Mavis Mail – Stephanie From Sends in Nestleton Station Ontario, Canada Sends in Her Garden Pictures

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

Hi Mavis – Stephanie here, I am from a town of 1,100 people just outside of Port Perry, Ontario, Canada; about 100 km east of Toronto. We moved from Toronto out to “the country” in 2006 as my dream had always been to have acreage and ride a lawn mower; we have 3.5 acres.

After 11 years, I have now realized I hate mowing because it is so time consuming.

It was your raspberry trellis photos that pointed me to your website (yes, I copied the trellis idea) and once I saw the bean trellis with the young girl reading underneath the trellis munching on beans, I envisioned my own raised garden bed with climbing beans.

So thanks to Pinterest for more design ideas, 2 years ago we converted our 35’ x 35’ labour intensive garden plot into an interesting 20 unit raised garden bed or what the British call a Kitchen Garden or the French call a Potager. Such gardens are to provide vegetables, fruits and flowers for the industrious kitchen.

Here is a more formal definition: A potager is a French term for an ornamental vegetable or kitchen garden. The historical design precedent is from the Gardens of the French Renaissance and Baroque Garden à la française eras. Often flowers (edible and non-edible) and herbs are planted with the vegetables to enhance the garden’s beauty. The goal is to make the function of providing food aesthetically joyful. Plants are chosen as much for their functionality as for their color and form. Many are trained to grow upward. A well-designed potager can provide food as well as cut flowers and herbs for the home with very little maintenance.

There are about 600 square feet of growing space in the set-up, with mulch laid down between the rows. I did retain the “old” raspberry patch as well as my small 16 fruit tree orchard. Unlike my previous garden plot, weeding is minimal and grass does not intrude on my plants.

I used SPF wood which I stained on the outside and the total cost for this set up was about $2500 (soil $500; mulch $600, wood $900; and strawberry/raspberry plants and misc. $500). However, I did not have to replace my garden tiller which broke the previous year and which would cost more to repair than replace and I only used it 20 times. Plus my and my own HH’s shoulders are still intact, since we don’t use the tiller any longer. Priceless.

In my first year I purchased strawberry plants and raspberry canes direct from a wholesaler and had a good harvest to begin with – I did plant these a little late in the season. In my second year, everything produced fabulously.

I added potato boxes, compost worm towers and blueberry bushes. Procuring the various products is an adventure itself, such as finding red wriggler worms, local blueberry bushes and local garlic for planting. Every year I hope to try new products and add new elements to the garden because that is how I personally grow…by learning. Plus it is wonderful to discuss plants etc. with local farmers.

I planned my garden a lot earlier last year. In January I ordered over 50 varieties of heirloom, organic, rare seed packets from a local seed company. Take a gander at some of the interesting varieties of corn, beans, tomatoes:

• Tomatoes: Great White; Plum Lemon; Japanese Black Trifele; Red Pear, Austin; Indigo “Blue Berries”
• Five-Colour Silverbeet Swiss Chard; Rouge d’Hiver Lettuce
• Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean (Snap Pole Bean); Royalty Purple Pod Bean (Bean Bush; Snap)
• Cucumbers: White Wonder; Lemon; Armenian Yard Long
• Hopi Blue Corn; Sweet Chocolate Pepper; Orange Bell Sweet Pepper
• Cocozelle Zucchini; Shungiku – Edible Chrysanthemum

For this year (2017 – Year 3), I had enough left over seed available and planted the same tomato and pepper seedlings indoors and will continue with direct planting of the remaining seeds. In addition, I do purchase some local vegetable plants from nurseries and do add them in as well for a wider variety (such as melons, other squash, eggplants and herbs).

I enjoy strolling through the garden picking the odd weed, directing the climbing peas and beans up the trellis and of course harvesting the fruits of my labour. It is pure joy to just sit nearby and enjoy looking at the garden. Most of the heirloom seeds were successful and I have learned a great deal for better planning for future years.

In my first year in September 2015 we traveled for 18 days in Eastern Europe so my wonderful neighbours got to enjoy my bounty – I was a little sad to leave the garden especially just when the beans had summited over the canopy trellis and the hanging beans were resplendent. Just.a.little!

In my second year we traveled to Greece in early August 2016 for 10 days, so I arranged for someone who could use the produce to come and pick the bounty – and given how much produce I have, this woman had continued to help herself to whatever I asked her, with a simple email – even during the day when I was at work. I love to share my bounty but the constant picking and transporting it to work is tiresome so this new arrangement was ideal.

Last year for example, my garden produced 385 cups of raspberries and 260 cups of strawberries as well as bushels of Swiss chard, tomatoes, apples and cucumbers.

I am most anxious for 2017 to get underway

Stephanie
Nestleton Station
Ontario, Canada

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop, pantry or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Pantry Pics – Submit at least 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures of your pantry/fridge/cabinets, as well as a short blurb {at the very least} about you and your food habits.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com. You can send your submissions to me at onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {spaces removed}and be sure and put Mavis Mail in the subject line. Thank you. I’m looking forward to your submissions.

Go  HERE for the official rules.