Out at in the garden these past mornings and oh what a change!

I have to admit that I hadn’t been around much in the last week or so, and Tracey has been good enough to do some weeding, and ever so smartly, lay some landscaping material down over the portion where nothing is planted yet. She’s saved us from quite a few hours of wedding.

That tomato plants are growing ferociously and some are even starting to bloom. I admittedly thought we were going to lose a lot more then we actually did. I haven’t counted them, but I would say we have roughly 45-50 of the 60 we initially planted. And they have all hardened very well and are thickening up in order to hold the bounty they will produce!

Our peas and beans are out of control! They keep growing up and reaching out higher but to no avail. I wasn’t able to get netting that high so they are now growing back towards the ground. Should be interesting, next time, planting them further apart!

Beet and carrots…. Well, they are slow to come, but will be there in good time. We have 2 rows of beets that are growing and a few of the carrots, but I had to turn 3 rows of carrots into 2 rows of beets yesterday J Magic I tell you.

I have planted another set of beets so that we may keep using them throughout the season as we finish off out first batch.

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Got a visit from Debbie Trenholm today (www.thesavvygrapes.com) , a sommelier friend of ours who is always doing fun and exciting stuff around the city. In fact, they just received a Award for their All-Canadian Wine List featured at Trio Restaurant (http://www.novotelottawa.com/trio_restaurant/trio_restaurant.shtm) here in Ottawa.

She has started a new project called the Terroir Project.

In essence, we are planting 4 identical tomato plants, in four entirely different regions of the city and surrounding area to see what nuances are brought upon by the soil it is being grown in, the amount of sun it gets, etc…

The participants are :
- Ron Eade (Ottawa Citizen Food Writer) – Growing his plant in a terracotta pot on his deck in Lincoln Fields area (http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/omnivore/default.aspx)
- Chef Nelson Borges of the Westin Hotel – Growing his plant in his wife’s farm outside Ottawa
- Sommelier Debbie Trenholm of Savvy Grapes – Growing her plan in the vegetable garden around her pool in Carp
- And of course myself – Growing our beautiful plant out in our Navan Farm.

Tasting will happen sometime in early September, after my wedding of course, so keep your eye on the blog to find out more in the coming weeks and months!

Alright, I should be posting some photos tomorrow morning some time. See you all then!