Our garden "bounty"

Our garden "bounty", a photo by Sesser on Flickr.

Last spring, Mr. Happy and I decided that it was time to plant a garden. With the rising price of food in mind, we rented a rototiller and Mr. Happy set to work tilling the bed. 

Never mind the argument we had about the placement of the garden (an argument that only took 5 months for Mr. Happy to concede I should have won. Ahem), and never mind the incessant rainfall, we thought it might be a good way to supplement our "stores".

We planted carrots, onions, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, beets, green and yellow beans, sugar snap peas, lettuce and a couple tomato plants.

The carrots and onions grew, though only a little. Despite their size they are still delicious and appreciated in the various dishes into which I've thrown them.

The red cabbage, though a bit neglected, did grow and was delicious. The brussel sprouts were steam rolled by a small boy and his wheelbarrow. The beets, well, that was a sad loss.

The beans, both yellow and green were picked and devoured quite readily.

We did our best to use the "natural landscape" of our yard wisely. We planted climbing things near our fences. The sugar snap peas flourished on the fence at the end of our driveway. They were a tasty temptation when we arrived home at the end of a work day.

We did learn a valuable lesson about the sugar snap peas, however, after eating handfuls of the delicious pods raw: They are extremely hard on your mouth if eaten in large amounts. I spent a week at the cottage in "SSP addiction recovery" waiting for the skin in my mouth to return to normal. It turns out, they are still quite delicious if served lightly steamed.

The lettuce was the crowning glory of our garden and heartily fed many guests at our table over the summer. We hauled table and chairs outside at every opportunity and set about pretending we were dining on a backyard patio under a Tuscan sun. In actuality we were in our own backyard, surrounded by our ugly metal fence, near a busy street and under a Haligonian sky (though that setting does have its own charms).

Our lessons for next year are as follows:

• Improve the soil.
• Move the garden or cut the tree (hence the springtime argument).
• Get the seeds/plants in the ground earlier.
• Pray for more sun and less rain, yet encourage child to water plants in a gentle manner.
• Remind toddler how to walk in the "valleys". between the rows and not across the "hills" with his wheelbarrow.
• Make the garden bigger MORE MORE MORE!
• Plant squash (oh wait, we did. It died.)
• Plant pumpkins (pumpkin shortage in the city this year)
• Do something to that dreadful fence.
• Invite more friends over to enjoy our garden bounty with us, however small.

Summer..

makes me happy

Somewhat Good Fences Make Great Neighbours Too!

There is an ugly fence that separates our yard from the neighbour's yard. It was erected by the original owners of the house as a means of hindering backyard shortcuts. The fence is constructed of rusted metal pipes and green plastic-coated wire mesh.

When we moved in, it became a necessary evil as both yards held dogs. It is still a necessary evil as Pippin likes to run around our back yard when he visits.

Despite the ugliness of the fence, many pleasant conversations have taken place between the neighbours who lean on it. Tools have been passed from hand to hand over it. Dogs have been patted through it. Plates of cookies and desserts have been shared. A feeling of "somewhat good fences make great neighbours" surrounds this fence.

Almost every summer since we moved into our house, my neighbour and I have planted various climbing flowers along the fence to disguise it a bit. It's a bit like putting a party dress on a lizard. It looks better, but it's still a lizard underneath.

My neighbour, busy with her son's wedding plans, didn't get her flowers in the ground as early this spring. I was anxious to experiment this year as last fall I saved all the seeds from my Morning Glories. As soon as the ground was a reasonable temperature (i.e. no frost in the soil), I scattered the seeds in the soil. Mr. Happy, the skeptic, didn't think they would grow.



They have indeed grown, better than they have ever grown before. They're so desperate to grow that they're climbing up a tree and twining together for strength.

I can hardly wait to gather seeds this fall. Next summer will be even better!

How Does Your Garden Grow

I've been talking about my Tomato Grow Op for a while and thought I should show you a photo. Here are the 42 plants in all their glory:

Experienced gardeners, avert your eyes. The plants may look all squished together to you - Resist the urge to advise me in my gardening ways. I have a bit of my paternal grandfather's green thumb and as a haphazard gardener, I tend to succeed, even though I really don't like gardening. The most unlikely of indoor plants tend to flourish and bloom under my care - except for geraniums. I think they know that I secretly believe them to be ugly.

My nieghbour took one look at the plants and asked, "Do you know how many tomatoes you're going to have?"

To which I responded, "The question is, do YOU?"

*swings chair around to look at blogland*

Do all of you know how many tomatoes you're going to have?

Finally. It's Here.

And by it, I mean Spring. The real deal. What's that you're saying? You thought spring was already here? Ha, I say, Ha.
Sure, we had crocuses already, but those darling little flowers will bloom with snow piling up around them. Sure, the clocks have gone ahead and the Vernal Equinox has already come and gone, but here in Atlantic Canada, well, here in my house anyway, these things do not signify spring.

It is not spring in this latitude until after the final snowfall - that was just the other week. It is not spring until my tulips start showing their little heads. It's not spring until my grass changes colour. It is not spring until I start to feel the desire to garden. It is not spring until I forget to wear my jacket to work in the morning.

All of these things happened in the last week. Here's the evidence:



These are the tulips in my back yard. Brag if you must that yours have already shown their beautiful colours, I will happily wait for mine to show their glory.



