Rest in Peace Lemon Tree

You could have been delicious!

Some time in the past - March 29, 2013

I need a flame thrower for various reasons.

I learned something new this week. Never assume you will not have to get into a building for the entire winter. Since i ordered a skid of pro-mix i have to house it somewhere since it will take up all the room in my greenhouse. I haven't really shoveled out any of the out buildings at all this year so the snow was pretty intense. I spent three and a half hours shoveling out one bay of a garage so i had somewhere to put my soil.

I'm pretty short and the snow was past my waist. 

Look at that!!! I shoveled that all by myself like a big girl!

Screw the other door, it can stay that way until spring. 

 Do you like my small mountain of snow? I had to knock it down a fair amount or it would have been epic!

I just got back from the greenhouse and this morning wasn't as shit hot as it thought it was going to be. I watered everything and then went to check on the lemon tree and noticed the petunia that somehow ended up in the pot was looking very sad, which is weird cause it's been healthy as hell since it sprouted. I touched one of the leaves and the soil erupted with bugs! I yelped grabbed soap, water, insecticide (it's not chemical), and cayenne pepper and went to work on it again. They didn't look like spider mites, however i didn't spend a lot of time looking at them before i tried to murder them. Whatever the hell they are they killed my damn petunia so now it's WAR!!!!

Beer cups and 3 years of soil

Things are growing like crazy in the greenhouse now that the sun is out. My kelp meal arrived yesterday and now everything has potassium, hurrah!

I was able to transplant some onions but i ran out of soil and beer cups. I decided to use beer cups for the last stage of my onions just due to their size and length. Onions don't have a shitload of roots but the ones they do have tend to need a fairly deep pot. I didn't want to purchase pots just for my onions so i went to the dollar store and bought them out. The constant problem I've been having of running out of soil has finally come to and end, i ordered a skid of pro mix today, that's 30 3.8 cu ft bails. So i think i'll have enough pro mix for about the next 2-3 years. My red onions are still kind of sad and I've determined that it seems to be a watering issue, so I've increased the amount of water they receive everyday. 

My peppers and tomatoes are doing GREAT! Couple more weeks and they'll be ready for transplant. 

The petunia's in the blue bins on the bottom shelf are still kind of meh. I have one entire tray not doing anything, their soil composition is good and i hit them with some 20-20-20 diluted fertilizer. 2 of the trays perked up after the fertilizer but the other 2 are still mostly bare. They are kept at the correct humidity and temperature and they get a large amount of sun. Anyone have any idea's?

The Cilantro has finally come back, so i'm pretty pumped about that. 

Look at these lovely herbs! I wish you all could smell them! They're just lovely. 

I apologize for slacking on my blog, I've been crazy busy with transplanting and various other things. 

Now that i have ordered a LARGE supply of soil i just need to find a large supply of kelp meal, blood meal, and bone meal. I wish this city had a farm supply store. 

I am so excited for summer i can hardly contain myself!!!

I'm so pleased with myself!!

Somewhat of a ridiculous title, but it holds true. My onions for the most part have bounced back, turns out they were just thirsty! It will be time to transplant them in about 3-5 days maybe less.

Check out these bad boys!

I noticed that their roots were a little thin last week so i hit them with some calcium and their stocks have doubled in size. The third sprout started today, so it just has to get roughly the same size as the other two and then i'll move them to a larger pot. I've decided to plant them in clear plastic beer cups from the dollar store. There is no point in purchasing specific pots for the onions when beer glasses would be the same size.

On a side note, i'm really freakin tired of shoveling! Between my house, my parents house, and shoveling out the greenhouse i'm pooped. I really wanted to go do some weight lifting today but my arms are exhausted, ah well, tomorrow is another day i suppose.

Here are some new pictures of the lemon tree. It's amazingly happy in the greenhouse. I have roughly 3-4 new lemons starting and i have one that is almost ripe. We had a small one fall off the tree the other day so i cracked it open to see if the fruit was alright since it was from last season. The fruit was perfect and the smell was amazing. I can't wait to make lemon pepper chicken with one of the lemons. 

The poblano peppers are growing like crazy, i figure i'll be transplanting these pretty soon as well. 

I had some of the Portuguese hot pepper mix sprout today. I can't wait to taste some of these peppers, i've never even heard of half the ones i planted before.  

The peppers in general i doing really well, these are some of the yellow peppers i planted a few weeks ago. 

