It's a Bit Squashy Around Here

So earlier this year - in the Spring - I decided to expand one of my garden beds at the front of the house to create a herb garden.

I already had a rosemary (the one that has survived six winters now, even though it's not supposed to) and an oregano in the right place.  I moved my thyme, mint and tarragon (half of which I gave away), transplanted my chives and garlic chives, and popped in some sweet basil, lime basil and parsley once the weather was warm enough.

I also moved some asters and cone flowers, and planted some marigolds, glads, and some kind of grass that I don't know the name of.  The whole bed runs up against the hop vine trellis.  We planted the hop vine this year, too.  Wasn't expecting it to do much, but it actually blossomed and set hops:

I had read that it could take a few seasons to produce anything, but I guess it wasn't listening.  With a bit of luck, Daniel will be able to make a fresh hop beer next year.

But anyway, that's not the point of this particular story...

I had the herb bed all sorted out and looking lovely, when I noticed what looked like a pumpkin sprouting.  I thought I'd leave it and see what happened, not really expecting it to do much at all.

Apparently the garden gods had different ideas, because before I had even noticed (and why I didn't notice I can't really explain), it had taken the place:

 

And in the meantime, another one had sprouted up in the pea trellis out the back in the vegie patch....

I couldn't really pull it up because it was fruiting, and that would be a waste.  So I waited and waited until everything was ripe.

After the harvest, it wasn't pretty:

But fortunately none of the herbs it had run over died, and I did indeed get a harvest:

Fifteen acorn squash!  And another thirteen from the one out the back!

Normally these things grow about the right size to feed two people, but I had ones big enough for six people.  

I found homes for a lot of them, and the rest are in storage to be munched on over the winter.

The crazy (not to mention frustrating) thing is that I have been trying to grow these off and on for YEARS, and I've been lucky if I get one or two fruits.  But let them show up where they want to, and I get a bumper crop.  Sheesh!

Needless to say, I'll be saving some seeds.

A (Not So Lazy) Sunday Afternoon

In fact, it was a very busy one for me.  I built a new garden bed!

I had been wanting to extend one bed for a while, and since I'd bought some plants the other weekend, I decided I might as well get on with it.

First, I got to with my tiller - once I got it started, that is.  I was trying to be diligent and take good care of it, but I got a bit carried away with the amount of oil I put in it.  After many, many attempted starts, some minor swear words, and cleaning up a whole lot of excess oil, it blew smoke everywhere and then settled down to the task at hand.

And a new bed is born!  There was a lot of grass to be raked out of it, but that all ended up in the compost bin.  No doubt there will be bits of grass that I missed poking up for months to come. So far, so good.

Next, I dumped some rocks in there:

The rocks were recycled from a footpath that we used to have running from the back door to the back of the yard (we now have a bit of a cow path of smooshed lawn), and some that we stole borrowed from the desert south of here.  It's all lava rock.  It's not technically a rock garden, because it doesn't have tons of rocks in great big piles everywhere, and it isn't very tall, so I'm going to call it my Desert Rock Bed.

The plants I bought are all drought tolerant, and quite a few of them are Idaho natives, or native to the region.  People here are slowly starting to catch on to the idea of native gardens.  Yay!  This bed is in full sun and doesn't get much of the flood irrigation during irrigation season, so it made perfect sense to go native, as it were.

Some digging, more raking, a few more rocks, a little bit of compost and a lot of water to get them started, and I was done!  There's even a footpath in there so I can get to all parts of the bed as needed.

Apologies for the quality of the photos; the sun was quite harsh and I'm discovering that taking decent photos of a garden bed (as opposed to a single plant) is really quite difficult.  That, and my arms were a little wobbly from all the rock lifting! 

The plants had all perked up by this morning.  I can't wait until they start to grow and fill the space in.

Here's the list of what I planted if you're interested (sorry, I don't have the botanical names):
Showy Fleabane
Dwarf Culinary Sage
Mountain Blue Grass
Partridge Feathers
Kinnick-Kinnick
Coreposis (I transplanted that from elsewhere in the garden)

If you want to learn more about them, here's the nursery I bought them from: Draggin' Wing Farm

I'm feeling a bit sore and sorry for myself today, but it was totally worth it!

