Still about the Fruit

In July, I wrote about how it is all about the fruit in my yard right now.  Well, it is three weeks later, and it is still all about the fruit.  And also the house painting.  But mostly the fruit.

After we finished painting the house this afternoon, we took a well deserved break.  I spent time in the hammock, and Mike sat beside me in the shade playing guitar.  Cue my bad habit - one that my mother and I share. Really it is a trait that might be good or might be bad, depending.

I am looking at the yard and thinking about how happy I am.  Then I see another apple fall off the tree, apparently as the result of nothing in particular. 20 minutes later I am handing Mike a massive wicker basket of apples after having picked four other ice cream containers full.  We already have three large ziplocs frozen down and have made apple sauce once.  Next our relaxing time is used with making apple sauce, drying apples in the dryer, and baking fruit compote. I have barely picked 1/4 of our apples to date so this insanity will happen over and over.

Today we rearranged the freezer to prepare for more apples and the cherries we will pick soon.  So Mike knew what he was saying when he innocently suggested that perhaps some of the apples could fall without us doing much beyond tossing them into the ferns. He had already canned 5 quarts of apple sauce when he commented, but I still gave him a black look.  No one gets between a James girl and potential fruit without collateral damage.

I felt this same way visiting Teela last week, even when it wasn't my garden and even when it was just tomatoes, which do not count as real fruit in the James girl lexicon.  She has a large garden in Virginia, and it has a number of volunteer cherry tomatoes. Teela doesn't like to limit the choices of anyone (which includes tomatoes), so she let them live while she weeded out not fruit bearing weeds. As a result, she has a lot of tomatoes.  We picked at least 4 cups of cherry tomatoes every time we went to her garden (every second day).  She doesn't eat tomatoes and Peff was out of the town.  The kids eat a few.  Teela also had her own beef steak tomatoes as well, many of which get slashed by crows and need to used right away to prevent rotting.  I was obsessed with how all those tomatoes could be used no tomatoes were wasted.  Even when there were clearly too many and I don't love them.  I know it is not quite sane...

Mike is in for a long couple years. Especially when the kids leave home but all the fruit keeps producing more. It will still be about the fruit.

On the upside, we've all been enjoying wonderful garden based meals everyday since I got home and Mike is happy to be off bachelor food (which appears to be veggie hot dogs, pizza and a variety of non-meals like crackers.  He has already had tomato/basil pasta, lentil soup with fresh tomatoes, fresh salsa and bruschetta, apple pie and roasted new root veggies like potatoes, carrots and beets with chard. It will be long years, but with good food.  Really that's what James girls are all about.  We have many projects, but you eat well.

It is all about the Fruit

As any good James Girl knows, summer is all about the fruit. James girls love virtually all forms of fresh food, but nothing beats summer fruit for the flavour, colour and sheer amount of natural sugar. It has been very hot and dry here all summer, and there are a record 601 forest fires burning as of yesterday. This means the fruit is ripening quickly in desperation to get consumed - James Girls are happy oblige.

When Leo was little, she used to sneak outside and eat all the strawberries before anyone else got any. Strawberries are always our first fruit beyond rhubarb, and we are usually eating them from mid-June to early July. Our strawberries finished last week, and this time Leo ate only her share.

Saskatoons are the next fruit that ripens, and I can't say she was as well behaved about them. We've been eating them for about the last 9 days, and Leo has had a few cups each day. She is an awesome help with the picking, though.

Anwyn has reluctantly helped picking raspberries, the picking of which is the bane of my girls' existence. There is always heavy negotiation about who will have to pick next. We have to pick every second day in the height of the season, and today it was 37 degrees celsius, so lots more fruit has ripened. We'll definitely need to pick tomorrow, and we just picked six cups yesterday.

Our next fruit to ripen is cherries. We have two trees, and the back one ripens first. The cherries on it are already ripe, but still getting sweeter. Mike is the arbiter of when we can pick cherries, as they are his favourite. I have threatened to dig out the front tree, which kept suckering (growing baby trees in the lawn off of its roots) but not producing fruit. This year, in agreed upon year of its death, it has finally produced to save its own life.

Our final fruit (I don't count tomatoes) is apples, which we'll eat in August, so now is the prime fruit time. I have been eating berries, making trifle and pie, canning stewed rhubarb (okay that was Mike) and freezing down lots of the new crop. We've also been enjoying omnipresent fruit salad and smoothies. You'd think with all the fruit, I wouldn't buy any at the store, but James girls like lots of variety....

