No matter the language, my garden is my paradise. To watch the lovely birds that nest in the trees and bushes. The bees, butterflies are such a joy to see.
My garlic crop is growing so very nicely, thanks to the chopped oak leaf mulch, the seaweed (that D & I gathered through the seasons!) and the EM (magic stuff, really).
The hardnecks are just gigantic and I’ve been harvesting the scapes .. some of which I’ve chopped up and put in the freezer for later stir-fries and some I’ve made into pesto .. oh, my goodness .. very garlic-y! And really, the scapes have grown so early on this crop .. I’m sure that last year that they didn’t arrive till much later.
Stepping back . .here is a view of my garlic crop .. I’ve planted them in rectangles this year, and should have made the paths between them wider than I did .. guess I got a little greedy in wanting to plant more garlic!
A little Golden Crowned Sparrow was walking through the garlic forest ..
I am so looking forward to harvesting this crop …
Finding tiny objects from the seaweed .. so I decided to decorate the garlic leaves .. pretty, hey?
The great, ah, scape .. ha ha
A little Robin goes hunting in the garlic forest …
I mixed up a batch of garlic scape pesto .. no recipe .. just roughly chopped up the scapes, tossed into the trusty Braun food processor, added lots of olive oil, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds .. finely grated Parmesan cheese … yummmmmmm… very delicious. Using an ice-cream scoop, soon filled a parchment covered cookie sheet .. into the freezer for a while .. and then ..
Filled up a ziplock bag and in the freezer .. ready to toss into soups, stews, spaghetti, sandwiches .. sheer heaven ..
Young Anna’s … so very sweet ..
Welcome visitors .. I just know these babies have hatched somewhere in our little forested yard ..
My deluxe greenhouse .. an airplane windshield .. so very perfect …
I’ve planted these coffee sacks with potatoes … interesting to see how many potatoes I will get. There are also some volunteer potatoes that I missed digging out .. so happily I will have many potatoes this year. I heard about growing potatoes in burlap bags, so this is my version of that idea. I put the bags inside sturdy garbage bags, with holes punched in the bottom for drainage. And as the plants grow, I’ll unroll the tops and add more soil.
As a matter of fact .. that is what I am going to do right now .. change into my gardening clothes and run .. well. … .first I”ll brew some more tea and then I’ll rush outside!!
Just sharing some colourful photos of beautiful fall scenery around here.
I love watching the brightly hued leaves swirling about .. carpeting the ground, adorning the bare branches of trees.
Birds chirping about .. happy to visit the suet block and flit about the yard.
This is truly a time of the year to wind down the outdoor chores and spend relaxing time enjoying the activities that are happening all around us.
I’ve been spending a lot of time potting up my plants … using the rich crumbly soil from composted areas to fill up the pots. Nice fat earthworms have toiled in the soil, making it easy to work with.
My lovely kale plants are doing well and I’ve slowly been moving them to the side of the yard, to mingle in with the regular perennials that are already in place. Adding lots of the lovely composted soil so they will grow big and strong. My gardening neighbour tells me that kale loves this rainy chilly fall weather and so I expect we will have enough kale to last us through to the spring.
We’ve enjoyed a wonderful sunny day and this brought back memories of our short but hot and sunny summer. Lovely memories.
And the time change .. fall back one hour .. made this day seem like a very long and productive one.
I finally started potting up those sprouted garlic seeds and I must say that the garlic odour is quite intensive. More so than the cloves. I started putting these sprouts into propagating cells, but realized that, since the greens are growing now, it would be best to just pot these into a planter and then just clip the greens. The balance of the seeds that have not yet sprouted .. well, there are about a million of them. And I don’t look forward to potting them all up . .so .. I might just scatter them in the background of the perennials. And wait to see what happens.
Is there such a thing as too much garlic? I wonder.
I’ve been collecting oak leaves .. have amassed quite a collection .. and tomorrow I’ll see if I can run my little lawn mower over some of them ..just to see if I can break them down a bit. Fingers crossed.
Walking around the yard, I can see roses still blooming, tiny sunflowers continuing to flower. Lots of apples to pick. Lettuce still growing in their pots. Rosemary is still flowering. Lots of beautiful activity in the garden.
