Sunday 19 July 2015

Adding to the Urban Forest


 
In October we removed the cottonwood and apple tree from the backyard. Yesterday we replaced them with a Bur Oak (above) and an Amur Maple (below).
 

It will take decades for them to reach the size the other two were, but it's a start.

Wednesday 15 July 2015

Friday 10 July 2015

Raspberries

 The smallest of many canes. Yum!

Saturday 4 July 2015

What's Growing in the Garden

 We've had grey skies for close to a week; the forests in northern Saskatchewan are on fire and the prevailing westerlys are blowing the smoke this way. I hear close to five thousand people have been evacuated from the path of the fire.
Smoke-grey skies -literally.
 Of course, thunderstorms are predicted for tonight so there may be clouds up there too.
Garlic curls.
 I hear garlic shoots are very tasty cut into salads or added to dishes. I can't say in all the years I've had garlic in the garden I've ever thought of doing that. But I will now.
 
Pea blossoms.
 The peas are blooming, and I found one or two on the beans, but those blossoms were hiding when I went to photograph them.
Ground cherry? Or tomatillo?
 I have both a tomatillo and a ground cherry but I can't remember which is which. Either way, they are both blooming, but this one is a show-off with dozens of bright blooms.

Peppers
 More blooms on the peppers.
There are cages on those tomatoes.
 The tomatoes have grown considerably since they were planted.
Cherry tomatoes.
 Lots of green tomatoes too -lucky us.
Ripe raspberries.
 Tasty berries. We've sampled them already.
Cheerful red birdhouse.
 And finally, after all these years, we have something growing in the bird house.

Mama
 Maman wren is busy even tho' I don't hear the sounds of chicks yet. The adults have been singing in the yard for weeks now. It is such a happy sound.

I spent ages trying to get a pictue of the female flying into her house and finally managed this one. At least she picked a better location than the last wren nest I found out about.