My Get Up and Go

In the words of Pete Seeger "my get up and go has got up and went". Since August I've ignored the blog because I had lost my motivation and enthusiasm for writing. "Take a break" some of my friends advised but it seemed the more I was away from writing, the less inclined I was to go back to it. "What more can I write about that I haven't already written" I thought. Am I missing the point...why did I start the blog? That reason was based on keeping a journal for me to refer to, and to share my experiences growing our garden on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. Along the way, I met some wonderful people; the garden was photographed and published in two magazines and also a book. Who knew that could happen simply by making connections, sharing with others what is very personal, our own garden and what it means to me, to our family. Pete Seeger continues to sing, "but in spite of it all, I'm able to grin, and think of the places my get up has been". It has been a wonderful, and truly fulfilling joy, this blog. So, readers, I am loath to give it up.

The new year has begun with optimism. Last year was a difficult one but now, I am happy to say, or at least hopeful in saying, my Get up and Go, is improving. There's always something to write about when you have a three to four season garden. Even now, with snow on seedheads left for birds, beans that were never harvested and memories visited when looking at the bird bath not brought in, but forgotten, it is a beauty to behold.

Outside, the sun is shining so bright, the sky is 'hurt your eyes blue' and the snow is covering every seedhead and branch; fencepost and leaf.

But I know it will awake before I know it, and meanwhile, I will start growing pea shoots in pots, sprouts in a jar and plant Egyptian onion bulbs on the window sill to snip the fresh green growth. I will find primroses in the shops to brighten my January, and later, cut forsythia to force. And yes, I've written about this all before but perhaps that doesn't matter. Perhaps, what matters is that writing brings back the joy it always did, and to just put bum to chair and "write something for Heavens Sake!"

Reds in the August Garden

My favourite red in the garden...tomatoes! Finally, they are ripening and we are enjoying juicy open faced sandwiches for lunch most days now. The last few years I've stopped growing a lot of the heirloom varieties we loved because of  late blight. Now, I grow early cropping bush types like Scotia, which was developed here in Nova Scotia and Sub-Arctic Plenty was has an interesting history. Developed in the 1940's to provide the US Air Force stationed in Greenland with fresh tomatoes, it has a unique ability to set fruit early under cool conditions. Good news for me. I do have a few cherry tomatoes, like Tumbling Tom in a container, and a good size Mexico Midget which was never touched by the late blight in years past, so I grow that also. The fruit are the size of blueberries and packed with flavor.

The weather has changed, with the clear skies of autumn, and cool overnight yet quite lovely and hot the last few days. So the other reds that are in the garden, in the flower beds, are looking very handsome and give the eyes a real boost. Crocosmia has survived three years now, only marginal where I am (Zone 6), and this year its outdone itself. The hummingbirds are enjoying it also, as their preferred flower, Scarlet Monarda has just about finished.

There's another plant in the flowerbed that is a long bloomer and also marginally hardy here so it doesn't become invasive. It is Persicaria Firetail and although not tomato red, it is another plant that makes the August and September garden glow.

We are eating beans, both the French Filet and the climbing, white Blancoma and red Cylinder beets, carrots and a fresh crop of arugula and mixed greens...perfect for those tomato sandwiches! Overdid it with the pumpkins, Acorn squash and Blue Hubbard squash, which is climbing over everything even the asparagus that's gone to fern. Rather wild looking here right now. The deer visited one night so we lost a lot of the leaves on the trellised beans but they are recovering. Sigh...where did August go?

Mid July Already?

June disappeared. It almost seems it didn't arrive, and then came July with sunshine, warmth and a hurricane reminding us to not get too comfortable. The robin and chicks windvane took a beating but we think we can fix it. One of the industrial windows in the roof of the Red Shed cracked and so we will have to work on that as well....likely remove it although only one of the triple panes are broken. So far, it's been quite a ride into summer.

Every year in a garden, is different. I can depend on insects eating my germinating beans until the first week of July and then, they are left alone. There are other things I can depend on as well, indestructible rhubarb will uncurl from the soil, plantain will grow in the lawn, and clover will blanket the rest. Chipmunks will eat at least half of the tulip bulbs after they have died back and that one and only night we forget to bring in the bird feeders, the raccoons will saunter through the yard keeping us awake as they scream and fight over the seeds.

This year, another wet but cooler year, has seen a leap in the perennial bed that surrounds the vegetable garden, especially in the front.

