Happy Yard Time

My sister came for a recent visit and really enjoyed the yard.  After we left for a camping trip and she stayed on to visit others in town, she has declared my yard "a lot of work, even without the weeding." She had watering for 3 days, and did some picking as well. While she is not wrong, it is also a lot of fun if you actually like picking, processing, watering and weeding, which I do. The weeding is a pretty minor job this time of year (minus the large thistle I found today), but the picking and processing is pretty time consuming.

The camping trip was great fun and I loved being out in nature 24 hours a day, but when we got home and I was out in my yard, I was so happy I was actually skipping a bit. Everything is much larger and there is so much to pick when you've been away a bit. In the last 2 days we picked 3 ice cream pails of cucumbers and 2 of raspberries alone. Those became pickles and raspberry muffins today, with the extra raspberries getting frozen down. This time of year we eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies from the yard - salads, fresh salsas, etc. more than we freeze things down, but we've just started the big freezing season. Now that I use ongoing planting we tend to freeze less and eat a much greater variety fresh.

Currently eating:

• 6 types of greens
• kohlrabi
• beans (purple, green)
• zucchini (yellow, green)
• cucumbers (picklers and slicers)
• tomatoes
• peppers (chili, green and Hungarian wax)
• peas (snap and shell)
• herbs (basil, mint, parsley, oregano, sage,  and chives)
• chard
• strawberries (second picking)
• cherries (one tree is done, but another is ripening)
• raspberries
• apples (I think we should be eating them all, Mike thinks they need a few more days)
• baby beets and  carrots
• fresh garlic (thanks Mom)

We've only really frozen fruits so far (mostly saskatoons, raspberries and cherries), but I will start with zucchini and beans next week for sure.

I find time in the yard so peaceful and social.  Mike and I sit out in the morning while he drinks his coffee, kids play on the play equipment, we eat outside and we have friends over for a fire or a drink in the evening. I lay out in the hammock and read. Our yard makes our entertainment space so much larger. Tomorrow night we are having a couple of families over for a potluck, and everything I serve will be yard food.  Since I love to cook, be outside and grow things, it doesn't feel much like work. However, sometimes my girls agree with my sister, especially when it is raspberry picking time. Happy Yard Time is more a Wendy thing than a teenager thing.

High Maintenance

Two days ago one of my friends and I were discussing being high maintenance. She said she knew she was, and stated that I was too. I said no, I am very self-reliant. But I decided to ask Mike, who agreed. Once again, I pointed out my preference for doing everything for myself. He said that was definitely true, and sometimes to a fault. Then he said it was more high speed. He went on to say that I am not much for sitting around and I have high standards.  I gave that about 2 seconds of thought and I must say I do agree with that, but I think he is right there enabling me.  We are busy doing everything ourselves at high speed. Take this week for instance....

The girls are away and we have unprecedented relaxation time. We've taken it and loved it.  But we've also done lots of yard work, cleaned the house and done a lot of cooking. This week Mike made yogurt, cheese and bread.  I've been cooking lots everyday - yesterday I made cherry bars and granola, in addition to scones and a variety of garden meals. I picked enough cucumbers we'll be making pickles tomorrow.  That sounds really busy, but it was mostly really fun. We love to do things together and we've had so much time to do that.

Sometimes, like my Mom and Dad, I do get too much projecting. This week we also roofed the garage and took down a large tree in the front. Each one was a big, full-day project.

You can see from this before picture of the garage that it really needed it. When I point this out, Mike agrees with me. He also notes that some people pay other people to do these things.  I guess that it true, but those people are working over the summer. Mike is half time and I have 6 weeks off.  I wonder what I would do if I just sat around and watched TV. I'd be rounder and apathetic.

The yard is a lot of work, and I could not do it all if I worked full time in July and August. It (and

maybe me) are high maintenance, but really worth it. The yard is beautiful and always teaching me new skills. I eat great food, and get exercise all the time.  I have colleagues who are paying lot of money to eat organic and train in a functional fitness gym.  I say, "Get a yard and high octane wife. You'll spend less and be highly maintained."


Also, the garage looks great.

Bugs and Bounty

This time of year, I am always out enjoying the bounty of the yard, which makes it hard to want to be inside on the computer.  Since I blog about gardening, it is almost always hard to blog when I have something I want to talk about.  However, since the pouring rain just drove me away from my mowing, it's a great time to blog.

I just finished work a week ago, and am really enjoying my summer. The girls are off visiting my youngest sister's family and my parents, so Mike and I have a ton of time. We've seen shows, attended the Jazz festival, gone out for meals, had picknicks and friends over, but mostly we've been in the yard. Right now every vegetable is blooming and we are eating lots of zucchini, strawberries, greens and herbs.  I am making strawberry rhubarb crisp, salads, soups and dozens of other goodies.

