Spring Sprang, Away

It has been an unusually warm winter, nearly 3 degrees warmer than Saskatoon typically is.  As a result, we've been enjoying early edibles.  The picture on the left is the garlic, which is providing early greens. You can eat the everything about garlic if you get the time right. Garlic greens are good in anything you'd use the bulb for, and when they are too tough, we'll eat the scapes.  Like the garlic, the chive greens are also great. We had fresh chives in our biscuits tonight, and I have onions up that I can steal greens from too.

Like my edible bulbs, my floral bulbs also got excited early.  I had flowers last weekend, and was out enjoying Jodi's crocuses yesterday.  I think all the plants were excited about the high teens and low 20s on the thermometer. Of course, that was last week.  This week we have had highs of plus ten and lows of minus five, so everything that sprung early is now sitting tight waiting for the risk of frost to go away.  Mike and I had been speculating everything was five to ten days ahead (a big difference in spring) but it now looks just like any other spring.

This time of year, much of my leisure time is spent looking at the yard, prodding various small plants, and cleaning up the beds.  Since it was a very dry winter, I have been in the garden beds early checking for winter-kill. I have my chair out, and sit in it with my hot chocolate, contemplating where various things should be planted. It has been so nice until this week that Anwyn is up reading on the roof and Leo has been out in the hammock.

Now that spring has sprung away and left April weather cold without any showers, everyone is complaining. When Mike and I went for our walk today, an older lady stopped to complain I shouldn't need my toque. I wish I didn't, but have been consoling myself with my grow table. My basil and peppers have been going for almost a month, and my tomatoes, melons and kohlrabi/beets are all up. I plant everything early either because it need to extended season or I like to stagger when the crop comes in.  We are about one month from our last frost date.  This week I will start the corn and peas in the greenhouse so I can put them in the garden early with floating row covers. I'll also need many items from my seed trays. The upside of my early seed starting is I have lots to occupy my time with until spring decides to come back.

So Much Dynamic Fun

Backyard bed in bloom

I love everything about gardening except the weeding. I love the fresh food, the planting, the picking, and the preserving.  But mostly, I love the evolving design.  I think that I could have been an interior designer in another life, but that sort of design is so static. My garden changes every day this time of year.  I had two busy days without much yard time on Monday and Tuesday, and today I went for a look around and everything is different. Let me show you my favourite parts of the design right now.

In the Front

View from the front step in May

Before the yard really gets going, you can just see the bones. This is my front yard in May. There are rock paths and sprinkled rocks throughout the yard.  These are the elements that will anchor the design.

As the spring progresses and the plants grow, the front yard goes in waves of colour from yellow, to yellow and red, to yellow and purple, to yellow and orange.  Yellow anchors the colours just like the rocks anchor the design.  For comparison, here are some June pictures of the front yard's colour and design.

Stone steps with greenery

Thyme between the stone steps

Orange tulips from the yellow red colour palette

The rocks that looked so barren a month ago are now floating in composition of green and rotating colour. 

The front yard also has rhubarb and fruit like saskatoons to add to the colour and texture. These same plants, along with the cherry tree and climbing vines, add height and variety.

Rhubarb flowering

Saskatoons

The Backyard

My back yard is a mix of vegetable gardens and perennial design.  It has a less vibrant (Mike thinks much less interesting) colour pallet that I find tranquil. It has purples, pinks, whites, blues and yellows as its base.  This time of year, the stars in the back are iris, flox and lilac. Take a look at the April pictures,  May pictures and June pictures to see the overall progression. Like the back there is great height in the green walls, little garden rooms and rock providing bones.

Grape on back fence

Allium, clematis and iris in bloom

A sea of anemones

Summer Projects

I love the opportunity to putter around the yard in the summer for lots of reasons, but my two favourite are picking fresh foods to eat and doing summer projects.  This year, they have intersected in Mike's summer kitchen.

Summer Kitchen
We went to Gus and Greta's in early July, and while we were there, we saw their summer kitchen. They have an outside table, and a grill, burners and an oven.  They also have a covered area where they can eat.  The covered area is less important here, where if it is raining it is usually cool enough to cook inside.  However, we were generally inspired by their ability to be outside so much, and Mike decided he needed a kitchen, too.

We have toyed with the idea of building a cob over or buying a pizza over for years. We liked the idea of being able to make pizza at the right temperature, and liked the idea of baking outside in the summer.  We've thought about building an outdoor kitchen a number of times, but just not acted because we were waiting to decide with option to do.  Then I found a pizza oven at Canadian Tire. Alton Brown might have called it a uni-tasker, but Mike already has it doing nan, bannock and breakfast scones.  As soon as we knew we have the oven solution (and at a fraction of the cost of the other options), Mike wanted to build a kitchen to go with it.

