Rumplesauce

 It's apple season. Our new house has a little apple tree. It hasn't been taken care of (we'll do a heavy prune once it goes dormant), but it still produced 35 little apples this year. I have no idea what variety they are. They were only about 3" diameter, but were sweet, ripe and edible, so we harvested them. Mia helped.

What to do with 35 tiny apples? Applesauce, of course. It took a while to chop them up, but we love homemade applesauce, so it's worth it! (It's much easier with regular size apples :) )

Applesauce is so easy, everyone should do it. Here's how I make it:

Rumplesauce

• 2.5 quarts of chopped apples. I leave the skins on - that's where all the nutrients are, and I hate peeling. Bonus: if the skins are red, they will turn your applesauce a lovely pink colour!
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or to taste). Dark brown is yummiest, but you can use golden or regular granulated white, or honey, or agave... or none, if you don't like it sweet.
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla. Use real vanilla, not simulated flavour. I love Mexican vanilla and am dreading the day when the big bottle we got last time we were down there runs out. I guess that'll mean we're due for another Mexican holiday :)
• 1 Tablespoon rum (optional. But it's just "applesauce" without it). Use the good stuff. We like Appleton Estates.

Chop the apples finely - about 1/2", especially if you're leaving the skins on. I suppose you could do this in a food processor, or with a grater. I did it the old-fashioned way with a knife.

Add the apples to a 5qt (medium size) pot and add water to about halfway up the apples. Stir in the cinnamon. Pop that on the stove, cover, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for a while until the apples get mushy. Check every 10 minutes or so, give it a stir, and add a little more water if you feel like it. These ones took about 30 minutes.

Smash them with a potato masher, if you like lumpy applesauce. I usually do, but these apples were a little grainy - in that case, use a stick hand blender to puree. Add water if the consistency is too thick.

Add in the vanilla, brown sugar and rum, stir.

**If you want to make Rumple Butter, leave the pot on low, uncovered, until the mixture reduces to a spreadable consistency.

Ladle into jars. Freeze what won't be eaten in the next week (leave about 1/2" head space for freezing).

Makes about 8 cups of Rumplesauce. This recipe is easily adjusted for different amounts of apples. Add or use other fruit, if you like! Pears make great sauce or butter (reduce the water as needed, or add berries or even sweet potato (add more water as needed) for a different flavour, whatevs! If you're adding sweet potato, try using orange juice for a bit of the liquid! So yummy.

Denizzzzzens of the backyard

The latest addition to our backyard is not a particularly welcome one - I went out there today to find a swarm of honey bees congregating on one of our deck chairs. That brown mass dangling off the back of the chair frame is 100% bees!

My first call was to the Ministry of Agriculture, to get the numbers of local apiarists. Left messages with two of them, asking if they could kindly come and remove the swarm.

My husband called and is quite worried that they could be the Africanized honeybees - the kind that go mad and kill people - no more backyard for me, or the dog, until they're gone!

Next call was to the Ontario SPCA - no answer. What the heck? What if there were a dog dying in a closed car in a parking lot or something? Don't they have a responsibility to answer the phone, or at least have a message service?

The York Regional Police were more helpful. They gave me the number for a "bee swarm removal" guy. I called him up, and, less helpful, he's in Schomberg - about an hour from my home. He's going to try to get one of his more local bee buddies to get in touch with me. Worst case, he'll come all the way out himself.

On the plus side, he did say they were not likely to be the African bees, and also that they would probably move along of their own accord in a day or so.

Meanwhile, the dog and I will go for lots of walks, I guess. It's kind of cool to see all the bees (from a distance). I took the picture with a zoom lens when I first spotted them, before I got all worried about them being African bees. We hear so much about the decline of honey bees, I'm actually pretty thrilled to see so many in one place. Just... not at my place, please!
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Oh! One last thing. I think you should go visit Everything Mom and Baby. Erica's got a great blog with two awesome giveaways on right now (an amber teething necklace and a Baby Hawk Mei Tai!). I was super lucky and recently won some Wean Cubes (glass baby food storage) on her blog!

So this is it...

It's just me and the dog.

My husband flew out today for his stint in Calgary. We get to ease into it a little, as he's coming home on Friday night so that we can go to that wedding on Saturday (with a little family visit thrown in as well over the weekend), and back again to Calgary for him.

We have video chatted already, and he said it's about 7.5 hours of travel time to get from one place to the other. Poor guy will be doing that a lot over the next six months.