Ah Spring...

After a long, slow, wet spring, things are finally, FINALLY starting to happen in the garden.  My vegie patch is underway with lettuce, rocket (lots and lots), radishes (I got some fancypants "gourmet" blend - we'll see what happens in a week or two), peas, cabbage, and broccoli. I also have a lovely patch of  rhubarb that should be ready any old day now.

Got my asparagus planted, after losing track of the little box full of corms I received in the mail for several weeks.  Strangely enough, they were right where I'd left them.  Imagine that!

I had daffodils that held their bloom for about six weeks, which was a surprise and a delight Thank you Cool Wet Spring. And I have the best crop of dandelions ever ;)

The crabapple I planted in the front yard was at its best this week.

Crabapples are very popular around here, but most people plant the double bloom  pink varieties. They get so overladen with blossom that you can't see the tree for the bloom. My preference is for something simpler, because I like to be able to see the structure of the tree - probably because this is the first tree I've ever pruned from the beginning. I like to see how my handiwork is holding up.  She's been in the ground for about four years, which I think makes her a seven year tree all up.  The variety is Snowdrift; lovely apple blossom scent, but not obnoxious.  And the single white blossoms are just lovely.

 

This is a spiraea I planted last year.  You see them a lot in public landscaping around here, so I made sure to plant things around it that you don't find in public landscapes (like chives and sage).  I don't want my garden to end up looking like a carpark.  I planted it last year, and as I recall the leaves were lovely oranges, yellows and reds before they dropped in the fall.  For those of you who are interested (Kris!) the botanical name is Spiraea x burnalda 'Goldflame'.  Can't remember the name of the blue one next to it, and I apparently didn't save the tag because it isn't in my garden book.

My Rosemary That Will Not Die has gone bonkers, which is making the bees very happy, which in turn makes me very happy.

And, finally, another plant I got last year that is blooming for the first time, my Tiarella 'Sugar and Spice'.  It's a shade plant, and the leaves turned burgundy in the fall.  I thought it would die right back over the winter, but it didn't, so I had a little bit of colour in my shade garden.

It's by the back door, too, so I get to see it often.  It has the most delightful wee flowers on the spikes it sends up.

I bought some plants on Saturday for the part of the front yard that I am turning into a desert (ie native) landscape.  I bought them from a woman who raises all the plants herself from seed, and a lot of them are Idaho natives.  Even better, she has a demonstration garden so you can see what they look like.  I'm pretty excited about getting them planted, but first I have to dig up some lawn and move some rocks.  I was planning on getting started with that today, but it's bloody raining, isn't it?  And has been ALL day. Sheesh!  And it's gotten cold again. I ended up doing housework....

Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Cheers!

Rumours of Spring are Overrated

It's been windy (60-80ks an hour), rainy, it's hailed a bit here and there, and we've had frosts... exactly what happened to Spring is a mystery to me.

Having said that, my plants seem to be surviving okay for the moment; my greens are up and growing, my carrots are moving right along, and I finally got some peas to sprout (which is to say Nature finally deigned to let me have some pea plants). In fact, it's just about time for my grazing method of thinning for the greens, which consists of me eating the wee plants as I pull them up. Can't resist!

I planted some shrubs a few weeks ago, and they seem to be doing alright too, so I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly. I'm just a bit tired of this silly season.

I'm really, really hoping for some consistently warmer weather. I will be very happy if I don't see another jacket until November!

Spring has Sprung!

And the grass has riz... or at least, the weeds have. Of course.

The daffodils are blooming...

And so is the apricot. The bees are very happy about this, as evidenced by the little chappy in the photo, and so am I... except that this is an "on" year for the apricot and I am wondering if I'm going to go crazy trying to process all the fruit as I usually do.

Last weekend I planted peas, carrots, dill, spinach, lettuce, mesclun and rocket outside. We had quite a bit of rain this week (yay!) and a few frosts (uh-oh!). I'm hoping the soil is warm enough that a few frosty mornings won't kill my seeds. Having said that, seeds are cheap so I think it's worth the gamble. I'm particularly excited about the carrots. I've never actually grown them before, and I got a heirloom variety that I can save some seeds from if all goes according to plan.

