Sea of purple

It is hard to get me out of my yard this year.  I have a leave for school, so I have time to be in the garden during the day at watch everything start to bloom.  It has been such a luxury.  I write for a couple of hours, hang out in the yard for an hour, write more, then go out more.

The tulips, which were lovely shades of purple and pink in the back, and the daffodils from Mom, leading the yellow in the front, are mostly done now. The iris and anemone have taken over.  Three iris types in different shades of purple iris are my beloved colours, but I also have lots of yellows and yellow/purples.   My double white has been transplanted this year and isn't doing much.  I did a count in the yard, and including bushes, I have over fifty different things currently blooming.  Not a good sign of personal restraint.  Predictably Mike's current favourites are in the front, his thyme path and his bright orange poppy. His rose will be the big hit right away. Everyone else keeps commenting on the lilacs on the left in the back, and Mike loves the white bleeding heart.

We put our garden in at the usual time, and most things are doing well despite early drought.  I start many things inside now including unusual things like beets and carrots, so things tend to take well when we plant.  I have tried carrots three ways with year, from seed, from transplants with just the starter leaves, and ones two weeks older.  I'll let you know what I find.  We get so little rain that carrots don't always germinate well in the garden, and thinning hurts my heart, leaving me with small, thin carrots who are overcrowded.

We have just finished eating asparagus and made a batch of stewed rhubarb and some fresh crisp this weekend.  All the spices are ready and Mike is using the March basil seedlings for pizza.  Strangely, the winter was so mild that both my oregano and my sage made it through, which has never happened. The sage is even about to bloom. I am trying a new curry rosemary that Jodi bought me - I will let you know what I like it in. My lettuce is also ready to eat, and I put in my final planting of lettuce and beans this weekend, nearly a month after my first seeds.  I usually plant for nearly a month in addition to all the seedlings I start, as it gives a variety of ripe veggies at different times. I'd far rather eat beans and peas fresh all summer than can them or freeze them in large batches because I planted all at once.

I put in two new beds at the end of last year.  The one above is in the front, and I will keep expanding it.  I has the two new honeyberries and Mom's daffodils. The one in the back has a new trellis and is designed to keep basketballs in the court. Luckily for me it is full sun, so I get to grow some new things.  You can view progress in all the beds for this week and last week.

Mike has taken some new video of the yard, which is great for those of you who aren't here right now.  It is from last weekend, so it is already outdated in terms of blooming, but it gives the idea.

Backyard video 1
Backyard video 2
Front yard video

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.

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.

Riot of Color

I love the first week of July. So many of my favorite things are blooming and the yard keeps shifting colors.  Right now, my back yard is very pink, but in a few days, it will be purple. My front yard is a sea of yellow, but in a few days, it will all be covered by a canopy of orange, which is just getting started. Needless to say, I have been out everyday since school ended, wallowing in my yard.

Colors of my island bed in the center of the backyard. After these are done, this bed becomes purple and white. Lavender, daisies, and lilies are next.

Textures of orange and yellow in the front under the pine tree. Currently 6 types of yellow ground covers are blooming, providing a carpet of yellow under all the plants. The yarrow in the foreground is my only orange right now, but in less than a week, there will by 6 types of orange day lilies and asian lilies.

One of 4 blooming roses - all photo credits to Mike.
I will have roses for the next 2 weeks all over the front. Underneath these roses, my hidden veggies are also adding color. Right now I have yellow tomato flowers and big yellow blooms from a variety of squashes.  Soon I will add white bean flowers.  My coriander is already blooming, as are my herbs.




Today I am headed out into my yard to hill potatoes and do a little watering.  Yesterday Mike reinstalled the windows in greenhouse ($74 to put new glass in 2 of them, and 50 km per hour winds again today.  Maybe a glass house was a bad idea. . . ) and I moved the last of my basil starters into the yard. I keep roaming around admiring various flowers and dreaming.  As I sat on the deck this morning I watched baby birds learning fly (no small task in this wind), dragonflies, and butterflies. All this color, beauty and potential is a great start for summer.

Vertical Gardening

One of the best tools I have as a gardener is vertical gardening.  Although I have a large yard by city standards, I have a small one compared to my ambition for it. I want to grow most of the vegetables my family eats over the summer, lots of things to store and cut flowers for every week all summer. My children seem to feel our yard should house large play spaces and archery ranges, and I "need" to dry all my laundry, eat, and relax in my yard.  Space is at a premium.  Just like Tokyo, I go up.