The crows were not pleased with the presence of the Great Blue Heron on “their” roof!
Last week on one of those rainy/sunny days, I decided to use my Cannor’s Nursery gift card, the one that DH gave to me for my recent birthday. I wandered around outside, not many people there, just enjoyed the ambience of the proximity of thousands of plants. Wondering which ones would be coming home with me. Suddenly, the sound of crows cawing away directed my attention to the top of a nearby roof.
I watched for minutes while one crow in particular tried to scare the Great Blue Heron away from the roof.
So this one particular crow tried scare tactics .. but the Heron just yawned and continued preening.
The crow would fly up and then swoop down on the Heron, but the Heron just ignored him and continued his grooming.
Beautiful water flowers at Cannors Nursery
These flowers attract insects for fine dining .. I believe. Quite beautiful in their arrangement.
And it was a rainy day, perfect for wandering the garden nursery
Aren’t the glistening drops of rain beautiful . . transforming the leaves into amazing natural works of art .. finer than any jewel could ever by. Fashioned by Mother Nature.
Ok, this photo was from last week .. lovely skies
The beautiful blue skies from last week .. the clouds were constantly changing shape and so I was busy clicking away, taking little breaks from planting my lovely garlic. I love the skies and am constantly looking upwards, there is so much to see. Always. And thus the beauty.
One little block of garlic ready to be nestled in for the winter
Here is one little block of garlic. I dug little trenches, put in the cloves, pointy side up. Then watered them well with EM. Next, I carefully covered the cloves with soil.
After the soil was spread over the cloves, next came a layer of seaweed/grasses
Then I covered them with a thick layer of seaweed. Which D & I gathered over the summer months. Followed by a cover of dried sea grasses. (All of the grass was washed up by the tides, gathered gratefully and dried in the sunshine) A lovely blanket for the garlic.
Sigh ..
Sigh says it all!
One of my recent “treasures” found in a thrift shop, for my garden
When D & I went for our seaweed gathering, we began to add little routines to our day. When we began, we would collect spent seaweed, then we would go to a nearby cafe for lunch. We started adding variety to our trips a few weeks ago. This included a visit to the Casino
I collected my $5 Birthday voucher, and then she chose the machine. It was Egyptian, of course! Every time the points would increase, the costumed guard of the tomb would do a pretend arm “dance” ..so we giggled quite a bit at that! Wisely, she suggested that I cash out, once my winnings were at $19. So I did. But then, I put in $10 and when that rose to $18, the reminder was given again, and so I cashed out again! Actually walked away from the Casino with cash! Usually on my Birthday $5 vouchers, I just make my yearly visit, spend the $5 in less than 10 minutes and walk away. So I was quite pleased to walk away with more than I started with!.
Anyway, next we visited the local St. Vincent de Paul. Oh, my, and thus began a series of “must have” purchases for home. Above, is the garden mirror that looks great outside, leaning against a tree.
Then, I bought a cat scratching recliner thingy for JaneE. Beautiful decanters and bottles. Lovely.
One of my plant purchases at Cannors Nursery
One of my recent purchases for the garden!
Lovely Canna Lilies
Including a gorgeous pot of Canna Lillies!
ha ha ,, DH, adjusting the labelling of my oat bran!
So I opened up the kitchen pantry doors a few days ago and saw this and thought “Goat Bran” .. oh, DH was having fun changing the wording of my “Oat Bran“. 🙂
D’s 3rd crop of basil, from the same plants! The magic of EM!
And, oh, wow .. this shows the power of EM! D had bought this pot of basil, kept it in the same soil. Added EM .. and this is the third crop of basil that she has gathered. And the same soil, now totally enriched with the EM. Are you sold on this EM yet? 🙂
D’s little tomato plant, soldiering on, still bearing fruit, despite the weather! (EM!!)
And this is one of the famous four tomato plants. The plants grown from the same seed as last year, small bushy plants. This year, D watered them with EM. Results were towering plants, a crop of way over 400 tomatoes from 4 plants. And this plant is still growing. Leaves and fruit are smaller, but still .. power to the EM! And beyond.
D’s yellow tomato .. quite the interesting shape.
