small victories: cherry tomatoes

Garden salad, natch.

surprise hosta!

Observe the wonders one discovers upon cleaning years of weeds and accumulated detritus from one's garden. This is a hosta (presumably planted by the previous homeowner) that flowered just recently. Bellissimo!

novelty

Just so you know, this whole put-seeds-or-green-in-the-ground-and-get-fresh-edibles thing has high potential for never getting old.

small victories: green pepper

Dear First Green Pepper,

I'm afraid I owe you an apology. Hand to the stars, I swear I followed this recipe for Vegetarian Korma to the letter! Okay, okay, I omitted the carrots, because they make the husband whine, and I left out the jalapeno peppers, because the kids don't like too much spice, but other than that, everything was by the book! Nevertheless, the end result was bland, and for that I am sorry. You deserved a debut worthy of all your shine and green. You have to admit, though: it did look pretty.

Alas, something had to have gone awry in the making of the dish to make it, flavour-wise, such a snore. It wasn't your fault, green pepper. It was bad korma. Bad korma, indeed.

small victories: zucchini

Note: I realized too late that the frost on the frozen store-bought bananas looks a bit like mould. You'll have to take my word that it is, in fact, not.

Yes, I shall call my first zucchini a small victory because it was an incorrect ratio of wet to dry ingredients that caused my interpretation of the Wednesday Baker's recipe for zucchini banana bread to turn out more like bread pudding even after 20 minutes of extra baking, and not any lacking on the part of this green giant. (Next time, self, strain the wet ingredients after food processing, or don't be lazy about it and just grate and mash as needed.) Fortunately, though the lolling loaf received an F from me for structural integrity, on the taste front it was gold stars across the board.

I did manage to wiggle out a satisfactory slice for photo-taking purposes.

A parting - albeit unrelated - bit of news: there were fireflies in the fairy garden tonight. I fell a little in love with at least one of them, which I guess means that my sense of wonder remains intact. Always good to know.

the tallest sunflower, or, you win some, you lose some

The garden, as I greeted it this afternoon:

The bad news first, then: The rain must have washed away my Tabasco sauce barrier, as my JFK tea hybrid rose, which seemed, after a weak beginning, to be regaining some healthy green in its one sprouting cane, is bereft of its bud. Bother.

The rest of it is sunshine.

These are my best growing sunflowers, and the one at the end is the tallest. (A fourth can be seen peeking out from behind the overachieving zucchini leaves. I staked it; we'll see what happens.) I'm hoping August will bring out the big golden flowers; how perfect will that be?

I can almost smell the zucchini bread baking!,

I go away for a week, and my baby (pepper) is nearly ready for harvesting upon my return. *sniff* They grow up so fast!

photo post: jardin botanique Montréal

More photos under the cut!

photo post: Royal Botanical Gardens

Traveling with toddlers is always something of a crap-shoot, a reality we experienced firsthand today when we entered the gardens in Burlington with two restless little ones in tow. This meant that we kept our touring time short, before finally leaving to check into the hotel and go to dinner. Another thing I should mention is this small piece of advice: if you go to RBG, do not go on a Saturday! Hendrie Park was overrun with wedding parties and their accompanying photographers, none of whom seemed to have much patience for us, despite the fact that we paid the $13 per person admittance fee which gave us access to all of the open grounds. (We intended to visit Laking Garden in addition to Hendrie Park, but it is temporarily closed due to accessibility issues.)

More photos after the jump!

I love the smell of mulch in the morning. And the afternoon.

Weeding? Sort of check.

Mulch? Check.

This latter item has me feeling slightly more confident that my going away for a few days will not mean I return to find a garden of weeds and dried out plants. (We will most likely have someone stop by to give the thirstier customers a drink while we're gone, as well.) It is a curious concept, this drive thru soil and mulch pick-up business. Drive right up and through is easier said than done when one's vehicle is beastly and minivan-shaped. Mulch is beautiful, though, right? It smells like a lush, warm forest. I want to work in a garden centre. I want to plant trees in British Columbia. Dang, I love mulch.