I use nets to grow tomatoes vertically and pots to grow them upside down. Because of the added heat these plants get on the south wall of the garage, they are larger and blooming earlier than those I grow in cages or on stakes in my main garden.

I also use nets to grow on the south side of the house, where I grow cucumbers and peppers. Cucumbers and other trailing vines are a big space hog in the yard, because they need a 4-5 foot radius for growing. Vertically, I can grow two plants per square foot of soil, and the cucumbers are really easy to pick because they hang down right where you can see them, rather than hiding covered by leaves.

I also use verticals for my beans and peas to climb and use cages for unruly flowers and climbing roses. Of all my living walls, my clematis walls are my favorite. I use them to create walls in my garden and provide privacy for the play areas. View all my verticals, and some great butterfly pictures from the garden in my June photos.


Currently eating:

• all herbs
• all greens
• strawberries
• rhubarb
• pea shoots

Things are about a week behind due to my start this year. Last year by June 20th, I already had baby cucumbers etc. On the upside, the front bed I started last year is already well established and I am loving all my flowers.

Currently blooming:

• zhuchini
• poppies
• daisy
• lavedar
• iris
• peony
• columbine
• bleeding heart
• viola
• chives
• citronella
• comfrey
• tomatoes
• roses
•  crainsbill germanium
• yarrow
• 6 types sedum
• passion plant

Rain News

It is pouring today, which is a good thing from a blogging perspective, if not a gardening one. Lots of little bits on news (but no new pictures due to rain) to share:

• I finished eating asparagus this week, and have allowed the spears to grow to full fronds
• Currently eating 5 types of lettuces and spinach, all spices, green onions and rhubarb
• Mike trimmed our front tree so I am getting much better sun in the front
• We had 60 plus km an hour winds last week, so I think the main drop of dutch elm seeds has passed. Mike helped me rake them out of the beds and lawn, which will mean less weeding later. 
• I wanted to plant my third planting of beans and peas this week, but it looks like I will be waiting till at least next weekend due to rain
• My squashes and peppers are flowering and some of my tomatoes are starting. I have tomatoes on one larger plant I bought
• Tulips are mostly done done blooming, and the yard is moving into a new faze.  The backyard is currently dominated by Cranesbill  Germanium, purple and pink Lilac bushes and purple Iris, and the front by orange Poppy and yellow Iris. My back wall is especially beautiful with purple and pink carpets of flowers like flox.

More news to come when I have more pictures.

Planting and flowers

After complaining last week about nothing blooming, my yard is already full of flowers.  Mike took a few pictures for me early in the week, and we'll lake more this weekend as we plant. This album gives a good sense of the start of the week, though.

In the last couple nights I have been planting a variety of annuals and veggies throughout the front yard.  I co-plant my veggies and fruit there, and love to disguise my vegetables with flowering items. I put in 4 types of tomatoes, 6 types of peppers, a variety of squashes and some onions. Mike seeded spinach for me, and it is already up. We are also eating rhubarb and asparagus (Mike made a great risotto with the asparagus Wednesday).

Currently blooming perennials and vegetables:

• 7 types of tulips
• Crocus 
• Grape hyacinths
• Poppies (yellow)
• Apple tree
• Cherry tree (2)
• Daffodils
• Flox (pink and purple)
• Johnny jump ups (think wild violets)
• Strawberries
• Elephant Ears
• Snowcrop
• Columbine

All this planting and blooming is very heartening. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, but should be dry by Sunday, when the main garden in planted. Luckily Mike got all the tilling done yesterday, so we'll be ready despite the rain.

Arches

This time of year, the yard is not all that pretty. The major cycles of blooming are done and the beauty of fall colours is still about 2 weeks away. I am still enjoying a number of annuals, especially sweet peas, but my favorite elements of my yard right now are forming arches of flowers.

It all started with my white Clematis, which blooms in late summer each year.  The girls have it climbing over their new fort, and the arch from the living wall to the fort roof is covered in tiny clusters of white flowers.  Those same flowers run up beside my front door, frame my fountain and cascade down the retaining wall in my front yard.