And D always is finding unusual fruits and veggies in her wanderings. Here is one example of a strangely shaped tomato! Like a quadruple tomato, eh?
Oh, Duncan, our little darling …
Darling little Duncan .. he’s wandering around the yard .. and he doesn’t like the camera!.
Well, I just wanted to share some photos from last week and yesterday. To show my garlic, finally planted. I created some rectangular areas in the garden and tried to plant one type per section. So I have mostly hardnecks, and I’ll be collecting the scapes next summer for more garlic pesto.
I planted the golf size and larger round bulbs in one section. So looking forward to see the results next year! And then the gigantic elephant garlic. Lots of garlic. And I saved one block for some winter veggies . .must go looking for some.
My lovely gardening neighbour has given me more Dragon kale, so I’ll be planting that soon.
I’ve been feeding my pear tree (the one with the pear trellis rust) with lots of seaweed solution and placed a fair amount of actual seaweed at the base. And sprayed the branches as best as I could with the liquid seaweed.
After wonderful advice from the Gaia Community Board, I’ve been reminded that “healthy plants don’t get sick” … of course, now I remember that from my Organic Master Gardening Course, Gaia College!! I’ve also learned that what I thought was the root stock of a plum-tree is actually pear stock. So much to learn, how exciting. We’d planted this tree about 30 years ago, so I forgot what it was. 🙂
D and I have been adding activities to our seaweed gathering days. These now include 3 thrift shops! Oh my. I’ll post the pictures of my recent treasures tomorrow. I think there are enough photos for today.
So today I tried a new way of posting photos. And I will revert back to the slideshow method tomorrow. As this posting of photos, one by one, just takes so much more time, and I’m the kind of person who wants to get on with things.
Anyway, I’m back to blogging.
So much more to talk about. Including, ta da .. .another gardening course! This one is Ecological Landscaping .. so I’ll be talking about that as I go along. It starts Oct 31 and ends Dec 8 .. so another whirlwind session of learning is about to start. Two sessions a week, 3 hours each.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these photos and tomorrow I will post pics of the crashing waves at Sooke and the pics of my recent purchases!
Now .. on to either gardening or decluttering. Wonder which will win out?
So Friday started out overcast .. but I could see the sun way up high, working hard to fight through the overcast layers and before long it had succeeded and the day turned out to be sunny.
And I enjoyed the look of one of my newly painted found objects. A little plastic table, found on D’s and my little adventure day on Wednesday. Transformed with some flat black spray paint .. now ready to be used somewhere in the garden.
A large plant pot, painted green with gold overtones .. I think I’ll add more green paint and will post a pic … then there is a metal filigree plant holder, painted black .. looks kind of cool and I’ll post a pic tomorrow of that. One of those funky things that looks good in a garden.
Played around with my garlic crop .. separating them into baskets. I saved the largest cloves for planting this year, in another month .. my gardening neighbour plants garlic mid-October and I’ll follow her lead.
Besides, right now there are some squash plants sprawling all over the area where I plan to grow the garlic and i want to give these plants some time to produce some squash!
Patience!
Then I sorted garlic to be given away .. and some to be sent to my sister .. oh, and some for me to use also!
A basket of garlic that hadn’t a covering on their cloves .. guess I dug them up too early .. more patience needed for next year, it seems.
Finally, a little basket of garlic seeds and one of those little yellow bulbets .. I’ll put some in pots and see if I can grow garlic greens for eating now!
I tried an experiment that I saw posted all over Pinterest, that of re-growing green onion greens. It’s magic! Day one, there were little new shoots and now, day three, they are growing larger.
Now, today, I will separate them into two groups and in one jar I will add some EM .. just to see what the difference will be.
And I bought these green onions from a local greenhouse, so, no chemicals!! Yeah.
So that was pretty much my gardening time yesterday .. and I plan to continue today.
Time to plant the Dragon kale that my gardening neighbour gave me …. this type turns blue in the sun and stays green in the shade. Lovely, I say. I’m really loving this kale and have fun just clipping away the lower leaves when I need some for a meal. Fun in the garden.
Well .. time to go outside and plant those kale plants … 🙂
I don’t know why I have begun to type November instead of August for the past few days! Maybe in November I’ll start typing August! The mind/hand/keyboard connection is a vicarious one!
