The Lazy Gardener

I love finding new things in the gardening world.  I love it even more when the “new thing” is actually a very Old thing!  Case in point, Purple/Black Tomatoes.  They aren’t actually called purple tomatoes, but they look purple… to me anyway.  I came across two varieties that I find very intriguing… Black Sea Man and Black Krim Tomatos, both of which are heirloom varieties.  I’ve been kind of enchanted with heirloom varieties of both flowers and vegetables and have decided that this year I am going to have my own “Heirloom Test Garden”.   It might only have tomatoes in it this year, but that’s a start!!  Heirloom Tomatoes are just that… heirlooms.  They’ve been handed down from generation to generation and many heirloom varieties go back a couple of hundred years.   You can’t argue with that kind of longevity!

Unlike hybrids, heirlooms are not bred for taste or appearance.  They are open-pollinated and grow ‘true to type’ from seed, the same as their predecessors.  Heirloom Tomato Plants have color variances and taste that are as delightful to look at in to the garden as they are to the palette.

Here is a picture of Black Krim Tomatoes… as you can see there is quite the variance in colour from tomato to tomato.

Black Krim Tomato:  This plant must be staked or caged as the tomatoes are very heavy once they get going. Similar in size and shape to beefsteak tomatoes, they have dark red-purple fruit with a delicate green shouldered skin.  You may find that the green tinted skin is a little off-putting, but as long as you track the days from germination, you’ll know they’re ripe. The flavor is intense with a slight saltiness that enhances the taste, so if you are on a low sodium diet, these are the perfect tomatoes as they require no salt. They are also very juicy.

Another tomato that I think is even more impressive looking is Black Sea Man Tomatoes.  They are a smaller plant with medium-sized deep brown fruits which have a nice rich flavor.  They look really odd when blanched and peeled as they show skeleton-like veins under the skin. You’ll have tomatoes 75 days from transplanting so get seeds before the end of April for this zone (4-5).  When you slice into these tomatoes, the outside edges are green and the inside is pink to red.. very festive looking!  These make a great patio tomato as they don’t take up as much space as the larger varieties common around here.

Now the other thing I didn’t know existed because I’m not much of a vegetable gardener, is Purple Carrots!!  When I found those little lovlies up above there, the purple carrots were featured on the same page so I went and looked them up and, well, why not… I ordered those seeds too.  I’m going to eat carrots anyway, so I might as well eat pretty ones!!    This is the information I found on these pretty colourful carrots…

Purple Dragon Carrot 350 Seeds from Amazon

Purple-skinned carrots with deep orange flesh. They look amazing in salads or as a steamed vegetable. Roots have a high antioxidant and vitamin content, so are best eaten raw and are perfect for making carrot juice.

Burpee has the Purple Dragon seeds has for $4.95 for 1000 seeds on their website and Amazon has them for $2.88 for 350 seeds.  If you don’t need a lot of seeds get them from Amazon, but you get more bang for your buck from Burpee.  Myself, I just want to try them out.  I Googled the Purple Dragon variety and all the sites that mentioned them remarked that the flavour was very intense… ie, Yummy.  As far as planting goes, a carrot is a carrot.  Follow the direction on the seed packet for planting instructions and you won’t go wrong!!

So this is one of the few forays into vegetable gardening I will go.  My specialty is flowers, but from time to time I just can’t help myself and I want to tell everyone what I found.  Again, if you get any of the things I recommend, please come back to the post and regale me with your tales of success, or less than success if that is the case.  I want to hear about your adventures too!

Toodles for now… ~Callie

visit my other website at www.calliesgardens.com

P.S.    PICTURES… The pictures for these varieties were actually found on the Meadowbrook Farms website and they get their pictures from Seed Savers.org Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Since 1975, their members have been passing on our garden heritage by collecting and distributing thousands of samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners.  Please check them out!

I love finding new things in the gardening world.  I love it even more when the “new thing” is actually a very Old thing!  Case in point, Purple/Black Tomatoes.  They aren’t actually called purple tomatoes, but they look kind of purple… to me anyway.  I came across two varieties that I find very intriguing… Black Sea Man Tomatoes and Black Krim Tomatoes, both of which are heirloom varieties.  I’ve been kind of enchanted with heirloom varieties of both flowers and vegetables and have decided that this year I am going to have my own “Heirloom Test Garden”.  Heirloom Tomatoes are just that… heirlooms.  They’ve been handed down from generation to generation and many heirloom varieties go back a couple of hundred years.   You can’t argue with that kind of longevity!

