Summer is the time in my garden when I can relax and enjoy it
– flowers blooming, herbs ready to use, berries to eat, greens coming along and
other veggies. Of course, there is weeding to do and grass cutting, although I
have very little lawn now. Summer is also a time when I think about what I
might do differently next year.
A while ago I wrote from a garden notebook I kept for a
number of years about spring in my garden. Here follow some entries from the
summers.
June 11, 1998
My cukes died so I need to get some more. (I haven’t had a
lot of luck with cucumbers. I have started some from seed indoors and
transplanted them. Mostly they died. I’ve had a bit more luck with buying
plants, though my cukes have never been plentiful or large. Too much shade
where I plant them. Should try a different spot, even if it is among the
perennial flowers.)
June 21, 1999
My pink and red roses are blooming. (I still have a couple
of the rose bushes I planted at the beginning – Hansa and Henry Hudson. Others have
died and been replaced or not. Disappointingly this year a yellow Bill Reid
rose that I had for a few years hasn’t come up. I’ll have to look for another
yellow rose to replace it next year.) Anemones and irises are pretty much done.
August 29, 1999
I have harvested some things – tomatoes (more to come), a
few carrots, beets, all my potatoes (only about 8 – I gave up on trying to grow
potatoes), garlic.
June 17, 2000
I think I am done planting for this year. Harvested some
rhubarb (my rhubarb gradually declined so last year I moved it. It has looked
healthier this year, but hasn’t grown much), half of which I will freeze.
July 10, 2000
I want to start more basil this winter (I love growing
herbs, particularly perennials or those that reseed themselves – cilantro,
tarragon, oregano, thyme; but I also plant others – basil is a staple). Also a
few tomatoes again. Flowers. Maybe peppers and cukes.
June 3, 2001
Very windy today and cloudy – rain would be good. Am sitting
out in my sheltered spot beside the house.
July 3, 2001
California poppies (annuals in a pot) in bloom. Also my other
poppies (perennials) out in the garden are starting to bloom (This year I
seeded some Icelandic poppies in honour of having travelled to Iceland; I was
late seeding them, so I hope at least a few come up). Eating strawberries.
August 8, 2001
Gladiolus (I don’t grow gladiolus every year, some years I
save the corms over winter and replant them in the spring; other years I just don’t
bother.) have been in bloom for a week or so. Daylily has been blooming. Ligularia
had one kind of sick-looking bloom.
June 15, 2002
Have my deck set up with pots now and my chairs out. (I didn’t
have a deck for some years and then decided on a low, small deck without
railings as I don’t have a very large back yard.)
June 29, 2002
Have too many purple and white irises, but will thin them
out some. (It’s fun rearranging and moving, adding new plants.)
July 26, 2003
Next year— move white delphinium, light purple delphinium
and buy a yellow peony (Hah, I have yet to do this!), some purple lupine?
The yard is much like I want it.
July 18, 2004
Deep purple delphinium is in bloom, also heliopsis (yellow),
and Swan River daisies in pots.
July 2, 2017
I get so much joy out of my yard. Exercise, the fun of
creation, surprises, birds coming to the feeders, planning and anticipation.