Yesterday, time moved very slowly .. I really wanted to do so much in the garden but the motivation just wasn’t there … I think part of this was due to the fact that I really want to do so much and then things just start to pile up in my mind and I just need to erase my mental list and just focus on what I’m doing.
So after lunch and a few cups of Yorkshire tea, I did that. And felt much calmer and more energized. Sheesh . .I’m turning myself into my very own person bossy-boss .. time to stop that game!
I focused on one of my side gardens .. I’m so proud of that! I’ll post a picture, but really want to show the before and after … in order to truly appreciate the transformation.
A few years ago I’d planted a row of little cedars and they have been growing nicely .. except that 2 of them had grown too close to each other and there was a gap between the next one in the row. I debated whether or not to leave them as they are until the fall, when the weather is cooler. But .. I’m feeling a little cocky now that I have lots of EM .. so I decided to dig up the one little cedar and move it over a bit.
Lovely root system .. I carefully dug out an area and gently planted it. And braced it up with a length of tubing and tied it with a string .. to guide it to grow straight. Looked at it this morning and it’s looking happy. Fingers crossed.
Lucky me .. I was digging up and moving another plant when I saw something shiny tangled up in the roots. It was a little marble all nestled in the middle of the root system! So it appears that I’m not the only one with an eye for sparkly things! This plant also collects them! Nice surprise, that was.
Went to check on my lovely garlic, drying underneath the sundeck. And … what do I see!!! Two scapes growing happily in their corkscrew manner .. one sporting a lovely flower and the other one has gone beyond that, into seed mode.
Oh, how they must have chuckled to themselves .. they were able to avoid my search for them, so I could make garlic scape pesto! The funny ways of things that grow add to the allure and mystery of nature and growing things.
Noticed Youbou & JaneE having a staring match .. cute to watch them. They are so similar in personality and size. Very sweet.
Not exactly sure where I’m going to place my masterpiece of a raised bed .. somewhere in a sunny spot. And I’ll plant some lettuce !!
The tomatoes are still growing and flowering. I know that I should remove some of the flowers, there are too many for the length of the growing season left, but just can’t bring myself to do that.
Sunday was quite the day .. with the skies changing from overcast, cloudy …to bright and sparkling blue .. decorated with quite a beautiful changing series of amazing clouds. So I spent some time just admiring the scenery and clicking away.
It was also a lazy day .. we are usually away on the weekends, but the weather wasn’t the best for flying .. so it was stay at home for us. I don’t mind these types of weekends. Lots of time to just not rush around .. time to slow down and enjoy. So we did.
Outside, looking around the yard, amazed at the changes brought about by the addition of the EM to the garden. Never have the fruit trees bore so much fruit. I am so very very happy that I took the Organic Master Garden course (Gaia college) .. it totally changed my way of gardening forever.
And the “shifting of paradigms” as noted at the beginning of the course is so true .. my view of gardening has gone in a whole new direction. I am aware now of the worlds beneath my feet .. the living beings that inhabit the soil and transform it into a healthy growing medium for plants. Healthy soil = healthy plants. And as I gaze around my yard I see the proof.
More about that on a later date. Today I just want to share the joy that I feel as I walk around my garden.
I’ve made enquiries about where to have the bountiful crop of apples transformed into lovely apple cider .. no rush, they won’t be ready for a few months yet .. but I want to be ready! Last year I’d made jams, baked pies .. but want to try my hand at the cider. Having not done this before and how fun to sip on cider from the trees.
I’d found sites on making cherry wine from frozen … so might try that … however, I’ve gotten into the habit of using the frozen cherries (from our tree) as ice cubes in summer drinks. And they taste delicious at the bottom of the glass, plus, vitamin C!
The squash, cucumber and zucchini plants are starting to grow tendrils so I’m trying to find things to use for guides .. tree branches, that sort of thing.
My lovely garlic crop is drying beneath the sundeck. I spent some time hanging groups of them from nails along the boards …. planning which ones I will save for the fall crop.
Looked at the veggie bed .. planning more garlic rows .. for more garlic. This time I’ll give the cloves a bit more space for them to grow. I’d tried growing some in containers, resulted in smaller cloves .. so won’t do that again.