All that time in the yard also gives me two other things: beautiful bouquets and bugs.  Given the amount of rain you'd think I mean mosquitoes (I have never seen them so bad in the city) but I actually mean  variety of cawlies that  haunt the organic gardner.  So far the nets are keeping my brassicas (kohlrabi and cauliflower) safe from the cabbage moths that have haunted them, but my moneywart, potatoes and my roses have unwanted guests. The caterpillars on the moneywart are small but very hungry, in the tradition of the picture book. You can see the size of them on Mike's hand and in the picture above.  Since I have many feet of moneywart, I also have many, many feet of caterpillars.

For most gardeners, all these bugs would be devastating. I must admit the sawflies in particular have me a bit down, but Mike is so delighted and dedicated to nabbing them (more on film than in person) that they have a real upside.

Picture this conversation:

Mike: Wendy, come quickly.  I have found a great beetle.  Do you know what it is?

Me: (glancing over from weeding the strawberries) That's a potato bug.  Kill it.

Mike: It sure is great.  Look at the stripes.

Me: It isn't great.  Kill it or it will strip the leaves off of the potatoes.

Mike: Are you sure? It looks so cool. We don't want to eradicate it if its a good bug.

At this point Mike goes inside.  I weed the rest of the berries, the garlic (whose scapes I picked this week - delicious), and the beans. Mike comes back out carrying a lot of camera equipment.

Mike: Well, it is either the Colorado Potato Beetle or the false Beetle.  I'll investigate.

I weed the onions and start cutting the comfrey to place around the plants as compost. 10 minutes later, Mike pipes up again.

Mike: It's the Potato Beetle.  I've found eggs on this leaf.

Me: Have you killed it yet?  There are probably others.

 Mike: Wait till you see the close up of the eggs - they're orange. 

In all fairness to Mike, he did eventually do the deed, despite his vegetarian love of all animals and insects (minus mosquitoes - even he can't take it that far).  And his diagnosis and dedication to bug picking did save the rose bush.  He's spent a few minutes each day helping me squish or drowned caterpillars, too. 

But while I am marvelling over the fresh Saskatoons on the bush, he is so busy editing bug pictures that he forgets to taste them as he eats them.  I guess that it is a match made in heaven, in that I don't have to compete for the food and he doesn't have to compete for the insects.  Now if only he loved to kill weeds.

Looks Like Green

In my last post, I was writing about how early planting looks like mostly like dirt. Two weeks later, the yard is a beautiful, lush green. I sit on my patio and look at a mix of blooms and food I'll get to eat.  I am already enjoying asparagus, spinach, lettuce and a variety of herbs, but I'll have strawberries and beans soon. The yard is feeding me in so many ways.

One of my favorite things once the yard greens up is how I can put things together to create a specific feel that I want. There are a number of things I do to create the look that I want:

Color:
My backyard is all in pinks, purples and white, so all the colors blend well. I have a wide variety of textures and heights so that color appears like accents in all the various main parts of the backyard.  My front is the same, but the colors are oranges, yellows, reds and whites, so the palette is much more energetic. In the back, the color provides contrast and calm.

Bloom time:
My beds are planted with perennials that take turns blooming throughout the sprint and summer, so that there are always flowers to look at. The picture on the left is a bed that currently has tulips (white), phlox (purple and pink), chives (purple), irises (white) and columbine (pink).  In less than a week the tulips will be gone, but two types of purple iris, white bell flower and pink roses will bloom.  As they finish up, lavender and pink peony will start.

Layout:
I use a variety of levels so that the plants draw the eye around the yard, or into certain sections at certain times. I also have leafy screens, arches, and trees/bushes that create hidden sections or areas with specific purpose. I don't really have many "outdoor rooms," but I do have zones. Sometimes I use formal levels (like on the stairs to the patio in the picture on the right).  Other times I just have a variety of plants that create the stepping up look. In the back, most of the beds are edges, so they move from flowers that are 10 cm. in the front about a meter in the back.



The picture on the left in a classic example of that stepped layout.  It boarders the play area, screening the play fort and the trampoline. It has two types of clematis climbing it (the purple is currently blooming and the white will bloom in August) and layers of other plants in front.  This type of layout helps to make it feel like you are surrounded by a verdant landscape even though you are just in a city backyard.


I have attached a couple other pictures of interesting examples to show some key concepts. The one to the right is an example of thick layers of greens to create different textures for the eye to look at.

Here are two examples of creating spaces that are zones but not really rooms. One is a planting bed made out of old bricks under a tree (left).  The other is the dry south side of my house where quack grass was struggling (below). This bed turned this small space from an eye sore to the most productive growing space in the yard. Cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and squashes ripen here first, and live longest in a mini-zone 4, when the rest of the yard is a 3A.  The reflected heat off the wall and the shelter provided by the two houses create a very productive little alley a meter wide.

