Wow, gardening season has come on full force this year! I usually busy myself with the two flower beds I have at the side of my house and in the front. Last year, I planted a bunch of “perennials” (I use the quotations because some aren’t actually perennials – they just somehow reseed and survive every year) – calendulas, daisies, california poppies, as well as some tulips and peonies. But this year, I ripped up some of the sod and put in a real vegetable garden! It involved moving a lot of existing shrubs to different spots, but everything appears to have survived. I also planted two more crabapples (hopefully the birds prefer those over the eating apples!) and another shade tree, a Toba Hawthorne which looks like a new variety of tree that is supposed to be hardy in Southern Alberta. I’ve planted lettuce, carrots, beans, potatoes, onions, garlic, beets, tomatoes, herbs (dill, cilantro, rosemary, sage, basil), strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and haskap berries (a new type of berry I have never heard of!). Things are starting to poke through now – I am sure with the sun starting to shine, I’ll be eating some fresh, home grown food in no time! Here are a few pics, I will update the progress as this experiment progresses!
Apple blossoms – there are tons this year. This “Combination Apple” (5 kinds of apples grafted on one tree) will have been planted for three years this summer, and it seems to finally be flourishing.
Toba Hawthorne – supposed to have small white flowers and turns golden yellow in the fall.
Lilac – this was a sapling from a tree in my parents yard that my dad dug up and transplanted. It’s survived a major, bark-stripping hailstorm that killed most of my trees and shrubs the first year I moved, and this year it looks like it will bloom for the first time!
Tulip – love the marbleized bud!
Tulips always surprise me – planting the bulbs in the fall, I forgot what colours I had purchased. I love these light pink ones that remind me of Easter!
More pink tulips 🙂
I had thought these ones would be red! But they turned out to be a fun marbleized yellow/red.
Garden markers… a little garden humour 🙂
More garden humour… couldn’t think of anything clever for potatoes though!
domestic girl in the real world 