Unlike my Clematis, which just keeps extending each year, my Morning Glory are always in different places and different shapes. I have some of the best shapes ever this year.  Here are two of my favorite pictures:

Currently blooming:

• squashes and gourds
• sweet peas
• sunflowers
• yarrow
• cone flower
• flox
• speedwell
• stonecrop (a favorite fall bloomer of mine)
• tomatoes and peppers (they don't know they are a week from last year's snow storm)
• daisies
• white clematis (just finishing)
• orange lilies
• orange and yellow roses.

Currently eating

• beans (just finishing)
• zucchini
• tomatoes (all types)
• peppers (all types)
• spaghetti squash
• pumpkins
• all herbs
• chard
• fall spinach
• cucumbers
• carrots
• kohlrabi
• potatoes
• beets

"Pond" and Play

This last week Douglas, Teela, Peff, Merlin and Viola have been visiting. It has been a real pleasure to be in the yard with them (check out some of Mike's yard pics from this week). I have enjoyed my flowers and veggies as I always do, but it has been great to have new eyes to share it with.

About two weeks ago, Liz gave me an old fountain of Gary's. I filled it up and have been enjoying the trickle of water ever since. Viola, Leora and Anwyn, however, has put me to shame. Anwyn got me snails to clean my algae (one is even still alive), and Leo decorated the floor of the pool with polished rocks. Viola takes each rock out and carries it around the yard happily. Predictably, Merlin only likes the rock with writing on it, although he was a huge help finding rocks hidden in the sandbox, which he took to the fountain.

Teela and Peff did an admiring yard tour and made nice comments, and Teela has been writing an article about my front yard. She also grazes happily, eating mostly peas and raspberries. Viola likes to graze too. She picks green tomatoes and white strawberries, earning "No" is a deep voice from her otherwise fun Aunty Wendy. Yesterday she ate most the remaining red currants and quite a few raspberries as well. I really enjoy the enthusiasm of the kids, but Teela enjoys the yard the way I do. She likes to look at the growing things, relax in the hammock and pick things to eat.

Douglas was positive about the yard in general as it fits his hobbit hole vision, and he helped pick peas and raspberries, but his main interest was in open space for sword fighting. You can read Mike's blog for pictures and commentary on that.

Both Merlin and Viola enjoy the girls' revamped play fort. Merlin for climbing, sliding and other high up activities, and Viola for going in and out of the lower floor and swinging in the hammock. We also refilled the sand box for their amusement. It hadn't been filled since daycare days and was getting pretty empty as you can see in this picture.

For my records (sorry Gus, I know this is the boring part) we are currently eating:

• cucumbers (slicer and pickler)
• a few tomatoes and baby potatoes
• chili and hab. peppers
• all fresh spices
• beans (purple and yellow)
• peas
• zucchini
• raspberries (Mike made jam and raspberry sauce, and we froze 18 cups this week alone)
• red currants
• beets (greenhouse started only)
• greens (chard, spinach, lettuce, beet greens)

Currently blooming

• day lilies (7 types)
• sun flowers
• holly hocks
• yarrow (3 colours)
• astilbe (2 types)
• bell flower (3 types)
• salvia
• orchids
• roses
• nasturtiums
• coriopsis
• lilies (4 types)
• poppies (2 types)
• daisies (2 types)
• wild violets
• delphinium
• lupin
• clover
• lots of veggies
• a variety of ground covers
• spider wort
• sage
• silver brocade (artemisia)
• veronica
• rudbeckia (looks lots like yellow coneflower)

Happy Frenzy

Well the garden is in full production just in time for me to leave it and go camping.  We have a ton of company coming to visit starting on the 24th, so we are trying to get as much done as we can before then.  Here's the guest list:

• Teela, Peff, Merlin and Viola (staying in Liz's suite for a month)
• Heidi N. (5 days ish)
• My dad (? extended stay of a couple weeks)
• Douglas (3 days)
• Maybe Greta, Gus and Max for a week and/or Jodi and Brad

Seem a bit overwhelming?  We think so too, and the stress is so much we had to leave town (we are actually excited to see people, but have planned some camping in this time slot for a long time).

