Category Archives: Just Photos
Vacationing in the Kootenays
My wife and I just returned from visiting my parents in the Kootenays of British Columbia. Of course, I kept my camera handy and although these pictures aren’t exactly “Alberta Home Gardening” – I thought I’d share them with you.
One of the things that really struck us was how beautiful their road ditches are! They tell me they are all weeds, but man, oh man – they sure look nice! Take a look for yourself…
Nice weeds, eh? Another little bit of nature was this little green itsy bitsy spider that I found on one of my mom’s peonys. Looks a little ferocious, doesn’t he? I’ve never seen any like this in Alberta – and I’m kinda glad.
The last thing I want to show you I think I’ll save for another post. It’s worthy of a whole separate post. So stay tuned…. Especially you entrepreneurs….
Kiwis, Grapes, Blackberries, and More!
In my last post, I took a photo stroll around the yard. But at that time (May 20th), there were quite a few plants that still hadn’t grown enough to have much to show. But now after a long spring, I can show you all the other odd and unusual plants that have finally made an appearance.
But first, an update on my plums! Here is one of about half a dozen Pembina Plums.
Nice, huh? Am I ever excited for these guys! But back to the update… First of all, this is one of my grapes. Its a Marechael Foch Grape – my other one is a Valient. Both are doing nicely so far!
Then, there is my Issai Kiwi – I have two of them as well. I’ve tried growing them twice before. The first time a heavy frost just after planting took them out. The second time was an accidental death that I’d rather not get into!
I also have two Blackberry Vines in the works. This one was just planted this spring – so we’ll have to wait to see how they do over the winter.
I’ve also dug up some Black Raspberry plants from the farm and brought them to our new place. They will be planted along the fence, once the fence gets built! But for now they live in pots.
My cucumbers are doing nice. Just ate the first cucumber of the season yesterday.
And my tomates are happily growing in the greenhouse.
And that’s about it for now. Perhaps next time I’ll update you on whether or not my pole beans have overtaken the corn in which they have been planted! Until then…
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Here’s What’s Growing By the May Long-Weekend
It was way back in in the June of 2008, that I took a Photo Stroll Around the Yard. That’s some time ago, so I figured it was about time to do it again. Of course, now I have a whole new yard to stroll around in! Anyway, here’s some of the things I found growing around the yard…
First of all, my tulips are just starting to open up.
And my raspberries are just starting to show signs of life.
My watermelon is looking just fine. (I haven’t had success with watermelons for about 4 years, so I’m hoping this year will be the one!)
My Borealis Haskap seedlings are doing well. I just got them planted last week.
And I always love seeing the white blossoms cover branches of my plum trees!
And my hostas are just starting to unfurl…
It’s amazing to me how soft the needle/leaves of the larch trees are.
And of course, I wandered over to my neighbors yard and had to take a few pictures there too! They’ve got all kinds of little violas popping up everywhere.
This was one of my favorites so far this spring – sandcherry blossoms in my neighbors yard just about to open!
And finally, bleeding hearts, also growing at my neighbors. (Mine just got planted last week – so they’re a little behind.)
And that’s what things look like around here. Next time around I’ll have to show you my tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, kiwis, and grapes!
A Few More Haskap/Honeyberry Pictures
This morning I made an unexpected discovery. While checking my an email address that I haven’t used for months, I found that my brother-in-law had emailed me some photos that he had taken last June of the haskap/honeyberry plants I had planted at his farm about five years ago. The photos were taken last year, so these plants are four years old. Have a look…
Do you have any pictures of haskap/honeyberries? Post them in your comments below!
Beans & Sunflowers
If you remember way back in the early part of this summer, I told you about interplanting my bean with my corn. Well, it was a terrible year for corn, so I’ve really got nothing exciting to tell you about that. However, what I didn’t mention before was that I also interplanted some scarlet runner beans with my sunflowers. And while neither grew to their full potential due to the poor growing season, I really enjoyed the way they looked together.
(Psssst. Don’t mind my weeds! Also, click these pictures for a clearer picture.)
I had to add some support for the bean vines, since the sunflowers fell way short of the size they should have grown to. Next year I plan to try this again – and perhaps even add some of these beans to my grapevine trellis by the garage.
Summer 2010 Recap
I must say, this has been probably the worst gardening year I’ve ever experienced. The weather has been very unfriendly to gardeners in Alberta. And yet, there is always a silver lining. All is not lost. Gardening in Alberta means making the best of your situation – whatever that may be. So here’s how I made the best of my garden this year.
One major project was to bring in a whole pile of mulch. (And I do mean that very literally.)
My father-in-law brought out a whole grain truck full of mulch that we applied liberally to our planting beds, in our greenhouse, and around our trees. It was a lot of shoveling, but I’m convinced that all that mulch will be worth it.
I also added a few plants to my landscape – plum trees, chum trees, cherry trees, kiwis, and grapes. Here’s some of the grapes.
Although many things in my garden didn’t do so well, the tomatoes prospered (even though they were a bit late.)
So that’s a quick update on my garden this summer. I’ve got a couple of other things brewing, but I’ll tell you about those later!
Sunflowers & Honey Bees
Hi folks! I just wanted to share this picture with you. I snapped it this morning. The bees & wasps have been terrible this year. (“Terrible” as in bothersome when you’re eating lunch outside, but also “terrible” as in lots and lots of bees that are cool to look at as they go about their business.) Anyway, I think it’s a cool picture. What’s your thoughts?
Better Late Then Never
After getting started tremendously late (due to landscaping issues), my garden isn’t looking too bad – all things considered. My corn and beans are growing nice. Peas… not so much. After the birds pecked them to nothing they’ve been slow to recover. I might get a taste, but certainly not anything for the freezer. Carrots…well, let’s just say that their current average height is about one inch. Radishes grew tall, flowered, and had nothing to show for it at the bottom.
But potatoes…. Now they might do something. I’ll at least have a good stock of baby potatoes if nothing else.
Now that my greenhouse is up, my tomatoes are coming along too. I’ve got some good golfball+ tomatoes right now and lots of flowers.
And of course, old reliable. The one that never fails. Rain or shine, sheet or hail. Nothing can stop… the weeds! But at least something is growing. And they’re kinda pretty too.
Hoop Frame Greenhouse in New Zealand
It seems everyone is in the greenhouse building mode! Ok, well, maybe not EVERYONE, but many are. I’m still working on plans for my next greenhouse, but until then I wanted to show you another greenhouse that was built from my plans in my article “How to Build an Inexpensive Hoop-Style Greenhouse“. This one is from Farshid out of New Zealand. It took him three afternoons to build (after work that is), and cost about $200 NZ – that’s about $137 Canadian.
Thanks Farshid! Looks great!
What Kind of Flower Is This?
This is just a quick and simple post asking just one question: What kind of flower is this?
I’ve tried to figure it out by looking at other pictures on the internet. It seems very much like a brown-eyed susan, but it’s missing the dark, dome-shaped center. Is it a daisy of some sort? I couldn’t find any pictures of flowers with exactly the same characteristics.
They were growing in a cluster down by the creek/wetlands just a short distance from our house.
So I’m turning to you for help. If you can identify this flower, please leave your comments. (Or even if you have a wild guess, I’ll take that too!)
