Pomegranates

About 3 years ago, we did our local flavour trail tour, which in essence is a tour of local farms and what each one is producing. It’s a lot of fun and you can see not just what produce they grow, but some also have demonstrations and some even team up so you get to see more than one farmer at a location. This link will take you to the tour that just was.

We went to one particular farm where the family grown fruit trees. I think this man was born with green thumbs. I don’t think there is anything he can’t grow. He has the usual variety of apples and pears. Also, quince, figs, grapes and those are the types of things you expect most people to grow here. He doesn’t use any type of commercial fertilizers, he just know how to work the soil and it shows.

But he says, you can grow other things that wouldn’t be expected because he compares our climate to that of a Mediterranean one, making it possible to grow oranges, lemons and grapefruits. The oranges and grapefruit are in greenhouses and I have never ever seen those fruits so big and so healthy looking, the lemons grow up a wall of the house. Those lemons are huge, the size of a fist. Bob has Christmas lights around the lemons and nettings. If the temp drops below a certain point, the thermostat is set and will activate the lights. That bit of heat from the lights is all that the lemons need to keep going.

He grows a type of olive up the side of his house and too much to tell here but if you click on the link above to the Flavour Trail, he is listed as #3. He has pomegranate plants, we decided to give those a try since we both love pomegranates.

The back of our house is in full sun so we planted the tree against the house and supported it. It was about 2’ tall to start with, and quite wispy due of course to it’s size. Well, this is the third winter coming up, and to my surprize, this is what we spotted on the tree. It’s been a long, very good summer this year, and that probably has a lot to do with it. The blooms are bursting out all over and with luck, we will have pomegranates next year.

Without actually measuring the blooms, I am guessing they are approx. 1 1/2” across.

These pods have now burst open and it’s so pretty to see how they are adding a new dimension of colour to the all over green of the tree.

From those pretty pods and blooms, to hopefully this in the near future. I can’t wait…Do you eat pomegranates? You should, they are so good for you, but don’t take my word for it, read what Dr. Fuhrman says.  Back soon with more pictures of what I’m working on.

When it’s right, it’s right

When you do things right, Mother Nature will always reward you for your efforts. This is one of the dahlias that I didn’t dig up last fall. We got lazy and decided to take our chances. We only use compost and other natural fertilizers, and with just the right amount of watering and the perfect weather…..this is what happens

This dahlia is called Penhill Watermelon and I bought it here. Click here.  It’s over 5’ tall and the blooms are just as described, at least 12” across. It’s been stopping people walking by, even at dusk, it almost glows. Amazing….

I’ve already decided that next year I am going to plant mostly these dinner plate size dahlias. I don’t really bring them in the house that much anyway as I like people to enjoy them when they walk by, so I think a big display of big ones will be fun to grown.

Spring has arrived

If you’re still watching those pretty white flakes fall and the trees bending sideways in the wind, fear not. There is hope for you yet. Spring has arrived on the West Coast of Canada and what’s not to like.

The trees all along our street are in almost full bloom.

The Pieris shrubs are in bloom and I saw some Mason bees flying around, so they are hatching out and there is plenty of food for them.

The daffodils along our driveway are starting to open and show how well they survived our weird winter weather. Not anything like most of you have had, but weird none the less.

Our Kale plants are amazing. They were covered more than once in heavy wet sloppy snow and then froze several times and still here they are. It’s such a healthy veggie to enjoy in soups and salads. Cooks down like spinach, or chopped up and put into salads. Don’t use the stems, a bit tough….

Crocus, what’s not to love about these simple but pretty flowers. A splash of colour in a dark corner…

Now as I’m walking around deciding what to show you, this little guy decides he must follow me to see if perhaps he can help…

After a couple of minutes of look at me, look at me….I carried on. I turned to see if he was following and this is who I saw next.

A few little pats on the head and into the house to say hello to this one. Did I mention, none of them live here. They just visit all the time. I think there are a total of 8 visitors throughout the week. We have three we feed, two of those have been coming since they were probably less than a year old and they are both about 10 now. Their owners know where they hang out, so it’s all good. The rest just check to see if there are left overs…

This little guy lives next door, but you’d never know it. He spends most of the day here, but doesn’t have overnight privileges. He is a feral cat and by far, the most cuddly cat we’ve ever had visit. I suspect he’s working us…..

My other dahlias

These are the other dahlias I promised to show you. The rains have started around here, so my poor flowers are bending to the will of the rain falling on them. They are still putting on a great show regardless, doing their best to hold up their heads.

Dahlias

Just a change of pace this time. These are a few of our dahlias this year. Hubby wanted some dinner plate dahlias, so we planted 4 of them this time. The first 4 dahlias pictures are those very large ones, each one measures approx. 12” across.

The pictures that follow are the smaller cutting flowers, they are each about 6” on average. I have a few more to take, I show you those hopefully over the weekend.

A perfect name for this one “Santa Claus”

Even honey bees enjoy the dahlias.

Garden Art _ Bird Buffet

In the Mixed Media group I’m with we’re having a garden art challenge. You have to use some kind of glass. Cups are okay, so I picked up a box of Espresso cups and saucers at the dollar store.

The first step was to glue the saucers (upside down), to the bottoms of the cups. I used E6000 glue. I like to leave things overnight to dry properly so things don’t shift. Then I glued the cups and saucers to a large size cooling rack. Under the center cup, I first glued on a small terra cotta plant saucer just to raise the center up a little.  I was pleasantly surprized to find that one of the saucers was different, so that was nice to break up the patterns a bit. 