All this is just in time to see the end of our major backyard project which we started in May (click for 'before' pictures!). Here's a view from the top of the hill (with that hammock I was talking about): We also finally finished the shed yesterday -We re-used the windows from our old front doors (you may remember this picture from when I blogged about the new glass we had installed. The transom, of course, has since been finished with the new design as well). I love having the windows in the shed. The siding matches our house siding as well.

The whole thing was a huge project but my husband's planning and design skills really shone. Most of it went very smoothly, with only a few minor hiccups along the way.

So, for the next while, we're in a different kind of upheaval with him living halfway across the country. It will be a big adjustment. I'm so glad he'll be back for frequent weekends - I miss him already and he's only been gone for 10 hours! I can't imagine what it must be like for military families or people in other jobs (fishing comes to mind) where one spouse is gone for much of the time. That would be tough.

Shed progress, happy mail and my million dollar idea

Once again, we spent the entire weekend working on the shed. Who knew a roof this small would take the two of us two days? We got the fascia, drip line, shingles and soffits done. Now 'all' that remains is the siding and the doors. Oh, and lattice at the bottom. And to get those side gardens planted. And maybe, if I'm really feeling it, some pretty curtains for the shed windows.
It may not look like much but we are proud of our work so far. Bear in mind, we've never done this before and are learning as we go. Don't worry - the black walls are just covered in tarpaper. The siding will be a colour called 'Clay' - kind of neutral beige that matches our house siding. It will look nicer once that is on, and I can plant the gardens once we stop stomping around as we're building.

Yesterday I had a happy mail day - I got an awesome package from Jessica over at Dairy Free Betty, full of Newfie treats. Who wouldn't want to see this in their mailbox???That's right, it's a big sparkly green package! Check out what was inside!Homemade jam-jams, Cheetos (yarm!), a Newfie house magnet, Pineapple Crush (I've never seen that flavour before!), Screech tea and Bakeapple tea, and some very cool and funky glittens (yes, I made that up - I don't know what they're called - they're like mittens AND like gloves!). Lucky me!!! If you haven't read any of Jessica's blog, you really should check it out. I love her enthusiasm for life (and food!). She's just a really fun, sweet person and it comes through on her blog.

So here is my million dollar idea. A fruitstaurant. Yes! More than just a juice bar or smoothie stand - a full out restaurant. Breakfast: some fresh fruit salad, an apple cinnamon muffin and some berry muesli! Maybe some currant scones with fresh raspberry jam! Or stop in for lunch - watermelon soup, slightly salty dried fruit chips and cherry pie! Wouldn't it be awesome to go through a drive-through mid-afternoon and pick up a banana for hubby, a blueberry-mango smoothie for you, a couple cups of chopped pineapple, apple slices or grapes for the kids? There could be a bakery aspect; I'm thinking things like plum upside-down cake, take-home baked apples (prebaked or pre-peeled and stuffed to bake at home), peach cobbler... and a preserves section for jams and jellies, sauces and fruit pickles.

Think it's a winner?

Small changes

I'm trying to tidy things up around the blog a bit, and have added a new pages tab along the top. Now you can access giveaways (current and past, including winners), a little 'About Me' page, and a page for PR through the top tab.

Things are at a standstill in the backyard - well, everything's growing (not one plant casualty yet! fingers crossed), but the shed is in stasis as the weather's been rainy this week. We did find a patio set, which my husband assembled - love it! Super comfy and pretty stylish, and we got it on sale (yay!).

Last night we hit the gym for the first time in a while - we got loads of exercise, believe me, building that pergola and digging/planting the gardens. It felt good to get back to some yoga and pilates, though. Our gym has some really great fitness instructors.

Otherwise, things are pretty quiet around here. Oh, do enter the giveaway if you haven't yet - a gift certificate at Supplement Source can buy some pretty cool stuff (it's not all supplements!) - and I have TWO to give away!

What we've been up to

Crazy, crazy month. We did SO MUCH I can hardly believe it.
Here's our yard on May 3rd:By May 7th the contractors had finished their work and left it like this:By May 22nd, we had the pergolas up - these were designed by my husband and he did the majority of the work. I was his assistant. These went up on evenings and weekends.By May 28th we had over 400 square feet of gardens dug out around the pergolas, a new rock garden (from rocks we 'farmed' at a nearby construction site - ugh! HEAVY!), a new raised bed all along the back of the pergolas between the patio and the wall (that garden alone is 4x24' and 2' tall) AND we raided the nurseries and planted three truckloads of new plants, re-sodded, and added some nice hanging baskets as well... Oh yes, and bought and assembled a new barbeque...
Can't forget the 15' Armstrong maple we planted... And those wooden things in the pergola are the walls of our shed, also built this week...