 I love the look of the rich greenery and the way in which the space is laid out throughout the yard. It is a great combination greenery, color and productive spaces that make the most of a pretty ordinary rectangle that is my yard.  It is funny how two short weeks turn it from dirty and work-filled, to green and tranquil.

Looks like dirt

When you first plant your garden in the spring, it mostly looks like dirt. We gardeners like to call it soil, and describe its properties at length, but when you sit in it a lot, you still get dirty.  This long weekend I planted as I always do, despite a substantial sinus cold.  Bending over is no good when you have a sinus cold, and planting late is equally painful, so sitting in the dirt was the best option.

Fortunately for me, Mike did a bit of the heavy work before he left for Anwyn's basketball tournament in Regina.  He was pleased with her silver medal; I was pleased that the potatoes, carrots and most of the peas were planted before he departed.  Because I plant in stages, I didn't have to do everything, but there was still a lot to do.

I started by transplanting my bedding plants.  Those are herbs, tomatoes (6 varieties), peppers (5 varieties)

and various members of the squash family. I did not plant pumpkins this year as I still have lots from last year, but I had two types of cucumbers, experimental cantaloup (unlikely to bear fruit in this zone), 2 varieties of zucchini, and butternut squash. I also put in corn, peas, green onions and kohlrabi that I planted early in the greenhouse last week. Many of the bedding plants go in various raised beds throughout the yard, but I still put some in the garden proper.

Once the bedding plants are done, I start with seeds. I plant flowers (like sweetpeas) and vegetables I grow from seed including beets, various greens, beans, parsnips, radishes etc. This year Leo and Anwyn both helped a bit with planting, which was great, because my planting speed was about one tenth normal Wendy. It is pretty hard to use your Kleenex with muddy hands, so I wore gloves and took them off all the time to blow my nose. I think it was a huge part of the slow down - it definitely had nothing to do with low energy due to sickness.

Now that the garden is all planted and so many of the flowers are blooming, it is a real pleasure to be out,

even when you are sitting in the dirt blowing your nose. I admired my flowers all weekend long and listened to my fountain. I planted a little sedum planter and felt like I did some great craft a la Martha Stewart. I enjoyed fresh asparagus, put basil on our burgers and had chives in my egg salad.  After 7 long months of winter, it is great to be dirty.

For those who'd like to see some pictures, you can see the album of what is blooming and take a look at the mulch Mike and Leo put in the front.

Already eating

Two weeks ago, it was still snowing.  This week, I am eating my first asparagus. It is supposed to rain all weekend, or I'd be planting up a storm.  Nonetheless, it is still so great to have green.

I have been puttering around my yard virtually very night.  Mike has to call me in from dreaming on the deck, weeding, planting and watering.  And now, he gets to add picking. He picked our first asparagus today, but the harvest will continue unabated for another month.  My spinach is up and we'll be eating that soon, and I also have garlic greens and chives ready to go. I am still 2 weeks from harvesting basil and mint, but my other herbs are great. I had fresh oregano in my soup for supper.

This weekend I planted a number of my flower boxes, and I also prepared many others for planting veggies. I made a beautiful succulent sculpture for my desk and did some transplanting in my flower beds.  I also started putting in my annuals.

One of my favorite things to do is enjoy what is blooming and consider what will bloom next. Last year at this time I wrote my yard was already full of flowers.  I can't say that now, but there are a few things blooming, including:

• two types of crocus
• chives
• tulips (only the yellow so far)

I have a number more buds (let's cal them flowers in waiting), but there has been too little sun this week for things to open up. I keep touring the yard thought, and I'm loving everything I do find.

First Flowers

A week ago we were getting our last snow.  I still have some ice around the base of the house, but it was 27 degrees yesterday, and I had my first flower bloom. Predictably it was white, a good bridge between winter and summer.  That's fitting since we seem to have skipped spring, although crocus are usually a spring flower. . . . I was so excited to be out this weekend, and there was so much to see and do.

The girls, Mike and I spent a couple of hours raking all the leaves off beds and pruning dead foliage. I leave it until the danger of a bad frost is gone, usually the third week of April.  You can see the post from April 10th last year to see what my yard looks like this year. We also set up the fountain, cleaned all the desk and patio space and set up all the lawn furniture. I brought the plants out to the greenhouse and Mike fixed the fence.  I had visions of laying in my hammock, but so far I haven't sat down long enough. Anwyn enjoyed it, though.