Even as it is all about the fruit, it is also about the flowers and veggies. We are currently harvesting early tomatoes, cucumber, sugar snap peas and more lettuce and herbs than one family can eat. Mike has made pesto twice. For those of you who like the flower pictures, there are a few new favourites.

Mike coloured Iris.

Variegated tea rose, bought with Jodi
 

One of 22 bee picture this month. Thanks Mike 

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.

Full harvest

After a couple of days of rain, I am out picking again as it is full harvest for the next couple of weeks.  We are currently eating most things we plant, as only the lettuce, asparagus and peas are really done.  This week we picked:

• 4 ice cream pails of apples (off year)
• 1 ice cream pail of potatoes
• 2 ice cream pails of beans (yellow and green bush)
• corn
• purple carrots and orange carrots
• beets
• cucumbers (slicers and yellow ball)
• spaghetti squash
• strawberries
• raspberries
• black currents and gooseberries (wild on the river bank)
• tomatoes (early girl, sub arctic maxi, lemon boy and roma)
• pepper (green, chili)
• lots of all herbs
• 3 zucchini
• 3 kohlrabi

We freeze or process things that come in bulk (like apples, cucumbers or raspberries), but try to eat everything else ourselves. The girls are still tired of beans, but love eating all the other fruits and veggies. Mike has been making homemade pizza ever week and I have been making lots of crisps and smoothies.

At the same time, my flowers are starting to wrap it up for the summer, especially in the back where the color palette is cool. None the less, there were enough cool colours for Mom to make a large bouquet with a rose from David and Bree's wedding as the centerpiece. My favorite current bloomer is my clematis (see right) , but I love all the flowers in my yard. Currently blooming:

• bell flower (3 types)
• sunflower (3 types)
• 7 types of lilies
• one flower (2 types)
• clematis
• morning glory
• Himalayan orchids
• yarrow
• sage
• gayfether
• roses (tea and hybrid)
• silver mound
• hydrangea
• potentila
• poppy (2 types)
• sedum
• companulla
• daisy

Take a look at some great pictures Mike took of the yard with my notes about them.

Canning and Freezing

This time of year, we eat as much as we can of the garden produce. However, there are lots of things that we still need to preserve. We are just ending peak raspberry season, when we often pick more than 8 cups of raspberries ever couple of days. As a result, we freeze them, make many things with fresh raspberries and can them.  Last night we made raspberry jam and pickles to add to the raspberry sauce we made the week before. I also froze 8 cups of raspberries.

In the midst of all this we have had guests to hang out with. We had Brad last week and Mom this week, which slows down the yard work but gives you good reason to sit in the yard and enjoy it. I find myself picking in the early morning before others are up, or in between visiting.  This also means squeezing in a chance to use up produce. Today was a classic day for that. Leo made cherry pie this morning, Anwyn made whipping cream and Mike made breakfast loaf.  I made a variety of meal items for everyone including seasonal fruit salad, pasta, and a supper of baby potatoes and fresh vegetables.The pasta had a sauce made from our tomatoes, pepper and herbs. The tomatoes just started last week so we are really loving them. Like carrots, they are much better than what you get in the stores.

Mike and I have also been squeezing in some projects. We finished the bench last week (that's Anwyn driving the support posts with a sledge hammer in the picture to the left), and today we re-hung the fence and made a large entrance for big objects. I had Mike leave some boards off to make room for my crazy plan to grow things on the fence that moves. Yes, I know it is crazy.  More to come on that front.

I find the canning and freezing a bit oppressive at times. There is always more to do, and you can't just take 3 days off. Having said that, I love having it to eat throughout the year. I do all the picking, but Mike usually does the canning and it is nice to have the help. Apples, basil, beans and carrots will all need more of his help soon.

Rich harvest

Living in Zone 2, sometimes it feels like you have barely any time to garden.  My entire frost free period is usually slightly longer than 4 months. I start eating fresh food in the second or third week on June with early spinach (frost hardy), and asparagus and strawberries (early perennials).

By the first week in August, though, I have a rich bounty of fruit, vegetables and herbs. So much so that I pick most days, and we eat fresh produce with most meals. Typically the fruit goes in baking and is eaten fresh on cereal or in yogurt. It is mostly breakfast and desert. My veggies are lunch and supper and I love the variety. My girls claim we rely to heavily on beans in the summer, and Mike asked this week how to cook a kohlrabi, so I suspect they get tired of the same fresh veggies all the time. I never do, though. The yard has such a rich harvest of food, fun and companionship. All summer long, it is my favorite room in the house.