Can't skip a photo of the gorgeous new rock garden, either -



















Did I mention a shed? Oh, this shed...

Which is not quite finished yet, clearly. And those are more gardens on either side of the new shed. A shed also designed by my husband, who has really impressed me with his capabilities lately!

We'd hoped to get the shed finished as it's the last thing on our list. Alas, my husband is back to work tomorrow and it will have to happen piecemeal over evenings and weekends. Most of the hard part is done (we just need to finish sheathing the roof, then tarpaper the whole thing, do shingles, siding, fascia, soffits, and lattice along the bottom. It will be pretty when it's done, with two windows.

Also on our to-do list are: hang gorgeous Mexican hammock, and buy patio furniture! Then... relax!

This week

..is crazy! My husband has the week off and it's no vacation - we're working hard over here. The pergolas are finished and now we're building a shed, digging and planning gardens (to be planted tomorrow or Friday?), planting a big tree, moving rocks in the landscape and re-grading and sodding some areas.

I'm exhausted from all the work in the 32 degree heat. Anyway, I'll catch you up with some photos at some point - we're proud of the work we've done and it's only going to get better.

Glorious garden colour in a box!

This one's for my fellow Canadians. Go to the Wave Petunias website and join the Wave Fan Club. Really. It may seem weird to become a fan of a flower, but you won't regret it.

For the second year in a row, I've been one of the lucky 'fans' to win a box of Wave Rave petunias and Serena Angelonia. Last year, they sent a box of purple and white & purple striped petunias, and white Angelonia. Sadly, the plants had been sitting in a hot FedEx truck all day by the time they got to me, and were really wilted. But they perked up after just a couple days (and a good watering) and were lovely in our front garden all summer long.

Today my box arrived from Wave in perfect condition - the plants are healthy and ready to be planted (just in time for the May 2-4, which is the big planting weekend here in Southern Ontario). The Angelonia even has blooms already (it also blooms all summer) - purple this year. The Wave Rave petunias this time are half purple and half the new Easy Wave Neon Rose, which will not be available in stores until Spring of next year, so I get to be ahead of the next garden trend!

If you want to get in on some beautiful summer colour for next year's garden, do go and sign up for the Fan Club. I have been really thrilled with the plants - they spread nicely, don't get rangy, and bloom all season - plus they're FREE! All you need to do if you win is a quick survey at the end of the summer to let Wave know how you liked the plants. Also - as if you need more incentive - new Fan Club members are entered to win a Flip Ultra camera!

This isn't a paid post or anything, btw - I was just so happy to get my big box of plants today! I wanted to share the opportunity with you.

In other news, stay tuned for an upcoming giveaway. Here's a hint - it's something delicious, Canadian and organic; and it comes from a company I'm happy to be working with again. Any guesses?

More progress, sewing, and a salad you must try.

I know it doesn't look like much progress, but we did spend the entire day yesterday (until 9 pm) working on this - AFTER a 15 minute 'Awesome Abs' workout, followed by an hour-long BodyFlow (Tai Chi, Pilates and yoga) in the morning! Wow. A lot of physical labour for one day! Thank goodness we started going to the gym in March - if I didn't have two months of thrice-a-week workouts under my belt, I'd be more than just a little achy today.

With the start of the cross pieces up, you can get a sense of how the finished pergolas will look. And a sense, in this image, of what we don't want to be looking at - the ugly chain link fence, the side of our neighbours' house, and the ugly pile of plastic that's been sitting there for a year and a half already (their only daughter is about 9 months old. It'll be a while yet.)

The 'hard' work is done on the pergolas; now it's repetitive drilling and placement of the remaining beams and cross-pieces. My husband's going to work on it tonight while I'm teaching - can't wait to see how far he gets!

Oh, and there's still the shed... another project for this spring. The makings are sitting in our garage.

We are still debating the vines to go up the block retaining wall and chain link fence. I've done a lot of research into vines and haven't come to any solid conclusions. I'd love something that keeps its leaves all winter, but euonymus in the vine variety is hard to come by around here. It has to be something hardy in zone 5b and preferably something not poisonous, not thorny, not a big bee attraction, and not top-heavy (a la wisteria, silver lace vine, etc). The standard Boston Ivy and Virginia Creeper aren't ideal in my mind. Too bare in winter (though they are showy in the fall). I'm not sure what we'll end up with.

