The Outcome of the Season - Time for Before and Afters

Here in the north, we're being blessed with an extension of summer-like (or at the very least, spring-like) weather. But in the alley garden, only my slug-ravaged cabbages are benefiting. That's because, September 5th, this happened:

Well, it was hard to capture in a photo, but that's snow whipping through the air. In Alberta, everyone knows you have to have your frost blankets ready by the first week of September, but I am resistant to giving up my US Mid-Atlantic mentalities. September is still summer!!! I was not prepared.

The tomatoes were pregnant with still-green bounty, the immature squash hung dark green and barely the size of baseballs, the petite pumpkins were flirting with the idea of an orange hue, the budding sunflowers were still prepping to erupt yellow faces towards the sun. So some snow showers turned into a below-freezing night, and all were laid low by frost.

It was a sad trip through the alleyway the next day. Tomato leaves wept down stems in dark, mushy teardrops. Half-grown pumpkins lay scattered like orphans among desiccated, lifeless vines. Deep emerald zucchini skins peeked and glistened from beneath a blanket of brown, withered leaves. The sunflowers, stalks standing tall in hopeless defiance, held aloft tops beheaded by cold they could not withstand.

Much was accomplished this season in the alleyway. I'm sad I was not prepared enough so the garden could take full advantage of this drawn out end-of-summer. But I suppose that's one of the greatest benefits of being a gardener. Every poor germination, every slug-riddled crop, every early frost, and the gardener begins chanting in his ever-optimistic mind, "Next year, next year, next year."

And so, some before and afters for this season:

The alley when this project began.

In raspberry season

In late-summer bloom

Summer's end

. . . And next year will be even better!

Staycation Progress Report: Day 2 - Things Don't Always Go As Planned

By the end of the week, I'm supposed to look back and say, "Wow! Look at all the amazing stuff I got done!!!"

So how's it going so far?

Ummmm . . . I've gotten some laundry done, and some dishes washed. But garage door painting progress? Slow. Top-to-bottom house cleaning progress? Not started. Delicious food making? Dinner didn't make it to the table last night until 7:30.

That was day 1 of my great staycation. Today got off to a much better start. And then this happened:

Those are the most beautiful rolls I've ever made . . . and that's shattered Pyrex all over them. The soup I was making to go with these beautiful rolls? Right after the Pyrex explosion, I taste-tested and found I'd made a terrible error. It was way too spicy for child consumption. Sigh.

So after three children's swimming lessons in the afternoon, and before one child's viola lesson in the evening, a take out dinner graced our table on day 2 of mom's staycation. I felt like a failure.

And so, I realize I'm re-learning what all stay-at-home parents already know: there is never enough time to get everything done. And anyone who thinks you should be able to get everything done because you're not working another job, is dreaming.

I did know this once -- back when I was staying home with my first son. My house was never clean and personal projects were never undertaken then, either. But recently I've been able to delude myself into thinking, when my job ends, I'm going to have sooooooo much time! I'm going to have beautiful gardens, and canned food, and a freezer full of pies, and a blog post every day, and happy children, and a renovated home, and custom-built cabinetry, built by me of course!!!

And maybe I will . . . maybe. But today, I'm thinking, it's a good thing I'm having this staycation to give me a little dose of reality before the true reality of unemployment and unlimited time (HA!) sets in.

Staycation, Here I Come!!!

As some of you know, I'm losing my job in a few weeks (long story for another blogpost), so this is a really good time to step back and reflect on how things are going with my life, how things are going for my kids, how I really want to be spending my time, and what I want to do next.

So action item #1: TAKE BACK VACATION TIME!!!

I'm taking this whole week off, and I'll take another week in October before my employment officially ends Nov. 3. And I plan to make the most of it!

One of my coworkers asked me last week, "Why don't you just work the rest of the time and collect a fat final pay check?"

I have to admit, I was surprised by the question. I recognize the mere fact I'm able to make a choice about this shows what a privileged life I lead in comparison to much of the world, but the truth is, in our present circumstance, that little bit of extra money just isn't worth it to me. This is why:

1. This is Alberta, and Winter's on it's Way
     I'm not exaggerating when I say this is almost certainly our last week of summer. The snow already flew two days last week (yes, that is snow on those pumpkin leaves below) and the geese are honking overhead while I type. Once November comes, sure, I'll suddenly have tons of free time on my hands, but I'll also be knee-deep in snow, the days will be short, and the temperature will have dipped below -20 celsius. Perhaps I am crazy, but living in this cold, northern climate is to blame. I'm going to give up that last pay check to get a week of summer (or pseudo-summer, as the case may be) to myself.

