Sunday, July 26, 2015

Working on a neglected corner of the yard

 
This part of my yard is the area the wood chips and manure gets dumped and it has looked pretty awful for the past year while the garden project progressed. I am working on these areas that need some love and beautifying. It may look unsightly while chips are there, but once they are spread I will clean it up from now on. I have pulled out a lot of the grass clumps that were there and levelled everything. I will spread out from there to clean the whole area. Here are some pictures of this corner partially cleaned up.
 
 
 
 

Friday, July 24, 2015

Blackberry Day !!


My HUGE Mason Cash bowl full of blackberries.
 
Amanda had the day off and I took the day off. What was the occasion? Blackberries have ripened a month early this year. We went to our favorite picking spot and ran into our friend Karen. It was so much fun. We picked for a couple hours. We got scratched...we laughed...we marvelled at the sheer numbers of berries there are this year. I picked enough to make two batches of jam and more to freeze. Amanda is freezing hers and she made a Blackberry Cobbler...they brought me a piece and it is delicious.

 

 

Thursday, July 23, 2015

My first fig!!

This is my first ever fig. It is a Negronne Fig. It was chosen to be a real figgy tasting fig. Suitable for fig jam or preserves. I am going to eat it tomorrow.

 

Friday, July 17, 2015

Lovely sunset tonight.


We had the most beautiful sunset in Sidney tonight. I was sitting in my 'ugly chair' and looking toward the east. I noticed the sky was quite pinky orange. Jeez, if it's orange in the east, what does the sunset look like....well, just like this. It was breathtaking.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

I think the potted herbs will look great here.

This area by the fence is one of the 'patio's' that I created between gardens. Raked smooth so that they are easy to walk on. There is quite a large one by the fence in the back corner. I was sitting and pondering it. It is right by a cedar hedge so nothing will grow there. I realized that it would be perfect for potted plants. So I popped the potted herbs there. I think they brighten up that area nicely. I will add more.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Pruning Fall Gold Raspberry bushes

Before pruning
 
I knew that the yellow leafed canes probably meant it was time to prune the Fall Gold Raspberries. I found a post by Tom at Tall Clover Farm that detailed raspberry pruning. Coincidentally we grow the exact same type of raspberries, so even easier.
Fall Gold is a fall fruiting raspberry that will fruit in late spring as well. So it is also called an ever-bearing raspberry. As you are harvesting the early wave of fruit in the spring/summer, you will notice them fading gradually and the leaves turning pale and yellow. At the same time you will have all kinds of new beautiful green canes growing now. You can really see this in the picture above. I already see little buds forming on the ends of some of these new canes. Those will be the fall berries. That means the yellow leafed and brown canes are ready to cut out. They will bear no more fruit. Cut low.
 
After pruning
 
After pruning
 
When the fall wave of fruit is done, you will leave the canes. They will bear the spring/summer fruit next year. Then when they are done in the spring, they will be yellowish and brown caned. And we have come full circle. Rinse and repeat.

 

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Wood chips on the move...so much nicer to walk on now.

There was an awful lot of wood chips in areas that are too close to the hedge to grow anything, so rather than running a path through the area, I thought, let's create another 'patio' like I did in front of the greenhouse. It is a raked area that only has fine wood chips so that they are easier to walk on and much nicer looking. So today I started moving yards of wood chips from the back hedge area. I then moved the wood chips into the actual garden area. Then I kept raking the new 'patio' area until it was level and nice to walk on. I am not quite done, but you can see how it's going.





 

Monday, July 06, 2015

Grapevine now on wires and Raspberry's wired as well.

 
The Niagara Grapevine before. It was literally tied to the post. Today was the day.
 

 
 
This is the after. There is the odd rogue vine that may not look quite right? That means it has grapes on it and I wasn't cutting them off.
 
 
Here is our clothesline and rebar raspberry support.
 
 
Here is a closeup of the connectors. Allan had these figured out right away.
 
These are the supplies we used:
 
 

 

Sunday, July 05, 2015

BC Forest Fires giving Sidney an apocalyptic look.

This is Sidney BC. There is no filter..it really looks like this. I had to come inside, my lungs are stinging.

 





Thursday, July 02, 2015

Part 6...The Back to Eden Garden...Year One Photos

I will be adding pictures to this post throughout this first season in the Back to Eden garden. If you find BTE gardening as intriguing as I do, check this post periodically for new pictures.