You can also see, on the right, our teeny-tiny compact Stella cherry tree! (Those two green blobs sprouting out of the middle of the lawn!) We finally planted it. It's small for now but will grow to 15-20' in width and height, and bear up to 50 lbs of cherries a year - it'll take a while to get to that point but MAN, that's going to be AWESOME! The big benefit of this variety of cherry tree, besides the compact size, is that it's self-pollinating.
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Other than that, not much is up. I've been sewing another bunny, but managed to jam my machine while working on the last bit of its dress. This is my new Husqvarna, that I got for Christmas. Argh! I'm the bane of sewing machines. Meanwhile, I've got an itch to do another baby quilt - just for fun. Got to get that machine working!

Oh, and if you're in the mood for some crafty/sewing giveaways, check out Sew, Mama, Sew for an enormous list of giveaways all over the blogosphere that are running now until the 20th. Fabric, handcrafted items, patterns, all sorts of goodies.
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BTW, on the weekend we had friends over and made Toasted Panzanella - a big hit. This is one of our absolute favourite summer recipes. It's easy, good for making ahead, great for picnics or pot lucks, unusual but doesn't have 'weird' ingredients that will make picky eaters turn their noses up. It's the kind of dish that you can't stop eating, it's just that good. Highly recommended!

Progress

Wow! Between me, my husband and our very nice and helpful friend, we got eight posts up and the framework for the pergolas! Still lots more work to be done, but it's coming along.

It's gonna be pergolic

Which is kinda like bucolic, only with more pergola.

At least, that's the big plan. The patio that was creating chaos at our house last week is finished, the new sod is settling in (thank goodness for all that lovely rain we had), and we're about to get serious about making the pergolas that have been in our heads for the last year and a half or so into reality. This afternoon we're going to attempt to get the posts up - it should be interesting as they're about 12' high.

Meanwhile, our back/side yard has gone from this:
to this:
All along the back of the new patio will be garden (as well as at the sides, eventually) - we'd like to plant some vines along the existing retaining wall to give us and our neighbours some privacy - and those holes will be where the posts for the pergolas go. The pipe sticking up in the middle is for the electrical that my husband's going to run from the house. It's kind of hard to tell, but the big stones at the right form a retaining wall that is about 3' high.

The cherry tree will go in at the top of the hill (to the right of the wall), and I think we've agreed on a Freemanii maple for the left side of the yard. Not really my preference, but it was definitely my husband's turn to pick a tree.

Have I mentioned that my husband built a new garden bed for raspberries as well? It matches the ones he built last spring. It's sitting empty for now, but once we get a truckload of dirt in for all these new gardens, I'm planting. Can't wait.

Some of my must-haves for the new garden beds:
Cimicfuga simplex 'Brunette' or 'Black Negligee' (pretty, tall, unusual and amazingly scented)
blueberries
irises
hostas
white bleeding heart (or Dutchman's bloomers :) )
white climbing roses - maybe on the pergola posts? up the deck posts, or on the fence? not sure.
lavender
Siberian bugloss (beautiful foliage, little pink to blue flowers)
Heuchera (love them all)
tall ornamental grasses (mainly to block the view of the dog's 'area')
Artemisia 'silver mound'
alliums
Cerastium Tomentosum (Snow in Summer)
Japanese Kerria (a shrub with pretty yellow flowers)
rhubarb

... and about a million more. I may add to this list just to keep track for myself! As you can probably tell, I have a penchant for white, silver and purple. I'll probably throw some more chives in - they're pretty, work with my purple craving, and yummy too. (The kerria will be from a slip my mum's planted for me - I'll have to find the perfect spot where it will accent and not clash :) )

That's what's up at our house these days. What are your garden/yard plans for the summer? Any gorgeous plants you are lusting after that I should know about?

It's chaos at our place.

On the weekend, we went to a vow renewal ceremony for my husband's parents - 30 years of marriage and still going strong. The ceremony was lovely and it was nice to see the extended family again.

Then yesterday the big day arrived at our place - after nearly two years in our new house, things are finally happening in the back yard. Our big plans for two pergolas (one for a patio set, one for the gorgeous hammock we picked up on our weddingmoon in Mexico) are starting to take shape.