I didn’t dress up the surrounding area with any silk flowers or other foliage, because I wanted to be able to just wash it with the garden hose, so keep that in mind if you plan to do something similar. Make it easy to clean up between feedings..

The next step was to set up the buffet. I used a combination of peach and apple slices for two of the saucers in case some passing butterflies wanted a snack to.  To the rest of the saucers I added a variety of seeds and nuts.

Looks yummy doesn’t it. If I were a bird, I would land here.  We do have pussy cat visitors, so here’s hoping I haven’t created a buffet for them as well. I will go with the thought that the birds are quicker. Within 30 seconds of filling the buffet plates, there was one unwelcome visitor, but I quickly dealt with that, he’s gone to a much better place.

So that’s it. I hope I’ve given you a little idea for your own birds. With the weather starting to show signs of change around here, most of the plates will soon be filled with sunflower seeds to give the birds more protein in the colder weather….but for now this is what they’ll get.

Mutant Veggies

My hubby has been retired for a year now and has been able to do more work in the garden as a result. He’s had more time to spend mixing his organic fertilizers and all the compost and worm castings that make a garden grow so well. We haven’t used chemical fertilizers in the garden for years, I don’t think ever. We used gypsum to help break up the clay soil, lots of compost and mulch for the same reason. The soil was really depleted of nutrition. But a few years ago he got involved with organic fertilizers to boost the soil and this past year he’s gone right into it and this is the result.  Here is a sample of our salad veggies.

Looks pretty benign right. That’s spinach on the left, red romaine lettuce in the middle and Russian red kale on the right. I would think, yeah, they look nice and fresh from the garden, a few little bug bites on the leaves here and there, no biggy.

This is how big they really are. Now you may have seen them bigger, but this is a first time in real life to see what I have seen online and this size. My hand measures 7” from the wrist to the end of my middle finger, an average hand size. The kale leaf isn’t even the largest one in the patch… Salad from these goes a very long way…lol

Never ever have I seen spinach leaves this big…

Off to make salad….. ;o)

Colour Me Purple

I’ve been saving up pictures of the purple flowers in the garden to show you. The first thing to bloom is the Rosemary. It’s always ready to go when the Mason Bees are hatching out of their cocoons. More on Rosemary in another post, we’ve been giving her a much needed dose of TLC.

Then we have petunias and pansies in our boxes and hanging planters.

There was one lone purple tulip. The picture doesn’t show purple very well, but it was.

My violets put on a good show this year. They grow in a shady place along with the white snowdrop plant I showed you a while ago.

I planted a few new lavender plants this year. One is yellow, the other two are purple. I also have a white and a pink lavender that are working up to their blooming time.  One of the new ones is a Topiary Lavender plant to replace one that I had to take out last fall. It had grown to an amazing 6’ high, but over a number of years, branches kept drying and breaking off, so finally it had to go. Hopefully the new one will grow quickly and fill in the space left behind.

This lavender has been a good one for the past few years and is early to bloom.

Another plant if you have the room and want to attract bees, is comfrey. Some people say it’s a weed and spreads, but it is an herb and does contain many useful nutrients. A bit more info here to see just how beneficial this herb actually is.  We’ve had the same patch growing in a corner for several years and it’s very well contained. If you find they are travelling you can easily pull them out and get them back to a smaller growing space.

The bees love this plant and at the end of the season you can chop it down and put it in the compost and it will add some wonderful nutrition to the compost. Secret of good compost, keep turning it. Don’t you just love the pollen sacks on this bumble bees legs.

Our Ms. Kim Lilac is almost done now, but the fragrance from this reliable plant can be enjoyed from across the yard. It’s a small variety of Lilac that is perfect for small spaces. It only grows to about 5’. It’s not that yet and we’ve had it for about 4 or 5 years. Full of blooms every year and a fragrance that surpasses the size of the plant.

I trim it into a smaller shrub each year and when it blooms the following year, the blooms can be found from the ground to the top and all around. It’s a wonderfully dependable plant.

My perennial geraniums are in full bloom. This one is first to bloom.

This one follows soon after.

A bit of a stretch, but the Kale has purple veins.. ;o~ This type of Kale is very mild compared to the curly kale you find in the grocery stores. If you’ve been put off by what is sometimes a bitter taste, give this variety a try. It’s called Russian Red Kale. Easy easy easy to grow and don’t forget it’s also a good fall crop if your weather allows for that.

And lastly….I can’t forget my purple gardening crocs. Best shoes for the garden. Easy off and on…. maybe I need some purple flowers on the tops ?????  The dahlias are coming along nicely and there is purple there to. No pictures for a while yet, but stay tuned.

Burgundy

My tree peony has bloomed and sadly is on it’s last days. I wait all year from this beautiful flower to show it’s glory and this year was no exception.

From the street they catch peoples eye. The blooms are approx. 10” across with this particular variety. Some have blooms that are a foot across. I miss the one I had like that, it used to stop me in my tracks and made people walking by stop and look to. Mother Nature is so amazing.

From a distance…

Closer…

And down inside…

And there are these pretty bleeding hearts.  They spread a lot and fill the whole area with all their pretty burgundy hearts. This isn’t the type of bleeding heart that grows in a shrub, it’s a shorter variety, about 12 – 14” high and nicely fills in around my ferns and hostas.

One of my other peonies is blooming. I have two types of these cherry colours ones. One is a larger bloom than the other and the plant grows about 3’ high, the other is a shorter growth, about 18” tall,  but the colour is much the same in both.  They make an outstanding bouquet and with only 3 stems. They have a slight fragrance. The next ones to bloom have a stronger perfume. Can’t wait.