Last week during Mike's off days, we got most of the way finished the construction of the kitchen.  We still need to mount the hose sink and put up the trellis, but it is perfectly functional already.  It has a pizza oven, BBQ and a large cedar L shaped counter.  I like a lot of the details like the hanging utensils, the covered storage and the copper sink. I'll post pictures when the sink is done.

We've been using the cooking area a lot for cutting things, making pizza and flat bread, and serving.  It will be even better for me when I wash veggies out there and I have completed the compost area.

Picking Fresh Foods
This week the garden in in full swing.  I have been picking a lot of peas, beets, beans and cucumber, and we've been enjoying cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and saskatoons as well.  Sunday we went to a U-Pick to get saskatoons.  My usual place doesn't have them anymore, but Moon River was a great place to pick and the prices were reasonable.  They were shocked how quickly we picked 6 pails, but they didn't expect Leo and Anwyn to pick any because they are teenagers.

I have been making lots with our fresh veggies, including stir fry, many salads and bruschetta. I also love fruit salads, crisp, and fresh salsa's.  Mike has been pickling and making yogurt to eat with all the fresh fruit and sauces. We are having a picnic at the river today at lunch and we are eating fresh bruschetta and nachos, devilled eggs, cherries and bean salad - all made fresh with our food.

My side bed has been doing well, but I am growing cauliflower and broccoli for the first time and they have both gone to seed. My kohlrabi and greens are doing well in the same bed, though. I'll need to pay closer attention in the future.

Not Yet Swing of Summer

Mike's favorite rose

My job keeps me very busy, and when it doesn't, I do. When summer comes each year, I start it in high gear. My yard is great for me because there is always something to do, and at the same time, there is nothing to do.  I spend the kind of time I never spend during the year just wandering, sitting and dreaming.  I also spend some of it deadheading, weeding, and projecting.  Fortunately for me (and for Mike) my yard is pretty small, and there is really very little left to colonize.  It forces me away from the working and into the slowing down to smell the flowers, in a way that my mother's acreage never does.

My yard is at its most beautiful right now.  Each bed has at least seven types of perennials blooming. Other than the elm seeds (which I continue to hate) my weeds have slowed down.  I spend quite a bit of time sitting in the sun and admiring, usually accompanied by homemade iced-tea or Leora's strawberry and basil infused water. This summer I feel a strange mix of slowing down and uncertainty.

The picking is still pretty slow. I am currently eating cherry tomatoes, greens, strawberries, rhubarb and herbs. I just finished making a tabbouleh for lunch to use up a couple of cups of parsley. That means I can really enjoy cooking with fresh ingredients, but there is no big press to harvest anything. I have been cooking and picking this morning because we are waiting to hear from the vet.

When Mike and I travel with the girls in the summer, it is usually at this time because the harvest hasn't started.  We were scheduled to leave to visit my youngest sister and a her family and our cat became very sick, so we have been waiting.  Test results were due in today, but when we called the vet, they didn't have them yet.  If the results were were pills, or a delayed surgery we'd get to leave tomorrow and I would spend the day packing very quickly.  If not, I would be very sad both for the cat and seeing my family, but I would be in the yard and home in a time I am rarely here.

Instead, I am waiting.  Did I mention that waiting is not really a good state for me?

Rain barrel distribution system

The vet has kindly agreed to call the lab and see if she can rush things for us. Lyla has been vomiting less, and we are no longer giving her all the medication, which is positive.  However, there is just nothing I can do.  I read in the yard for a while, then I cooked, then I weeded and now I am still waiting.

I am no yet in the swing of summer but I really want to be. Perhaps a project is the ticket.

A number of years ago our friend Brad recommended we put in a drip watering system for our square foot beds.  It was a good idea as we always spend a lot of time carrying buckets, but I really wanted to use the rain barrels.  This week Mike has developed a drip system that attaches to our front barrel and it works really well. The hot bed on the south side of the house stays lightly damp all the time and the plants are supper happy.

 Maybe if I go sit with them for a bit, I can get in the swing of things. Check out Mike's pics of the set up (and the great cover he sewed to keep the cabbage moths off of my square-foot bed in the driveway). Both projects were very satisfying in their own ways.

Straw to protect the strawberries

In case you are interested, some other projects of the last few days include mulching, dealing with aphids in the greenhouse, and transplanting.  They were all great distractors in the swing of summer until this day of purgatory.

I really am going out the yard now.

Rainy day lull

It was a late spring, and the last week has been a hard one. Lilah has been very sick, and the human parts of the family have been, too. I was home two days last week, and Mike and Anwyn were each home three. Leo is just getting sick now.  In the midst of all that mucous and vomit, it has rained.  In the last two weeks, there have only been two days where it didn't rain most of the day. When you are sick, though, it doesn't mater as much that you are housebound.



The rain has slowed garden production, which means it is the right pace for my ill family. The asparagus just finished, and we have been eating herbs and a variety of greens for a couple of weeks. Mike ate one cherry tomato today and I made a nice brochette with the fresh basil yesterday. The big star, however, is the flowers.