Yesterday, Leora jumped on the trampoline (we traded Liz for the swing set until next summer) and Brad and Mike flew their hovercraft and joined her in archery. We sat out for meals and I read in the hammock. I made pie from fresh raspberries and Mike turned 8 cups of basil into pesto. We ate fresh carrots, zucchini and tomatoes, and used fresh herbs in every meal.

Today I was up early dropping Brad at the airport and I got some special time in the yard. I picked 8 ripe tomatoes (sounds like fresh pizza), 3 peppers, 3 cucumbers, 6 cups beans, 1 cup peas and some apples. Then I cut myself some flowers and enjoyed a cup of tea sitting in my recliner in the early sunshine. By lunch time, the yard was drying my laundry and I was doing some weeding.

One of my favorite things is thinking about what I can eat soon. My corn and beets are almost ready and I think I could steel some potatoes to go with them. My raspberries will probably finish soon, but my strawberries and apples are starting to be ready. I also love trying my new things, like yellow globe cucumbers or new types of peppers. I think all the great time outside is like Gus and Greta at the river, but they don't get all the fresh food the same way. They do, however, have a great waterfall, and are adept at finding harvest without cultivation.

New Patio

Our deck has been slowly rotting out from under us, and last weekend we put in a new patio.  We spent one day in demolition of the old one.

We started by removing the top boards with a crow bar, then we cut through the supports or demolished them with a sledge hammer. It took us two loads to get the whole thing to the dump, and I even drove one of the trips.  The sledge hammer was the best part - I treated Mike to lots of advice about the way to use it best every time he tried to take a turn.

I wanted to replace our high deck with a low deck and stairs, but Mike really wanted a patio.  We compromised on a recycled rubber tile. I wasn't sure about it first, but now that it has been in a week, I really like it.  It has a bit of give and great grip.

Just like a stone patio, you lay a bed of gavel and level it, then add a layer of sand and level it. That took us most of the second day. We rented a tamper (to compress the sand and make it hard), then laid out the tile to see how it would look. To the right is that version before the stairs were in.

On the final day, we put in the proper boarder (I wish we had done that before tamping, as it would have saved a lot of time) and Mike built the stairs down from the patio door to the patio itself. Then we cut and placed all the partial tile. Cutting them was pretty hard at first, but Mike got the knack of it. He needed a really good grip to be able to push the jigsaw through. I think I would have struggled. He also did a number of tiles with an exacto knife.

I did come up with a good system of chalking the back of tile to get the exact line we needed. I got the idea from the chalk lines used for roofing. I chalked the back of the inside edge of the boarder, then snapped the tile against it to mark it.  Mike was pleased, but still pointed out more than once that it would have been much easier to have a plain square patio.  He's right, but this version fits the amorphous shapes of the planting beds, and makes a lovely conversational shape for the table and lounger.

Once we were done the tiles, I added a series of beds the next day to make the patio feel embedded in the yard.  Above is a photograph with the look from above so the layout is clear.

We are still debating putting tiles on the stairs, but the top small deck is painted to match the house. It is salvaged from the old deck.  We are hoping we can salvage the old bench as a boarder on the south side to block the view of the airconditioner and provide more seating.

The last thing we did was buy a few lanterns so I could sit out at night and some solar lanterns to mark the step down. We also set up Mike's outdoor kitchen between the patio and the garage (it is on the right of the night time picture). I love to be out at night reading or listening to Mike play guitar. That's where I am headed now. You can see all the images of the new deck in Mike's photos.

Loving my yard for 100 posts

We've been home a week from Teela's and I have spent every minute I could in my yard.  We've been replacing our deck with a patio (I will do a post on that as soon as I have pictures) and I have been enjoying the full feeling of summer in the yard.

My favorite thing is eating fresh things moments after they are picked and storing food to eat in the winter. Today I picked the last of the saskatoons and froze four cups of cherries - we are sad because all the rain killed all the saskatoons at the U-Pick. I also froze 8 cups of raspberries and made the rest into fruit salad. Today we ate peas, tomatoes and beans from the garden, but we are also eating kohlrabi, cucumbers and all greens and spices this week. Mike just made homemade pesto and cherry sauce. All the picking and fresh food actually fills me up emotionally and physically.