Unlike hybrids, heirlooms are not bred for taste or appearance.  They are open-pollinated and grow ‘true to type’ from seed, the same as their predecessors.  Heirloom Tomato Plants have color differences and tastes that are as delightful to look at in to the garden as they are to the palette.

Black Krim Tomato - This plant must be staked or caged as the tomatoes are very heavy once they get going. Similar in size and shape to beefsteak tomatoes, they have dark red-purple fruit with a delicate green shouldered skin. You may find that the green tinted skin is a little off-putting, but as long as you count the days from germination, you’ll know they’re ripe. The flavor is intense with a slight saltiness that enhances the taste, so if you are on a low sodium diet, these are the perfect tomatoes as they require no salt. They are also very juicy.

Another tomato that I think is even more impressive looking is Black Sea Man Tomatoes. They are a smaller plant with medium-sized deep brown fruits which have a nice rich flavor.  They look really odd when blanched and peeled as they show skeleton-like veins under the skin. You’ll have tomatoes 75 days from transplanting so get seeds before the end of April. When you slice into these tomatoes, the outside edges are green and the inside is pink to red.. very festive looking!  These make a great patio tomato as they don’t take up as much space as the larger varieties common around here.

Now the other thing I didn’t know existed because I’m not much of a vegetable gardener is Purple Carrots!!  I found those little lovelies when I was ordering my tomato seeds.  My sister Ruth informed me that her hubby grew a bunch of them last year (and here I thought I was showing her something brand new!)  Ah well, my ignorance is because I’m not a veggie gardener, but since I’m going to eat carrots anyway, I might as well eat pretty ones!!  Purple-skinned carrots have a deep orange center and would look amazing in salads or as a steamed vegetable. The roots have a high antioxidant and vitamin content, so you’ll get the most nutrition eating them raw… They would make awesome fresh carrot juice!

As far as planting goes, a carrot seed is a carrot seed.  Follow the direction on the seed packet for planting instructions and you won’t go wrong! So this is one of the few forays into vegetable gardening I will go.  My specialty is flowers, but from time to time I just can’t help myself and I want to tell everyone what I found. If you get any of the seeds I recommend, please go to my blog and regale me with your tales of success, or woe.. I would love to hear about your adventures too! Toodles for now… ~Callie

As I write this, I know that spring is not officially here.  It will be official when you read this, but right now it’s not, so bear with me here, ok.  I know that snow can, and often does make it’s unwelcome appearance in March.  I know all this… I don’t have to like it though.  Everyone was hoping for an early spring, but in true Canadian spirit we just zipped our parkas back up for another go at the white stuff.  Ah well, be patient.. spring always follows winter so it’s just around the corner.  In the next couple of months I need to rustle up a tiller and break some new ground.  I’ve decided to try my hand at growing vegetables.  I know y’all think I only know about flowers, but hey, I grew up on a farm… veggies took precedent over flowers and the soil around the manure pile was the best you could get.  I know how to grow vegetables, I just don’t think they’re as much fun to grow.  Except for corn.  Corn is fun to grow, especially if you plant really tall sunflowers between the stalks.  The sunflowers disguise corn plants from borer moths and corn earworm pests.   Plant corn in late may, after you plant the sunflower seeds, so the sunflowers will already be up and doing their job.  There are lots of flowers you can use in your vegetable patch, not only to brighten it up, but to help with pest control.  It’s called “Companion Planting” and most small scale organic gardeners use it in one form or another.  Sunflowers and corn have long been great companions to each other, but they are heavy feeders so make sure you have nutrient rich soil by amending with good quality compost and periodically fertilizing.

