Finally, fruit

Every year I wait for my strawberries to come in. For years, some would look ready and the birds seemed to get them just before they were ripe.  I was super sad until it became clear the birds were actually Leora.  Then with ordering, cajoling and constant vigilance it was possible for the others in the family to get berries (although still not usually the first ones).

Leo is getting ready to graduate and leave home after the summer, and she just got her second ever job.  Although all her plays have finally finished (I have never seen her care more than playing Juliet at the Persephone), she still has lots going on. Mike and I got home last night and we ate the first two berries.  It made it so clear, and bittersweet, that Leora is leaving.

The yard had another good week this week. Last week asparagus was completely done, and I picked a bit more rhubarb this week, but now I will wait till the fall.  We are eating lots of greens off the shade bed I grow in the driveway, and the herbs are awesome.  I really like watching the garden bound forward in growth - reminds be of the early teenager years. This week I did a lot of training plants on vertical growing surfaces, and I pulled out the last of the major baby elm seeds.

Perhaps the most exciting part (other than the first new strawberries in 17 years) is the flowers. My backyard is right in its best stage, and the front yard is about take over and show off for over a month. In the back, irises, bell flower, roses, daisies, geraniums, and a wide variety of other flowers are blooming. Mike and I have counted over fifty different types. In the front, Mike is excited about his orange irises and orange roses, which hang out side by side in the heart shaped bed. Soon the lilies and  money wart (ground cover) will be out. My favorite in the front right now is the thyme path (predictably purple instead of the warm color palette). All photos can be viewed here.

I (and in this case I mean Mike) have been taking videos of the yard once a week this year to chronically changes. Check out this week's video.

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

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

Nippy Long Weekend Saved by Second Greenhouse

We traditionally plant on the May long weekend, but the projected -3 low for Saturday and Sunday looks likely to
deter us.  The greenhouse is chock full of bedding plants, as is the grow table in the basement.  I will likely put in some seeds, because the frost won't be an issue for them.  The other potential is the second greenhouse.

Second greenhouse, you say?  Yup.

Mike's aunt gave us her old plastic and metal green house, and we'll be using it in the garden itself this year for some of our tomatoes.  Mike has been using it to enjoy the early sunshine while it was parked in the sandbox. Parked in the garden, it should warm the tomatoes the way it has warmed Mike. Now, if only we could find a way to warm the bees for our fruit trees...




We use other structures in the garden, too. We have an early row cover to keep our corn warm (I plant half inside the house 2 weeks early so we have about a month long period of ripe corn in August).  We also use a cloth type covering to protect the cabbages and kohlrabi from Cabbage Moths. Neither will provide enough protect for tender seedlings in -3, though.

All in all, I can't complain too much about the cold.  The snow has been off the ground for over a month, unlike last year at this time.  Check out last year's planting day blog to feel the pain. Also, we are eating our first asparagus, so harvest mid-May takes the chill off the night-time lows.

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 

Seeds of Sping

I am about two months away from planting my garden and there has been some serious melting in Saskatoon. It was also -27C with windchill when I woke up yesterday, so it must be spring.

Last year at this time I was blogging about planning a good garden, crop rotation etc. This year I am going to start with seeds. Because I like to grow my own plans from seed whenever I can -  I'll actually start planting next weekend in my grow table. I start with the things that need the longest time to be ready to plant like tomatoes, flowers and basil. I go shopping for the seeds the weekend before so I have time to hunt around the city for varieties I want, but cannot find.

When I figure out what I need to buy, I consider four things.

• What seed did I grow last year that I can plant?  I am at the early end of the seed saving journey, but this year I have already replanted my garlic in the fall.  And I have seeds to plant for sunflower, climbing beans. basil, dill, cilantro, and corn.
• What seeds did I buy last year that I can still use?  I don't usually hold seed beyond a year, because the germination rate drops too sharply. However, a seed package can range from $1.59 to $7.00 depending on the type of seed or how much there is in the package, and I buy a lot a seed. I try to save what I can. I have small peppers left (Cayenne, Jalapeño, Hungarian Wax, and Habanero) so I only need to buy Bell peppers. I also have some tomatoes (Lemon Boy, Tiny Tim and Yellow Pear), two colours of zucchini, basil, red beets and carrots.
• What do I want so little of that it is more economical to buy seedlings?  This is a small list, usually varieties I am testing or things I don't want much of, like eggplant and pumpkin.
• How much do I need of the seeds I am buying? I am headed out to my closest supplier (Early's) later today, so I need to do a quick calculation of what to buy. My shopping list will include: 2 medium bags of peas (sugar snap and shell), one type of climbing bean (not the type I already have), a medium package of green bush beans, small squash packages of two or three varieties, larger tomatoes like Early Girl, usually two or three different types I want to try that are zone 2 hardy and a variety of small packages I don't have left over. This year that will be Bell peppers, spinach, lettuce, chard, cabbage, kohlrabi and two types of cucumbers. I calculate the amount based on a map I build with number of seedlings per foot. It is based on a square foot intensive gardening technique.