My cilantro is just sad right now, It's been over a week since i transplanted them and they're very droopy. They are still producing leaves but the stock is super flimsy so they can't hold themselves up. They have a good amount of calcium so i'm wondering if they lack of potassium is the reason for this. Hopefully my kelp meal ships soon. The basil on the other hand is going insane, i'm going to have to move the shelves around on the rack soon they're almost touching the  shelf above them. 

Not all that much to report, luckily nothing has broken, exploded, caught fire, or been swallowed by a sink hole. I'm happy the sun is finally out but; man does it heat up the place fast, In 15 min when the sun came out this morning the greenhouse went from 80 to 85. I was trying to trim some onions with sweat just pouring down my face, maybe i'll bring my yoga mat and do some hot yoga in the green house one of these days. 

March Break is over

Not like there are any breaks or vacations in farming but, i had a lovely march break. I'm rather sad that it's ended it was really nice to have help everyday from my lovely fiance.

I went and purchased the largest watering can i could find which holds 3 gallons of water. I has changed my life! Took me 2 trips and 35min to water this morning. Blew my mind!

Isn't she beautiful?!?!?!

It's a good thing i lift weights because this watering can is pretty heavy.

A bunch of peppers are up as well as some tomatoes.

Poblano Peppers 

Yellow Peppers 

Purple Cherokee Tomatoes

Can't remember, probably yellow peppers

Most of Petunia's aren't up yet, i'm somewhat starting to panic. I did a bunch of research and it looks like they take a while but, i planted them on the 8th of march and that's a really long time. Hopefully i didn't screw them up. I do have one lone petunia that somehow ended up in the lemon tree, it's doing really well. 

Wow, what a terrible picture. 

I seem to be having some issues with my red onions. Not sure if they have nitrogen burn or they're just droopy from under watering them. They're on the top rack and somewhat hard to water, so I've moved them. Maybe it's just weak plants dieing off, but i think i'll have to plant another flat of them. All of the other onions are fine and very healthy. They have nice stocks on them and their root systems are looking really good. I hit them with some cal-mag earlier in the week. I also realized that i have absolutely no potassium in my soil, i always seem to forget something, so i have some kelp meal on the way. 

Oh! For anyone wondering about the lemon tree. It is doing FANTASTIC! It has new leaf sprouts, new branches, new lemons, and new blooms. It's obviously very bright in the greenhouse and it's not great for picture taking. This is a picture from last week. 

Everything for the most part is pretty happy in the greenhouse, including me. 

I have really got to stop being so cheap

That's it! I am going to put on my big boy pants today and buy another watering can. I can't take it anymore!!!

6 trips! 45min to water in the morning! Nope!

Racks are starting to get pretty full.

Today was a full day, I actually got out of bed at 6am believe it or not and planned to water at 7am. I didn't even think about the fact that 7am is still really dark here in Timmins, so i waited until 8 to go. I think out the door by 8 is pretty good for now.

I'm so glad i had some help today, we got so much done! We planted roughly 10 flats of various peppers: Red, green, and yellow bell peppers. Red sweet peppers, poblano peppers, hot cherry peppers, cayenne peppers, oh my god so many peppers. Also planted some tomatoes, i'm just tired of buying them. To be honest i'm tired of buying a lot of things at the grocery store.

We were able to transplant the herbs today and by the looks of it we will have a fair amount in about 3-4 weeks. Which means i will actually have some for sale around that time, anyone want some organic herbs for their dinner? I will let you know what the price will be before hand.

I finally remembered to bring a camera today so here are some pictures.

Plants look always look so sad right after they've been transplanted.

Some of the herbs that I have

Green house is starting to fill up!

An upside down picture of the one petunia sprout, we had a few more sprout over the course of the day.

For some strange reason i always end up planting while there is some sort of snow storm outside, or maybe it's because i live in Timmins and that is the norm. Ah well, even though it's cold and nasty outside my greenhouse smells like spring and it couldn't make me happier.

Enough with the snow already!

Timmins has received a few centimeters shy of 40cm of snow in the past 48hrs, which is pretty insane. So like any sane person that lives in Northern Ontario where this happens on a regular basis i purchased a Nissan Cube to drive my ass around in. WORST IDEA EVER! Needless to say getting to and from my greenhouse for the past two days has been fun. Who needs the gym when you have to shovel 2 hrs a day.

Because of all the snow fall and my unwillingness to haul my ass out of bed earlier then 9am for the past 3 days my poor little seedlings watering schedule is all over the place. This morning things were a little grim in the greenhouse, i have some serious wilting. I was roughly 2 hours later than usual to water. I think i may have lost about 20 onions, and nothing I've planted this past week has sprouted yet, aside from that one petunia.

