Alberta Home Gardening » Just Photos

Sunflowers & Honey Bees

Dave — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:23:59 +0000

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

Dave — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:45:45 +0000

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

Dave — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:45:56 +0000

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?

Dave — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:07:07 +0000

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!)

Baby Potatoes Have Arrived

Dave — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:58:52 +0000

I’ve been wrong before – and I’ll be wrong again. Just last week I wrote a post regarding baby potatoes. I had dug around gently in my straw looking for some potatoes, but only found a little pea-sized spud. I then declared at the end of my post that I would not be eating baby potatoes for at least a couple of weeks.

I was wrong.

I enjoyed my first meal of baby potatoes this afternoon. I even had a fresh carrot to go with them. I’m not sure if those potatoes grew that much in a week or if I just didn’t look hard enough the first time. But there they were. So if you’ve planted some potatoes this year, go ahead. Gently dig around in the dirt (or straw) and see if you can snag one or two. Because, by George, they sure are tasty.

Greenhouse Update

Dave — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:31:46 +0000

Remember the article I wrote back in May about How To Build An Inexpensive Hoop-frame Greenhouse? Well, my mother-in-law (who is greatly enjoying her Mother’s Day present), took some pictures of the things she has growing in there. So I thought I’d share them here to further inspire you to build your own greenhouse next year.

Tomatoes down the length of the greenhouse

Roma Tomatoes

Beefsteak Tomatoes

Zucchini

Beans

Watermelon

Peppers

Inspired yet?

Oh, and incidentally… I just visited my brother’s A-frame greenhouse, built in the same style as my plasticless A-frame greenhouse, and it’s doing beautifully. He used the woven poly from Northern Greenhouse Sales and it’s showing no signs of wear. I am absolutely going with their plastic next year.

A Photo Stroll Around The Yard

Dave — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:22:18 +0000

This evening I took a walk around my yard with my little girl and my camera. We planted a few potatoes in an old dirt pile (for lack of garden space and having extra seed potatoes), planted a couple of cucumbers and transplanted a few tomatoes (left over from Grandma’s greenhouse), caught a frog and watched a giant beetle, and through it all – took lots of pictures. So here are a few highlights – at least the ones that were in focus…

The Garden

Our journey started in the garden where the peas are starting to pop up. This is the spot that was lawn last year, so I’m thinking it may be a bit grassy/weedy this year.

Our raspberries that we transplanted last year are coming along.

The sunflowers have made their appearance.

The squash is a little nervous about showing it’s face.

My pumpkin, hit by frost on May 26th, may actually recover.

The Yard

The mosquitoes are out enjoying the blossoms of my Ethel Pink Mayday.

This ladybug posed for us on the tip of a Tiger Lily.

We quickly snapped this picture of this bumble bee before it buzzed off.

The Pasture

These buffalo beans grow all around this area.

These shooting stars are scattered around the wetlands.

None of my close-up shots worked very well, but these little purple wildflowers sure looked pretty – even the dandelions seemed to fit in.

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures almost as much as I did taking them. Oh wait, let me show you one more. It’s my favorite, but I’m biased…