I've begun what I hope will be a life-long effort to make use of the compost bin we inherited when we bought our house. Sure, I have to traverse a great jungle filled with blood-suckers - (and now, having arrived in what seems to be a bumper crop, what we call around these here parts "June bugs") - to get to it, but you say it's green and good for the soil and plants? I'm in.

Finally, we are departing tomorrow on a road trip bound for Gatineau. The Royal Botanical Gardens and Montreal Botanical Gardens feature prominently on our itinerary. My laptop is tagging along with me, so I may post as we go, or the yellow monster that keeps me connected to the outside world may sit neglected in my bag for the whole six days. Time will tell.

baby green peppers!

zucchini flowers!

to do: some light reading

small victories: another strawberry

This, the second ripe strawberry of the season, differs from the first in that it was not trampled beneath the feet of my giant. We actually got to taste it! I felt it needed its own post. I washed it thoroughly and cut it into four pieces. It was the family strawberry, and it was delicious - quite possibly the best strawberry I have ever eaten.

While I'm talking eats here, I want to mention tonight's dinner: I tackled Smitten Kitchen's recipe for linguine with pea pesto. The peas were store-bought, but the basil garnish was garden fresh! (Small note: I used fettuccine in place of linguine, because that was what they had at the store that was fresh.)

I have a strong suspicion that peas may find a place on the 2012 To Grow list, as my son adores them.

epitome

Source: "Glorious Disrepair" Iekeliene Stange by Sonny Vandevelde for Karen #12 [Editorial] via Honestly...WTF

July 2nd thunderstorm, aftermath

A right tempest blew through the Windsor-Essex County region last night. If not for the damage on the ground, it would be strange to look out at the blue and sunshine morning and think the violence of the previous evening was anything but a dream. An ominous sky that changed from yellow-green to a burning orange dropped sheets of heavy rain, and wind whipped the world around in a veritable blender. Fortunately, it could have been a great deal worse.

Just the same, I suspect everything will need a bit of nursing today.

like a boss

the zucchini, today's MVPs

Happy Canada Day!

I celebrated our nation's 144th birthday by putting some work into the beautification of the very minute percentage of her I have on loan. For the most part, this involved a great deal of weeding. Funny thing about weeds, I have a rather unorthodox policy when it comes to dealing with them. That is, if they are pretty and look as though they might serve as a parasol (or midnight snack) for beings with wings and/or pointy appendages, they get to stay. (I have always been of the opinion that dandelions are underrated.)

Case in point:

yellow oxalis

Another maintenance item I was able to take care of today was the staking of the tomato plants.

Tomato plant B (on the right) is still suffering from a case of droopy leaves. Yet, it has actual tomatoes growing on it, while plant A does not. Curious. Henrik the gnome is giving them both the thumbs up, anyhow.

I picked up the stakes at Walmart, as well as five new moss plants - Scotch, this time, to replace the Irish, which was starting to look dry and beige at the roots and just not spreading at all. I'll have to take more care with this stuff - make sure not to over-water and all that. Scott asked if I plan to feed it whiskey, and, really, that's not all that bad of an idea. Desperate times, desperate measures.

Kidding.

Oh, and these are some wild mulberries growing between our neighbour's fence and ours. Isn't it nifty how nature just does its own thing? Respect.

In conclusion, I leave you with these few parting thoughts/lessons:

1. Dear Pale Woman, No amount of diligent application and re-application of sunscreen will keep us from you. Accept that a tan and likely some sunspots are in your future. You say you have SPF 40 and a hat with a wide brim? Ha ha. It is to laugh. Sincerely, The (UV) Rays.


2. When spraying oneself with insect repellent, take great care not to neglect the bum cheeks. It should come as no surprise to know that mosquitoes have no sense of personal space. ("Oh, excuse me there. I'm famished. Might I have a drink of your blood, please?") They will not hesitate to fly up your shorts.


3. The first thing to do before driving a shovel into the ground is to check for buried power cords. (No shocks, thankfully, but a definite whoops! moment.)