Hopefully i will have some pictures this evening, if i can get back there.

I spend a fair amount of time researching planting, plants, farming, etc.. and the best piece of advice i have seen is "Be out the door no later than 7am everyday". One of these days i hope to actually listen to this small tidbit of wisdom.

OMG, What is that smell?

Yesterday i accomplished nothing. I was so hungover yesterday that it took me an hour to walk the watering can two times from the house. Not fun. Now i remember why i don't drink.
My first petunia sprouted today, i'm excited. Also hopefully i will have time to transplant today, my Basil is huge.
Today was fertilizing day, makes me sad that the smell of blood meal tea clings to your clothes. I had to stop to pick up some coffee on my way home and the lady at the store asked me if i smelt that horrible smell that seems to have randomly appeared in the store. I told her it was me, she didn't believe me, i made her smell my hand.....she believed me.

I am productive!

To the lovely person who gave my the $15 gift certificate from Home Depot, i went to solve my watering can issue and they were sold out of watering cans...such is my life. I did however score a FREE yes free wireless soil thermometer, not sure if it works but either way i'm freaking pumped about it. How often do you find cool shit like this for free at Home Depot? AMAZING!!

Everything seems pretty good today in the green house, the furnace works, humidity is back up, and there's no spider mites. Also the lemon tree has new buds on it.

I was expecting an order of trays and flats so i could plant again on Sunday but I've had some stuff on back order and today i panicked so i went around looking for trays. Just regular run of the mill trays, these do not exist in Timmins. I had a genius level brain fart though and went to Dollarama and bought 10 storage bins, drilled holes in the bottom of them and made them into propagation trays. Alright; maybe not genius level but i was proud of myself. Also found out when i got home that my trays have shipped and will be here tomorrow.

I am productive! I put hooks on the wall so i can hang my coat!!

I was able to start my mom's petunia's today, all 254 of them. Apparently i should have started them on the first of March, if only i had read the directions...

Petunia's in storage bins!

Public Service Announcement

When making a liquid fertilizer tea like blood meal tea, do not forget the slurry of grossness in the bucket for a week. The nastiest shit ever will grow on it and the smell will make you vomit.
Cheers!

The Lemon Tree

This poor lemon tree has been through hell.
My mom bought it last summer and it ended up with a spider mite infestation of epic proportions. The whole thing was a web of spider mites, super gross. My mother attacked it after a while a killed all the mites (or so I thought). It's been sitting in the house being sad ever since, I'm pretty sure everyone forgot to water it for over a month and it lost all it's leaves but it was still kickin. 
So the other day I decide that I'm going to save this pitiful plant, I take it into the greenhouse and mix up some soil for it, transplant and prune it. Get it all set up and happy and then go about my business with the rest of the plants. 20min goes by and I wonder over to the pot and look in, I see one spider mite crawling around so I kill it, I think to myself "if there is one, there's more". So I wait another 20min and walk over and I don't see anything, I figure I've won the lottery of spider mites and it was just that loan little dude. WRONG, as I'm pondering on how lucky I am the soil erupts into what I can only describe as a scene from a horror movie on a very small scale. The roots ball starts moving the soil is vibrating, fucking spider mites erupting out of every where. I yelled like a little girl and threw my hands in the air, ran to the house and all i could find was Palmolive. i put some in a spray bottle with water and went to work on this plant. I sprayed the living shit out of it to the point that it was actually just a big mound of suds. I sprinkled cayenne pepper all over it and i made a ring of death around the pot just in case anything try's to escape. I beat them back and won the battle and now this tree has blooms on it for the first time since September. The plant later went into shock and has since lost all those blooms, but i haven't seen a spider mite since. It still has leaves, so at least that's better than sticks.

I'm not crazy, i'm poor.

This year instead of winging it i decided maybe it was a good idea to actually read up on what i was growing and maybe even read the directions on the seed packets. Directions are for suckers i used to think, i'm not that bright sometimes.
I have a greenhouse this year that is an actual building and is in fact not made out of plastic. It has heat and fans and all the lovely things you need, except water...I forgot to purchase a rain barrel before winter so every morning in my pj's i drive to my parents house and walk a watering can back and forth from the kitchen. Yes only one can, i'm poor, the second can has to wait until i can afford it. This one watering can business isn't so bad right now, only takes two trips, however; i'm planting a bunch of stuff on Sunday so i'm sure this one watering can bullshit will end pretty soon.
Here is the greenhouse, i look like a damn professional!

