anything would go, and it was a pleasant surprise after a couple big rains to find sprouts!

this lovely array of seeds were donated by various friends who had left overs, or nowhere to grow them.. i happily adopted them. wasn't sure if i could make them grow, but free seeds are better to try my luck than ones i've had to pay for. so! here goes...

sunnn! sunflower sprouts look so happy.. maybe because as soon as they sprout they're already huge! if these things make it to fullness, they'd be the biggest things i ever successfully grow from seed. they were so easy to start, i'll probably try a few more when i return from down south.

as an added bonus, the lupins sprouted. i love lupins, they're beautiful flowers.. they remind me of taking trips through northern ontario. they should have been started indoors weeks before frost, and delicately transplanted. but here i have started them in peat trays outdoors, on a repurposed trampoline turned planting table.

it will be interesting to see what makes it all the way, i hope more sprouts appear! we've also seen the cucumber seeds break the surface. still waiting on various herbs like mint and sage, and a couple other flowers and veggies. stay tuned!