still feeling like death

So the day after I planted my seeds there was a frost warning..................................................................
Such is life.

I am lucky I had a giant roll of plastic left over in my basement from some home repairs that were going on a few years ago and i had exactly 8.5 x 18 feet left. I also bought some of those tiny plastic garden covers with the metal rings that dig into the ground from the dollar store to cover anything the plastic couldn't reach. My garden is 9x13.5 feet so some on the sides needed the dollar store covers. I am going to leave the plastic on until the night temperatures are warmer than 5 degrees celcius...which is the temperature forecasted for tonight.

My disease biology class is over and I only have Monday night class aside from my experiment that is sort of stalled right now because of complications so I have been sitting in my couch with brain debilitating sinus congestion for the past two days. I managed to apply for a bursary yesterday though, since I guess I can still write essays while I'm sick after years of practice.

Full time university + a shitty immune system + a penchant for anxiety which further supresses immune system + living in the North = lots of colds when I have no time for colds.

 my cheese cloth came in for the rain barrel. hopefully we get to this next week sometime.

 My new battery charger finally got picked up. SMART CHARGER..turns OFF the juice when the battery is charged. Only 30 bucks US.

 NOT A SMART CHARGER..does not turn off after batteries are fully charged causing them to overheat...could have burned my house down but luckily i caught it shortly after it had melted and warped and ruined 4 batteries. As you can see the bottom portion does not even slide back up to meet the battery anymore because the plastic melted. Wasted $50 Canadian. It was the only charger available at The Source.

 I bought the new one from BatterySpace.com. Fast service. Loved it .http://www.batteryspace.com/

 It looks like something from the 80's so it's got to be good. Haha. When I get some cash I am going to buy a bunch more rechargable batteries for some flashlights and toys around the house. I'm sure there will be many more brown outs and black outs this summer since it's probably going to be another blisteringly hot summer. I need to get my basement set up for us to chill out in on these hot days. My upstairs with the huge bay window is like a sauna until 10 pm

 I am currently subsisting off of the leftovers from this "thoup" as my son calls it. I think I want to live off soup for the next few weeks. I have enough veggies in there to make another huge pot. Simple. Fast. Tasty.

 My final purchase before my credit card was maxed out. Now I hope I have SOMETHING to preserve by the end of the season. sigh.

 Trying to peel a huge orange by himself. He relented to my mother seconds later, but he always has to try for himself first. I think this is a good quality.

Random cat picture.

my yearly spring cold has arrived...ugh

 doubt you can read my chicken scratch...modified garden plan...scaled down a LOT

 downloaded a new ebook..The Night Strangers

Ahahah best of Dan Aykroyd was on while I was at work....sketch comedy was sooooo different back then...compared to the "i'm on a boat" digital shorts that we have now lol

i soaked my seeds and then it poured rain and the power went out and i had a test to write and studied all day so they never got planted yesterday...soaked for an extra night. the lettuce and spinach already starteds germinating overnight!

zucchini, bush beans and radish

leeks

Now I am boiling a natural insecticide that I can spray around the garden on a daily basis. Any strong smelling plants like garlic ginger and mint boiled down and strained, add cayenne pepper and a tablespoon of castile soap per litre of liquid.

Whipped up an asian soup even though I had no appetite because of a horrible head cold that started yesterday and spread from my chest. Not fun!

Despite feeling like crap I finally sowed my seeds in more or less the layout I had written down (but in a much lazier fashion). I didn't really make perfect little rows of fingerholes and then gently drop the seeds in each, measuring the distance between them. It was more like throw fingertip-fulls of wet seads into the soil and then brush them around. Especially for the wee tiny seeds. We'll see how the lazy man's garden looks if anything actually grows, haha

Cucumber went here

There it is. 

I put bone and blood meal (nitrogen and phosphorus) in yesterday before it rained. Also hoed out the walkways and made mounds for the planting rows. I'm not sure how much that will help the sandy soil. I also bought some organic vegetable food that I can add to the dirt around the seedlings once they start growing.

The tomatoes are going to spend a few more days climatizing and then they too can be put out. I have one of those little hand garden shovels somewhere...

I also bought one more bag of manure and compost to transplant the peppers into bigger pots and they're going to stay inside in the mini greenhouse with me.

the garden has been started!

first grilled meal of the season! proud papa

zucchini, asparagus wrapped in proscuitto and chili lime garlic wings! yum

moved the tarp and ripped up all the dead grass and weeds!

he was calling to borrow his mom's wheelbarrow

can you see the caterpillar?

 i made a friend

 we had lots of these friends in the soil we were digging into

 all weeds removed and sand dug up and turned

 in comes the compost!

then my son was home from daycare to help!

this made me jump about 3 feet and then of course i got in close to take a picture haha

my little helper

he's going to be a gardener for sure, he said "this is fun mommy"

finding bugs

then a fence went up and we called it a day!

 these were out getting sun with us

 Evan got too much sun

I just came up with a new garden layout plan and will be planting tomorrow hopefully! Gotta get an all natural insect repellent ready and start collecting my coffee grounds and egg shells for the garden as well as collect pop bottles to place around younger seedlings for protection.

I also need to make some sort of row covers or entire garden cover for night time and pest protection with a large roll of construction type plastic I had left over in my basement since flooring was put down a few years ago.

almost ready to plant!

 Some soil on the floor from Evan dropping our peppers pot on the floor..had to replant them all haha. They have no luck those poor things. I read that I should probably keep all my peppers (sweet, jalapeno) potted and in this little greenhouse all summer or they may not fruit. So I bought some larger nursery pots today for 3.50 each to replant them in. I am going to try some in the garden as well though.

 A shake breakfast

 Might try the new workout craze Insanity...ugh haha

 And then I got some compost!

 it's not much but I can go and buy some in the store if it's not enough. I like to support local as much as I can afford first.

 Yes yes I should do Insanity. Here's me helping put together the tubing for our tanks' water supply

 Timing how long the stimuli will take to pass through the tanks by timing the appearance of food colouring out the bottom holes.

 Toddlers are fun!

Oh look you can see my horrible DIY air conditioning vent to outside. I broke my plexiglass so I had to tape the vent to it hahaha. Things will be like that around here until I'm finished school and can hire people to do things properly!

 He decided his tractor was a better container for his raspberries than the bowl I provided

 And then we put our grill together at 11 o'clock at night because that's the only time we can do anything uninterrupted!

 We came home to this today. King of the castle

 Let the grilling begin! He wrapped some those asparagus in proscuitto

 Ain't no thang

 He loves water!

 I can't wait to take him swimming

And wheelbarrows.

Today we are going to take the tarp off the area we want to put the garden and scrape off all of the dead weeds and mix in the compost.  We also bought a bag of mulch just to see how much area one bag covers.

 We thought it was going to rain today but the dark clouds passed. It would have been nice for some rain despite our outdoor plans, especially since today we are inundated with smoke from a forest fire in the States, not sure how far away, but from the smell it can't be too far across St. mary's river

Tonight I will review how to sow all of my selected vegetables in our "How to Grow Food" book, and look at my garden layout plan and see if I need to adjust it at all. Might be able to plant some seeds tomorrow before work.