Thursday, July 2, 2015

Around the Garden






















Life has been full around here this week. We finished up our last day of kindergarten on Monday, we celebrated this wonderful country we call home yesterday, with friends, and today, I ran my first, of what I hope will be many, nature camp. It's the kinda full that makes your heart sing, and fills you up with that happy feeling.

And to top it all off, the gardens are thriving. At the beginning of the week I was praying for it to stop raining, yes, to stop raining, and it did, finally. The gardens were saturated, and I wasn't quite sure how much more rain they could handle. Thankfully, the sun came out yesterday, and for the next five days we have nothing but sunshine in the forecast, and that means all the little jobs on my garden to do list will hopefully get done this weekend.

Everything is lush and green in the gardens, and more food is being harvested every day, including snow peas!! Did you see them? That was the first handful on Monday, since then there has been many more, and even some shared with friends today. Around the rest of the garden the pole beans are growing up, bush beans and runner beans are blossoming, the cucumber is using the trellis and slowly starting to grow up it, the first of the strawberries are ripening, and the herbs are exploding. These are good days in the garden, and I am soaking up every bit of it.

How are things around your garden?

29 comments:

  1. Lush and green were the words I was thinking before you wrote them! I'll be posting about our garden tomorrow. Thankfully, it is bouncing back just fine. I really love seeing the subtle differences in growth between your climate and ours. Neat idea about the nature camps. Would be interested to hear more!

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    1. Lush and green it is. We have had so much rain the last few weeks, it can't help but be lush and green :) I just popped into your space and saw your garden, so happy it is bouncing back.

      Yes, planning to share more about the nature camp on Monday. It is a trial this year, and if all goes well I will expand next year.

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  2. I love it! it looks so good with the gravel in the pathways, I really like that! I bet you enjoy the little crunch, crunch sounds as you walk around the garden :) and oh, look at all those scapes! we pickled some this year and they came out really well- yum!

    here's our garden: http://www.sweetpotatoclaire.blogspot.com/2015/07/in-and-around-garden.html

    xo from NC

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    1. Thanks Amanda. I do love the crunch as I walk around the garden. That was just half of the scapes. Pickling them, hadn't thought of that. Might have to try that next year. We still have a few left for daily eating, but the rest have already been turned into pesto and added to the freezer.

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  3. Looking good! Would love to hear more about your nature camp!

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  4. Congratulations on your nature camp!!! How exciting!! I bet it was super fun.

    Oh my goodness I wish I could see your garden in person - so bountiful!! The mild weather here means my garden is slowly growing but I still find the joy in it.

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    1. Thanks! It was awesome, and we all had a great time. Four more to go :)

      You are welcome anytime my friend. I would love to tour you around the garden, and then enjoy a cup of tea with you. Maybe one day.....

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  5. finished kindergarten?? How quickly time flies :) Lovely garden!

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    1. I know, it is crazy, eh? He will start grade 1 in September, I can't believe it!

      Thanks Karen.

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  6. The rain on Canada Day made our garden bloom too...luckily, it cleared up in the late afternoon.
    Sounds like you are busy, but a good busy?

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    1. We didn't get any rain on Canada Day, which made us quite happy since we had a hike and picnic planned :)

      Busy, but good busy, yes.

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  7. You must either have masses of those peas or you must be incredibly generous hearted to be sharing them so soon! My lot would be wolfing them down before they could reach the kitchen! But then I suppose there are four pea monsters here as opposed to your one. Your nature camp adventure sounds interesting, I hope you might be going to tell us more about that soon?

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    1. Oh we have been enjoying them every day Sally, and I didn't share a ton, just a few :) And yes, I only have one pea monster so he definitely doesn't eat as much as four.

      Yes, I will share more about the camp on Monday. Happy weekend.

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  8. My garden is kind of sleeping right now except for the tomatoes! I recently put in several pepper plants because mine failed to germinate back in march so I did want to go without any so I bought ten plants at the local garden center. I do have butternut squash growing though!

    I can't wait to hear more about this nature camp!

