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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!

4 replies on “Summer 2010 Recap”

Hi Dave.
You are right about the weather causing some difficulty but we here north of Saskatoon have had the best green yard since moving here in 1981. I have never cut so much grass but I made the comment to my wife one day as we were sitting out having coffee “nearly as green as Ireland”; which it is just not the same green!
This has also been the best year for flowers I have ever seen. And weeds. But I am trying to appreciate the weeds until they are big enough to grab by hand and pull roots and all. This year there are just too many. My favourite tool is the Japanese Hori Hori knife as it is so sharp you can poke down in and cut the dandelion root below the node and it is done. Just need to learn to eat the tops! You can see some of the summer flowers on my Picasa Web Albums. http://picasaweb.google.com/cmmwiebe Glad to see your posts as I have been watching for something new.

This year was my first square foot garden, and it did fairly well, overall. My carrots were AWESOME! My fernleaf dill yielded a good harvest. My turnips were pretty good, too (I picked them before the worms got into them). Lettuce did well, once the cats left them alone. All of the problems I had were due to stray cats and lack of sun. I didn’t get even a single zuccini and two little broccoli heads came late. I’m already looking forward to next year’s garden! I love my square foot garden!

In other parts of my garden, my cherry tomatoes in pots did really well and my peas loved the cooler weather. I grew petunias from seed, for the first time, and they went bonkers — they were awesome. My raspberries didn’t do much, this year. I also bought my first haskap bush, this year. I’m looking forward to the years ahead.

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