☼ Grow your own damn Food! ☼

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These weekly posts are to share the progress of our garden; sharing photos and our gardening experiments and will hopefully inspire you to grow your own garden too! :) 

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This week we did lots of transplanting! The front beds saw their first plants when we transplanted the kale starts. We also mulched them with grass clippings. We are honestly not sure what to expect as they are looking rather sad after a couple days of being out--especially compared to the kale that we direct seeded that is almost ready for harvest! If they don't make it then we have room to plant something else, right now they're tucked at the side of where the tomatoes and peppers will be once they're ready to transplant. 

Oh and pretty flowers are still popping up in the front beds too ^_^

In the front beds… we transplanted some more lettuce in "bed #3" as well a few mustard green starts that are admittedly looking rather pitiful as well after a couple days. The lettuce still look good though! 

In "bed #2" we transplanted the broccoli starts behind the row of direct seeded broccoli from last week. We also transplanted a row of bok choi and collards in front of the spinach planted in the back last week. 

The seeds that we direct seeded last week are starting to come up, including the broccoli which has always been a tricky one for us to grow so we're rather excited and hopeful about that.

The greenhouse is still booming. I have a bet going with Cory that within the week we'll be ready to harvest kale, it's just getting so big so quickly. The mustard greens we need to start harvesting as they are getting big and rather spicy! 

The peas are looking great! And the second row we planted last week has started to come up. 

This week we also went on an adventure looking for cool driftwood to try and pretty up the back fence. It's a work in progress and hasn't gotten very far but we did find some cool pieces, now we just have to decorate. ;) 

Lastly, I don't think we can wait much longer before transplanting the zucchini and cucumber, they are getting so big so fast! Cory made little supports for the cucumber since they're getting so tall; using chopsticks and twist ties haha. Creative. We are probably going to have to plant them soon though even if it's before the technical last frost--we've had super hot summer weather all week so we're optimistic. 

Well, that's all this week, been super busy with work so I'll be getting back to that now. ;) Hope you're all having a lovely week and enjoying some warm weather and that your gardens are thriving! 

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

☼ Grow your own damn Food! ☼

. . . . . . . . . .

These weekly posts are to share the progress of our garden; sharing photos and our gardening experiments and will hopefully inspire you to grow your own garden too! :) 

. . . . . . . . . .

What a week in the garden!! 

So, last Tuesday we spent the day mulching the greenhouse garden bed--where our kale are still happily getting bigger and bigger. We mulched with grass clippings and it does wonders to keep weeds back and keep moisture in the soil. I don't understand not mulching, it just makes things so much easier! The kale itself has outgrown the ones we planted inside for starts, by a lot! The mustard greens are almost ready to start harvesting as well, and the radishes will be ready in a little while too. The radishes are daikon radishes, which I forgot to mention before, so they aren't ready as early as other kinds of radishes but are usually bigger. 

[mulched kale/growing collards]

I just can't believe how fast the kale is growing! We'll be harvesting in no time and will be able to keep that going throughout the whole summer and through the winter with the greenhouse. Our collards have also popped up in the greenhouse bed and are gradually getting bigger. Again, everything in that little greenhouse is doing so well! 

The peas came up and are growing quickly. So we planted another row of peas. What we did was space them out wider so that we could plant more every couple weeks so we can keep a more steady harvest instead of having them all ready at once. We'll see how that works out. We also spent Sunday building our pea trellis, out of bamboo and natural twine. I think it looks great, more earthy. It's also fun because mostly all our materials that we've been using to make our garden have been recycled or eco friendly. Even the wood we used to build the frames was from a mill that discounted the not so perfect pieces. Everything else has been reused from various places. And of course there's the swing set that makes up the netting "fence" to the pea garden bed, and helps to make the trellis that much more solid too. 

In that bed, we also planted strawberries this week! Cory sourced some out from a local gardener who sold us 40 plants for $20. Super stoked! We bought a nice strawberry planter for half the plants and the other half went in the garden bed. Super exciting! They're ever-bearing which means we'll have a steady supply throughout the summer as well.

  

We also spent Sunday putting up a fence around the front garden bed, which doesn't have anything planted yet but we're just getting ready since we already have spotted a few deer and tracks around the garden. It was quite the task, not as tall as it needs to be but it's not done yet either. 

Spinach and lettuce are slowly coming up in the other three beds. 

Yesterday we planted some more things outside as well. We mixed some more of that "starter soil" like before to give the seeds some awesome soil to start in as opposed to just the manure in the beds. And we soaked the seeds in fertilizer solution for about an hour before planting them in the ground. 

We planted some broccoli next to the spinach, and some swiss chard in the back of that bed. We planted some spinach and also transplanted some of our lettuce starts in the far bed. 

Oh, and Cory planted a few cucumber seeds in between the rows of peas at the base of the trellis. And we put a frost cover over the second bed with the spinach and new broccoli and chards.  

We've started climatizing our starts this week, to get them used to the weather outside and change, meaning we take the outside for a couple hours every day. 

Oh and the cucumber and zucchinis!!! Remember how we soaked and planted them last week? Well, they are HUGE! It's funny to compare to last year because even when we planted our starts last year they were these measly pathetic looking things that tried and failed. This year they are so big and strong so I have a feeling we're going to have an awesome harvest!

And we also have a current bush from last year that is coming back to life! So many exciting things! 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Green Almond Smoothie! Ⓥ

This smoothie is heaven in a cup! A great way to load up on some greens for the day and tastes absolutely delicious, sweet, and creamy. Pure goodness! Since you can't taste the greens I imagine it would be a great way to get little ones to eat their greens as well--but having no little ones to personally try this on, you'll have to be the judge. ;)  

Green Almond Smoothie

1 frozen Banana

1 heaped Tbsp Almond Butter (or peanut butter)

1 cup Spinach or Kale (or combination of both)

1 cup Almond Milk

1/2 serving of protein powder (optional)

Add all your ingredients together in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy! Add less or more almond milk to get your desired consistency. 

Makes 1 smoothie. Enjoy! 

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.

Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Green Super Smoothie! Ⓥ

Another fantastic way to get an easy serving of greens! This smoothie is super super good for you with super foods and greens! Yayy! Don't worry, you can't taste the greens and the texture is rich, creamy, an explosion of flavours for your mouth. Good good good!

Green Super Smoothie

3/4 cup frozen Blueberries

1/2 Banana

1 Tbsp Chia Seeds

1 Tbsp Hemp Hearts

1/2 cup Water

1 Tbsp Peanut Butter (or other nut butter)

1 cup fresh Greens (Spinach, Kale, or Collards)

1/2 cup Coconut Milk

7 drops Stevia (or a touch of your own sweetener if desired)

1 serving of protein powder*

*I've been using Vegan Proteins+, but I love the taste of stevia ;) I've also used hemp protein before or you can omit the protein powder all together. 

Soak the chia and hemp hearts in the 1/2 cup water for at least ten minutes, or overnight. Add all your ingredients together in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy! Add less or more coconut milk to get your desired consistency. 

Makes 1 smoothie. Enjoy! 

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.