I have 7 types of lilies and 4 types of roses blooming right now, and they are my favorites of this iteration of the yard. My astilbe and white clematis will bloom in the next couple of days, and both look like lace to me. Mike and I have taken to sitting out in the evenings listening to the fountain and looking at all the flowers. Today I bought a couple more lanterns so we can see well at night.

Currently blooming

• 4 types of ground covers
• 7 types of lilies
• Lavender 
• Sewell
• Hosta
• Bee balm
• Comfrey
• 3 types of Bell flower
• 2 types of yarrow
• Himalayan orchid
• Cone flower
• Beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squashes, peas, eggplant and spices 

This is my 100th post, and today I enjoyed looking back to see how far the yard has come. I mostly keep this blog as a record.  For example, I know I fought with cabbage moths for 4 years but my current cover appears to be working. But more importantly, the blog is a celebration for me. It notes the satisifaction (and occasionally joy - I don't feel things very strongly very often) I get loving my yard.

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.

Start of good eating

Ironically, just as we are ready to leave the garden, we are starting to eat from it. Yesterday we had a great tomato from the garden and the best kohlrabi. We are eating strawberries everyday and big salads. We have also been able to make our first fresh pesto of the year, which always makes Mike happy. The first of the Saskatoons are starting to ripen so I am nervous we won't get to pick any this year as I am from Teela's from the 8th to the 15th. Last year I picked on the 15th, so if I pick as soon as I get home, it might be fine.

The thing I am most excited about right now is the current success of my organic gardening. Last year, my kohlrabi were destroyed by pests, but so far my mesh covering has worked really well.  This time it is one sheet buried in the dirt, the holes are much smaller. I am still worried because last year at this time I had hope, and then the cabbage moths descended.

I have most of my greens in the square foot bed that I grow on my driveway.  Because this bed gets so much shade, my greens and green onions are doing well but not bolting.  I think my spinach will soon, but I am enjoying it while I can. Last year worms came down from the tree and ate all my baby plants so I had few greens, but I covered this bed as well in the spring and it really helped. I have staggered the plantings of various salad ingredients, so I should have various greens for most of the 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.

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

Harvest

This morning my family went to Osler and I went out into my yard.  After an early morning grocery shop, I really felt like all I wanted to do was just sit around, but I ignored the feeling because I knew it wasn't a good one for me.  My friend Jodi does the same thing when she heads into her sewing room even though she doesn't want to.

I spent the morning picking produce in my garden, and pruning and picking in the front.  It was great.  I picked the following:

• two ice cream pails tomatoes
• two ice cream pails cucumbers
• one large zuchinni
• two kohlrabi (one purple, one regular)
• 1 cup of strawberries
• 8 sunflower heads, ready to dry
• some fresh apples for nibbling
• 9 corn on the cob
• one ice cream pail of beans (purple, yellow and green)

Sounds like a good a good harvest, right?  It was, the best harvest was me. As I was pruning and watering,  I could feel by feelings of being tired and overwhelmed with all the summer craziness drain away.  After cooking for so many all summer, I felt like I'd never want to cook anything again, and now I am happily in my kitchen making Kashmiri potatoes, mango and pepper tofu and concord grapes for my lunch, and I'm delighted to be doing it.

Ah, time self in the yard.  Nothing like it to fill up this introvert after an exciting, people-filled summer and the first week of school.  This afternoon, I think I'll read a book and have a hot bath.

Lessons for next year

This year in the garden has taught me some good things for next year.  In some areas, it went very well.  I have had lots of beans all year long.  My beet crop will be good and my second planting of peas (especially in full sun under the sprinkler) did really well and gave me peas until August 15th. My peas and squashes did well together, and when the peas came out, it gave the squash the perfect room. The basil supply is ideal for Mike's obsession, as are the three mint plants for my family drinking ice tea. The apples are a few more than we need, so if we don't have a lot of guests, I should give some away. One row of chard and repeated plantings of spinach is shady beds is the exact amount we need in summer months

Notes for next year:

• Plant twice as many pickling cucumbers as slicers
• Plant 1/3 Cherry and Pear tomatoes, and the rest in Early Girl and Romas
• It is fine if carrots are a bit patchy. Water a lot in the spring. Carrot tapes are dumb
• Cut the flower off of the garlic for bigger bulbs. Plant Saskatchewan Garlic in Oct.
• Small pumpkins are best
• Zucchini will do fine with half sun
• Planting beets next to peas gives beets room to grow when peas come out
• Buy dense mesh for the cabbage moths and pin it in lots of places
• Plant more Romain at the end of June and in the second week of August

Today I was out in my garden dead heading flowers and weeding a bit (this is my second attempt in August, when I rarely weed as plants are well established), and I was thinking that  I am delighted with the amount of produce given the hail.  We have enough tomatoes this week to eat them all week and make large pizzas.  I hope we have enough in the end for salsa. It is nice to have learned so much about planting that I actually get nearly twice as much as I did when I moved into this house.