My only exception to the obsessive planning are flower seeds. They are always spontaneous selections that compliment what I have now.

This will be all the seeds I have for the year, except onion sets (bought in May before planting) and maybe seed potatoes. I am considering not growing potatoes this year, as they are still a very cheap food and I'd like to give them a rest because we had potato bugs last year.

One other change this year is looking for plants with a smaller rootball. I got a book on straw bale gardening from Brad and want to give that a try.

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.

There must be hope somewhere

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 months of snow and planting

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

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

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

Tray one peppers:

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

Tomatoes:

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

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

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

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.

Finally Out

After my return from Montreal I was feeling pretty down. It rained the entire time until yesterday and my bedding plants were destroyed while I was in Kitchner-Waterloo visiting Greta, Gus and their kids. My whole gardening habit seemed dead, or at least washed up. To the left is my basil as it as starting to die. Looks okay but a little limp right? It was dead in under a week.

On Friday, my thoughtful husband took me to Dutch Growers, where I had a gift certificate from Teela is spend. I actually laughed out loud with pleasure when I saw all the plants. We spent too much money replacing heirloom tomatoes and peppers that dies, and we could not afford to replace Mike's basil habit. All if it reminded me how much money it saves us to start our own things in the grow table and greenhouse. This would be an expensive pastime without them.

Today and yesterday I came home from work and spent a least a 1/2 hour in my yard having a zen moment. I examined all the plants that seem to leaping forward, and found my first flower, a Johnny Jump-Up (technically a weed). Last year at this time my first flower was a strawberry, and I had all types of things up, like asparagus.  Not even a tip so far this year with the unseasonable cold and rain in the last two weeks. If it were like last year, I'd have at least 5 types of flowers by next week.

The little bit of green I have up and the growth in the last few days has been really encouraging. Even if it is not all is great, I can see the hope in my yard now that I am finally out.

Almost spring

I have traveled so much this spring that I feel like it has been back and forth on spring for a month. I was in Washington for daffodil time, and now it is crocus and daffodil time in Waterloo, where I am visiting to help with my new niece, Darwyn.  Put my travel to places that start with 'W' and the weird weather (more 'W') together, and I have already had a month of spring, sort of.

It is snowing in Waterloo today and it got me thinking about the great transplanting I did right before I left. I usually transplant in early April, moving my tomatoes and squashes into the pots they will stay in until I put them in the ground on the May long weekend. I always use that transplanting to tide me over until I can start handling real dirt when the ground becomes workable in about the third week of April.

 Last year on the 10th, my yard was in a fairly similar state to this year - almost ready to burst. I can see buds on things and variety of my perennials are starting to green up. My favorite of my early bloomers is my yellow crocus, which is waiting for the -11C of this week to go away so it can bloom the purple ones under the living room window here in Waterloo. I really want to pull all the leaves off my beds, but it is still getting to cold, and I am worried about die back, which happened with my strawberries last year. It is always a challenge because the ground warms more quickly without the mulch, but the plants die more quickly if it gets too cold. I always want to take the rise because I really want to see the green. It is a tough exercise in delayed gratification.

When I get home next weekend, I need to finish the last of my transplanting. I have to do my peppers, the basil and the last of the squashes.  That will completely fill my planting bench until I can move things outside to the greenhouse near the end of April. I love looking at the thick leaves of the peppers, which grow so slowly that they barely need transplanting even though they have been growing since February. Once I have everything transplanted and out in the greenhouse, I'll know spring is really here and I have moved past the 'Ws'.

