July 2008
July 4/2008: I brought home some hens and chicks (Sempervivum sp.) from my grandmother's garden in Winnipeg. Here they are in their new home, complete with accessories! I've been collecting bits of things to decorate the garden with.
July 4/2008: A little hen-and-chick baby in an amethyst nursery.
July 4/2008: Blooming borage (Borago officinalis) flowers. We planted borage last year, and they were really slutty and left offspring all over our garden... The bees love them, so they're allowed to stay.
July 4/2008: Nodding onions (Allium cernuum) in bloom.
July 4/2008: The same shot, close up. (Allium cernuum)
July 4/2008: The neighbour's yarrow (Achillea millefolium). I've been "borrowing" bits of it all summer for bouquets... it also has leaves that are great for pressing.
July 4/2008: Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) in bloom. Its seeds are known as coriander.
July 4/2008: Another miniature rose (Rosa sp.), this one's name is Apricot Clementine. This one came from the Van Dusen Garden plant sale... I just can't resist the pretty smelling ones...
July 4/2008: Purple potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) in bloom... the purple potatoes have purple stems as well as purple flowers. When you make potato salad out of purple potatoes, they turn the eggs blue-green, it's so weird it's awesome.
July 4/2008: Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) in bloom. We planted it last year but it hasn't flowered until now.
July 4/2008: Purple sage (Salvia officinalis Purpurascens) in bloom.
July 4/2008: We waited for months, and finally the leek bloomed! (Allium ampeloprasum porrum) We are hoping that it will seed the bed so we can have baby leeks next year.
July 4/2008: The same leek (Allium ampeloprasum porrum), up close. The flower head is made up of hundreds of individual flowers, each of which will make its own seeds. Some of the flowers matured faster than others, and new ones bloomed every day - it was like a never-ending fireworks display and there was *always* at least one bee hanging around.
July 4/2008: "Royal Purple" beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) about to flower.
July 12/2008: The purple beans have flowered!! Each flower will hopefully get pollinated and produce a tasty bean.
July 12/2008: One of our mystery plants turned out to be a poppy (Papaver somniferum). These ones bloom for just two days, then lose their petals. We left the bare seed heads standing so they would mature and develop poppy seeds.
July 12/2008: A closeup of the same poppy.
July 12/2008: Arugula (Eruca sativa) in bloom. Arugula, also known as Salad Rocket, is a spicy-leaved plant in the cabbage family.
July 12/2008: Calendula marigolds (Calendula officinalis) in bloom - this was one of the mystery plants that we started indoors from seed. Their petals are edible - I put them in salads when I really want to impress.
July 18/2008: Another variety of Calendula officinalis.
July 18/2008: Our friend Kaeli gave us a mysterious chunk of root that grew into this lovely flower. My friend Leonie told me what it was, but of course I didn't write it down...
July 18/2008: Golden oregano (Origanum vulgare auream) in bloom. We really ought to have cut these back to encourage more leafy growth, but... actually the whole middle section got really wild and overgrown and so we just let all the herbs have their fun. I wonder what the honey from oregano tastes like.
July 18/2008: This winter savory (Satureja montana) shares a cinderblock with the golden oregano. We don't use this one very much, so we let it go to flower as well.
July 18/2008: Marjoram (Origanum onites). Another blooming herb. This one loves to be pot bound - it's growing in a series of concrete tubes that make up the edge of the raised bed on the east side of the garden... you can see the bark mulch path on the left.
July 18/2008: A baby cucumber (Cucumis sativus) developing beneath a female flower.
July 18/2008: One of the Cool Breeze cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) I picked up at the farmers' market earlier this summer.
July 18/2008: This is the view from our neighbours' balcony. What a calamitous riot... but weeding would waste valuable beach time.
July 22/2008: A bed of young leeks we just planted. Also... it's a bit hard to make out, but at the far end of the bed is the Indian Stripe heirloom tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). It wasn't doing well in a pot, so I stuck it in the ground and gave it some bamboo stakes. It has one baby already...
July 22/2008; This is the baby Indian Stripe heirloom tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).
July 22/2008: Just around the corner from the leeks. The fluffy ones at the bottom are carrots, just above is a bed dominated by borage, and then past that you can see the beans.
July 22/2008: The bean bed. Much bigger than before!
July 22/2008: The bed in front of the cottage. That big leafy one is a Hedychium forestii, a type of flowering (not edible) ginger. It puts out these really interesting asymmetrical white flowers.
July 22/2008: Ricola mint (Mentha piperita var. swiss) in bloom. This is hands down our favourite mint for tea - it's minty like candies. I've given chunks of it to at least three friends - I'm hoping maybe they'll gift me back with some fresh stuff this winter, tee hee.
July 22/2008: French marigold, Tagetes patula? I got these from David Hunter... I kept going back and buying more and more different kinds of marigolds, it was addicting.
July 22/2008: I finally got around to digging up the bed in front of the main house. The front of the house looks pretty wretched and I don't go out there much... but this looked like a nice spot for some shade-loving, acid-tolerant ground covers. I've planted salal, wintergreen, kinnikinnick and a lot of heather. The inset "before" photo was taken April 29/2008.
July 22/2008: Some of the bell-heather (Erica cinerea) that I planted in the front bed. These pink ones cost more but they seduced me with their lovely colours.