Now here is a Do Not for planting… Do Not plant asters or lettuce near your carrots.  The disease ‘asters yellow’ is spread by a spotted leaf-hopper whose food of preference is asters, lettuce and carrots.  If you can, plant your carrots close to buildings as leaf-hoppers like open areas.  Carrots also benefit from being planted with radish which helps to break up the soil around the carrots, preventing odd shapes which form from compacted soil.  Radish has very few pests or diseases and taste great in stir fry’s and are the perfect veggie for kids to grow as they are up before anything else.  Planting cowpeas and velvet beans with carrots will help prevent the growth of nematode populations in the soil, which cause root knot on carrots.  Velvet beans (Mucuna Pruriens) have beautiful purple clusters of flowers and long stems of velvety covered beans later.   We used to grow these when I was a kid, but I haven’t seen them around in years.   They taste great in bean salad!  Apparently the bean has beneficial properties which help with Alzheimer’s and depression as well and I’ll have more information on that in my blog if you are interested.  When growing these beans, you should have a sturdy framework to support the growth of the beans.

So there are some helpful tips to consider for integrating flowers with veggies.  A great reference book for finding out about companion plants is actually a book on plant insects and diseases…  The Encyclopedia of Natural Insect & Disease Control by Roger B. Yepsen, Jr.  Every once in awhile when I forget what a particular bug is called, I go dig out this trusty volume and refresh my memory.   In our region we have our old standby bugs that most farmers and gardeners are familiar with, some are epidemic and some cause not much stir, so learning how to use companion plants to help with the battle only makes sense.   Toodles for now.

Please visit  www.calliesgardens.com

“Flower Power Cutter”

Here is a pretty Sunflower that is quite Spectacular!! FYI…

Have you ever noticed that no matter how how many tulips you plant in the fall, in the spring it’s just never enough.  As well as I plan for a certain number of early, mid and late blooming tulips to flower in glorious progression, I just never seem to strike that perfect balance.  Speaking of balance, it’s pretty much a given That will never happen in my garden.  I can make someone else’s garden a thing of beauty, but my own – yeah, right.  Ain’t gonna happen.  Not for lack of trying mind you, but I think it’s the element of experimentation with my own garden that makes it such an unfinished ‘piece of work’.  No matter, there just isn’t any more beautiful a sight than a flower bed full of tulips, daffodils and grape hyacinth in the spring.  Unless of course it’s a big beautiful clump of Pasque Flower.   My neighbour has a gorgeous Pasque flower blooming in his beds each spring, and I am always surprised at how early they bloom.  Last year I meant to get a piece of his Pasque flower, but never did.  I’ll be rectifying that later on today neithbour!  And if you’re unfamiliar with this pretty little gem, here’s a wee bit of info to rectify that deficit as well.

Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla Vulgaris) derives it’s name from Pâques, French for Easter, because of the time of it’s appearance in April to June.  It is a part of the buttercup family but most closely related to the genus Anemone.  Other common names include windflower, meadow anemone and Easter flower. It is hardy in zones 4-8. The entire plant is covered with soft, silvery hairs.  It stands upright with large purple bell-shaped flowers which are furry on the outside and silky inside, with bright golden stamens.  The flowers emerge shortly after the first leaves appear. Fertilized flowers produce a roundish seed head with a feathery look.  The attractive silvery seedheads remain on the plant for a few weeks after which the ripe seeds are dispersed by the wind.

Pasque flowers grow best in well drained soil in full sun.  It does not tolerate being disturbed, but can be transplanted if care is taken.  Cut back all open flowers and large buds before moving.  The plant should produce new growth and become lush and re-bloom in about 4 weeks.   Fertilize very lightly.  Although drought tolerant once established, when dividing it, take care to keep the new divisions moist.  One mature plant can be divided into 4 or 5 new plants.

Well, it’s time to get myself out of this chair and take a little pooch for a walk.  Then, since I’ve run out of room in my own flower beds, I’m going to dig out my new gardening gloves, shovel and two or three big pots and play havoc with the neighbours garden.  Good thing he likes me and dislikes gardening.  Toodles for now ~Callie

Callies Gardens

I’ve been working really hard trying to get my gardening website updated (Flower Gardening and Loving it!)  When I started that site I had NO idea how big it would get.  I wrote and wrote and wrote and covered a lot of information on flower gardening tips and tricks and just so much basic information on how to do pretty, low maintenance flower beds.