The hammock looks something like this (with the pretty lace at the sides) - minus the beach/ocean view and adobe, sadly!

This week, we have contractors in building us a patio and a retaining wall. My husband has bought all the wood and started to do the cuts for the pergolas, which we will build on the patio. We've also got everything to build a shed, since our garage is such a tight squeeze with two cars.

I'm so thankful that my husband is not only a planner, but very good with building things, from designing to construction, even electrical. I'm pretty handy myself, but he has really taken the reins on this one and designed two beautiful pergolas and the shed, made shopping lists for materials, and made a really good head start on getting the wood cut and ready to build.

Right now, the garage is full of wood and other building supplies. The backyard is full of big machinery, some hard-working guys, and soon - stone! There was a mountain of earth that they removed on the road, which has just been taken away. Our big stones for the retaining wall are parked on the road, ready to go in today.

We are so excited about the whole project!

A funk.

I'm been in a bit of a funk lately. Not eating too well, although I have been going to the gym with my husband three to four times a week (by the way, if you do those BodyAttack classes at your gym, you have my utmost admiration... we've done two and they are killer!).

Today, honestly, I ate a lot of junk food interspersed with some fruit and yogourt. Okay, we did have a Rice Bowl last night which was relatively healthy, but heavy on the peanut sauce and avocado (and I ate the whole bowl, which I don't need to do). Sometimes when I'm feeling sorry for myself I eat (I'm not alone there, right) - and I know I'm doing it - but it's hard not to. I try to make good choices when I catch myself doing that, like having a glass of water instead, or choosing grapes instead of chips, but of course that doesn't always happen. I know it's just a phase, but I think I need a little kick start to get myself off this track. Any ideas?

We are having a patio put in next week (finally!), and my husband has designed a set of pergolas that he's going to build (probably with my help). He's really great at figuring things out and making plans, so that when it comes time to build things there's no guesswork and it's pretty straightforward. I can not wait until we can use our backyard more, and put up the pretty hammock we bought on our weddingmoon in Mexico!

I only wish our neighbours weren't so noisy - and meaty. Their kids throw things over the fence into our yard (this morning it was toys and garbage), and they're always out there barbequing. I know, it's summer, it's their yard... but the smell fills up our yard and as a vegetarian it really grosses me out. Occasionally they'll do fish, and I'm gagging and running inside. And they play their music outside, which I just think is rude. It makes it impossible to enjoy the nice weather, birdsong, and some peace and quiet in our own yard when Shania Twain is blasting. Not nice.

I also have to get on planning out the gardens that will surround the new patio. I know it's hard to picture, but imagine this - we have a lot that is half a storey higher at the front than the back, and it's on an inside corner, but not right on the corner - so it's like a rectangle plus a triangle in shape. The vegetable beds are on the square side behind the house, and the patio is going into the triangle part. A new shed (another husband design and build) is going in between.

We have bought a compact Stella cherry that will go in at the top of the hill, and we are also trying to pick out a big(ish)tree for some shade. We wandered five nurseries on Sunday trying to find the perfect tree. It's hard, because we want something tall (upwards of 40'), but relatively narrow (up to 30' in spread). It can't be poisonous, ugly, or too columnar. I like locusts (small leaves, no raking, dappled light!), but my husband doesn't. He likes maples but I don't (for this yard - it's too small for beautiful big ones, the columnar varietals are too tall and skinny, and I don't like raking leaves). We also have clay soil to deal with. Anyway. It's an ongoing thing.

I'm feeling pretty drained (just fatigue - or maybe my poor food choices today!), but I have a class to teach tonight. If you have the night off and you're wondering what to do with yourself, take a few minutes and enter the two giveaways I'm hosting! Enter here for some lovely organic soap (we're using it now and it smells so herbal/spicy and good) plus non-toxic nailpolish from EcoMom, and head here for the new giveaway for Tropical Traditions organic coconut peanut butter (yum).

Spring, almost

I heard a robin (good old Turdus migratorius) in our neighbourhood today. The first sign of spring! The chives are up 1/2", and the garlic that I planted last fall is 3" tall already! I saw tiny buds of tarragon poking up, too. The strawberries even have some fresh new leaves. It's nearly time to plan what crops I'll be planting this year.
When the snow melted in the backyard (the last of it went today), we saw the evidence of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus - not nearly as funny a name as the robin) - tunnels in the sod. Cute little guys, eh? I'm definitely a rodent fan (I used to have pet mice and rats. They make very sweet pets! I miss my ratties!), but I do wish they would hang out in the copious green spaces nearby, instead of in our lawn. And I hope this doesn't mean they're going to snack on our vegetable garden this year. That will make me cranky.