It was a hard winter and I lost some perennials.  Because things were late, however, my tulips, narcissus, flox, iris, chives, anemone, and lily-of-the-valley are all blooming at the same time (check out Mike's June album of garden pics to see all the purple and pink). The yard is a sea of pinks and purples and the rain has kept them all frozen together for a protracted period of time.  Mike and I look out our window in the rain and admire the view. Everything looks incredibly lush, and it is cool and humid.

In breaks in the rain in the last couple days (typically no more than 40 mins.) we go out and do a bit to try to keep the yard under control. Mowing, weeding the garden and picking rhubarb to freeze all occur in these little windows of time. That is also about right for sickness, as we need to recover for about 2 hours for each 1/2 hour slowly pushing the mower. As you might imagine, we've been mostly eating out of the freezer as no one was hungry and no one was well enough to cook except Leora, who is writing finals.

Today we finally felt well enough to make all our meals: blueberry pancakes in the am, veggie soup and rhubarb crisp for lunch, and a fresh garden salad for supper later tonight. My greens and brasicas (think cabbage and kohlrabi) are happily co-habitating in a square foot bed on the driveway that tolerates all the damp very well.

All things considered, the misfortune has fit together so well as to actually seem like a pleasant lull combined with feeling crummy.

Belated Mother's Day x2

It has been a yucky spring.  Most days in April and May have been unseasonably cold, and then there is the wind and rain.  My crocuses haven't even bloomed yet (read last year's blog about the late snows waiting my crocuses until the first week of May). Two years ago at this time, I had my typical long list of flowers and vegetables - I am usually eating asparagus right now. Anyway, when the weather man said it would be nice yesterday, and cold, wet and windy for the rest of the long weekend when local gardeners always plan, I believed him. Unfortunately, that meant yesterday was crazy.

Mike had done the tilling and we'd bought bedding plants Friday night and the Saturday before. Since it frozen 3 times last week and nearly froze two more, everything has been living in the greenhouse with only a few days hardening off. Usually we plant a couple hours each day over the three day weekend, but we did all 6 hours yesterday.  Mike didn't complain once. My teenage assistants were less restrained, but everyone worked hard and was very tired.

Anwyn transplants

We started the day be creating the mixture we use for potting our plants. Mike laid a tarp out and we combined compost, peat and soil.  Then
we started transplanting strawberries, which is hard work.  It took us nearly two hours just to complete that and some general potting, and then we started in the garden.

Moving strawberries

This year one third of what we planted we grew ourselves or it came from seed we saved. It is always really exciting to put seeds from Leo's work back into the ground or go from bare dirt to corn, tomatoes and squashes that are already up.  Because I use a staggered planting system, not everything went in this weekend. I will plant additional beans, chard etc. over the next three weeks. We pre-started kohlrabi and beets as well, so I am looking forward to seeing how those do.

I still have a few more things to do today, like cleaning the fountain and installing floating row covers, but they are all things that can handle the rain that's coming. So far the week ahead after the long weekend looks finally sunny, so my plants should really get growing. I am the most excited about two new iris I picked out for myself and first food (likely greens, asparagus and strawberries). View Mike's other spring pictures.

Today is fake Mother's Day at our house. Anwyn was at National's last weekend placing 13th when she could have been home loving up her mom.  Since I don't care much about the formal date, we just moved things. The Diakuw family celebration also moved, so I am doing that at 11 and looking forward to a great breakfast from Leora.  While Anwyn was gone she sent me a little writing about my habit of petting her hair (which she tolerates in private and hates in public).  I think it made me as happy as my exhausting/triumphant day of planting yesterday.  Here it is with her permission.

One of Two Anwyn Mother's Day Compositions:

I just lay there. Her warm hand stroking my hair. Even though I hadn't brushed it, or washed it. That happy feeling you get when you hug someone you love pulsed through my veins. I looked up at her and she smiled down at me, with eyes that could never hate, never cause pain.

"Now you just have to let me do this in public." she sighed longingly, yet jokingly. I laugh. As if.

"Stroking my ponytail in a public setting is very different from in a private one." She sighed mockingly. 

"I can't help myself," she said feigning innocence. "its just there, and its so pretty. Its subconscious." I smiled to myself, what was it about my hair that she loved so much?

"Well," I mused. "if your not careful I might withhold the privilege all together." I jested. She looked at me with puppy dog eyes. Even though thats the daughters card to play. The she discarded the act and chuckled as I lay my head back down on her lap.

"Sure you will sweetie." She said, and resumed petting my hair. 

Resident dancer,

Debate extraordinaire,

None of it matters,

As long as your there. 

You see me at my best,

You see me at my worst,

Your beautiful and numerous sweaters,

Are stained by my tears, and you know me to the letter.

Your better than my best, 

And I'm constantly impressed,

I've known you all my life

 and know you to the core,

I have always loved you 

and you I will adore. 

Happy Mother's Day mom, I love you 

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.