2. Life's Short and You Never Know When You're Going to be Hit By a Truck (Proverbial or Otherwise)
      I can't guarantee I'll still be on this planet in November, but I'm here today and have the opportunity to make a choice about how I spend this precious day. Spending a week gardening, painting, and blogging while my kids are at daycare and school and my husband is at work . . . well, that sounds pretty darn good.

3. The Future is Unknown; What I Know is Now
     Once I start a new job, assuming I find one, how long will it be before I can take vacation again? And how long will it be before I find that job? How much of a financial hit will my family take from my unemployment? Perhaps I'll have a new job right away . . .or perhaps it will be a long time and there will be a long battle back before there are savings again for a family vacation. Right now, I've earned the vacation time, I still have an income, and this little staycation is costing us nothing (beyond the paint I plan to apply to the garage door and the delicious food I plan to cook). So I'll take it while I've got it.

4. For 5 Years My Priorities Have Been (Apparently) all Wrong - I Don't Want to Miss the Opportunity to Get Them Right
     I don't want this one to sound like sour grapes, but for almost five years I've sacrificed personal time and family time to build a career . . . a career that now isn't happening. As many of us do when building our careers, I skimped on vacation time, worked long hours, overly relied on my partner and family members while I traveled, took on extra projects, and even took dramatically abbreviated mat leaves - all because I didn't want to miss out on professional opportunity. It wasn't for naught: I absolutely loved my job, and I was rewarded by it - to a point. Now, however, I have to wonder if I made the right types of sacrifices.   . . . But I am so, so glad and thankful that I get to wonder about this today rather than twenty years from now. My kids still have time in their childhood, I still have health and energy, my husband and I still have a strong marriage, and together we have options.

So there you have it. My reasons for taking a staycation. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy these 5 days. I'll have plenty of time over the coming weeks and months for pondering, second guessing, rationalizing, and agonizing over the choices I've made, and what comes next. But for this week, I have just one goal. To look back and say, "Wow! Look at all the amazing stuff I got done!!!"

And so, I am off to project number 1: The garage door I started painting last summer but was just too busy . . . AT WORK . . . to finish. Here we go!

So I Said I Couldn't Grow Zucchini...

Like everyone else who gardens, I am having that late-summer harvest experience: the mountains of zucchini are upon me. This is somewhat surprising given the state of the yellowing, shriveling baby zucchinis last summer and early this summer. But my efforts to rehabilitate our poisoned alleyway soil have born fruit...in the form of zucchini tyranny.

But unlike my family members, who are groaning at every new zucchini creation that graces the table, I LOVE zucchini season!!! What other plant is virtually guaranteed to give you a mountain of food, literally at least as tall as you are, every season?

My husband seems to think this quality of zucchini is of little value since it is food virtually no one wants to eat. I think he's crazy. There's such an amazing variety of things you can do with zucchini!!!

If you have a great zucchini recipe, share it with me. I'll add it here, and we can all love our zucchini harvest together!

Savory Zucchini Muffins

Zucchini Recipe: Savory Zucchini Muffins

Do you know the trick to delicious muffins??? Always combine your dry ingredients and your wet ingredients in separate bowls first. Mix the two together only at the very end, and DON'T OVER-STIR. Fold dry and wet together gently with as few strokes as possible to get them only just incorporated. This is how you guarantee light, fluffy muffins instead of hard, chewy rocks.

Savory Zucchini Muffins

  Wondering what to do with those end-of-season zucchini's that no one wants to eat? Cheesy,

sugar-free, and delicious, these muffins are a great addition to back-to-school lunch boxes!

Dry Ingredients - Whisk together

       1 cup all purpose flour

       1 cup whole wheat flour

       1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

       1 1/2 tsps baking powder

       1/2 tsp baking soda

       1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients - Whisk together

2 eggs

1/4 canola or sunflower seed oil

1 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1 cup grated cheese (I used a combination of Edam and Old Cheddar, but I don't think you can go wrong here. After all, what cheese isn't good?)

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

 Very gently fold the dry and wet ingredients together until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Gently scoop into muffin tin (makes 12 muffins). 

 Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and lift muffins onto their sides to cool.

 Enjoy!!!

       

The Dried Pea Harvest

I had very committed pea shellers today:

That's David on the left and Peter on the right. They're my alley gardening buddies. Their gardening consists mostly of riding their scooters, eating raspberries, lovingly stroking the bright green caterpillars that have massacred the cabbages, and throwing stones against the neighbor's fence. But no matter. I couldn't ask for better gardening companions.

It's a good thing, however, I don't need to feed them this winter on the alley bounty alone. I think we'll be getting just one pot of soup from this pea harvest.

The Most Important Thing to Grow

 The thing I want to cultivate most in my life right now. . . 

 

. . . is kindness.

I think being kind used to be a foundation of my person. I realize, however, at this time in my life, it is not.

It's not that I am unkind . . . perhaps. But kindness is not a source and constant light at the heart of me, warming all actions I take, softening my approach and response to others, depriving criticism and judgment, and feeding patience, openness, and humanity.

When a person is truly kind, kind in a way that is deep within and formative of their being, it is clear in the actions they take, in the choices they make. It is evident just being in their presence.

I think you must be a very kind person to knit scarfs for trees. Is this "a thing", a tree scarf movement?

If it is a movement, I like it. It's delightful. It made me, very simply, happy.

I know people like this. A friend I had in high school: Zoe. I haven't seen Zoe in a couple of years now, but I look at her blog posts about building her house in Vermont, I look at her drawings of creatures with quirky, unique personalities, I read her observations of Mouse in the camp kitchen (who she does not try to murder in a wire trap as I do the mice in my kitchen) and Malcolm the rude and dirty cat (who she still scratches under the chin), and I know Zoe is one of those deeply kind people. One of those people who is open to and forgiving of others, and who others grow and become better around.

My sister, Angela, is one of these people. Angela who is, literally, too kind to hurt a fly. Who allows the weeds to grow among the cultivars because life is life and none of it should be extinguished. Who permits the neighborhood strays to, despite their destruction of her gardens and obstruction of her walkways, take haven beneath her trees and overhang, and then neuters them so they cease their propagation. Angela who sees beyond, through, and under vices and fallibility to admire individuality, creativity, and singularity, and who challenges others to question themselves, their assumptions, and their judgments. Angela is an unshakably kind person in the soul of her being.

My parents who have grown so much for so many, and who speak to my children with such gentleness and understanding. My children, who hold ladybugs, worms, and caterpillars with such a mixture of awe and care.

I think a number of factors these past few years have diminished my focus on and capacity for kindness. But my approach to work especially, while yielding professional growth, has been poisonous for my other relationships. Not poisonous like a cloud of pesticide knocking creatures dead on contact, but toxic none-the-less, in a slow and seeping way that promises, if not cleaned up and contained, to reveal itself later in unexpected deformities and sinister defects.

But I am very lucky and hopeful. My current job is, very soon, coming to an end. And I see, in this ending, a great opportunity to re-evaluate and refocus and, if I do this right, make a return to the kinder, more grounded, and more engaged person that perhaps I once was...or that at the very least I definitely could be.

I am so sorry the ending won't come when the garden yet has some life to live on fast forward before the snow. It will be well buried by the time I am free, and I will have to wait months for spring to come before I can plant that new beginning. But this will be good time for planning, adjusting, and preparing, for planting small seeds in the womb of southern windows and coaxing soft leaflings into being.

I am so glad that the little free time I've had these past two seasons was dedicated to breaking the alley ground and repairing the soil. When I think about it, I don't know any gardeners who are unkind people. I hope by spring I am planting things that are new, whole, healthy, and beautiful. Things that will enrich and grow my family and my self, and things that will connect me to all those people I see and pass in daily life, but have not taken the time to know and do not, yet, call friends.

Kitchen Reno Idea: A Window on my Alley

Snippets of the Kitchen Design

This post might be a bit of a stretch for ally gardening, but I swear there's a connection.







Here's our kitchen now.

It's okay. Like most of our house, we can certainly live in it. With limited funds for improvements (and limited man/woman-hours available, too), it's definitely not at the top of the priority list.

But here's my issue. This wall is on the alley side of the house! The south side! The side with light and warmth in this cold, dark, bitterly cold northern land.

Why is there no window???!!! Clearly a case of no one thinking about the environment the home would be positioned in.

