Poppies, canning and dill

We had a busy weekend. I juiced and jellied the nanking cherries Jess and I foraged on the weekend. As I have been riding around the neighbourhood, I have been noticing all of the cherry bushes--seems like a bumper crop this year.

We've had lots of visitors to the garden. So far the only think that has been disturbed was an onion pulled from its bed (not sure by what).

There are also lots of flowers blooming in our neighbours gardens (I often get tapped for water while they vacation because they seem to think I know what I'm doing).

We have some poppies up in the stone planter at the back. These are from seed my dad picked from my parents' garden in Calgary and froze for 25 years. The original seed is from my grandmother's garden in Saskatchewan.

This shot is of the same kind of poppy but backlit by the sun. Below we have some of the many dill plants that have naturalized in the yard. Not where I want them (out front) but rather in the back vegetable beds.

The rhubarb has come back enough from the earlier cutting that I cut some more to make a second batch of strawberry-rhubarb pie filling. I think we have enough to see us through the winter months.

If I get ambitious tomorrow I will make some raspberry jam.

Chives, Saskatoons, Irises and Rabbit

A few days of rain have really rejuvenated the garden. I harvested the first of the radishes this week and am letting the rest get a bit bigger before pulling them all in to make pickled radishes. I filled in the holes with some lettuce seeds.

Whether it was bees or my hand pollination, it also looks like we'll have a good crop of apples this year. You can see two have set out of this bunch of blossoms.

The dry weather is also good for the Saskatoons and we should have a tonne of berries this year (after nursing some of these plants for half a decade!). I'm very keen to pick and freeze these, although we're at least a month away from berry season.

The irises are also starting to flower--maybe three weeks ahead of schedule. Maybe two. They are always a pretty show and make a nice border at the front of the yard.

The chives are also flowering (think lovely pink chive-infused vinegar people!).

I spent this morning doing some yard work (mowing, fixing a few tools, trimming the hedge) and ran across this shy lady bug.

We lost two onions and two garlic plats our front this week (although they are regrowing from the bulb). At first I thought it was one on the any rabbits in the neighbourhood helpfully pre-seasoning himself. But it turned out to be a pair of cut worms. Until last year, I'd never seen a cut worm in our yard. Hopefully they are just passing through.

I'm leaving Jess in charge of the garden for a few days whileI go to a conference. It looks like the weather will cooperate and she shouldn't have to water too much. When I get back, she is keen to create a new strawberry bed below her window.

An early start to the gardening season

It has been a very mild winter so far and, with two days of +15C, much of the lawn is exposed and the river ice is just starting to get translucent.

What this means is that a few days of glass on the cold frame and the ground was nice and thawed. I left in an old kale plant that is showing signs of life and then banged in a bunch of spinach seeds Jess picked out at Apache Seeds this morning.

As I was puttering around, I noticed this violet had peaked out. I suspect it is one of last year's blooms--although the plants beneath the leaves looked very bright green. I also revealed a strawberry plant that was enjoying some heat n the south side of the house.

I pulled some pots out of the garage so we can start tomato seeds next weekend. I ran across the glass for two other cold frames. These boxes are still full of snow but I put the glass on to see what might happen this week.

The coyotes have been very active these past few weeks while we have been walking. I haven't managed to get a decent picture but I did get my camera out tonight as one watched walk by.

Dandelion pesto

Pooped out from a day of gardening and cycling, I made dandelion pesto last night rather than starting on the lawn. About three cups of pesto, juice from a lemon, some pine nuts, olive oil, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. This had been on my to-do list for awhile.

Everything went into the food processor, a bit of whizzing and some more oil to thin it and done. The pesto is fairly bitter. I was able to balance this a bit with some lemon juice and hide it with a touch of sugar but still quite a lot more jarring than commercial pesto. I think the proof will be how it tastes on a pizza or some pasta. I've frozen the half cup or so it made for use later on.

I was weeding this morning and I think the Jerusalem artichokes are starting to emerge. I've never grown these so I'm guessing mostly based on placement.

We've also been visited by a local rabbit frequently. S/he can be hard to spot sometimes in the rock border of the garden. I also assume the rabbit is the one who dug up a small part of the onion bed last night (left the onions alone--just knocked them about).