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    1. Happy to hear things are still moving along in your garden KC. Enjoy!

      Yes, more coming about that on Monday :)

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  9. The day I can harvest peas and strawberries and salads from my own garden will be pretty close to my ideal life. Loving your colourful and oh-so-tidy garden spaces! I'm sure camp must have been wonderful - sounds like such a cool idea. Happy belated Canada Day, dear friend!

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    1. It will come my friend, one day, and I can't wait to see it :) Thank you, the gardens are making me so happy right now, and I love being out there. Camp was wonderful, and I can't wait to do it all again this coming Thursday :)

      Happy Canada Day to you too!

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  10. Oh I'd love sooo much to come for a little visit at your garden and drink a tea with you! You garden is a fairytale :)

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    1. Aw, thank you my sweet friend. I would love that, and there is always a place for you whenever you want to come :) One day, maybe.....

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  11. Oh it's looking wonderful! I'm glad you had just the right amount of rain - it will make the strawberries wonderfully sweet!

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    1. Thanks Carie. I sure hope so. We picked the first one the other day, and it was super sweet!

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  12. Love the pictures of your baskets full of goodies, especially your kale - ours is a wash out this year, something keeps eating it...
    Our strawberries are at an end for the time being, and our red and black currants are thriving - think it must be a red fruit year!
    Things are looking good in our garden in general despite my f.i.l's erratic planning!

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    1. Thank you! I am enjoying the harvests that come in throughout the day for our meals. Sorry about your kale. Is it cabbage moths? They lay their eggs, and then the little green caterpillar hatches and eats the kale. They eat from the under side of the leaf, just check and pull them off. It is a daily job.

      Hope you enjoyed your strawberries. Ours are ever bearing, so they ripen a little later, and keep producing all summer long :)

      I just peeked in at your garden, it is looking incredible. I want to come for tea, and sit back there with you, chatting the afternoon away.

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  13. Hello Kim, I don't have a blog myself, but I really enjoy following your gardening adventures and the inspiring posts you write. Things are growing here for sure, but even if we are in an urban area, we had the visit of a deer for the second time. He decided to take bites (many of them!) on my red russian kale this time. I was not so happy about it as you can imagine ;-) We have a fully fenced backyard, but on one side, the fence is not very high, so even if we have plenty of trees "blocking" that side, we have some visitors from time to time. I think that the beautiful vegetables my neighbour is growing but not protecting by a fence doesn't help. Between cats, deers, wireworms, earwigs, aphids and racoons, life is not easy here for my little veggies ;-) Taking a deep breath and hoping for the best while trying to protect my flowers and vegetables are the only things to do I guess. Do you have problems with deer, racoon or insects in your area?
    Marie :-)

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    1. Hello Marie, thank you for stopping by, and taking the time to comment. So sorry about your unwelcome visitors in your garden. We have never had a problem with deer in our yard, but the voles did a number on a winter garden last winter, and of course we get our fair share of insects, and bugs that enjoy munching away on different things. I try my best to stay on top of the bugs, the voles, sadly I lost the battle, and within a few days they completely cleaned out my winter garden. It was definitely a frustrating moment when I opened the tunnel and everything was gone.

      We do have raccoons, they have in fact been eating from our bird feeders at night, but as of yet, have not found the gardens, or the chicken coop. We haven't seen them now in a few weeks, as we have been emptying the feeders at night. I hope they have moved on, and leave my garden alone.

      Wishing you all the best with your garden. Maybe the animals and bugs will give you a break. Fingers crossed.

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  14. Our gardens are sadly not looking as well as they did last year. I'm not sure if it was the steak of hot hot temps followed by cold rainy days that have done them in but many of the plants don't look well and aren't nearly as lush as they were last year! It's very sad!

    Your gardens look absolutely fabulous and are clearly producing beautifully! xo

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    1. Oh no! It could be the weather, or maybe your soil...did you add in some compost after last season? Maybe a little fertilizer will do the trick, give the plants a little boost.

      Thanks Shel, things are coming along out there, and this week our harvests have gotten a little bigger...our first beans are ready. So exciting!

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