One thing I was deluded about was the low-maintenance thing.  Weeds will always prove the low-maintenance thing false… mostly because I just do not like to use chemicals.  Case in point.  For the last two years my Asiatic lilies have been infested with the red lily beetle.  Now that little bugger is almost impossible to eradicate!  I dug out the two big clumps of lilys last year to divide the bulbs and clean them up.  I did this in early April and picked and killed dozens of those little red bugs.  I went over EVERY leaf and squashed every egg I could see.  Literally, every bloody leaf.  Then I washed all the bulbs, foliage, everything under a strong pressure of water, damaging some of the stalks in the process.  Well satisfied that the bugs were all off the plants, I then went methodically about sifting through the soil in the flower bed.  I lifted and divided just about everything else in that bed and thoroughly cleaned the soil.  I figured that if I kept a close eye on it, I’d get any bugs that managed to escape.

So being confident that I’d done as thorough a job as anyone could do, I replanted the lilies.  I kept a close eye for over a month and figured I had the little red devils beat.  Ya, right.  What a maroon, as bugs bunny used to say.  Feeling all cocky when the first flower bulbs swelled, I was proudly showing off my newly mulched lilies and out of the corner of my eye I thought I spotted a little flit of red.  Bending down, what did I see, but a couple of the red monsters copulating… buggers!  I then examined the leaves and there were clusters and clusters of little orange eggs.  Where in the world did they come from?  Lord knows.  Over the winter I moved residence, so I’ve decided to Not get any more Asiatic lilies for my new flower beds.  They’re more trouble than they’re worth.

That’s the nice thing about deciding to get rid of something.  It’s like a blank slate to try things you haven’t tried before because you didn’t have the room.  I’ve become quite enthralled with Stocks and Phlox and Helenium, so I’m designing a whole new plan based on these wonderfully brilliant flowers.  I’m going to finally design a cutting garden and include those beautiful and fragrant varieties within.

Here is a glimpse of some of the flowers you’ll be able to get from my cutting garden…

Phlox – David’s Lavender

Phlox – Hardy Tall – Laura

Garden Flag – Sunflowers

Coneflower – Sundown

Coneflower – Green Jewel

Aster – Blue Autumn

Bee Balm – Grand Marshall

Salvia – Caradonna

Baby’s Breath – Festival Star™

So this is just a few varieties with the pictures… Here is a bit more of a list… When planting your own, and you want to see what the flower looks like.. just Google it, or if the link is highlighted, click on it.

Annuals For a Cutting Garden
Cleome (Spider Flower)
Cosmos
Dianthus
Dill
Dimorphoteca sinuata (Cape Marigold)
Eustoma (Lisianthus)
Geranium
Gomphrena (Globe Amaranth)*
Gypsophila (Baby’s Breath)*
Helichrysum (Strawflower)
Helipterium (Everlasting)
Marigold

Perennials For A Cutting Garden
Achillea (Yarrow)*
Aster
Campanula
Carnation
Chrysanthemum, such as Shasta Daisy
Coreopsis
Coral Bells
Delphinium
Dianthus, deltoids (Pinks)
Digitalis (Foxglove)
Echinacea (Purple Coneflower)
Echinops exaltatus (Globe Thistle)*
Gypsophila (Baby’s Breath)*
Heuchera (Coral Bells)
Helianthus
Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker)
Lavender*
Lobelia
Lupine
Nicotiana (Flowering Tobacco)
Phlox
Poppy, Shirley or Iceland
Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan)
Sages
Solidago, (Goldenrod)
Veronica

Foliage for a cutting garden
Asparagus, densiflorus
Asparagus, sprengeri
Coleus
Dusty Miller
Eucalyptus
Euphorbia (Snow on the Mountain)
Flowering Cabbage
Flowering Kale
Tri-color Sage

Every time I see bamboo I think of Larry the Cucumber on the Veggie Tales
show.  My kids loved those videos growing up and now they’re on TV.  In one of the videos Larry the Cucumber sings “Silly Songs with Larry”… the song is so ridiculous that Bob the tomato makes him stop singing.  But Larry ends the song by saying “Bamboo, bamboo… Bamboo, bamboo.”   The kids would walk around the house all day saying “Bamboo, bamboo” and giggling like silly goofballs.

But I digress. I wanted to talk to you about all the bamboo I’m seeing in the stores lately.  I started to notice an increase of bamboo availability last summer, but didn’t think much of it.  Now I’m seeing it everywhere… even at work.  A number of people have these mini bamboo plants on their desks. So I decided to do a bit of research and came up with some very interesting information.  Most of the mini bamboo variety is actually “Dracaena Sanderana (Lucky Bamboo) and not a true bamboo plant.  True bamboo range in hardiness from -32C, like Fargesia nitida (Fountain Bamboo) which has a strong arching effect, is tough, beautiful and clumping… perfect for a lazy gardener like myself.   When Nitida flowers it is a very rare event.  Many in the world have not flowered since the 1880′s and the plant usually dies after the onset of flowering.