Heavy crop of raspberries and blueberries. Really enjoy just going outside everyday and picking a basket of them for us. Memories of days spent on a relative’s farm … hot sunny days, fun times.
The plum trees are fully laden. We have three types: Italian (large plump fruits); tiny purple (don’t know the type) and another type of medium purple (again, don’t know type) .. they are all good .. and so I might have these made into something like wine or whatever .. depends on how much fruit makes it to the end of the season. Plus, this year I’ll spread out tarps to collect the dropping fruit .. easier to clean up. To avoid the end of the season hornet attacks .. I’ve been picking up all fallen fruit daily and over to the compost they go.
Admiring the green lush growth of the grass .. where the seaweed has dripped … not that I’m into lawn, but, I like to maintain what we have. Notice that there are fewer dandelions growing throughout ..a sign that the lawn has been receiving nutrients required, the extra vitamin C is no longer required, there is sufficient now, it seems.
There are still perennials to be planted .. I’ve arranged them in the approximate areas where I’d like them to grow … and so today I think .. is the day to do this!
Beautiful sunny day and now I’m on my way.
A – planting – I – will – go! Goodby – procrastination! Hello – happy plants in their new places!
We are finally enjoying some hot weather here .. so that means the veggies in the garden are growing .. I can see some pumpkins and squash, flowering and fruiting .. that is a good sign.
The garlic .. well, I dug it all up today. Except for some in pots. There are a variety of sizes and I’m at a loss as to figure out why.
The first bundle that I dug up were mostly large. And today, there was a mix .. some healthy sized bulbs, some medium-sized, some rounds (which I’ll plant in the fall, for large bulbs next summer) and a lot of smaller bulbs.
The cloves that were planted were pretty well the same size. And I think that spacing the cloves out a bit more gives the roots the opportunity to spread out and grow more. I was just antsy to plant as much garlic as I could last fall. So this year .. I’ll try to be more mature. But, not by much!
I do know that the EM & the seaweed made a big difference as all the bulbs were much larger than last year’s crop.
I’ve been picking raspberries, blueberries and cherries. For the past few days I’ve been drying cherries in the oven .. they dry like raisins. And I’ll use these in my granola .. that I’m going to make.
The winds had been so strong in the past few weeks … I was despairing of having enough fruit from the cherry tree for us to eat .. as the winds were causing quite a few fruits to drop to the ground. I’d gathered up lots from the ground, so as to dissuade the wasps from visiting.
Anyway, 2 days ago, I noticed that the lower branches were dripping with ripe cherries! That was a great surprise as I hadn’t noticed them before! So I gathered quite a bit and pitted them, dried them in the oven and now have a good supply in containers, for my next batch of granola.
Today I gathered more and am waiting for a few more days for more to ripen .. and then I’ll make up some cherry pie filling!
Lots of cherries at the top of the tree for the birds and enough for us at the lower edges.
Last weekend we went to Port Alberni for DH to go sailplaning …. beautiful weather .. except we saw lots of cloudy weather which turned out to be the outflow from fires in Siberia!!
Anyway … DH arranged for me to go for a flight with the lead instructor … we were up in the air for over an hour .. sheer bliss!
At one point, we were flying over a pair of eagles who were soaring a thermal .. how utterly exciting was that! I took pics, but they are only dots in the screen. Suffice it to say that this was a wonderful moment.
And as if that wasn’t enough .. soon, we were flying close to DH .. that was utterly fantastic! He was flying along at the same height .. and it was so lovely to be in the air at the same time!
A few dips and turns and such a lovely time. I just didn’t want to land .. rather, I wanted to stay up in the air for a few more hours.
Look forward to a self-launching two-seater sailplane .. a gal can dream, right?
Well, outside to hang up the garlic .. or rather, to find a place where I can hang this lovely crop .. to dry!
We are finally enjoying hot summer weather and it’s wonderful for the garden and the humans also!
Yesterday I heeded the information that the garlic is ready to harvest when the bottom leaves turn yellow. Although I’ve also read that one should wait till the crowns have wilted. Anyway, I was so excited about digging up some of the garlic that I just started digging away.
