Strawberries and dirt

I spent a spectacular Saturday and rainy Sunday in my yard. Saturday was all about getting as many things as possible done before the forecasted rain struck late afternoon.  The biggest project we finished was the fort (see previous post), but we got lots done in general.  The girls and I mowed, weeded, trimmed trees, staked tomatoes, picked lettuces, cucumbers, spices and strawberries and built a woven branch trellis.

We ate nearly 4 cups of strawberries and made three strawberry rhubarb pies. By three I was tired but happy, and ready to head inside when Mike got home for supper. The girls and I had made a homemade salad with all our own greens, cucumbers and strawberries for lunch and I was excited to show off the pies for supper. Mike worked all day at his new job in the Children's department, and came home in the rain secure in the knowledge that he'd be resting due to precipitation on Sunday. We sat out in the yard that night on newly dried lawn chairs enjoying the candles and solar lights in the smell of recent drizzle.

When we woke up Sunday, Mike could see me eying the front yard and the rain. His dad had asked Mike to come help move some sod, but cancelled because it was raining, leaving Mike available. He cleverly offered for us to go for a walk in the rain in an attempt to distract me, but when we got back, he just sighed and said he just wanted to finish one more cup of coffee.  Then we went out and dug in the dirt.

Turning sod is hard work on the prairies, and Mike's wife wants the grass roots composted and as much of the dirt saved as possible. In order for the ground to be easy to dig it needs to be soaked, which is a rarity on this province. Luckily record flooding, and Bob's unwillingness to have a hole with wet dirt in it, cleared the way for me to have a patch of wet dirt. Mike cut up the sod, and Anwyn and I banged the dirt off of it. We spent about three and a half hours in the rain clearing sod, but we didn't quite get finished. More tomorrow - on the way back to dump the grass we found more ripe strawberries despite 24 hours of rain. I picked two cups for breakfast and count myself luck to have both berries and dirt (see album with tree house and digging pics).

Just for Gus, I will let you know what is newly blooming:

• lupines (pink, white)
• pink and fushia peonies
• white bell flower
• thrumbingeria
• 5 types of morning glory
• white bleeding heart
• sedum (6 types)
• 4 other ground covers
• yarrow

Fort for what?

Yesterday the girls finally finished the last of the work on their dream fort (inspired a bit by Douglas's hobbit hole).  They made the roof from leftover metal roofing from the house last summer, and built walls from scrap lumber and some particle board Mike bought for them. The whole thing made him nuts because so many things have been added one by one to the fort that nothing is really square, and we were forever adding on, trimming or shimming. The idea was that the girls learn some basic skills with tools, but lots of the measuring and cutting required more than basic skills, as nothing was the same size at the top and bottom.

 The fort is decorated with the door from the old hobbit hole from Meadow and is bedecked with pails of flowers. There was substantial arguing about artistic differences over which colors of pails should go where, but Mike hung them on hooks so constant redecorating is possible. The girls also have the hammock hung and Anwyn has been building massive sandcastles to celebrate the new look and dress up the play area.  That whole process is a little pitiful, as the sand was purchased before she turned three and she has to scrape the whole area to get enough to work with.  Looks like we'll need to get her a bit more.

Anyway, the fort itself was finished last week when we hung the lanterns, and then it was steadfastly ignored.  Since substantial family resources were invested, and the girls have been nagging for a roof for two years straight, I pictured them practically moving out there. I know I lived in my tree house and playhouse at that age (it is best to stay outside when you insist on pulling the tops off all the baby carrots).  This weekend I required that the last of the construction material be put away, and suddenly the fort was beloved. Anwyn and her friend Rachel played there late into the night, and Leora colored on it with a marker (a sure sign of both ownership and affection.) Once I could tell they loved it, it all got better for me.  It is easy to see what the work is for when you can see their joy.

Beautiful Blooms

View Album from second week of June

My late June back yard  is my favorite time for blooms in the whole summer. It is a mass of purple, pink and white in all my beds.  I like to just wander around the yard each day and see what is happening.

In the side by my tomatoes, I have big pink bloom on the morning glory I started from seed, and across the path I have daisies, two types purple iris, salvia, pink roses and pink ground cover - all blooming right now. Each of my beds is like that. My show stoppers right now are my columbine, iris and daisies (pink and white), but I also love things like my late pink lilac. As my iris finish, I will get more roses, delphinium and lupine, yarrow (already blooming in the front yard).  After those finish, I will have day lilies. You can view the pictures from the third week in June if you'd like to see what all these flowers are starting to look like - I should warn you, Mike also took a lot of bug pictures.

All my veggies are blooming now except pumpkins, peas and beans. I think my early beans are a week away or so. I have baby cucumbers and am eating the first early strawberries.  However, we are still fighting with bugs. The cherry trees have small infections of black aphids and the red current is suffering waves of attacks from the wasps. So far, my kohlrabi look mostly good under their net, but the mesh size may not be small enough. 

I am excited about most of the plants in the garden, especially my volunteer coriander and my potatoes, which are already thick and knee high. My carrots are still sad, but my strawberry crop looks spectacular. The raspberries in the alley, which were pretty small after transplant, now look great. Last year at this time, my yard was not nearly this nice. Of course, last year the rain prevented anything from growing.

