May Two-Four

Mummy Linda came for a visit from Lacombe, Alberta. There was frolicking with kitties...

There was a spa day at Le Nordik...

There was a wonderful overnight jaunt to the Wakefield Inn...

More glorious food than you could shake a stick at...

And gardening. Finally.

There were also giggles with friends, visits with stepchildren and so much more. It was a wonderful visit and I miss you already, mummy.

Winterkill

The harsh winter did my garden no favours. Half of my perennials won't be coming back, both floral and herbal. Even the mint died, and that stuff is more tenacious than many a weed. About 20% of my garlic was winter-killed, soft and rotting in the ground, and another 20% of the bulbs were thrown out of the soil by frost-heaves, despite my careful mulching in the fall.

Between that, the f^*%@ing miserable "spring" weather, my discovery of Bryson Farm's lovely organic, heritage veggies delivered right to my door, and the outdoor water ban imposed on my community until August (!)... my gardening craving is just simply non-existent. Two weeks until the last frost date, and I have no seeds started and no plans.

The few wild-sewn poppies in my front garden are about a week away from blooming... if you go back to last year, they were at this point in early April. The season is almost a full month off last year (which, admittedly, was early.)

I know that come summer and warm weather I may regret this decision but I can only think of three things I want to plant this year aside from my poor garlic: rosemary, more mint (may it rest in peace), and basil. Oh, and maybe cherry tomatoes. Hey, maybe some sugar-snap peas, too...

Kinda sounds like I do have plans for the garden after all, doesn't it?

First In, Last Out

I took my last picture of poppies on 4 Dec. The next day a killing frost took them out.

This morning, I took these photos:

Within the week, I will again have poppies in my garden. Rebirth!

Have a fabulous long weekend.

Can't Prove it By the Poppies

Here it is, mid-November, but my front garden is seemingly unaware of the fact. These pictures were taken about a half-hour ago.

This is my first year growing poppies and I am utterly charmed by how fragile they appear, yet how hardy they actually are. Every night I sit out on the front stoop for a bit, taking in the air and clearing my head before turning in for the night. There have been nights when the grass was crispy and a cautious poke at the poppy petals revealed them to be frozen solid; as delicate (I would imagine) as a glass potato chip. However, the morning dawns and they raise their cheery little heads and sing once more.

Thank you, God, for poppies. I hope to grow up to be one.

Hello, Stinking Rose

Last time we checked in on momma's little garlic patch, we saw this:

That was in mid-June. This is what the same patch looks like today:

However, this is my basement:

I harvested just over 100 bulbs of beautiful garlic last week; half-and-half Siberian and Fireball. I lost a few to sheer wetness; the stems rotted through in some plants; but I harvested well over 90% of what I planted. I think those are pretty good numbers.

Not that I wasn't worried. A strange pest killed off my chives last year, and I thought nothing of it until it returned again this year, and started abusing my garlic, too. I identified it as onion maggot, and mentally kissed my garlic patch goodbye- the maggots are unstoppable through any means of control and will overwinter in the soil for two years. I was just hoping to save some out of this harvest.

It turns out I was alarming myself more than necessary. I headed out to the Carp Garlic Festival last weekend to chat with the experts, and the very-helpful Dave from Ashton Station Garlic showed me that my problem was leek moths and not that serious in the grand scheme of things... yes, they'll come back next year, but they can be controlled through various means and rarely harm the bulb itself, just the leaves. Relieved and overjoyed that I could plant another crop next year, I bought some organic garlic from him in a variety of... varieties, so that I may plant my favourites in the fall. I will also probably use some of the crop I just harvested as seed.

For those who are wondering what on earth I'll do with that much garlic. Well, at last year's festival, I bought about 50 bulbs, and as of today, this is what I have left:

We plow through the stuff like there's no tomorrow... roasted, baked, fried, raw, minced, grated, sliced... if we're serving something savoury in the house, odds are pretty good it's got (loads of) garlic in it. However, I might still have lots left over, providing it all stores well... the damp harvest conditions had me worried and a few of the bulbs showed early mould. I think we'll be fine now, though.

If you've never been out to the Carp Garlic Festival, or tried garlic that isn't from the supermarket, I strongly urge you to roam out there. It's open for a final day this Saturday, and is a beautiful drive and a fun outing. You may never look at garlic the same again.

Gloves and Gardens (and socks, too)

DH and I have been watching Tin Man over the last couple of days, so I've snuck in some quality knitting time and actually finished two projects.

These wretchedly colourful socks are made from the Harlot's basic sock recipe, out of some funky Opal yarn that a girlfriend brought back as a souvenir from Europe for me.

These are Nereid fingerless gloves, round two, for Momma Linda. They're made from Estelle Arequipa that was left over from my Whisper Cardi. If you think the colour balance in this photo is a little wonky because my skin looks orange, you're not wrong... I henna'd my hair again a couple of days ago without gloves, and my hands look like I lost a fight in a carrot factory.

Some glorious shots of my garden, sans knitwear. Hope your long weekend is going swimmingly!

More Sights of Summer

I was going out of the house this morning, and as is my ritual, I stopped briefly at the sweet peas at the front of the house for a sniff and to bask in the glory of their riot of colour. As I passed, I saw a bejeweled beauty I knew I had to capture, at the risk of being late for school. (These are amazing, if I do say so myself... clickify to view large. Large is always better.)

Other pretty things...

Like XUP commented a while ago... this summer (and I use the term loosely) may be crappy weather-wise but you can't prove it by the flowers.

My Second-Day-of-Summer Garden

As little time as I have had this spring, I still have a lovely garden going full-swing, with an amazing assortment of flowers, vegetables and herbs. I consider it my therapy... when staring at a laptop for hours gets me down, I go and weed or water or simply admire my lovelies.

My sweet peas are reaching for the sky! I can't wait for their heavenly scent.

Happy little cherry tomato plants.

Peas and beans and chives, oh my!

Clematis. Don't you think that a flower this lovely should have a name that doesn't make everyone think of a venereal disease?

Snowy, showy lilacs... these don't get full sun so they're much later then the lilacs elsewhere. Suits me fine.

The veggie and herb garden, featuring rapini, kale, chard, dill, basil, thyme, radishes, carrots, cilantro, beets, peppers, cucumber, tarragon and more. Square-foot gardening is amazing!

Momma's pride and joy: 120 some garlic plants, Siberian Red and Fireball. Wooot! Fresh scapes for supper sometime this week! (My gal pal Lisa and I always hit the Carp Garlic Festival hard; last year I bought $70 in garlic so I never again have to eat the relatively tasteless crap you get in the stores. This year, I've taken another approach to solving the problem... though I'll still be going to the festival!)

Not sure what it is, aside from durned pretty. :)