This is my green grass. See how softly it holds the beautiful Debbie Bliss Merino Aran that I am lovingly knitting into the cover sweater on her "Simple Knits" book? (see Les, I am working on it!) That's some nice grass, people. And after all the rain on the weekend, I think I'll be mowing it on Saturday!



These are the seeds I planted... No, not in the ground. They're in milk carton greenhouses right now. Many of them are showing their green little heads. I'm very excited about gardening this year. Let's see how long my enthusiasm about dirt lasts this time.



This is the brilliant little thingy I bought at the garden shop in Halifax last Saturday. Hello? Is that yarn I see, in a gardening shop? Why yes it is! In the spring it's a place for birds to stop by and grab "supplies" for their nests... in the summer and winter it's a suet holder. What's that? Yeah, I know, it's acrylic yarn. I was upset about that, but didn't think I should rip it all out and replace it with nice wool yarn for the little birdies... yet. My yarn snobbery doesn't extend that far. I am, after all, attempting to be more environmentally friendly. Acrylic yarn would not break down in a land fill!

Ok, it's knitting night tonight. I think we all know what I'll be working on. (see above).

I'm totally jazzed up on fudge and tea right now.

woooooooooo....

It's better than Ritalin.

Weekend Activities and Thoughts

'cause I can't think in anything but point form:

1. Andrew took the whole weekend off. I picked him up at work on Friday night at 8pm. We missed an art opening because he was delayed, but that's ok. THIS IS THE FIRST WEEKEND HE HAS TAKEN OFF SINCE HE TOOK OVER THE BUSINESS AT THE FIRST OF MARCH!!!!!!

2. We had breakfast at Cora's on Saturday morning with Andrew's parents. Andrew's dad and I are of the same mind when it comes to sweet things: The more, the merrier. I've never known another guy to order and eat an entire waffle at Coras, except him.

3. This is for JAK: I bought a cold frame at LEE VALLEY!!!!! It's totally cool. You're going to be soooooo jealous. (Damn you for making me want to plant a garden!!!) Oh, and I bought two reference books: "Tomatoes love Carrots" and "Roses love Garlic" - it's about using companion gardening to deter pests! My inner environmentalist does not like pesticides.

4. Andrew and I cleaned our basement on Saturday afternoon. We've got two big piles of crap: The Big Pile of Yard Sale Crap, and The Big Pile of Crap To Go To The Studio. Once the crap is gone, we'll have a crap free basement!!!

Question for the knitters: Is it fair to charge $$ for a big nasty bag of Boa yarn? Should I put it in the yard sale to some unsuspecting sucker or should I dump it? I would burn it, but it would probably create its own hole in the ozone layer.

5. Andrew and I rented some intellectual entertainment last night. We got home and pulled our love seats together and made this little "cave" for ourselves. We piled on the blankets, I had my knitting, and we ate hummus and artichoke dip on pitas. Wanna know what we rented? The Kids In The Hall. I did Chicken Lady impressions all evening. She wasn't on the season we rented, but Cathy and Kathy were! Hee hee... It was the episode where they talked about "Tanya" sleeping her way to the middle.

6. We busted up our house:

a. One of the love seats was too close to the French door. I leaned over to put my glass on the table behind me and heard a crunch. The bottom corner pane broke. Whoops.

b. The kitchen sink stopped draining this afternoon. Andrew attacked it with: a plunger, the plumber's snake, a coat hanger and a stream of muttered expletives. It is now draining again. I got to clean up the nasty black sludge that came up the drain when the plunger was in use. Happy times.

7. We went over for dessert at Andrew's sister's house tonight. (Pumpkin spice cheesecake - mmmmmm....) Pippin was there with lots of smooches. I taught my youngest nephew, Ben, how to sing a different version of the Spiderm*n song. "Is he strong? No he's not, he's got radioactive snot...." I apologized to my SIL later in the evening when we could hear him practically yodelling it from upstairs. She vowed to teach similar songs to our offspring when the time comes.

8. Reasons I love having Andrew around:
a. He fixed the sink.
b. He put the rack on my bicycle.
c. He helped me organize the big nasty basement.
d. He drifted off while watching a movie this morning and did that little twitchy thing.
e. He toots and then exclaimes that we must have "barking spiders".
f. Lots of hugs.
g. He's watching Desperate Housewives while I'm typing in here and he's saying that the women aren't that pretty.
h. Lots of smooches.
i. His laugh.
j. He keeps me sane.



April 30th

Yesterday it was 8 years since my mom died. I can't believe it has been that long. When you lose someone close to you people try to tell you that it'll get easier. It's not always easy to be without them, but it does get easier to remember the good things about that last year with my mom. Like how her friends surrounded her and were with her whenever my dad or my brother or I needed a break. Like how people in our community that we never suspected would drop in did just that and left behind the nicest feelings. Like how she showed me how to make bread from scratch and her famous cream of broccoli soup that year. Like how we had serious talks about life and not so serious talks about life.

I have this photo of the two of us from that year. It's when she was in the midst of chemotherapy. It was taken on her 53rd birthday. She's as bald as an 8 ball and we're sitting on the couch. I've got my arm around her and she's smiling this "Isn't this ridiculous?" smile. One of her friends saw the photo in my room and protested it once. She thought my mom wouldn't have liked it. I lit into her and said that I did not see my mother as sick in that photo. My mother looks like a fighter in that photo. She was fighting to stay with her family. I think she looks more beautiful in that photo than any other I have of the two of us.

Happy 8 years in Heaven, Mom. Thanks for the sunsets.