One of my plagues this year is the mice who moved into the greenhouse.  We've had the problem before, but mostly

in a minor way. This year the winter was a month longer, and the mice decided to eat all plants I was growing in the beds on the ground except for the onions. Apparently they like spinach, lettuce, beet greens and virtually all other greens, but even mice don't want raw onion.  Pip, who usually eats all mice, spent time trapped on the outside of the greenhouse (no cat door) while the mice cavorted inside. As a result, I spent the weekend paving over the places where there were tunnels in and Mike laid edging around the outside. Then we turned the compost and watched the mice try to break in to hide. Our defenses held against the first sortie. Pip chased three around the yard and Merry watched them confused. I was just delighted that I could fill the greenhouse with plants again and proud of Pip until she threw them up on the white carpet in the basement this morning.

Whatever is new is always main excitement in the spring. This year, it is garlic I got from my mother. I had it all labelled and planted, but the massive snow storms and bizarre thaw were destructive here too.  Fortunately, it was to the labels. The garlic, which my mother declared very hearty, survived without issue. It is all up, and growing much more quickly that the stuff of my own from last year. It is hard to see in this picture, but it has two days of growth in a loose bed against a fence and it is doing really well. Many stems are already about 8 cm high.


My plants are doing pretty well, but I am worried about how much harvest I'll get this year given the late spring. I have already planted spinach, beet greens and lettuces in a raised bed on my drive way, because I need to replace the mouse harvest. I think I may also buy some larger bedding plants to augment what I have in the greenhouse and give my garden a fighting chance.

There must be hope somewhere

It is still winter in Saskatchewan. Not a day goes by when the radio, my work and everyone I meet comments.  This week on CBC, the host complained that the -10 we woke up to should have been a high of +10.  My husband, Mike, waits for spring each year like it is the second coming.  This year he decided we are already in hell, or at least purgatory. The hope everyone felt at 6 months of winter has turned into a litany of complaints from everyone I know at 7 months of cold and grey.  I don't feel so hopeless, but I have only met one other person this month who is as perky as I am, and we have one thing in common.  We are growing.

My friend is growing personally.  She is currently working on twins, and just started her maternity leave to wait for their birth. When I met her for lunch, I was struck by how happy she was.  I have never seen her smile so much, and it was such a contrast with everyone around me.  I am not quite so happy, but I am pleased and hopeful, and it is all about the sprouts in the basement.

Everyday, I go in and see what had grown and smell the fresh green smell.  Last weekend, I planted all my melons, gourds and my first beets and kohlrabi. They are all up and looking great. My peppers, tomatoes and basil are going strong.

Yesterday on the news, Mike and I woke up to a story about how much money golf courses and greenhouses are loosing. No one is buying seeds, seed potatoes, bedding plants and other goodies.  Sometimes I wish that people would.  I think most people I know would be much happier if they had something, anything, that was growing hope for them.

There is no grass visible in my back yard.  Some parts of it still have over 3 ft of snow on April 18th.  But there is a bit of grass in the front by rocks that hold the heat, and there are many plants in the basement.

I have hope (and science) to tell me that even when the spring is late, you get all the same plants eventually.

6 months of snow and planting

Well, it has been a crazy winter and people all over Saskatchewan have had enough. Last week, immediately following the first day of spring, 3 days of 50 km/hr winds and snow stranded cars and even a passenger train for a day. While highways were closed all over the province, Anwyn and I shovelled out our yard. We've had so much snow this year, that the pile the length of our driveway is well over Mike's head.  Anwyn and I had to move all our snow to the backyard, where drifts are only chest high. Instead of complaining more, we said 6 months of winter and counting as we pushed snow yesterday.  Today, it is 6 months of winter and planting as I am setting up my grow table.

Now you may be asking how I am planting in many feet of snow and so early.  Actually, I am planting a little late. My nephew has been staying in the guest room for the last 3 weeks, and this delayed my planting, because I usually plant in there using my grow table. After finishing my shovelling yesterday, I came in and started planting seeds.  Nothing like a little dirt to help you feel better about snow.

At this stage in the game, I am planting the longest season items and a few early treats. That means I did  one tray with peppers and basil, and another tray with tomatoes and greens.

Tray one peppers:

• Jalepeno
• Cayenne
• Habernero
• Hungarian wax
• lots of Yellow Bell
• Green Bell

Tomatoes:

• Yellow Pear (yellow cherry tomato)
• Chocolate Drop
• Cherokee Purple (a beef steak)
• Lemon Boy (Yellow medium size)
• Early Girl 

Last year I lost seedlings to dampening off, so I am worried about it this year, but still excited to be planting. I also put in some cilantro, spinach and lettuce just for the fun of it.

I decide how much to seed based on a garden plan I do in February. I expect keep most but not all of what I plant, so I over seed slightly.  Since I keep seed for more than one year, I also need to do that because some seeds do not germinate.