This time around i actually put some sort of nutrients in the soil when i planted my seeds, hell i even used a soil less planting mix.I have onions and herbs up and the onions are even growing their second leafy thing (is it a leaf? or is a sprout?) everything seems to be going extremely well.

Look....sprouts.

Nothing goes extremely well for long...

Yesterday i woke up with a cold from hell and went to go water the plants in my pj's as usual. I ended up having to shovel for an hour and then i broke the door to the green house.
The whole bottom just snapped right off.
You know that moment were you just loose it and turn into that 4 year old child that's throwing a tantrum in the grocery store over cookies. That was me in my pink panther pj's and a whinny the pooh hat, at the age of 30. Definitely not a high point in my life.
I found some bricks stuffed them in the crack at the bottom of the door, watered the damn plants, got in my car and went home.
This morning was even better! This time i was smart and didn't wear my pj's, i figured after yesterday it would probably get worse and it did. I walked into the greenhouse to discover the furnace had quit in the middle of the night and the greenhouse was at freezing temperatures. My heart sunk, i start checking the plants and everything seems to be okay, for now. Onions apparently like the cold, however i can't say the same for the lemon tree but that thing has been on deaths door for a few months now so it'll probably be fine.  That tree has seen some shit in it's life, all i have to say is it better live cause i didn't start a war with spider mites for no damn reason.
While i was checking the plants the greenhouse temperature started to get colder and colder so i panicked and called my father who is in Arizona and has no way of helping me. I cried and had a smoke and felt a little better. One of these days i'll work on the fact that instead of fixing the problem i panic and cry, i suppose i'm a work in progress. I called the furnace guys and they arrived and are in the process of fixing it. The temperature is climbing as i type this.
I also managed to get my thinning and trimming done on my onions.
Look how pretty!

Am i going to screw this up?

It was suggested to me that maybe i should start a blog about my adventures with my garden, so i figured i would give it a whirl.
I never in a million years dreamed i would ever be a farmer or want to be a farmer, i sadly assumed i would be a famous artist. Art school is a hell of a drug. Turns out the world of art is not for me, there is far too much bullshit for my liking. After a few years of basically just existing and attempting to put some sort of dent in my student loans i had the brilliant idea to become a pastry chef. I love baking and i love eating baking, what better thing for me to do with my life, right? Wrong, after working with chef's for a few years i started to get sick, REALLY, REALLY sick. My stomach was constantly upset, i threw up regularly, i had no energy, and every time i ate something i felt like i was going to die. Turns out i had contracted C-Difficile, and i didn't get the regular C-Diff that everyone else gets; oh no, i got the crazy strain that wouldn't go away and couldn't give a shit about anti biotics.
A year and a half i was on my couch half dead just waiting to die, to be honest at times i wished for death. The whole thing was excruciating and i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. At the end of my ordeal i went to see a doctor in Toronto because i still wasn't feeling very good at all, we did some tests and it turns out that i'm a celiac. Life is strange sometimes, you think you're on your path and then a giant crater opens and it forces you to turn back. So that one piece of information from my doctor changed my entire path in life.
After i got back from the doctor i decided i would start growing my own food, and since my fiance is Italian and we eat enough tomatoes to sink a ship i figured i would grow tomatoes.
Now i have this problem where if i'm going to do something i usually won't do it on a small scale. So i asked my parents if i could carve out a piece of their backyard to use as a garden, they agreed and i got to work. I got a backhoe and dug up a 55ft x 65ft plot, in retrospect this is huge and i probably bit off more then i could chew but i had no idea what the hell i was doing so it didn't really matter. I purchased some top soil and had it trucked in for me, i tilled it, made my mounds, put up my 'anti terrorist' fence (which by the way is basically just snow fence to keep my dogs out). Months prior to this i had started my tomatoes in my mothers shitty plastic greenhouses from Canadian Tire, it didn't go as well as planned but i still had 532 tomato plants sprout.
So finally it was time to plant the tomatoes, i stuff them in the ground in neat lovely rows and waited. Now my whole life i have worked with flowers and gardens but never vegetables, so when i realized i couldn't just spray a bunch of chemicals on them i was kind of at a loss. I figured that there would probably be enough awesome shit in the soil to grow my tomatoes, man was i wrong. A good portion of my plants didn't do a thing all year, however a few of them produced a large amount of tomatoes. In the end i got roughly about 15lbs from 532 plants, if i was an actual farmer i would have starved to death.
This year i vow to not screw this up...hopefully.

Here are two photo's of last year's garden.