Garden Diary - July 28

I'm starting to harvest more food from the garden: the purple pole beans are growing quickly (at least a dozen or so are ready every few days), the kale is big enough to eat a few leaves regularly, and I just had my first few cherry tomatoes today. The raspberries are just about done for the season, and I'm still not having much luck eating the strawberries before the birds, ants, and whatever else it is that's getting to them before me. I've only seen a few signs of tiny beans starting on the scarlet runner beans, but am hoping it's just slow so far - the flowers at least have been beautiful as it climbs over the top of the shed. No zucchini or squash yet, although I have friends who are already harvesting theirs. But the big flowers seem like a good sign.

The frequent rain has kept all of my containers nicely watered, so the recent plantings of beans, chards, and other assorted vegetables are all growing well - hopefully they'll have a chance to get to full size before we have frost.

The roses and clematis are all finished now; I miss their bright colours. But the purple coneflowers help to make up for it. I've also had a new light purple perennial in the front bed start blooming. The other perennials that I planted this spring in the large new front bed are all making noticeable gains in size now, and the russian sage is especially nice with its purple flowers. The sorrel is also becoming a surprisingly large and attractive plant. I'll probably divide up the lamb's ears soon to get them started in a few more spots. The mint (which I never really did get under control) is blooming now, and I am enjoying the many insects buzzing around in it.

Garden Diary - July 13

We've finally had some hot, summery weather, so things have been growing fast. The beans have all been growing like crazy, and I've had to find ways to wrap them around corners and extend their trellises to give them more space. I've moved some of the squash/zucchini out of the tomato containers, which were getting overcrowded, and have planted them in the back under the hedge, in the 'new' raised bed (which is the remnants of all the extra sod and soil from the front-yard landscaping). I've had raspberries to eat every day, and a few strawberries when I've managed to get to them before they're eaten by animals. Mark's earwig trap seems to have caught enough of the pests to allow the kale plants a chance to put out new leaves. In fact, we ate some of the kale this past week in a quiche that also had other garden items: chives, sage, thyme, garlic scapes, arugula and nasturtium leaves.

I've filled all of my planters with soil and seeds for beans, nasturtiums, and assorted other vegetables, and have put them on the front porch and next to the fence in the passageway alongside the house, in an effort to get a bit more colour and climbing vines. There was lots sprouting up in just the first few days. I've also done another round of vegetable seed planting in the large bed behind the house - hopefully I'll have a good crop of fall vegetables (spinach, swiss chard, arugula, chinese kale, choi san, giant red mustard, baby radish leaf, corn salad, etc).

The best new thing that I've added to the back yard is a hammock! It's big enough to fit two people, and has a great view of the neighbour's silver maple filling the sky when lying down. If there's one piece of furniture I needed to truly enjoy spending time in my yard, it was this hammock. It was an ordeal to purchase (three different stores, then half a dozen salespeople before the large box was finally lifted down from the overhead shelf, all of which had to happen in the time limit for which I had the rental car), but it was worth it.

In the front I've had a great new rock added to my collection, which Mark carried back from the Rouge River as a special gift to me on Canada Day. I've put it in just the right spot to help hold back some of the mulch that keeps floating away every time we have a torrential downpour.

The perennial bed in front is in full bloom now, with white daisies, purple coneflower, something pale pink that I think is probably phlox, talk stalks of a pale purple flower that i see growing wild everywhere, yellow evening primrose, and some short orange flowers that remind me of gerbera. Now that I know what's there I'll be able to divide them up and move them around; I think the 'phlox' especially needs digging out, as it's pretty invasive, and not a particularly attractive flower. I seem to be gradually settling on a palette of burgundy, pink, blue and violet for the front yard flowers, so the short orange flowers and the yellow primrose will likely get moved to the back.

The rose is still blooming strongly; the mint continues to grow like the weed that it is, and my clematis has been fabulous (although I don't see many more unopened buds on it, so that may be coming to an end soon).