Canada Day Weekend 2011

Yay for long weekends!

It hasn’t been a great summer so far, the weather has been gloomy and depressing. But, if this is what we’re going to get, I will try to make the best of it.

Local strawberries have been in the stores for the past couple of weeks. What says summer like strawberry shortcake? We had our fix this weekend.

Friday & Saturday I was mostly busy in the house during the day, but spent the evenings out in the garden. Sunday I was determined to finish, so I spent the morning and the late afternoon outside. I’m not 100% finished, but I’ve done enough that if I don’t manage the rest, I’ll still be content.

It’s pretty out there right now, so it was pleasant to spend time outside. These photos were taken last night between 8:90 – 9:00, so the light wasn’t the best, but they came out not too bad.

Starting from the corner by the gate, I have six tomato plants in containers.

There are more tomatoes along the back of the veggie garden, and pepper plants along the front. I seem to have a hard time growing peppers in the ground out here; I’ve covered them with domes for now, hoping that will help them get established. I’ve also got some herbs, carrots, peas, beans, and sunflowers planted. Hoping it is not too late for the seeds to grow.

Last year I experimented with potato tubs, which worked out very well – more potatoes growing there at the end of the veggie garden. This year’s experiment is upside down tomato planters. I am a little concerned over how well the plant hangers are going to hold up. Every spot in the yard that I tried, I ran into rock trying to set up the hangers – just hoping I am not going to walk out one morning and find them on the ground.

The lilac bush that I had on the end here finally gave up this year. My Mom brought it from her garden at home – I think the year we moved into our house? She actually brought two – a white and a purple. For the first couple of years they were chewed on by the deer. When we put up the cat fence I had to dig them up and move them and they were not in particularly good shape. I had sort of a straggly line along the inside of the fence, so when we had the vegetable bed put in, we also had a bed dug along the fence and the poor lilac bushes were moved again. They never really had a chance.

So I gave in and bought one on Sunday, along with a couple of high bush blueberries for Cory. I had to do a bit of weeding along the fence. While I was at it, I dug up tulip bulbs. I planted them a few years ago and the first spring they came up and were lovely. Since then, they’ve tried to grow – I would get leaves but no blooms. So I moved them. I was in a rush by the time I got to doing that, so I’m hoping for the best.

I had a few annuals to plant as well, so did that on Sunday. I’ve still got some herbs that need to be transplanted. Not sure whether I will get around to planting any lettuce – the slugs & snails are really bad this year anyway, with all the rain we’ve had.

After a weekend of sun & cloud, it rained again today. I’m okay with that – it means I didn’t need to go out and water. The city is doing work on the water system tonight, so we are without water from 7pm to 7am tomorrow. We’re supposed to get sun for the next  couple of days, which my poor garden could really use.

I also got some solar lights this weekend, but I think this post has gotten long enough, so I’ll save that for another day.

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