What should be a pleasing mound of perennial geraniums, daylilies and baptisia, is simply a solid wall each plant fighting to gain dominance. It looks a bit too messy for me, so perhaps some division is in order. Certainly a good grooming. What I've also noticed this year, is a bloom growing on our Yucca! Now we have not seen a bloom for at least four years so there's no telling what a new garden year will bring.

As for the veg garden, well we are getting lots of peas right now, although the hurricane did it's best to lay them low. Put in bondage they are happy again.

The weather has been very good for the lettuce varieties but I must say, Tom Thumb lettuce has to be one of my very favourite, tolerates high temperatures when mature and resists bolting better than larger varieties. These below need thinning.

Thinking an old packet of Dwarf Blue Curled Kale from 2008 wouldn't germinate but not willing to waste the packet without trying...well we have had great success. As it was in the raised bed and covered, it's grown quite well and only now are we starting to see a few green caterpillars on it.

All and all, it is shaping up to be a good growing season here in our South Shore Garden in Nova Scotia. Soon our thoughts will be turning to what to plant out mid August for fall crop, extending the season in the raised beds. Better yet though, fingers crossed no blight...we should soon have ripe tomatoes. How wonderful that will be.

Happy Gardening!

What's Growing? Asparagus!

Two harvests so far, and oh, how deeply and deliciously wonderful! FRESH and green vibrate words of spring!

Would you like to know my asparagus 'story'. It begins on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia about 29 years ago. We were caretaking a farm, a little baby boy made three. Making ends meet was a challenge but we did okay. Captain was working on the B.C. Ferries..I was at home mom. That farm...we didn't know what we were doing to be truthful. One day, Cap brings in this stick thing..'what's this'. I kinda thought I saw it in the grocery store maybeeee....and remember, there was no 'home' computer back then..no google. But they were sticking up in a row in a small field covered with grass, and somehow, we thought they might be 'something' to eat. The farm owner came by on the weekend and when we showed him the spears he said..."you mean that old asparagus field my dad planted twenty years ago is still producing".  AHem..asparagus..twenty years ago??? What do I do with this? Good old "Joy of Cooking". First taste was not snapped off in the garden bed like I would do now, but steamed, then cooled, then rolled in processed ham slices, placed in a dish and topped with sour cream, sprinkled with blue cheese and baked till melty. WE honestly thought there was no other food on this earth to compare. Asparagus..we love you.

When we moved here to our Nova Scotia quick draining (sandy) garden thirteen years ago, first thing we did was put in an asparagus bed with twenty something son's help. Dug the trench, filled base with a load of manure, built up a sand hill under each root stem, roots spreading out nicely, and covered it over. Every year, we enriched it with more manure. Well the bed is going on fourteen years old now, still producing. I wonder if someday, when we are gone from here, will a young naive couple say..."what's this?. Looks like something good to eat". What are those sticks?

Update:  Captain says he did remember his British born dad eating canned asparagus but couldn't think those spears were the same thing ;-)

Optimism of Spring

While it's been a long winter here in Nova Scotia, Canada, I do think...we are experiencing 'the change'. Gosh, that sounds like a menopause statement...but there are comparisons. The move from a time of life to another, although I do not think the drake and his missus below know anything about menopause. While I do!! But they do know, it is time to chose a mate, and to show her around the neighbourhood.

For the last few years, he's brought a significant other to our garden, only at this time of year. I feel he is saying..."well, here's the pond....and you have a nice feast under the bird feeders, quiet neighbourhood. Now, what about making some healthy babies". He is very attentive and very handsome. Actually, this is the first time we've had an amount of water they could paddle in and around the raised beds. Made my day just watching their loving attention to each other and his pride.

Yesterday was full of sunshine; 'let the raking begin'. Bulbs were freed from their leaf layer. Oh what a difference a day makes not just to the garden, but to the heart and the body. Yes, it aches today but in a good way.

I discovered accidentally that broad beans can take an incredible amount of cold if you have a cold frame. Already mine are showing wonderful growth, and the seeds only went in the ground a week or so ago.

I soak them a bit inside, till I just see them sprouting and on the first decent day, tuck them in the raised bed covered with a cold frame top (seen above with ducks), as the soil is usually loose and warm. Still frozen down below though. But those broad beans take like a duck to water. Amazing. Starting them early gives you a head start on avoiding the black aphid that loves them. These are dwarf broad beans so really looking forward to see how they preform.