A rainy afternoon sounds like a good time to read a book an see what else on my "do this summer" list.

Ice flows, bunnies and pea trellises

Despite five days of (relatively) lovely cycling weather last week, winter has temporarily returned with cold temperatures and new snow. The river valley is full of bunnies, gnawed branches and ice flows.

The yard is slightly less snow-bound but it still icy.

That said, the bunnies are starting to turn noticeably brown so I'm hopeful we'll shortly free from the snow pack. Parts of the front garden are almost melted out.

To keep us occupied, Jess and I built two more of the 5x5' steel conduit pea trellises that we built last year. These workers very well and seem indestructible.

I expect we'll put these in the back yard alongside the garage to give us some additional peas. My copy of Alberta home gardener has arrived so I'll spend the afternoon looking at pretty pictures and imagining the garden in three months.

Asparagus

Jess and I were a bit late to forage wild asparagus this year--we found only a few stalks and most of those had gone to seed. But we did manage to get to the 104 Street market and picked up a bunch of asparagus, both to eat and to preserve. I blanched and froze enough for about 26 pizzas this coming winter. We'll likely not pickle any more this year as I see there are still a couple of jars left from last year (we'll do beets, instead).

While we were out tromping around, a pair of hawks hovered overhead, looking for lunch. I managed to get one good picture (our of several dozen)--the sun was in my eyes as the hawks moved east along the edge of the valley.

Today we did the last of the planting, putting in four cucumber plants. I notice we spend a fair bit on condiments over the course of a year so I'd like to make relish (ideally without getting jalapeno in my eye, this time) along with some ketchup. We also plunked a new saskatoon bush in the front yard in among the raspberries and reseeded some zucchini out back (the seeds I've been using are a couple of years old and the germination rate is pretty poor after four years). Tonight I will start to do a tally of our jars and lids to see what we'll need for the summer.

Trellis for peas

I wanted to do a better job of using the vertical space in our garden this year. So three or four weeks back (when it was warm but there were several feet of snow) we spent some time in the garage with a hacksaw putting together two 5x5' pea trellis frames made from electrical conduit.

Jess learned the difference between a phillips and a robertson screwdriver plus expanded her German vocabulary when I slightly sawed my hand.

Today the snow had retreated enough that we got the frames out into the garden. They are along the north border. Between the trellis and the fence we'll grown sunflowers. And in front we'll grow other veggies--I think we 'll plant these with beans.

We got a nice (nearly invisible) green bit of netting on one and I zip-tied it to the stakes I bought. We'll string the other one tomorrow. Looks like there is room for a third on on the left but I think that can wait until next year.

And, with pea shoots on the mind, we had a visit from one of the many, many bunnies hopping around the neighbourhood. These fellows are big!

In the cold frames, the garlic has doubled in height in a few days and it was about 24C inside this afternoon.

New growth!

The weather has come back around this week and it was +13 yesterday. The snow is gone from all but the shadiest areas of the yard and we decided to poke around the yard after work yesterday to see what we could see.

First up was a very hungry squirrel whom we caught raiding the bird feeder. We don't generally have problems with that but it is likely a tough time of the year. S/he eventually got used to us gawking and we spent about 15 minutes watching the squirrel chow down on sunflower seeds from about four feet away.

Around the south side of the house, the onions we planted last fall continue to out out some new growth (the centre stalk). No sign of the garlic we dropped in a couple of weeks back, even in the cold frame. It was easily 25 degrees in there yesterday afternoon and we dropped in some carrot, beet and kale seeds to fill in where the transplants didn't take.

Also on the south side we found the first chives of spring, poking up beside a warm rock. I know the chives are always among the first things I see when I start to move the leaf litter around so these may not be that early. I know I've seen them at Easter before. No sign of tulips or daffodils, though.

In the backyard, one of the apple trees has moved from setting buds to starting to leaf out. Fingers crossed it can withstand the cold snaps we're likely to get. In the background, you can see Jess poking around in the two beds she wants to operate by herself this year.

And, with Jess' sharp eyes, we ran across a bunch of spinach which just germinated today (I'd swear it wasn't there when I went for a bike ride at lunch) in one of the uncovered beds on the south side of the house. I seeded this in last fall (I think--may have been early in the spring) and I'm quite chuffed to see it come up.