We have been very busy with our summer projects this week.  Anwyn had basketball camp, and Leora ran her own dance camp using materials from the library to teach herself. In last few days we finished the repairs to the walls in the girls' rooms so we are ready for new windows, and we repainted their rooms and moved them back upstairs. Today, the girls and I went Saskatoon berry picking after camp in the am. I froze 26 cups of berries and and have that amount again ready for Mike to use in canning tonight when he gets home from work. Saturday and Sunday I'll do the packing for camping and Mike will build a rack on the trailer to carry the canoe (also after work - he's crazy.  I like the relaxed lifestyle that all James girls prefer).

Naturally, the whole garden is ripe in time for our departure.  The strawberries are producing a handful a day now, but the raspberries are started, and so are the cherries. The rhubarb, beans, kohlrabi, greens (lettuces, spinach, chard and beet greens) and cucumbers are still going, but we've added peas and zucchini.

Usually Anna would come berry picking with me and take some garden produce off my hands, but she's in France, so I was over at her house mowing today.  I did some maintenance on her deck boxes and now have more greens and spices to use up. What a great problem to have!

All this work has left little time for yard sitting, but I am always able to squeeze in the moments. I am particularly enjoying an old fountain of Gary's that Liz gave me, my delphiniums and my lilies.

Thinning and staggering

Mike and I were talking about how there are many people, who after years of gardening, just plant a garden in the spring and eat from it in the summer. If that is how gardening was for me, it would be really boring. Our basic approach is to keep learning as much as we can and then experiment with what we grow and how we  grow it each year. This year I am really feeling the benefits of two things I have been learning about in past years, thinning and staggering.

My parents used to thin their garden as necessary (usually peas over planted by children), but not as a mater of course. That was how Mike and I started. Now I deliberately over-plant things like beets, peas, and greens and then thin when the shoots are delicious, keeping the best plants with ideal spacing. That means my crop is better, but it also means I have a lot to eat this time of year.  My favorite at the moment is beet greens - the baby beet plants.I use them in all types of salads for more color and flavor, and use them like spinach in any dish that has cooked greens. Last night for supper beet greens were cooked into our panini and were the greens base for a bean salad.

I have also really benefited from learning to stagger crops. We are currently picking and eating beans, for example, and because of staggering, I will have yellow and purple beans all summer long, even before my climbing broad beans are ripe in August. The same will be true with new beet greens, chard etc.

Currently eating:

• rhubarb
• strawberries
• saskatoons
• all herbs (oregano, basil, sage, chives, rosemary, mint)
• romaine, spinach, chard, beet greens
• beans
• green onions
• cucumbers

Currently blooming

• bleeding hearts
• day lily (orange)
• yellow asian lily
• nasturtium
• sun flower
• roses
• bell flower (purple, white, tall white)
• yellow and white daisy
• ground covers (8 types)
• peppers
• pumpkins
• cucumbers
• squashes
• potatoes
• tomatoes
• purple sage
• yarrow

War of the beds

I have two beds to talk about this week. The first is my hammock.  It was a Christmas present from my brother-in-law Gary a number of years ago, and I usually spend all possible minutes in my first week off school reading in that hammock.  The second is the new bed we put in during the rain storm last week, which requires lots of digging, watering, transplanting etc.  I am sure you can see the set up for this conflict. Luckily I have found that doing a bit of work in one bed followed by laying in the other is actually a delightful combination.

It was rain that got me started digging up more of the front yard, but it was actually Mike's surprise completion of the bed that readied it for planting.  We got almost all of the sod dug as a family, and then Mike finished the rest, added compost and turned the bed using a pitchfork so it was ready to plant.

I started by adding mature foundational plants transplanted from other beds. My first plant was a day lily. Almost all lilies transplant well, so they are a great place to start.  Because my bed are viewable from all sides and I want to walk through them on rocks, I plant large anchor plants in each of the main zones of a bed - in this case the two half circles and bottom point of my heart shaped bed.  I add one large focal point plant in the center, and then build rocks around my large plants.

My last step is to add ground covers. In this case I used three types of ground covers (two types of sedum and some golden moneywart) that were perennials from other beds and I filled in with some annual flowers for added colour. I spent about $6o on flowers for the bed from by spending money, but I was really happy with the result. I have two tomatoes and 5 vines hidden among my various flowers. I added new perennials including a yellow daisy and two roses, one yellow prairie rose and one orange rose called Mordant Sunrise.