Today is Mike and I's anniversary - we've been married 17 years. I can remember how excited we were to have a "garden feast" a week before the wedding out of our second garden at 518 Albert Ave.  It was small potatoes, dill weed, and beans.  I can so easily put that to shame now, but the lessons I learned planting those first gardens only get refined over the years of gardening and marriage.  They are simple things, like tending to little issues means you don't have disasters, or when there is a disaster, hard work and focusing on the positive helps you pull together to get it solved. Like my garden, my marriage can do so much more now that we have more expertise and experience, but it still has issues that set things back.  After hail on the garden this week and the failure to order windows, I am reminded that focusing on the harvest you do get helps you to keep loving your garden.

Destruction

Destruction struck my garden on the 15th while I was relaxing at a movie with my sister Greta.  We left the movie chatting to step out into a bit of hail. We had driven less than 500 meters before it was hard to see.  On the way home we had to pull over because visibility was terrible, and I took an alternate route to avoid flash floods. I couldn't even hear Greta shouting, the hails was so loud on the van roof.

My lawn was carpeted in hail and flooded (Leo forgot two rain barrels open) when I got home. My pillow was also damp as my bedroom window was open.  However, the biggest devastation was my yard - I actually ran on a thick carpet of hail to close the rain barrel. In the morning, the hail was gone but the destruction remained.

Leaves were scattered everywhere and all the leaves still on plants had holes in them.  The hail was about pea to marble sized, and a few days later, so many of leaves are damaged that there is yellow all over my yard.  It looks like fall.  Liz says there was no hail at her house which is only 3km away, so it appears to have been fairly localized.

Here are some images from my garden - they aren't to Mike's standard since he was happily climbing mountains while I took them.

Max's play tent - blown across the half of the yard and luckily caught by the apple tree. The tunnel and the other tent were blown to the back of the garden.

 

My shredded corn and one of Max's other tents.

 Many tomatoes were knocked off the plants and a lot of tomato branches were broken. Even the tomatoes that stayed on were not great.

A sample of the rhubarb crushed by hail.  The rhubarb and the remaining apples were pulverized. I froze both for use this month and baked some of the 10 gallon pail of apples, which were covered in little round bruises.

The hardest part of the whole thing was loosing so much of the garden right as it is producing. We are currently eating:

• rhubarb
• apples
• spagetti squash
• pumpkin
• beans (three types)
• the last of the peas (yesterday)
• baby carrots and beats
• kholrabi
• two types of cucumbers
• six types of peppers
• three types of tomatoes
• all herbs (I froze a large ziploc of mint the day before the hail)
• chard, spinach and beet greens
• potatoes
• corn

On the upside, my average of 5 guests all summer long has actually resulted in less that winter grocery bills (ones for just my family) because the garden is producing so well. View all hail pictures.

Garlic, Pickles, Pesto and - Raspberries?

Today I puttered about picking cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, peas - all the usual, and then I got inspired. Mike loves it when I get inspired. Today I was inspired for Mike to make pickles, pesto and raspberry cheesecake with some of the things I picked.

We have everything we need right now for pickles. Mike likes to add lots of different colors in each jar, so it is rarely just our cucumbers, dill and garlic. Today we also did purple and yellow beans, carrots, chili peppers and jalapeno peppers in each of the three jars.  To get to three jars, I typically pick some cucumbers throughout the week, and every ten days or so in full production, we have enough for pickles.  I keep the picked cucumbers in the fridge between canning inspiration, but I am careful to make sure they are not washed or damp so they keep better as they wait to be canned. 

I found picking the garlic today interesting. I had never grown garlic successfully, and I am still not sure it was quite ready. I read a Canadian garlic site  from Boundary Garlic Farm, and learned that when you are on the second loop of the scape you can harvest the garlic. Mine also had seed pouches called bulbils. Next year if I cut those off, the plant will spend more time making the bulb bigger according to everything I read, and the Saskatchewan government emphasizes the importance of this in Northern climates.  I think I'll plant quite a bit more garlic this fall, as it seems to be doing well and we eat a lot of it during the year.

