Two New Beds, Five Grape Clusters… and Our Coffee Grounds Have a New Job!
by Clare
We added two new raised beds this year! Finally feeling like I’m getting the hang of gardening—like, I now know what actually needs to be started indoors, and what you can just toss in the soil directly. (Turns out, not everything needs babying!)
The apple trees are doing great! They’re still young—one Honeycrisp, one Fuji—but both are full of fruit already. And the blossoms? So beautiful! I never realized apple flowers could be this pretty. Almost like cherry blossoms! Have you seen baby apples?
But… our blueberries didn’t all fruit. Four of them gave us nothing. I was worried—did I forget to prune? We asked at the garden centre, and they said young blueberry bushes sometimes just need to “store energy” before bearing fruit. Okay, fair! At least one blueberry plant shared its fruit with us!
Here’s another victory: this year, I finally outsmarted the slugs!
Last few years, I tried growing bok choy—four times! And every single time, the slugs ate everything before I could harvest a leaf. Not one bite made it to my plate! So this year, I put rectangular pots on our backyard railing—way up high—and planted the bok choy there. My logic: surely slugs won’t climb that far?
So far… it’s working! We actually got to eat our own greens this time! Hahaha….. Small wins, right?
Then I read online that used coffee grounds help… so guess where all our morning coffee leftovers go now? 😄
Oh—and we harvested five clusters of Kyoho grapes! (There were supposed to be six, but one morning we found one whole cluster gone. Thanks, mystery animal friend! You’re welcome… I guess? Hahaha…..) Check out grape babies!! So cute!
The fig tree’s been funny too. For weeks, the fruits just sat there, not growing. Then I started giving it my homemade fertilizer—fermented rice water and orange peels, diluted—and the next day? One or two would ripen! Almost like it was waiting for that little drink.
I filmed a couple short videos of the garden (with some piano mixed in, of course!). If you like the “Piano & Garden” vibe, you might enjoy them!
Anyway—that’s our little garden update! Messy, imperfect, but full of life… and coffee grounds. Lots of coffee grounds. ☕🌱