Sick

Well, I spent the last week pretty sick with a sinus infection and actually took two and half days off work. That is the most I have ever taken off for sickness in a row, and it left me with a lot of time laying around with no energy.  That wasn't too bad for the first 4 days, as I had no brain cells to focus on things I might be doing. This weekend however, I had the brain and no brawn to go with it.  As result, I had lots of time to think about what I wanted to do in yard and no energy to do much of anything.  I got a bit of weeding and transplanting done and mostly sat around thinking about what I wished I could do.

Mike never got as sick as I did and he has spent the last two weeks being Amazing Dad. Last weekend he worked on the girls' fort with them, and today he hung Leora's hammock and helped her bake a cake complete with elaborate fondant. He did a 5 km race with Anwyn and just picked them both up from the pool and took them to a BBQ. He even helped me hang a net on the garage and stake all the tomatoes. You'd think all this would make him popular with me - but it has not.

You see, this time of year my large clematis grows very rapidly. Every week or two I gently trim it back over the path no one is surprised by trailing laves.  While I have been sick, the clematis has been growing, and the weather has been nice enough this weekend that Mike has his practice swords out (my cousin Douglas would be so pleased).  Anyway, I am sure you can see where this is going.

To give you an ideas of how sick I have been, I tell you what happened last night when we went to Anna and Ian's. Anna is a great cook, I got to see her garden and we got to play a fun dance game at their house. We also went home at 8:30 so I could go to sleep. Anyway, you can imagine how happy I was when I woke up well enough to hang sheets and blankets on the clothesline this morning. My voice is too croak-like to hum, but I was mentally humming and hanging sheets when Mike dashed out and assaulted my clematis with his sword.

He slashed at it a couple of times before I croaked "Stop!" and fixed him with a baleful glare my students have always called "the look." He was unfazed and made specious claims that he was pruning my clematis since I was too sick to do so. Mike even slashed it more times to demonstrate how well it worked. I actually had to step slowly and threateningly off the clothesline perch to get him to stop. 

I had to spend the rest of the day hovering protectively in my hammock to prevent further damage, but it gave me a great chance to look at the yard, so I can give you a very accurate list of what's blooming:

• chives
• tomatoes
• all my squashes, cucumbers and pumpkins
• 6 types of iris
• white and pink "daisies"
• lavender
• pink lilac
• 3 types of columbine
• tulips
• clematis
• strawberries
• poppies
• anemone
• 3 ground covers
• crainsbill germanium
• comfrey
• peppers

I am worried my carrots aren't up well and I am not sure how well my kohlrabi transplants are doing. I have stopped harvesting asparagus since it was about the right time and I was too sick to, but I picked a lot or rhubarb which Mike made into BBQ sauce and stewed rhubarb. I had some with homemade yogurt (also made by Mike), but it hasn't made me less concerned about my poor clematis in the light of his unprovoked attack.  I may forgive him if he saves my red currents from bugs.

Farmer's Market Lessons

Last summer, Greta and Dad took me to one of the largest Farmer's markets I have ever been to, and it got me thinking about my lifestyle. Today I took the girls to Saskatoon's and noticed it even more. The things that Mike and I make for ourselves are all up for sale, and they cost a lot more than you might think. A handful of rhubarb is $5 and a wilted basil plant is $4. Fresh spinach and chard both cost about the same. The amount of asparagus I picked yesterday is about $7.  That's just plants and seasonal food. Anything processed is much more. Baking costs nearly ten times the cost of ingredients and thing we make like canning and soap are even more. People pay it because they are too busy or disinterested in doing it themselves, but they believe handmade, local or chemical free is worth it. Quick calculations told me that Mike actually earns nearly double his library salary each month in the stuff he makes for us.

This lesson was reinforced at the grocery store where I bought pre-made salsa and bruchetta ingredients (minus the fresh basil, a savings of $4.19 - no organic available). Because of our tomato blight last year, we ran out salsa about three weeks ago and Mike is very sad. I think salsa is to Mike as ice cream is to Wendy. Anyway, the salsa is very mediocre and costs a lot for the amount you get, and bruchetta ingredients were also really costly. Makes it easy to understand why people by chips instead of peppers and candy instead of raspberries. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I am very happy to be growing things - and not just because I love to do it.

Currently eating:

• all herbs
• rhubarb
• spinach
• baby chard
• asparagus
• garlic greens

Blooming perennials:

• 2 types of iris
• purple clematis
• anenomie
• 4 types of tulips including a beautiful yellow-pink clustered tulip
• orange poppies
• tomatoes
• cucumbers, squashes 
• chives
• tea rose
• lily of the valley
• wild violets
• strawberries
• birds-eye narcissus (Mom admonished me for calling them daffodils)
• a variety of shrubs

Today the girls and I also picked lilacs, tulips, iris, and lily of the valley. Leora and I made 7 bouquets in a variety of rooms. There were no lilacs for sale at the farmer's market, but we played with the equivalent of $40 of luxury fresh flowers that were pesticide free with zero greenhouse gasses expended in growth or transportation. Yup, we live a luxurious life in a small bungalow full of used furniture.