The garlic was well rooted, what with the composted soil, the addition of lots of seaweed plus liberal doses of EM …. plus the recent rains had made it a bit more challenging to lift the garlic.
Nonetheless, I did harvest quite a number. As I was cleaning off the bulb and then trimming the roots neatly, I had a thought. What if the roots are meant to be left on?
So, into the house and I started searching for information on garlic. Found several sites. But .. the best site, bar none, was this one, and located in British Columbia! Boundary Garlic Farm. http://www.garlicfarm.ca/about-us.htm
And here I learned to keep the leafy section and the roots attached to the bulb, so that they would add more energy and growth to the bulb. And not to worry about the dirt around the roots, these can be gently removed later when they are dry.
Besides recipes and many, many growing tips and information on how to choose which garlic would be suitable for various climates .. I learned that I can slice the cloves of garlic in a food processor and then dehydrate them. I’ll try that .. drying them in the oven. Then, the dried slices can be kept either in an airtight container or in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Later, they can be ground to a powder.
Lots of helpful information on this site.
I did find a site that mentioned that the garlic roots are a delicacy .. but can’t try that out, as the root cuttings from yesterday are scattered, drying, in the garlic bed. Murphy!
Well, I decided to let the rest of the garlic just stay nice and cozy in their bed until the leaves are more yellow. This will give the soil time to dry out a bit, making it easier for me to harvest them.
I’m sure going to need a lot of space to dry these giants … and luckily, my friend D gave me a wonderful netting that will be perfect for drying. I’ll take a picture tomorrow!
I am very impressed with the size of the garlic, it’s mostly hardneck (I’d bought 4 types from Richter’s a few years ago) and they are the size of elephant garlic. I had bought several cloves of elephant, but wasn’t very successful with those.
Other things I learned while searching for information in the world of garlic .. were that the seeds of garlic can be sown .. they will grow into various shapes over the following 3 years, resulting in large bulbs.
And that the “rounds” can be harvested …. dried .. and then planted again and the result will be larger bulbs.
And that those tiny little round chickpea-like growths that are on the hardnecks can be planted again. So I’ve soaked quite a number of them in concentrated EM and put them in a container for rooting. At which time I’ll plant.
Also, some “rounds” might result from bulbs not receiving a month of 10 degrees of coldness in the fall.
And that you can speed up the rooting of garlic cloves, if time is tight in the fall, by putting them in containers, filled with compost, in the kitchen, until the roots form … which they will do, quickly . .and then plant them out.
So Thursday was a mixed bag of weather, I seem to remember sunshine in the morning and later this morphed into an overcast type of day.
Perfect for puttering in the yard.
I continued to pursue the digging around the cherry tree. Poor ole ground has been neglected for a while, it’s mostly tough and unyielding. Time for a change.
Using a lot of the composted material from an area that has served as the latest composting area, the one with the spoiled hay and all the other goodies, I began to pile on the lovely decomposing material. Lovely earthy scent. Lots of big fat earthworms.
Using my lovely Lee Valley angled hand digger, I soon have the outline perfect. And then I used the edger to score neater edges, but the soil is that hard that the hand digging works better.
Soon I’ve added in the balance of all the mosses .. some of the potted Scotch mosses have grown so well since last year that they are nearly triple in size. Then I place some geraniums around .. they always add a spot of cheer. I’m not a big fan of annuals, but they do work to add that instant colour.
Looking at my finished work (but, you know, it’s not really finished, I’ll be adding some Sweet Woodruff and a few other low growing perennials) .. I can see that in just a month’s time, this area will be just be growing so well! And of course I added a generous amount of EM .. so should be seeing some differences of new growth in a few weeks. Pics to follow!
Mixed up a few more watering cans of diluted EM and generous applications made to perennials around the yard. Noticed that some of the plastic seams are coming apart one of the containers .. uh, oh, must remember to rinse them out with water .. the busy little critters are eating away the plastic!
Checking on my garlic .. starting to wonder if these vigorous stems and leaves will also lea to gigantic bulbs, or is all the growth going to them and not the bulb? gulp … only another week or so to find out. Although, my pal D says it’s ok to pick them anytime, so I might be tempted to try one today.