For urban dwellers, we are immensely lucky. When considering buying this house, I was worried the alleyway might be a big draw back. Now I can't believe how short-sighted I was!

For an Urban Area, What a Great View!

It's like having a corridor of parkland right in our backyard! And that's the basis for the kitchen reno idea: convert the southern wall into a long window so the alley becomes the backdrop for the kitchen.

So here it is! My kitchen reno idea! My husband has had a few choice words...not appropriate to this blog...for the colour scheme. So that's probably a no-go. But the window? Definitely!

The Kitchen After . . . Someday

It's Raspberry Season! Make this Raspberry Recipe!

The Best Raspberry Pie

It's my favourite raspberry recipe from my childhood -- my mom's raspberry pie with meringue crust.

In reality, I think this pie arrived on our plates very few times. Although big raspberry bushes lined the south side of the garden in my very, very early childhood, within a few years, the patch had been reduced to just the wild brambles along the west fence. Later (I think) there were virtually no raspberries at all.

I doubt I was much more than a toddler when I had this pie for the first time, but I remember it clearly. Of course, human memory is ridiculously imperfect. Most of what we "remember" is just our logical brains manufacturing and filling in the numerous blanks. But who cares! My memory is of taking a big bite of fresh raspberries, cool whipped cream, and this luscious and completely unexpected crust, and thinking, "Wow! This is the most amazing thing I have ever tasted!!!"

Put this Raspberry Pie at the top of your To-Do List.

Every summer after that, I hoped and pined for raspberry pie, and I'm sure it did occasionally arrive again. So this summer, with a bumper crop of alleyway raspberries dropping to the ground, my mother's raspberry pie went on the to-do list.

Now I must admit, I had only a list of ingredients for this pie, no directions. So I believe I made a few errors. I will try to guide you away from doing the same. Here's what you need to make this pie, too:

6 soda crackers
1/2 c. walnuts chopped small
1/4 tsp. salt

3 egg whites
1 c. white sugar (I used 1/2 c. of brown sugar, instead, and it was still PLENTY sweet, but yielded a softer, chewier crust)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

small carton whipping cream
1 T. powdered sugar
2 1/2 to 3 c. fresh raspberries

The walnuts  really make this crust!

1. Roll soda crackers to a fine powder. (Tip: Place them in a sandwich bag and roll with rolling pin.) Combine with walnuts and salt and set aside. (This is where I believe I erred. I combined all dry ingredients at once. Instead, try following the method in step 2 below.)

2. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar and baking powder.

3. Fold together the cracker mixture, egg whites, and vanilla.

I should have beaten the sugar into the whites.

4. Spread this mixture into a pie plate, pushing slightly up the sides. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. I lightly greased my pie plate with non-hydrogenated coconut oil (we don't use hydrogenated oils in our house), but I'm not sure this is necessary.

Prepped crust

5. Let baked crust cool 15 minutes, then refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Crust out of oven.

6. Whip cream and powdered sugar until peaks form and cream does not slide out of bowl when tipped. But don't turn it into butter!!!

7. Very gently fold raspberries and whipped cream together being careful not to mash your beautiful raspberries.

8. Pile the whipped cream - raspberry mixture into chilled pie crust. Slice, serve, and enjoy!

Ta Da! I hope you love it as much as I do!!!

What's Growing and What's Not

I'd like to say these came from the alleyway . . .


. . . but they actually came from my husband's garden in the backyard, where the soil is just a bit more productive... And the gardener is okay, too. ;)


But still, we grew them, and I love them!!! My house is normally littered with toys, smeared with food, and covered with crayon drawings on the walls. So I'm really, really enjoying this little breath of beauty beside me as I type.


Here's what is growing in the alleyway this year. So I complained in an earlier post that I couldn't even successfully cultivate a zucchini in the alley. This year, after bags and bags of composted manure, there is a little more success. Here's a pic taken by my four year old (I hadn't even realized he'd snagged the iphone and brought it to the alley in his pocket--later I found the pics and thought, "Wow! A budding photographer!!!").

 But do you notice the yellow and somewhat shriveled end of that one little zucchini? They are still suffering from nutrient deficiency. Last summer, every zucchini, once it reached about an inch in length, shriveled, turned yellow, and fell from the plant. This year, each zucchini received approximately 15 lbs of composted manure in the hole before it was planted, yet I'm still having to give them doses of miracle grow to prevent this zucchini death.