Bamboo that are ideal for indoors, includes ‘Indocalamus tessellatus’ (Giant Leaf Bamboo).  Hardy to -26C, it can grow to an average height of 7 feet with a 1/2″ diameter.  It adapts well to shady sites and is a favourite pick for indoor contairner growth. It is used extensively for erosion control in China and Japan.

Indoor bamboos prefer light soil, high in organic matter and slightly on the dry side, but placed on a pebble tray with water for humidity. Humidity seems to be the key to success with bamboo cultivation so the pebble tray should contain a small amount of water at all times. To limit the height of the bamboo,  chop it off at the desired height and that stalk (culm) will never grow higher. Bamboo culms (stalks) come from the ground at the thickness they will have for their entire life. You fertilize bamboo in early spring with a slow release lawn fertilizer.

Another type of bamboo you might consider planting as a screen or windbreak for the summer is Giant Moso Bamboo.  Giant Moso Bamboo-(Phyllostachys pubescens) is a giant bamboo that is able to grow in colder climates and are known as the timber bamboos because of their large size and great strength.  It has blue green canes and dense foliage.  Moso Bamboo stalks are considered among the biggest and most beautiful.  Growing diameter ranges between 3-7 inches and can get over 6o feet tall (not in zones less than 6)… it’s native to China and Japan and are harvested to make products including furniture and structural support for houses.  This variety can grow in zones 6-10, but is ideal for zones 9 and 10. They grow slow at first but can get a few feet long in a matter of months once they are established.  Here in zone 4-5, you should start the seeds in April to transplant outside by the end of May.  It can withstand temperatures of zero degrees once established, so it is obviously not hardy for our cold winters… treat it as an annual here.

I would love to see people trying this here in the Maritimes just to see how high it could actually get.  We have so many little sub-climates, especially along our waterways, where zone 6 plants survive and thrive.  If you get these, please, please take pictures and post your results here in the comments… I would be thrilled to see how they do.  Here is where you can get the seeds easily and very inexpensively…  Giant Moso Bamboo 25+ Seeds

All in all, bamboo is a very interesting plant to consider for both indoors and out. I’ll be keeping an eye out for it at the garden centers this spring to see if this trend continues.  “Bamboo, bamboo”. ~Callie

Please visit “Callies Gardens” at http://www.calliesgardens.com/

P.S.  Speaking of Cucumber’s… I came across some really nice varieties of Cucumber on Amazon… Here are a couple that you can’t easily get around here…

Straight Eight Organic Cucumbers

Cucumber Straight Eight Certified Organic Seed-

David’s Non-Hybrid Pickling Cucumber Boston Pickling 40 Seeds per Packet-

So I have an empty pot.  An empty green pot and I want to plant something in it, like Now!  So, as I was considering from amoung my many packets of seeds, a niggling little though keep flicking me on the back of the head… herbs, herbs, herbs… OK, OK, I get it, plant some herbs.  So then of course is the decision of what type of herbs?  Well, Chives of course.  I love chives.  They are easy to grow, pretty when they bloom, and pretty tasty as well.  So chives it is and the niggling flicking ceased.  Thank goodness.  I was about to break my nigglers figurative fingers!

I subscribe to a lot of internet gardening newsletters and I also get garden catalogs from a number of sources.   This time of year it is just “Oh So Much Fun” to get those colourful catalogs in my mailbox.  Almost as exciting as getting the Sears Wish book when I was a kid!  It wasn’t called the wish book then, but you all know what I mean.  Over the last month I’ve been planning out the gardening season and came across a picture that really inspired me, so much so that I am actively shopping for some supplies to carry out my inspiration… in fact I have a niggling little feeling that a lot of people will like it when they see the finished product.  I’ll only give you a hint right now, that pretty little violets and dianthus are involved.  When I have this first specimen all ready I’ll unveil it… are you all curious now?  Good, that was the plan.