Last year I lost all my tea roses to a viscous thaw and frost cycle that also killed a bunch of my strawberries, so I wanted to add a few roses to my collection again. This is one of the few tea roses I have had that really is hardy to zone three, so I am excited to have it back with me.

Today I rose from my hammock to get Mike to take some pictures of the yard and so I could finish a mini rock wall that prevents the hundreds of thousands of dutch elm seeds produced by my neighbour's tree from blowing into the bed and sprouting. The end flower bed was definitely worth getting out of my hammock bed for.

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

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.

Happy blooming

This year, my flowers looks especially lovely in our late "early" spring. Because I planted so many tulips last fall, and my mother's 2009 hyacinths have bloomed, there is color in ever bed in yard, and beautiful layers of flowers in a number. To left is the view of my bed beside the deck. I like the varied heights stepping up to the middle on the bed and the 6 different types of blooming flowers.

In each of my flower beds, there are several things blooming. Mike just re-mulched the front bed under the pine tree, which is always the driest bed that needs the most fall compost to keep the soil balanced.  The mulch is made of dried coconut and gives a great visual contrast with the flowers. We couldn't get it last year, but Mike found two bags this year, which was enough for the entire bed.

Currently blooming perennials and vegetables:

• 7 types of tulips
• Grape hyacinths
  
• Poppies (orange and yellow)
• Apple tree
• Cherry tree (back)
• Daffodils
• Cucumbers and squashes
• Flox (pink and purple)
• Johnny jump ups (think wild violets)
• Strawberries
• Lilly of the Valley

As usual, Mike's pics really let you see the beauty of the flowers. Check out some artistic ones from the 3rd week of May, and compare them to the lack of greenery in the second week or the full growth in this 4th week.

Some more seeding

I spent the morning chatting with my sister Greta and planting the remainder of my early plants.  I did an entire flat of tomatoes (sub arctic maxi, yellow pear and cherry), and some green onions yesterday.  Today I did the bulk of my other planting.

I start by looking as my planting plan and estimating the number of plants I will need. In each cell, I put one or two seeds depending on the type of plant (see full method).  I plant a few more seeds in each category than I want to have plants.  That means if some don't come up, I still have enough plants to complete my garden plan.

Today I planted squashes and pumpkins first.  I planted 6 pumpkins (two large jack o' lantern size, 4 small sugar) which will eventually become 4 plants. I planted a number of types of squash, which I hope to eat for more of the winter next year:

• 3 yellow zucchini (bush)
• 3 green zucchini (bush)
• 3 butternut squash
• 3 buttercup squash
• 6 spaghetti squash

I have a number of odds and ends veggies I start.  I planted 12 pickling cucumbers and 12 slicers. I also planted some Cayenne peppers. They are the fastest of my peppers, so they are fine if started at this time. I even planted some things I hope to eat early - in this case spinach and chard. Both can get started to hear and move into the greenhouse in mid-April, as they will tolerate some frost.

Lastly, I planted some flowers.  I started poppy (my only perennial), nasturtium (great for eating the flowers of) and morning glory.

Later today I will need to thin the peppers I started in February and transplant my basil seedlings. I am also planting a new batch of pea shoots as my old batch is done. We cut them 4 times for large batches in meals. I love it when I get to eat and plan.

Fall cleanup

I have tried to post a number of times in the last month, but I've been so sad about my dead yard that I just didn't have the heart. The last several weeks it has been so unseasonably warm that I've been able to get out in the yard again and finish up the fall tasks that got caught in the snow storm.  It's hard to believe there is no snow and it's been so warm, but my rain barrels have thawed and I'm a happy girl.

This weekend Mike drained the rain barrels, I raked the last of the leaves over my bulbs, and we dug the beets and half of the carrots. We cooked the last of our ripening tomatoes into a delicious sauce and ate fresh carrots.  Greta and I cleaned the green house and I put the gladiola bulbs in there to dry.  Unfortunately the snow storm killed off my greenhouse beans and spinach, plus the last of the chard, so Greta and I mostly moved and dumped pots.

All in all, it has been a bad year for gardening. I have less than half of my tomato jars filled and have already eaten all my pumpkins. My beets are tiny and I have only a few spaghetti squash left. However, now that the yard is clean and all the lawn furniture is stored for the winter, I find myself yearning for the next gardening season.