End of the dry season

The dry season is coming to an end here in Thailand. Everything is brown and dry and the trees that lose their leaves, have. The smoke in the air from the burning of leaves and crop debris is hazing up the air...though it does create some amazing sunsets.

We are winding down our stay here and preparing to return to spring in Canada.

The house has progressed to the lock up stage and will sit til we return and start the finishing touches.

Slowly pot plants have been moved from our rental house up into the mountains and planted in the ground where hopefully they will survive the rainy season.
Not much can be done in the garden now. It is all so dry and the rains not reliable yet.

There are bags of local cow manure ready to spread out on the future gardens. Then the beds will be planted with some green manure. Hopefully the sporadic rains that are starting to arrive will keep it all going.

Sunsets and flowers

The garden continues to produce lettuce and cucumbers, some basil and cilantro. The yard long beans are struggling and the chinese kale is lacy with caterpillar issues. The tomatoes don't seem to like the sandy conditions though a few are showing signs of fruiting.

The flowers-marigolds, cosmos and zinnias are coming into their own. They don't seem to mind the thin soil or lack of water.

And the banana plants that came without roots have all started to produce green leaves. There were 3 out of the 7 that refused to do much for a long time but persistence with watering paid off and after 2 months they also started to sprout.

The house continues to progress and now has a roof on.

The nightly sunset displays are beautiful.

Mid summer in Canada

I am gardening in cottage country,in zone 4b. The season isn't very long, but with the long days, and the heat of summer, things grow quickly.
 Now I'm half way through the gardening season. The garden is producing well inspite of a late start to the season. A combination of getting back to Canada later than usual, and then alot of cold weather, that seemed to continue into July.
But the hot weather has kicked in, and together with the long days and lots of rain, things have gone wild in the garden.
With the cool wet weather the beginning of July, the lettuce has done especially well.

Tomatoes were a little slower, but with the recent hot weather they are catching up.

Hollyhock starting to bloom

Purple Cone Flower