You’ve all heard me give this advice before, but I love repeating myself.  When it comes to planning a garden, the earlier you start and the further ahead you think, the more successful will be the finished result.  For example, the planning I’m doing right now involves how my garden will look in August and September. It’s easy to have a great looking garden in June and July, but the later in the summer you go, the harder it is to have things blooming if you haven’t planned for that. But that’s why you keep me around… to do that for ya!  OK, here are some late summer plants to get in the ground as early as possible this spring so that you’ll be delighted come August and September.   Cut this out and stick it to your fridge with a magnet, or a piece of tape, or bubble-gum.

First, of course, is Asters, or Michaelmas Daisy’s  (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii).  We see these everywhere in pots in August… but get them early and you will be able to enjoy them from late July right until frost, as long as you continue deadheading and pinching the plant back when it starts getting out of bounds.  If left to it’s own devices the novi-belgii Aster will reach upwards of 4 feet tall, so it needs some room to grow (if you don’t have time for the regular pinching back to keep it in a tidy mound shape).  The Second plant to get in the ground early to get those prolific blooms, is Helenium.   I extolled the virtues of Helenium last September because I was so impressed with it, but make sure you plant the roots deep enough and have support for it because it grows about 4 feet tall as well and a strong wind will knock them down.  In shades of vibrant reds, orange and yellows, Helenium is a show stopper.  Plant it with Russian Sage
and Helianthus and you will have butterflies and bumble bees as regular visitors.  Two other old fashioned favourites, which have been improved with hybridization, is Stonecrop (Sedum) and Goldenrod (Solidago riddellii).  No longer the invasive plant of years past, Goldenrod is finally getting some respect as a self-contained, sturdy, and decorative garden plant.  BTW… goldenrod is wrongly accused of causing hay fever… ragweed is the most likely culprit!!   The new “Fireworks” variety has blooms that radiate out in all directions and looks more like bridal wreath Spirea in form.  Tickseed (Coreopsis),  Gooseneck Loostrife,  Campanula, Balloon flower and of course Phlox are also must haves for that late summer/fall blooming garden.  Now to go out and find my supplies for the big surprise! Toodles for now. J
Callie is the author of  www.calliesgardens.com and  www.thelazygardener.ws

Aster (callistephus chinensis)

New England Aster

I have been going through every magazine I own.  And I own a lot.  In fact, magazines are one of those things I flip through all the time so I can’t recall the last time I threw one out.  It’s long past time to weed through my patch of gardening magazines, keep what is worth keeping and throw the rest away.  I’ve already thrown out a garbage bag ¼ full of cut up magazines and for those of you who haven’t experienced this before… It weighs as much as carrying a hog up a flight of stairs… the hog couldn’t weigh much more (how’s that for a hyperbole of sorts?)   Sorry garbage pick-up guys but it had to be done.   So I still have a table full of magazines I’m still sorting through and I manage to get through about half a dozen a day.  I could probably do more, but I invariably stop to read this little story or investigate that pretty flower… it takes awhile!   And that brings me to my topic for today.  In one of the magazines I came across a sheet of paper tucked in a page with pictures of beautiful hydrangea, foxglove and boxwood in front of a pretty yellow garage.   The scribbling on the paper had nothing to do with those pretty hydrangeas, it was a diagram of a flower bed I was planning last year with a list of seeds that I had to get started.   Well I can tell you now that I started those seeds “6-8 weeks before last frost date” and most of them sprouted, but without grow lights they were woefully straggly by the time the weather improved enough to harden them off.  Most of them died during the hardening off process, but the ones that did survive were spectacular and I’ve got some pictures to prove it!!

Nonetheless, it is time to start thinking about what flowers you want to try out in your flower beds this year and get the seeds ordered asap if you can’t find them locally.  Over the next week I am going to have some suggestions on my blog with some in-depth info on each flower.  For those of you who don’t have a computer or the internet, here’s a few of those suggestions.  First, Foxglove.. again.  I try these buggers every year and after transplanting them in the flower bed they disappear.  I have no idea where they go.  Maybe to the neighbours place, but they vacate my flower beds every time.  Another great flower to try is Marguerite’s.  Now, these little beauties seem to love my whacky gardening techniques.  They bloom profusely and are Oh so Pretty!   Nemesia is another great plant to try growing from seed.  You have to start them at least 4 weeks before transplanting into your garden.  They are a wonderful filler plant but I always pot up a couple all by themselves in their own coloured pot to sit by my chair on the deck.  They smell nice and they really like our maritime weather as they prefer cooler nights and warm days.   It takes awhile for the seeds to sprout though… sometimes as much as 2 weeks, but they seem to like our warmer homes during this initial growing phase.  I planted my Nemesia 6 weeks before last frost date last year but I found that was too long… they got very leggy.  I think this year I am going to direct sow them in the flower bed and see how they do.  They’ll bloom a bit later is all.  So, the gardening season begins… Yippee and Toodles for now.