Me, I'm waiting for a sign... I'm on day 26 and haven't seen the temperature dip that indicates ovulation. I'm not sure if maybe I missed it when I had the fever last week, or if it hasn't happened yet. Last cycle, day 26 was the big day, so today was a bit anti-climactic! Any guesses?

What to do?

So hubby built this gorgeous cedar compost bin, and we are planning to put it up against the fence in the corner of our yard (planning to, because we still have to level the ground underneath it - in case you can't tell, it's very crooked). The question is, what should we do around the bin at the bottom, between the bin and the fence? If we do nothing, the grass between there will get all high and ugly, and there won't be a way to get in and trim it. Hmm.
The man wants to leave a space just wide enough for the whipper snipper to get in. Since I'm the one doing the whipper snipping around here (mostly, while he mostly does the lawn mowing), I think that's a lousy idea.

Plus, we plan to do paving stones around the entire vegetable garden area - we have a big yard, don't worry, we're not paving the whole thing - and when we get to that (next spring?), we'd have to take out the compost bin to put stones around it. We could put stones behind the two sides now, but then we haven't chosen our stone yet for the big project.

Or we could just take out the strips of sod and put in a lining of landscape fabric and then gravel - but hubby thinks grass would come through that anyway.

Any ideas?

While you're thinking about it, go enter some giveaways :)

For baby:

• Win a SillyBillyz pocket bib from Bobux at The Nurse Mommy. Ends August 23rd.
  

For anyone:

• Win your choice of Snorg Tees at Seeryus Mama. Ends August 25th.
  

For ladies:

• Win a Blush topless undershirt at Country Mouse, City Mouse. Ends August 20th.

And ladies, do check out my CycleBeads giveaway. It's such a great tool for tracking your cycle, perfect for both natural family planning or trying to conceive!

Pickles and more

Yesterday I made pickled beans and pickled beets (the beans from our garden, the beets from the farmer down the road), while my husband built an amazing cedar compost bin. The composter is not quite finished (he ran out of screws), but it is beautiful. I'll post a photo of it once it's finished and installed in the yard! Meanwhile, here's a pic of the fruit of my labour:
Yes, only 6 jars of beets (from 4 lb, untrimmed) and two jars of beans (from a quart basket). The recipe for the Spicy Pickled Beets is from a Small Batch Preserves book that I have and love (I think it's the same as this one, although mine has a different cover), and the other two recipes (Classic Pickled Beets and Spicy Pickled Beans) are from RecipeZaar, which has become my go-to site for recipes.

Some giveaways to share for today as well:

For baby:

• Win a $75 gift certificate to Micah & Co. at My Mom's View. Ends August 17th.
• Win a $100 gift certificate to Zutano's Itzy Bitzy Boutique at tout-est-des-roses. Ends August 24th.
• Win a $150 gift certificate to Learning Toys (a Canadian company!) at My Mom's View. Ends August 17th.
• Win a baby star “rock the tote” and a gDiapers starter kit of biodegradable refills and two pairs of little gpants at Project Nursery. Ends August 14th.
• Win an Evenflo Snugli Hug carrier at Mom Central! Must register with the site to enter. Ends August 23rd.
• Win an Evenflo Snugli Sway carrier at Mom Central! A neat design. Must register with the site to enter. Ends August 23rd.
• Win an Evenflo Triumph car seat at Mom Central! Must register with the site to enter. Ends August 23rd.
• Win an Evenflo Symphony car seat at Mom Central! Must register with the site to enter. Ends August 23rd.
• Win an Evenflo Mimi Neo pacifier (35 winners!) at Mom Central! Must register with the site to enter. Ends August 23rd.
• Win an Exergen Temporal Scanner at My Mom's View. Ends August 14th.
• Win a set of Bummas wipes at Mommy Reviewed! Ends September 6th.
  

For ladies:

• Win two boxes of Evenflo Comfort Select Disposable Nursing Pads (24 winners!) at Mom Central! Must register with the site to enter. Ends August 23rd.

For anyone:

• Win a $25 gift certificate to Amelie Jo (organic baby and adult clothing) at My Organized Chaos. Ends August 18th.
• Win $60 worth of Art and Cook products from AllModern at Baba's Farm Life. Ends August 14th.
• Win a pretty Blue Flora Vase Set by notNeutral at Little Pink Magnolia. Ends August 14th.
  

