Mid Summer

It seems to be coming up to mid summer, though I'm not sure the weather knows. Is it me or are we having a lot cooler summer than usual.
The seedlings I planted out over the last few weeks are slow to take off. At this rate summer will be over before they mature.
But the lettuces are still producing. The self seeded ones that we came back to at the beginning of the month are starting to finish, but there are a lot more coming along to fill the gap.

The rhubarb is unstoppable, and the perennial herbs are loving all the rain we've been getting.

The flowers seem to be all blooming at once, so it is a riot of colour in the garden. I haven't had the hose out to water yet, and it seems like we are getting more rain tonight.

Thyme waiting for no-one, and new lettuce plants coming along.

 

To cut or not to cut.

I think there are two kinds of people - those that like to cut flowers from their garden for inside and those that don't.
I am one of the ones that likes to bring flowers inside the house. I like to have a reminder of what awaits me when I step outside, and I love to have my collection of vases filled with flowers that show them off.

It's also a great opportunity to see what flowers look good together, and a photo is a good reminder of what is blooming at the same time.

My vases are nothing special, but each has a memory. One may have belonged to my mother, or was given to me by a friend. or maybe it is just a bottle I found in the garden when I was digging around.

This collection of monkshood, bergamot, and perennial sunflowers is what greets me these days when I step outside. It doesn't get much more cheerful than this.

 

Lookin' good

We've been back only a week, but already the garden is looking quite respectable.
The seeds I've started have germinated, and some are big enough to get planted in the revamped beds.
As usual last years compost pile has become a new garden bed in the vege patch and the compost bins have been moved  to what will end up a new bed next year. This way I slowly expand the garden area with very little work on my part.
I slipped down the road to my friend Michaels, and gathered up a car load of saw dust from the mountain of saw dust he has accumulating from his wood working business.
This saw dust will go on the paths in the vege patch. The saw dust that was put on the paths last year has decomposed nicely, and that is scraped off and put in the beds as mulch. After a few years of this, the soil has become rich and good at holding moisture from the sometimes infrequent summer rains.

 

 

The beans and peas were planted out last evening to take advantage of the rain forecast during the night.

 

The heavy rains arrived on schedule, and the seedlings got well watered in.

 

I still have lettuce, squash and pak choi on the go, but so far they are too small to plant out. Maybe next week.

Return to Canada

A few days ago we arrived back in Canada. After my sudden departure last September, with no time to get the garden organised for winter, I was a little worried about what shape it would be in now that we are so far into the summer here.
It was a pleasant surprise to see that it fared much better than expected. There are lots of weeds of course, but the flowers are blooming, and as I weeded the vege garden yesterday, I discovered lots of self seeded veges. A bonus for letting them all go to seed in the fall.

I was excited to find a couple of dozen lettuces of various types hidden amongst the undergrowth. Some are ready to eat, and others are only babies. I couldn't have planned the staggered growing better myself.
Also there are sugar snap peas and sno peas ready to eat, and lots of parsley scattered through out the garden.

 

 

The rhubarb is looking pretty healthy and it looks like we'll be getting lots of apples again this summer.

The flowers are looking great, and seem to have not suffered by the lack of cutting back last fall.

 

 

I am busy starting a bunch of seeds to fill in the gaps. It may be too late for some, but on the other hand if we have a nice warm fall this year, I may think I was pretty smart to have gone to the effort.