Flowers and a mocked up shade house for the smaller orchids

 

 

A few tattered but unusual coloured Bee Balms for the gardens. Look at my sisters enormous bright pink geranium in the greenhouse. It is at least three feet across.

 

 

I have taken an old oversize Hawaiian beach towel, draped it over top of the greenhouse and down through the vent/window to create shade for these two small and newly transplanted orchids. It is crude, but is working.

Pruning fruit trees and thinning fruit

I had planned on not thinning fruit at all, just like Paul Gautschi. In his Back to Eden documentary he talks about how the weight of the fruit pulls the trees down into what I call the Halloween tree shape. I found one of the branches on one of my smaller apple trees, snapped and barely attached. I made a clean cut and then realized just how heavy the apples were. So I thinned out some of the apples on the branches that looked most at risk.

 

 

I then moved on to the very overgrown Japanese Shiro Plum. I cut it back to the size it was at the beginning of last year. Frankly, I just got lazy and didn't keep up with it last year. It sure looks better now. I knocked quite a bit of fruit off doing it, but it will be worth it.

 

 

I then pruned a few rogue branches off the fruit trees. Oh what a beautiful time in the garden. I've missed it the past few weeks.

Lots of raspberries for us this year

Raspberries are my favorite food. My huge planting of Tulameen Raspberries has kept us in big bowls of berries every day for desert.

 

 

I also love pesto, so I planted some basil in the hottest place in the yard. In a black pot on the deck where nothing will grow because of the temperature.

My mother...my Thrifting Guru

 

 

I am in awe of my mother's thrifting gift. She finds the most amazing treasures. This week she found a mint condition set of three Clear Pyrex Checks and Cherries bowls. They are rare and worth about $200.00 CDN.

And blooming this week

Delphinium blooming

Buddleia or Butterfly Bush

A fringy Shasta Daisy, love these

 

Cutting Lavender

 

I am cutting, bunching and hanging lavender to dry. I am going to take it to the store to sell. I may hang it to dry in the store...I love the way it looks like a little old French flower shop. Don't you love the different colours I have.

Citrus mystery solved

You may remember that the Meyer Lemon has had a rough go of it for several years. Always very pale to almost white at times. Here is a reminder.

So this year with all of the citrus looking pale and yellow, I figured it out. When I originally got the lemon, I transplanted it. It grew like crazy, looked amazing and produced lots of lemons. It was so much fun. I developed a problem with spider mites. The trees never seemed to recover. So this spring, I went to the greenhouse and was admiring the citrus when it hit me. The pots are about three feet across, but the tree tops were about five feet across. There was not nearly enough root for the tops. I got my pruners and drastically pruned it back. To a size that was a bit smaller than the pot width. They are now dark green, growing like crazy and flowering. So that took me about, what, five years to figure out.

Meyer Lemon

This is the Owari Satsuma Orange. It was not cut back. Next spring for sure.

Bearrs Lime

 

Black Krim and Old German tomatoes are in!!

I did not grow very many tomato plants this year. I always overdo. I love that I can grow bedding plants that look better than the garden centres and that is how I end up with flats full. I only had to plant two Black Krim and two Old German, two Sungolds to go in still and I have a few to take to family members. I planted the zucchini, my sister's White Custard Pattypan and my Butternuts.

What do you think of this trellis system? I came up with it on the fly. Normally I place the poles straight up, but the ground is already too dry and hard.

Five years old today!!! Can you believe it?

This blog is five years old today. Can you believe it? I can't.

Thank you being along for the ride my friends.