And ladies, do check out my CycleBeads giveaway! It really is a great tool for tracking your cycle, natural family planning or trying to conceive!

Cutworm solutions

You may recall I had some horrible problems with cutworms wreaking havoc in my garden a few weeks back. I've been seeing a lot of hits on this particular post from people searching for cutworm solutions. They're gross and destructive and I had an absolute fit when I saw what they were doing to my garden.

So three weeks later here I am with some things that worked for me.

1. I picked up a jar of diatomaceous earth at a local garden centre. It's a white powder that you sprinkle on the dirt, made up of tiny sharp crystals that are harmless to humans and birds but cut up slugs and cutworms when they crawl across them. Granted, this stuff can't be good for earthworms, but the worms will return. The cutworms die within 48 hours of crawing across it. Note: you do have to do this more than once throughout the cutworm season (here it's May through June) as the diatomaceous earth seems to dilute enough from rain that it's not enough to do any damage to them. The jar I bought was $9 (Canadian of course) and should last me maybe three years, if they're as bad every year as they have been this year.
   
2. The garden centre guy had another great suggestion. He said to pick up some large plastic drinking straws, slit them up the side, cut them to about 2-4" lengths (depending on how tall your plants' stems are from soil to lowest leaves) and snap them over the stems at the soil level, pressing them down into the soil until you feel resistance at the root. We went to a bubble tea place which has nice fat plastic straws and grabbed a few with our drinks (love bubble tea!). A few minutes with scissors in the garden and the plants were all sheathed in colourful plastic straws. I must say this is an unusual look for the garden but has truly saved many of our surviving plants (and the replants to replace ones the cutworms killed).

What sort of worked:

1. I put a shallow dish in the garden (a clay plant pot base), about 3/4" deep. I settled it into the soil so the lip was even with the soil. I did notice some cutworms each morning had wandered in it and died in there because they couldn't get out. I left it dry with this result, on nights that it rained (or we watered) and the dish was full of water, again more dead cutworms in it. So it doesn't matter if it's full of water or dry. However this will only get rid of a few at a time and in a plague situation like we had it's not really enough on its own.

What didn't work:

1. Putting cardboard collars around plants to try to deter the cutworms. Apparently they just don't have the gumption to climb walls to get to food. Theoretically, you create a collar of cardboard (my mother uses cut up cereal boxes, I tried paper towel rolls) and shove it into the dirt an inch or so as the cutworms travel quite easily and happily just under the soil surface. For me this didn't work but perhaps my collars were too small or I did a lousy job. My mother swears by it.

So for us the cutworms are now not nearly as bad - they are still munching on our radishes below soil level but I think another application of diatomaceous earth will help to alleviate that.

I really hope this helps someone else out as I know I was completely enraged and frustrated myself when I woke up to discover the destruction that had befallen my new vegetable garden overnight. Swearing ensued! But $15 bucks later ($9 for the D.E. and $6 for the delicious bubble teas and extra straws) we have our garden back to normal. That's not counting the plants we had to replace but next year we will be using these tricks as soon as we plant, not waiting for the destruction.

Good luck and happy gardening!

Ugh, cutworms!

Cutworms are decimating my gardens! They have taken out several plants already. They are simply everywhere in our neighbourhood, when it rains the streets are covered in the little nasties. Any tips on how to get rid of them, or at least keep them from killing all my new plants?

The birds have been having a crazy feast on them but when I look, I can count about 20 in every square foot of lawn and garden! Ughhhhhh...! We need help!

Edit: for some cutworm solutions that worked for me, see my post here!

Here are some more giveaways from out in blog land...

For baby:

• Win Bon Bon Cupcakes at 4 Baby and Mom. These are cute little ruffle leggings for the little girl in your life. Ends June 5th.
• Another chance to win Bon Bon Cupcakes at Tales from a Shopaholic Mommy, this one ends June 10th.
• Win Boogie Wipes at Your Mama Reviews. Great for little runny noses. Ends June 5th.

For the ladies:

• Win your choice of Scrunchbump maternity tops at Simple Finds! These look so nice, I love the capped sleeve top. Ends June 4th.
• Win a Hip-T at A Couch With A View! Ends on the 31st of May.
  

