A Little Inspiration and a Lot of Generosity

Seamus and I spent a lovely afternoon on an impromptu garden tour and play date at a beautiful suburban garden in Nepean.  It all started as a quest to pick up some raspberry canes to plant in "Seamus' Bramble Patch".  He told me that he wants his own garden and I figured that a patch of berries might be a good kind of garden for a three year old.  Seamus was very excited about the idea and spent the morning helping me clear an area in the pond garden in anticipation of planting his own raspberry patch.

After nap we headed off towards Ottawa, thinking that this would be a quick pick up.  We ending up spending an hour and a half exploring Ms. Joanne's amazing garden oasis and play yard.

I was totally inspired by Joanne's homemade trellis using parts from TSC.  It was panels threaded together with wire and held into the ground with rebar.  She is using it to grow grapes.  I have got to find somewhere to put one of these and something to grow over it.  Joanne mentioned that we can grow table grapes in our climate.  This might be a good option.

I was also in love with Joanne's mushroom garden.  She is growing edible King Stropharia mushrooms from inoculated wood chips.  She said the yields are fantastic.  This has now been added to my to do list.  I must order some of these and get this going!

Seamus was not nearly as interested in Ms. Joanne's gardens as me (understandably), but he was fascinated by her horse tire swing.

And ever the dare devil, he rode his first zip line through the back yard!  He was ecstatic.

 

We picked up our ten canes of both golden and black raspberries.  In addition, Ms. Joanne generously offered some volunteer strawberries to add to our patch.

What a strawberry patch!

She also gave us some walking onions to plant.  These are amazing - they self seed by growing a bulb on their tip and then bending over and rooting it in the soil.

Apparently walking onions are one of the first plants to come up in the spring;
exactly when you want to see green the most!

I would like to extend a huge thank you to Joanne for gifting us with all these healthy new additions to our kitchen garden and for giving me some great new ideas on how to expand what we grow here at Gael Glen Farm.  Both Seamus and I had a fantastic afternoon.