I keep finding little garlic scapes! Honestly, I swear that they hide beneath the leaves! Just when I think that I’ve gathered all of them, then I find a few more! In the fridge, I have a Ziploc bag of garlic scapes, they must weigh at least a pound or so, quite heavy. Today I’ll pick up some almond chips and whir up another batch tonight .. and will store them in the freezer, in round, patty shapes, easy to lift out one and add to quinoa or whatever.
Still picking up cherries dropped by the wind/birds. See the robins vying for the best ones at the top .. too high for us to climb with the ladder .. glad to see them enjoying the fruits.
The apples are getting larger and the berries are getting closer to that ripe stage.
Loving the peace and tranquility in the yard. Listening to beautiful music on the iPod, sipping a mug of Yorkshire Tea. Watching the birds zip around the yard. A bright yellow butterfly flits by.
Entering that place where creativity resides .. leaving only space for beauty, peace and joy. The magic of the garden .. that’s empowering.
Today, after a few necessary outside duties .. it’s back to the garden.
Monday .. continued spreading the rich, mineral laden seaweed around the garlic. So excited, found more scapes. Oh, yes .. going to make more garlic scape pesto .. will I ever have enough? Greedy little me, how I love this stuff.
The new generation of sparrows are quite the aggressive little guys. They are having little tussles in the trees. And it’s not just the sparrows either. Yesterday I had to duck as I watched two Robins tumbling over each other in the skies, till they each went to their separate branches in the cherry tree.
Speaking of this venerable old cherry tree …. the fruits are ever so slowly showing a slight blush of pink. The winds have been whipping the branches, with the result that a lot of fruit is lying on the ground. I see that the birds are tasting these and they aren’t very delicious to them, as they are leaving the cherries where they fall.
I can hear the nasal chirps of the little Chickadees. And still haven’t seen the Bushtits … where are you my little darlings!
Time for a break .. today is my DH’s birthday .. so we dash out for Won Ton soup at Dakota’s and then time for a flight.
Oh, how I love being up in the sky with him … the day is quite quiet . .not much traffic. So I settle back and gaze out at the mountains and clouds. Feels rather special to be in an aerial location to get a closer look at the clouds. We’ve had quite the interesting variety of skies in the past few days, as you can see in the pics I’ve posted.
Back home .. I continue to spread the seaweed … quite a variety, actually … all gathered from the shoreline last week. I was going to dry them and place them in containers for the compost, but they’ve been in the bins for 5 days and have reached the stage where they are better off being mixed into the ground.
As I do this .. I’m finding more garlic scapes. Even thin, delicate scapes from the garlic that I’d potted up last fall.
Just getting into the flow when the rains come back. Darn. Double Darn.
So, inside …lots to do there, never stops.
Later, I take my first Seaweed Bath. Why has it taken me so long … months. to indulge in this luxury? I just plain don’t know! Whatever, finally, I prepare the bath and settle in. There is the most amazing giant leaf of Kombu (this was a single leaf, not attached to anything when I found it!) I’d dried it out in the sun months ago. And now, as the rich emerald-green of this magnificent leaf becomes alive in the water .. the soft velvety indentations of the surface sheer translucent beauty shimmer as I hold it up to view against the light.
I soak in the mineral laden water for a while .. such decadence feels appropriate for this day and I just relax and breathe in the scent of the sea.
And later on, I slept the most delicious relaxing sleep .. and woke up feeling relaxed, yet energetic. I’ll reuse the Kombu again tonight and then it will be added to the compost .. to continue its magic powers . .sharing its oceanic values with the earth.
And so .. its early morning .. time for another pot of Yorkshire Tea and outside .. to make incredible changes to the yard . .. or just to see how things are growing and to plant my latest leafy ferns, grape vines and on and on .. with this day.
Stepping back . .here is a view of my garlic crop .. I’ve planted them in rectangles this year, and should have made the paths between them wider than I did .. guess I got a little greedy in wanting to plant more garlic!
As a matter of fact .. that is what I am going to do right now .. change into my gardening clothes and run .. well. … .first I”ll brew some more tea and then I’ll rush outside!!
My Lovely Garden … Mon Joli Jardin 