Tom Thumb Peas

Noticed today I have a lone pea pod! Two days short from one month since I put the seed in the ground. Exciting! Tomato plants now under their own light and stand covered on three sides in reflective foil( not shown)
. Lettuce doing great as well as all the other plants!

Lettuce Update

Looks like the first gutter is ready to start trimming. Gutter 2 is slow moving but coming. And gutter 3 is about to get planted.

Indoor Garden Update

This evening I transplanted my tomato plants in to larger pots. I am hopeful that they will remain in these pots. They are doing so well so far.

I also transplanted my Tom Thumb Peas in to what I hope is their final home. These peas are a bush type and should have plenty of room.

Pepper plants are also doing well. Not fast growers but soon they will also move in to larger spaces.

Lastly rain gutter two had some germination issues and they were my own fault. No worries, I will seed some more and gutter three is not to far off. Gutter one looks great! Salads will start happening very soon.

My plants are growing fast enough that soon I will need to work on my second grow stand. I knew I would need one but didn’t figure on it this fast.

Growing is fun!

Namaste

and so continues the lettuce gutters…

Lettuce gutter #2 was planted today. Another bed of mixed greens. Will look awesome once everything sprouts.

The rest of the kids are doing well.

And lastly, our newest addition, arugula and tom thumb peas. The peas should be fun, they grow in to a small bush and should be well suited for container gardening.

Rain gutter lettuce

Here is a quick photo that shows all three gutters in their brackets but before the top one was planted. Thought it might be helpful to understand how I am doing this. If people are interested I might be making and selling this sort of setup. In various sizes to meet peoples space limitations. If interested leave a comment. Thanks.

Almost winter…

Here we are in November, months after my last post. Martha’s business has been very busy, and that is good since I do not have work at the moment. But something will show itself for me I am sure.

In the meantime I am trying my hand at indoor gardening. So far so good, here are a few photos…

Two tomato plants, both pear, one red and one yellow. There are actually two of one of them, not sure which one. It will me a surprise!

Another view, showing three hot pepper plants (the small plants) and to the far right is a mung bean. I sprout them for Martha and I and also our parrot loves them! So I thought what the heck, let’s grow a mung bean plant.

This I am very excited about, rain gutter lettuce! This is gutter number one, there are three and they will be succession planted about 3 to 4 weeks apart. They are roughly 45 inches long. I actually made three of these holders to support the gutters and to also tier them. Here is a photo of one bracket…

Easy to see how they are stepped down. So far gutter one is working well.

We also have basil, parsley, thyme, green onion and rosemary growing. The basil is not on the grow rack, it has it’s own homemade light stand and 10” clamp light. It has a 6500k CFL bulb.

Currently everything is being grown with CFL bulbs in homemade reflectors. The bulbs are 6500k and 23 watt each. 4 sets of 2 bulbs, 8 total. Things are growing well so far. Updates to follow.

Go grow something!

Food Matters

Martha and I have tried to stick with our healthy lifestyle. And for the most part we do. I am guessing about 80% of the time we are eating healthy and raw. Tonight we watched on Netflix a documentary called “Food Matters”. If there is nothing else you ever read or watch, please please please take the time to watch this documentary. It is perhaps the most important thing you could ever do for your health. If you wish to purchase this DVD you can find it on Amazon and or visit this site to buy it directly…

Food Matters

Eat right and make a change…

Namaste.

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Garden 2012

That time of the year again! We have expanded our raised beds from two to six. Big jump this year. Some things however did not get planted till late.

In the photo here you can see the chives we moved out of a raised bed and in to it’s own container. The blooms were awesome on the chive this year.

The tomato is an patio tomato, like an early girl. We bought it with fruit on it already. Is always fun to have at least one

Check out the “Our Garden” page on the top menu bar to see the new beds. Oh and we added an arbor for the grapes that were taking over our old birch tree. We had to cut it down but we saved the grapes.

My first attempt at building something like this. Did not turn out bad. And we are using the front to host some peas and cukes. Love the dual purpose of the arbor.

 

We have a lot planned to do yet. There are at least three more major projects to get done in the yard this summer. Keep checking in to learn what they are.

Now go grow something!

The Illusion of Choice?

as posted by Robyn O’Brien

http://blogs.prevention.com/inspired-bites/2012/05/03/the-illusion-of-choice/

Robyn illustrates how consolidated our food system has become in her short post. Go take a quick look and study the company chart she has posted there. It is down right scary when you think about it.

Anyone concerned about what they are eating and what companies are feeding us should subscribe to Robyn’s Facebook. She posts a lot of useful and enlightening information.

"Real Food" evangelist Robyn O’Brien

 

Robyn’s TED talk. This is a must see. Please pass this on to all your friends.

Here is Robyn’s website as well… www.robynobrien.com

January Recap

Here it is February already, almost a month since my last post. January has been a fun and exciting month for us! We spent 10 days in Florida doing a wholesale show and spending time with good friends! We had a blast! We did pretty well at the show and had great weather. Even though it was a business trip it felt like a much needed vacation! We even packed the Vitamix and had some awesome smoothies for breakfast each day!

We have just spent the last week filling orders from the show and getting caught up on parts and jobs for Gross Brothers Welding. We are finishing up tomorrow just in time to fly out Tuesday on a REAL two week vacation to the West Indies. We are off to Dominica for two weeks of fun, sun and more fruit than you can imagine! We can not wait to kick back and just enjoy ourselves.

Green goodness! Lettuce, spinach, celery, banana, apple and HONEYBELL ORANGES! Super yum!

More to come from Dominica…

Us, 2012 and Waking Bear Studio

Well here we are 1 week in to 2012 and busy as heck. We are working hard to get ready for our first wholesale show which is in Florida. We have less than two weeks till we leave. So busy we are. On top of that we received two new orders in the last two days.

I just finished another railing job for Gross Brothers Welding, and some various parts for other projects with them. What sleep?

We are back to eating about 90% raw vegan and loving it. Our smoothies have been awesome and we get up looking forward to making them. As you can imagine the Vitamix will be making the trip to Florida.

This year is looking crazy from the start. Crazy in a good way, I guess We even got an offer to have our art in an online store that sells items made from recycled material. Most of what we make is made from scrap left over from Gross Brothers and the parts they and I fab. So what the heck, I think we will see were this online store leads. Martha has been in talks with them.

Have a great day and an awesome 2012!