Pretty Marguerites

It certainly is Fun with a capital F.  So I’ve been agonizing over the floor plan trying to figure out if I can get all the amenities I want squeezed into such a small space and I think I’ve got it.  Here is a picture of the floor plan as of right now.  It could change because I am a woman after all.

12x16 Small House Plan

So that’s the hash of a floor plan.  It’s actually quite agonizing trying to get everything you want into such a small space.  I couldn’t visualize what everything would look like.  Soooo… I’ve had all these DIY, and Better Homes and Gardens, and Kitchen and Bath magazines hanging around (because I’m a magazine hoarder) and I though to myself, “Self, you should cut those up and keep ONLY the pictures that inspire you.”  I thought that was a pretty good Idea.  I’ve done just that.  I now have my Small house idea book 1/4 of the way put together.  Long and short of it, here are some of my ideas.

The Kitchen…  I adore this kitchen!

8x8 Kitchen

Here is another kitchen idea I really, really like…

Kitchen under the Stairs

Now I have to keep in mind my “movable” kitchen items such as the 18×31 Garbage recycling unit I own.  So I’ve opted to try to squeeze in a Pantry under the stairs which will house the garbage unit… I came across this pantry… the picture isn’t the best quality, but I really like the idea.

Corner Pantry

So in my floor plan, I’ve actually stuck this in the corner under the stairs.  It will have to be custom built so that the garbage unit will fit in, but I think this idea is the best way to maximize that under stair space and gain additional storage.  The inside of the door can be outfitted with hooks to hang pots, pans and any utensils that can comfortably hang off a door.   So then visualize this picture and to the left of it will be a stackable washer and dryer.  Tight fit but workable.

So now, the bathroom… That was the absolute worst part of trying to draw a floor plan.  But I think I have it figured out.  I of course Google everything and came across this tiny little sink and a wall mounted toilet.  The toilet saves 6″-8″ of floor space and the sink, which I previously thought impossible to have, is now possible as it is only 10″ deep.

Duravit Darling Wall Mounted Toilet

Standard toilets with the tank are about 29″ from the wall to the edge of the seat… these are only 21.25″ – That’s almost 8 whole inches.  Doesn’t sound like much but in these tiny houses, that’s a lot… and in a miniscule bathroom that’s a huge amount.

So that’s pretty cool really… I can just go to Amazon when I’m ready to buy my toilet… I can get the whole in-wall tank unit… Everything from Amazon.  I love Amazon… that place has everything and then some!!

Oh yea and look at the sink I found there as well… I didn’t even know you could get sinks this small…

ELANTI Porcelain White Wall-Mounted Rectangle Left-Facing Sink

Now is that great or what??  A tiny little sink so I can get hot and cold water and brush my teeth.  It’s about 19.5 x 10 x 6 so it will fit on the wall between toilet and shower.   Annnnddd… Speaking of the shower, I’ve decided to tile the whole thing, walls and floor, and use a shower curtain instead of a door unit, since I already have a shower curtain I really like.  Here’s something similar to what I think I’ll do.

Shower Stall with green tiles

So there’s a lot of really good ideas so far to take advantage of small spaces.

The thing is with the bathroom, I want as much space to move around in the shower as possible and purchased units take up “inches” with their moulded plastic forms.  This will waste next to no inches.. I want there to be enough space for when my adult children come home for a visit.  There’s nothing any worse than listening to whining from a 20 something year old, that there’s not enough room to move around!
Have you noticed the Colours?  HA HA… Green!!!  I Love, Love, Love green.  It is my absolute favourite colour.  I love buttery yellows and stark whites as well… My house is going to be bright and cheery for sure!