I also heard about a weed killing method that seems to be working quite well... our trusty old friend vinegar! You just pour it on the weeds and they start dying within the day (as long as it doesn't rain). It seems to be doing quite the job on the dandelions, but I think it will take more than one application. It will kill lawn and other plants, too, so one has to be judicious in the application, but I suspect I will be keeping Heinz vinegar in production this year!

Incidentally, I don't know about Australia, but over here the cheap vinegar is actually made from a petroleum by-product. Aaaaaarrrrrggghhh! Just what we need - more stupid uses for fossil fuels. That's why I use Heinz - it's made from corn. Now of course there's a whole debate about corn, but I think it still rates better than petroleum.

I used to work with a woman who said one of the joys of spring for her was making a salad out of the new dandelion leaves. I thought I might try one before I set about killing them, just in case they really are one of the joys of spring. It's not something I would recommend. Ours are so bitter they make one's tongue want to strangle one for being so stupid. I think I'll stick with rocket.

We have blue skies and (almost) warm weather today. Methinks a barbecue might be the go for dinner.

Cheers!

So Much for Spring?

Well, after all my excitement about planting peas and and sunshine, here's what greeted us on Saturday...

Eighteen centimetres of snow in the foothills! We got about three or four centimetres in the valley. Fortunately it had pretty much melted on the valley floor by noon and today (Tuesday), I spent a good hour or so outside digging in the dirt. Yay! Now that we have switched to daylight savings hours it doesn't get dark until after 8pm, so I get to play outside.

I am thrilled beyond belief with the amount of earthworms I have - I was digging up spadesfull of them! This also means that I have murdered a few... glad to get that out of the way. The first murder is always unpleasant.

I'm almost (but not quite) hoping for a late hard frost to knock the blossom off my apricot tree so it isn't quite so prolific, but I think I'd rather this glorious weather continue. Perhaps I should just have a chat with the neighbourhood squirrels and birds to let them know they're welcome to as many apricots as they can get their furry little paws and busy beaks around.

In the meantime, I have bulbs popping up all over, the crocus are in full bloom, and my johnny jump-ups have their first flowers. Spring is definitely one of the joys of living in this part of the world.

And, all things being equal, I will FINALLY get to plant my peas this week.... once I've dug all the onion grass out of my raised beds.

How Do You Know Spring Is Nearly Here?

1. You start leaning towards the light like a house plant.

2. On the first day that it is sunny and warm enough to open a window or two, you find that there are about fifteen cats in every window. This is in spite of the fact that there are only two cats living with you.

3. You make your weekly batch of soup for lunches the next week, and the recipe does not involve pearl barley.

4. The seeds you ordered arrive...

5. ...you plant them (albeit indoors and under lights), and they sprout! This is always miraculous.

6. Your daffodils start getting themselves organised.

7. You read that the best time to plant peas is when the lilac buds are as big as a mouse's ear. You check the lilacs at your office, and the buds are as big as a mouse's ear! You make plans for Sunday, and a mental note to buy a lilac bush.

8. Your crocuses bloom! This is a very definite sign that spring is almost here.

9. You decide "Bugger housework, I'm going outside to get dirty!". Oh, wait, that actually isn't a seasonal thing for me, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

10. You seriously consider trading in the telly for a clothesline.

11. Life is good.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is not a tradition in the US. In fact, a lot of people go back to work the day after Christmas. Daniel was no exception, but he did not go back to work in the way you might think. He worked at home, to make me one of my Christmas gifts.

I am now the proud owner of a garden bench! It even has a dry sink, complete with cover, for putting potting mix in. Since I am planning to raise my own seeds for the vegie patch this year, it could not have been more timely. Here's Daniel hard at work... mostly... Please bear in mind that our garage isn't heated, and it was below freezing when he was working out there, hence the heavy overalls.

I think he totally earned that beer!

I won't be starting to grow seeds until late February, early April (our average last frost date is in early May), but now I have all the incentive in the world to get myself organised and grow everything from scratch. What a lucky person I am!