Let out

I have a cat, Pippin, who would really like to go outside. She sits by the door, bursts outside on a sunny day if you aren't careful, and will suffer the indignity of a harness just to be be able to go out. This week, I felt a lot like Pip.

I have been contenting myself with my grow table. A weekend ago I planted the rest of my various squashes, which have now mostly come up, and thinned my tomatoes. I am always excited as as the new plants start coming up, because I can just feel the potential of each plant (view grow table album).  But nothing comes anywhere close to when the weather lets me out for the first time.

Last Saturday was a sunny and warm by late March in Saskatchewan standards. Mike was at work, the girls were off helping at Greta and Gus' and I had the sunny day all to myself. I racked the front yard, cleaned some of my leaves off my beds and examined everything.

I found bulbs peeking up, ground covers greening, trees budding - well, just about everything a happy Wendy needs.  I literally bounced about the yard picking up sticks.  The weather was so warm (about 14 degrees C) that I dried 4 loads of laundry on the lines. I also ate lunch outside, read a novel in the sunshine and dug through all my pots.  In short, I was finally let out after a long winter inside.

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.

Planting the garden

This weekend was our flurry of spring planting, weeding and yard projects. The weather was great Saturday and Sunday, so we got lots done, then rested on our cold and rainy Monday.

What's new:

• Mike built me two new beds on the side of the garage and I have filled them with peppers and tomatoes. Because they are raised, against a south wall and on concrete, they should get a lot of extra heat, which will be great for them. The girls planted the third one full of their own veggies and herbs and put it in their sandbox.
• I moved one of my square foot beds onto the driveway.  We have never actually parked our car in our garage, so I parked my raised bed in front of it.  I'll let you know how things do there. I planted about half of the spaces with flowers, basil, beet seed and a pumpkin (my lone veggie bedding plant from a store - old seed didn't sprout).
• A bee hotel is a great think for a gardener - the girls made me this one for Christmas and I am hoping to attract some lone bees with it.
• Mike is gradually growing the stone path that connects my front steps to the sidewalk in front of our house. Thanks to rocks donated by James, there is great progress. I also used some to make a dry stone bed in the front.

Our planting:

I always try to plant on the May long weekend because it is our last frost date (although as Anna noted, there was a frost warning last night after the last frost date). This year I put in two types of bedding plants: those always done in Saskatchewan and those I did so we could have early crops.

Tomatoes:
I planted three types I like, Yellow Pear, Cherry and Sub-Arctic Maxi.  I also bought a new heirloom type and a small pack of Roma's. The tomatoes are planted mostly on the south side of the house and garage, although I have 9 in the front yard and 12 in the garden. I have used spiral stakes in the front because they were great last year. The tomatoes twine themselves up the stakes and need less pruning, so Mike is a big fan. I also planted three in the greenhouse and the ground and potted 6 more as patio tomatoes. Last year I thought the upside down tomatoes did not work well, but it was such a bad tomato year that I am trying another.

Cucumbers and squashes and other vine things:
I am growing four types of squashes and two types of cucumbers. The cucumbers are on the south side of the house where they did really well last year, as is the watermelon (which did not, but Mike wants to try again). I had to buy two pumpkins, as mine did not sprout.

Corn and Peppers:
I have learned that starting corn in the greenhouse a couple of weeks early ensures I get a crop of corn before first frost. I did that again this year. Peppers need a much earlier start to be able to fruit. I did mine in February - they are always the first thing I start.

Herbs:
I started basil, oregano and mint this year. Mostly, I did a lot of basil which I kept in the greenhouse in hanging baskets and pots. I put about 15 plants throughout the yard as well. I also did some edible flowers like nasturtium and potted them with the herbs in the front.

Plants usually grown from seed here:
I actually plant in three intervals now.  Most of my seeding happens on the May long weekend, as do my potatoes. I also plant extra peas, beans, chard and beets about two weeks later. The other big thing I do is start a number of things early so I can put them in as bedding plants and start eating them sooner. This year I planted bedding plants of:

• sunflowers
• coriander
• spinach
• chard
• beets
• yellow beans
• purple beans
• lettuce
• rocket
• kohlrabi (with my new bug screen)
• onion, green onion

Check out all Mike's pics of planting weekend to get a feeling for how things are laid out. We are currently eating herbs, lettuces, rhubarb and lots of asparagus.