But here's what's growing just great in the alley!!! Raspberries! And besides pruning in the spring, we don't even need to do anything. They just spread and spread. Look for my favourite raspberry recipe from my childhood on the blog tomorrow!

It Smells Like Death, but it is Life!

I bet this precious load will compost down to just a tablespoon.

Urban farming presents some challenges. Space. Sunlight. Ability to compost.

A couple years ago in a rental home, our first dwelling (as adults) with a yard, composting was causing me great anxiety. It was fall, and we were breaking ground for a garden so we'd be prepared come spring. And, in preparation, we started composting, too.

But I literally composted in secret. I scoped out the backyard, choosing a section in the far corner that seemed the least visible to any of the neighbors. I dug a sizable hole, arranged wooden ties around it, and hoped it looked like a raised bed.

When it would be time to do the dirty dumping, I'd scurry out quickly, bowl of food scraps in hand, and try to block the neighbors' view with my body as I emptied the bowl into the hole. I kept a shovel leaning against the fence so I could immediately bury the soon-to-be-stinky secret. I'd sometimes even dump under cover of darkness.

Of course, all of this surely was for naught, since the compost pit soon attracted every crow in the neighborhood. If you were a crow looking for a good time, our back fence was the place to be.

Did our neighbors notice? Did they mind? Were they cursing us and our murder of crows? Could they smell a whiff of anything if they sidled up to the fence? Seriously, these questions plagued me.

Maybe my anxiety was really born out of it being a rental property (we shouldn't have worried, by the way--after we moved, our landlord later called us and told us how happy he'd been when he came by to check out the house, particularly with how well the backyard had been taken care of--so go figure--all that worrying for nothing), because it never even occurred to me to question composting when we moved into the Edmonton house.

I like my neighbors quite a bit. But why would I worry about whether or not they approve of my composting...or my alley gardening for that matter?

Now I figure, anyone who is against composting, or opposed to turning unused urban spaces into something productive...well how valuable can their opinion really be?

So no need to question. Composting is an absolute must!!! This doesn't work in apartments, of course, but if you have access to the outdoors, you can compost. You don't need a fancy system, and you definitely don't need a lot of space. A hole, a bucket, a bin, a pile--any of these will do. If kept moist and full of good flora, your organics will break down into a tiny fraction of their original mass in no time.

And thank goodness, because now in my second summer of reclaiming the alleyway, my poison-soil is still in desperate need of nutrients!!!

It's Poisoned, Poisoned I Say!!!

Who can't grow a freakin' zucchini?!

Me...because I have poisoned earth!

Last spring, our first spring in the Edmonton house, I bagged and disposed of hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of wood chips from the flowerbeds in the front.

It doesn't look like much, but trust me, there are hundreds of pounds of wood chips in that flowerbed.

By the time I got to the alley, I thought I could take a shortcut and just start turning all these millions of wood chips into the dirt.

 I had this naive idea that, if buried, they would simply decompose, adding hummus to the soil and loosening up all the compacted clay and gravel. Don't ever be tempted to do this!

we're evil

The result? Nothing in the alleyway growing, and poor little baby zucchini that were just turning yellow, shriveling up, and falling off when no more than an inch long.

In the Beginning . . .

The Edmonton Alley

This is what I started with last summer. Since we bought the house, I've had a minor obsession with turning our section of this alleyway into something green and productive.

Working in my favour:

• Southern Exposure
• Long summer days (Sunrise at 5 a.m. and Sunset at 10:30 p.m. in the height of summer)
• Fence creates a small microclimate
• Nice long expanse

Working against me:

• This is Edmonton, Alberta -- it's not exactly known for it's gardening. Summer doesn't last long, and the winter is so, so cold.
• Very little real soil; lots of gravel
• Hard, hard, hard, and very difficult to dig through
• Thick bed of cedar wood chips covering the entirety of the alleyway and flower beds (my neighbor, a soil scientist, will later inform me these are a soil sterilant, and they are poisoning everything I try to grow)
• Neighbor's trees casting large shadows through much of the day
• Our own pine and spruce casting shadow, sucking the soil dry, and dropping a constant bed of needles
• Through years of neglect, Canadian thistle has invaded the entire property. It's the only thing that will grow up through the wood chips, and it will prove a constant battle to try to eradicate. No wonder they call it "Hell Lettuce."