I cut back the greenhouse basil, which yielded a two picking baskets of basil. I had to plant it in February for it to have 4 leaves a plant by March 20th, when I transplanted the seedlings into little pots. It is a lot effort to get a big enough crop in Saskatchewan, but Mike loves it so much that we always plant lots. It always makes me happy when I pick a lot in July and August. Today we made four times our regular amount of pesto, so we used 4 cups of loosely packed basil leaves and froze the rest. We'll freeze small containers of pesto for use throughout the year.

For lunch we had the leftover sushi (roles and scattered) from last night, along with some spring rolls, cherries and sugar snap peas. I love eating this time of year because everything tastes so great out of the garden and it is so nice to be picking and cooking together. The food is healthy and not fattening (except for the cheesecakes like the raspberry one Mike is making right now).

We had picked some raspberries before lunch and  I froze 12 cups of raspberries in small ziplocs.  Anna asked what the best method is.  As Mike mentioned to her, traditionally, raspberries are frozen individually on a tray. This way each berry keeps it's shape, and they don't stick together as much in the bag.  I used to do this, but when you thaw the berry, it always becomes mushy. Plus, I inevitably turn it into a sauce or blend it into something. Mike and I concluded about 5 years ago that freezing each berry is way too much work. Now we put about 2 cups in each ziploc, as that is the amount we usually use when cooking. It doesn't mater if they stick together, because you are defrosting the whole bag.

It has been a fun day with our produce, but I think I am not feeling inspired for Mike to do some dry walling to prep for my painting, so I think my growing related inspiration is coming to an end.

Apple sauce

Mike finally agreed some apples are ready, and today we picked some. I still have 1 bag of frozen apples I'll need to use, and we picked 4 ice cream pails worth today, which is maybe one quarter of what is on the tree. Mike is going to make some into sauce, and I'll make some into pie.  The rest we'll likely freeze for cooking over the winter or eat fresh. My nephew Merlin (the biggest apple lover I have ever met) will likely get a bunch of them if he is interested, but he was not so happy about the first one I offered.

Making apple sauce is pretty easy. First you rough chop the apples, then you cook them in a bit of water (essentially steam) for 20 minutes.   We have a food mill, so we just put the apples through that after they are cooked to remove the seeds, stems and peel. Then we sweeten them to taste for apple sauce and can them. On hot days, we often cook on the BBQ's side burner, but today the high is only 23, so we can cook and can inside. The basic ratio is 12 pounds of apples to 3 cups of water and 3 cups of sugar. You also add about 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. We skipped the sugar this time, as we use this puree for an oil substitute in baking.  We did add cinnamon, though. Mike keeps trying to can in the pressure caner which never seems to work out, so while the sauce tastes great, he still isn't happy with it.

In addition to a food mill, the other great tool we use is an apple peeler.  It works best with eating size apples (which ours are), because it cores and peels. We got ours used at a garage sale, but I like so much I'd buy it new at Lee Valley.

"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)

Groceries

Going for groceries is a weekly trip for me that starts with menu planning.  This time of year it is challenging because I don't know when I will have guests and the garden is producing so much I tend to cook based on what is available.  When I went shopping yesterday I bought almost no vegetables by my family's standard (they are normally our main staple), just tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers.  My own tomatoes and peppers are just starting to be ripe, as I have harvested only one green chili and a cherry tomato, and I only grew oyster mushrooms once with help from Greta and Gus.

Fruit is a bit more extensive, as less grows here. I bought cherries, melon, plums and nectarines.  We grow our own sour cherries, but no plums, and we can't grow melons and eating cherries.  Still, we currently have sour cherries, a few strawberries, rhubarb and raspberries. This turned into great rhubarb-raspberries bars for breakfast.

At lunch today we had peas, beans and kohlrabi with a homemade potato soup (not our potatoes yet) and homemade bread. Yesterday we had our own greens as the foundation of a salad, and a curry with rhiata (I am using up cucumbers and mint). As a result of my impromptu menu, we run out of dairy products, but still have lots to eat.  It is hard to know when to shop, but somehow I manage to spend $200 anyway. 

Teela, Peff and the kids arrived yesterday and I showed them around the yard a little and sent them home with peas before they went grocery shopping.  Hopefully, they will have the same issue. Merlina and Viola loved the yard and spent a while grazing on raspberries and peas.  It was fun to have them, and I hope I'll get to be a grocery store and garden  for them a number of times this summer. Makes me feel like a great grandma, even though I am just evil Aunty Wendy.