adventures

St. Mary's, Ontario

St. Jacobs, Ontario

As you can see, I enjoyed a little road-trip this week, making a detour on my return from business in London. I very much regretted that it was so late that most things were closed. But then I would have had so many places along the way back to choose amongst to visit, that it would have been just as frustrating, or worse.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to doing a little soapmaking workshop here. As I've already made a batch of soap that should be ready to unmold and cut by tomorrow, the house smells deliciously of a blend of essential oils. Then, in addition to that, I cut some fresh lavender for a tiny bouquet in the dining room. It's amazing how potent fresh lavender is.

The garden is getting a bit tidier. I was able to straighten out some of the paths and lay down a mulch of 4-5 layers of newsprint, secured with some old straw, to keep the weeds down. Some of the beds that I was able to weed, I have covered with black plastic to, hopefully, keep out the weeds 'till spring. The black plastic will also bring on the warmth just a bit faster in those beds next year. I must plant my garlic soon.

For a really frightening (for us amateur gardeners) look at how intensively 'real' veggie gardeners do it, second and even third later crops in addition to the early ones, check out some of the English 'allotment gardeners'. I'm learning so much by reading some of their blogs! Allotment 21, Clodhoppers, and Dave's Allotment are just a few of the examples.