Despite the challenges posed by deer, squirrels and jackrabbits, I continue to invest considerable time, energy and money into our yard each year. Over the past 5 years, my pre-planting plans focus on two things: 1) deer/rabbit/squirrel resistance; and 2) attracting and supporting pollinators. While the first objective continues to be a challenge, we're enjoying considerable success on the second front, to the point that most summers we end up tolerating some sort of wasp nest in our yard. Some days in the peak of summer I count 5 or 6 different kinds of bees and wasps staying busy amongst the flowers. Even at the end of October, a couple of honey bees were hard at work in our Cosmos.
Category: Gardening
Our Vegetable Garden
You'd think that in late August we'd be enjoying all sorts of vegetables from our garden. And while we are pulling fresh carrots on regular basis, the state of our 2013 harvest is decidedly mixed. Stars: The spinach, chard and mixed lettuces seeded in late April grew well. Every day for about 5 weeks starting …
Details From Our Garden
I enjoyed some time in our garden this morning. Camera in hand, I paid particular attention to the finer points - instances of refraction, circle geometry, the Fibonacci sequence, surface tension, etc. My photographic efforts were strongly influenced by (mainly social) media coverage of Beakerhead - an upcoming, local, five-day event created to blur the …
Daydreams of Sunshine and Gardening
Our yard is still mostly covered with snow! It's mainly because of last weekend's 48 hours of snowfall. But according to Environment Canada, there are also remnants from our first winter 2012/13 snowfall - more than 150 days ago! So despite a strong urge to be out in the yard, my time in the garden …
Using up the Last of the Apples
In late September we picked about 20 pounds of apples off the little Norland apple tree in our backyard. Although they were pretty good eaten fresh for the first week or 10 days, they soon started to soften up, even though they were stored in the refrigerator. Rather than throw them into the compost, I've …