OK, it’s time to go for now because I’m tired of typing and pasting and formatting and all that good bloggy stuff.  And I have my gardening column to write.  Toodles for now crickets

I thought it was an original idea.  It’s not.  Apparently there are scads and scads of people in the states who have been doing it for quite some time.  Here in Canada… well, just take a drive on an old back country road and you’ll still see remnants of “tiny houses”.  With prosperity came larger abodes until building codes wrote large houses into the fabric of our society.  I have always thought that a well designed smaller house is much cozier than a big gaping, echo-y behemoth of a house.  All the house plans I’ve ever poured over have been small, well laid out plans.  So for me, it makes sense to go smaller.

When the thought firmly took root in my head, I went scrounging for graph paper.  I took a specific building size and started trying to fit all the amenities of home into that small space.  I spent a lot of time at it.  I think I finally have a floor plan, but it was tougher than I thought it would be!

Now see, I am not the kind of person who would do well with a composting toilet.  Sorry, it just ain’t gonna happen with me.  I want a real shower, a real flushing toilet and a real sink to brush my teeth in.  I want a real kitchen that I can sit 4 – 6 at a table, even if I have to fold said table up and down.  I have a grandchild and I want my grand-babies to visit.  Also I need an office and I want to be able to move around my bed to make it.

So I was faced with a dilemma.  The tiny houses I found online from the Tumbleweed website and Dee Williams website, well… they just wouldn’t do.  I can get rid of a lot of stuff, but I have my limits.  So, I decided that yes I could live in a small space but it would be footprint small, not space small.  The solution?  I would have to buy land, put a basement under it and have dormers for the loft.  That’s all there is to it.

Yeah right.  Ya think it’s that simple eh?

I Thought I’d better call the town planning department to find out the minimum house size required by town by-laws.  Yikes.  Even with a basement and a loft the building would be too small.  The size of the building?  12 x 16.  That is bigger than the Tumbleweed houses which are about 8×12.  Soooo… solutions, solutions?  Well, Outside of town limits then.  Still no good.  The province has similar building codes as the town.  OK, then how about we increase the size to say 16×16… That size actually does the trick with a basement and loft.  By Tumbleweed standards that is huge.  By regular standards that is still very, very small… miniscule in fact.

But how much room does one person need anyway?  Sheesh.  So we’ll call this project my Very Small House project.  Square footage in total of around 660 sq ft with a basement, main floor and loft.  It just might work.

So logistics.  Well, there is land available in town limits but it is very expensive.  So out of town limits is where I have to go.  But I’ll worry about that when the time comes.  Before I even get that far, I have to figure out if I can get the things I want in the space I want.  I think so.  I want to heat with wood and power with solar.  Both possible.  Wood fireplaces now come with zero clearance so as long as they are installed correctly, you can put them on pretty much any wall.  Solar panels to generate electricity are easier and less expensive to come by these days,  so that’s not a problem.  A gas range and a gas/electric fridge and a gas/electric washer and dryer.  RV dealership and online are where you can get any of those smaller appliances.  But, hot water.  Hmmmm.  There will be no room for a hot water tank so a heat on demand system is needed.  Fortunately Europeans have been using those for years.  We can get them in Canada to run from propane, same as the gas stove and fridge.  Tracking one down will probably take a bit of time.  Again, check… no problem.  And finally – having a back-up power source… that will be the biggest challenge of the whole project.  I want off the grid.  Totally.  So that challenge will take the most time and consideration I think.  I need enough power to run computers and tv and all that good electronic equipment.  Should be fun figuring it out.

You know, RV companies really should make winterized RV’s.  Now That would solve all logistics in one fell swoop!!  When you think about it, living very cheaply, (but well)  in Canada is a difficult thing.  The amount you pay every month on power bills alone, even for a small apartment, it’s actually staggering.  It really is no wonder such a huge amount of people live paycheque to paycheque for most of their lives.

I think living “smaller” might actually be a good solution for many, many folks.  So, lets see if we can design something that a lot of people might actually desire and even prefer.

The floor plan I drew out is for the 12×16 size, so I’ll spend a little more time adapting it to the 16×16 floor plan and then scan it and put it in my next post.  After that, I’ll outline a list of those “special” items that will be more expensive in the short term, but in the long run will save energy and money.  And really, saving energy is going to help our little blue planet breathe easier.

Toodles for now!