Gardening in B.C.

There is no lack of jobs to do around the yard.  David’s new apple tree is so laden with fruit that it needs to be tied to a pole to keep its branches aloft.  The roots of the new grape vine are intertwined with chick week, daisies and Douglas aster.  Two of the garden barrels that didn’t have vegetables planted in them are thick with volunteer greens, none of which can be eaten.  The ground under the roses of the front gardens are strewn with petals from the beating those bushes took over two consecutive hail storms.  The lilies are made of stronger stuff and remain standing, a block of orange and brown speckled colour.  

 I was sure I had planted something in the east garden but when I walked along it – the place that I left carefully tended four weeks ago, is thick with growth, all of which I identified as weeds.  I did see what I thought might be one surviving begonia and on my knees, carefully pulling out the weeds around it, I began to find surviving geraniums hidden under the weed ground cover.  Joaquim was pleased to tell me that the compost pile down by the barrels, the pile that I cover with an old black trampoline cover, is no longer weeds, but good earth.  I went to check it out.  Putting a fine grate over a wheel barrow, I ran the earth through a rough sieve. Joaquim carried out 10 wheel barrow loads of composted black gold to be spread around the garden beds on the road side of the house.  “The wheel barrows are easier to transport if they are not quite as full,” he advised.  What was I thinking of?  The loads were three times the weight of anything I could have lifted.

I checked out the Devil’s Club that is growing by the stream. At that spot, each year the plant is adding a little bit of height to its stalk. I am happy about that.  Though I haven’t thrown grass down on the path I cleared on the east side of the Meadow Reach of the stream this spring, there is enough other growth there that the area needs to be mowed.

There is so much rain this year, that I haven’t pulled the hoses out of the garage.  Even this morning, there is a light drizzle with the forecast – thunder and rain today, rain tomorrow and rain the next day.  An unusual summer all the B.C. residents say – rain keeps falling.  There are mosquitoes everywhere and an opportunity every day to wear bug repellent.  I practise the skill of seeing if I can swat the mosquito before it draws blood. The tally is about one for one – for every dead mosquito there is another that gets away with a free lunch.