For anyone:

• Win a $50 gift certificate to Bamboosa (bamboo clothing etc. for babies, men and women) at Sandier Pastures! Ends June 5th.
• Win some pretty hand-dyed yarn by Anzula at Lemon Drop Studios. Ends June 4th.
• Win a $15 gift certificate to Modern Classics at Monkeys on the Bed. Choose from stationery, some adorable prints for the wall, bag tags, thank you notes... lots of goodies! Ends June 3rd.
  

For the home:

• Win a Windex All In One outdoor glass cleaning tool at Barefoot Mommy. Anything that makes cleaning windows easier is fine with me! Ends June 5th and there will be five winners!
• You can also win the Windex All in One at Tara's View of the World - this one is for Canada only! Ends June 3rd.
  
• Win a $100 Home Depot gift card at Today's Green Construction! (Here's the direct link to the giveaway) Amazing. I know what I'd buy - diatomaceous earth, plants and seeds to replace the ones we lost to the evil cutworms, and I'd make a start on supplies to build our pergola this summer. Ends June 20th.
  

Yay, it's Wednesday!

I woke up this morning at 5 am, thinking about raspberry canes. Seriously, this is what keeps me up at night. I couldn't get back to sleep for trying to figure out where to put in some canes in our backyard and where the heck my blueberry bushes are going to go. Not that I have these plants yet but I have had them in my previous gardens and I definitely want them here. Crazy, no?

We have improved the greenhouse on our one vegetable bed (the 'hothouse' - it has peppers and tomatoes, zucchini and cucumber). The peas are about 2" up, starting to reach for the netting, and the radishes just started sprouting yesterday! With a forecast for 28 degrees and sunny I'm sure today will be a big growth day.

I wanted to let you know about Dealcetera as well. If you are Canadian and looking for a great site for deals and freebies, you should definitely check it out. They have a Monday Giveaway each week and I won last week's! Yay! Now, I can't win again but you could. This week if you blog about Dealcetera you could win a $10 Shoppers Drug Mart gift card! I subscribe to their email feed and although I get sometimes 60 emails a day or more (that sounds like they're all from Dealcetera - that's not what I mean) I always make a point to read theirs.

Ok, time for some more giveaways:

For baby:

• Win an Ergobaby carrier system in Hawaiian print at Go Graham Go! Ends June 3rd.
• Win a pair of Jack & Lily shoes at Finding Joy in the Journey! Ends May 25th.
• Win a $50 gift certificate to Atterdag Kids (man, they have some great stuff!) at My Mom's View! Ends May 28th.
  

For the ladies:

• Win a $25 gift certificate to Layers Clothing at Loving Heart Designs! Ends May 25th.
  

For anyone:

• Win an audiobook by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child called Cemetary Dance at The Novel Bookworm! They have three copies to give away! Lincoln Child is a favourite author of mine. Ends May 27th.
• Win a $10 Starbucks card at Sweet Savings! Ends May 24th.
  

Boom and sparkle!

It is a weird weather day here, alternating thunderstorms (with hail) and brilliant sunshine! It's about 17 degrees. I like it - this is interesting weather!
I'm still waiting for the peas I planted 8 days ago to show any sign of life. I hope they were viable seeds. Our crabapple tree is this close to blossoming - we planted it last fall so we are very excited to see it in bloom! Waiting is the hardest part of gardening!

I was busy yesterday, running around and then out for Indian food in downtown Toronto. It was fun to go out with our friends. For once I didn't get a stomachache after eating Indian food! So I was too busy to post but I'll do a little bit of catching up today as my DH has gone out to run some errands.

For baby:

• Win a stainless steel baby bottle from Canadian company Organic Kidz at Feisty, Frugal and Fabulous. I don't know how you feel about it, but I can't stand it when a 'z' is used in place of an 's'! I'm a spelling prude. Ends May 18th.
• Win a pair of Scooterbees baby shoes at {Natural}Mommie. Ends May 18th.
• Win a Twilight Sea Turtle from Cloud B at All Things 4 Baby and Mom! Ends May 20th.
• Win a block letter alphabet vinyl wall decoration from Tastysuite at Just for Me... And You. Ends May 17th. I think this would be super cute in a nursery, don't you?
  

For the ladies:

• Win a $50 gift certificate to DownEast clothing at Simple Finds. Ends May 14th.
• Win body scrub and massage oil from tabutoys over at Helping Mommys Win. Ends May 12th.
• Win your choice of any personalized paper product from Peony Paperie at The Shopping Mama. Ends May 16th.