Monthly Archives: July 2012

Transplants: Lily of the Valley

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Chrystal

During my undergraduate degree in Victoria, I lived in a basement suite in Cadboro Bay, in a house with a fabulous garden. The garden was lush and private, and the trees and tall hedges surrounding the yard gave it a … Continue reading →

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Transplants: miniature strawberries

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Chrystal

This is the first of three posts are about “transplants” – plant gifts from other gardeners. These miniature strawberry plants came to us from a garden on Gambier Island. We planted them in the back yard and within two years … Continue reading →

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Compost Rant

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Chrystal

(This post requires a disclaimer. Compost is my favorite gardening topic. I get extremely passionate and opinionated about compost and I can talk about it for hours. You don’t have to indulge me by reading this whole post. Really, you … Continue reading →

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Seven blushing maidens

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Chrystal

Every single time I utter the words “farmers market” in our house, the Man yells “Seven Blushing Maidens!” which is the short version of  “seven blushing maidens selling three heads of lettuce”.  This is how he used to describe the … Continue reading →

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Garlic is almost ready

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Chrystal

When I was small I was one of those people who would open all their Christmas gifts early and then would wrap them up again and pretend to be surprised on Christmas morning. Actually, forget the “small” part…I still do … Continue reading →

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Preparing Fava Beans

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Chrystal

The fava forest is now over six feet tall and the bean pods are are ripening. Although fava plants grow straight up without support, as the pods started to get heavy I had to tie them up so they wouldn’t … Continue reading →

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Saskatoon berries: the taste of summer

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Chrystal

Our Saskatoon berry tree in the back yard has been producing for years, but this is the first year that we’ve been able to pick and eat many of the berries. Since most of the berries are still far out … Continue reading →

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Getting dirty

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Chrystal

In a previous blog I think I mentioned the difference between regular gardening and “Man Gardening”. The resident expert once explained to me that “Man Gardening” is all about dirt, rocks and bark, which usually means cutting things down, cutting … Continue reading →

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Suspiciously slow potatoes…..

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Chrystal

Maybe it’s the lack of sun, but the potatoes plants don’t have much mojo. The plants are small and quite pale, they are growing slowly, and the leaves are full of holes. One of my friends pointed out that since … Continue reading →

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Apples are ripening

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Chrystal

The apples on the tree at the back are starting to get bigger and becoming slightly pink. We seemed to have a very high rate of fertilization this year, and some of the branches have up to eight apples per … Continue reading →

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