Lavender Harvest

I had the wonderful pleasure of harvesting some of my lavender today, with the bees buzzing about the flowers as I cut them.  I believe the variety growing beside my granite bench is Lavendula "Grosso", since it forms long and sturdy stems, and makes wonderful floral arrangements.  I have other forms of English lavender at the front of my house, which are great for harvesting the flower heads (for potpourri or in various recipes, such as lavender jelly), but don't have nearly as impressive stems or flowers.

I also had the wonderful pleasure today of sharing some of my lavender stems and flower heads with my current massage therapist, Maguin, and my former massage therapist, Gael, who I consider a good friend, even if we don't see each other more than once or twice every year.  I often think of Gael when I pass the lavender in my garden, so was happy for the excuse to phone her, and since I was surprisingly "single" tonight (my husband is away on a business trip, and the kids went to stay with their grandma for a few days), we were able to enjoy an evening together of dinner and good conversation.  I hope to see my mom soon, so I can share some lavender with her.  After all, one of the pleasures of having a garden is being able to share the abundance with friends and friends.

Sony NEX5N Garden Photos

Recently we bought a Sony NEX5N camera which is an ultra-small digital SLR camera with some full-size camera capabilities.  Other than its resistance to taking super closeup macro photos (which my little Nikon Coolpix L21 was surprisingly good at), I have been impressed all around with this Sony camera.  The feature which really sold us was the low light capabilities - up to ISO 12800, so it practically takes images in the dark!

This weekend I had my first opportunity to play with the camera, and took a number of photos of my mother-in-law's garden.  I've compiled the results into a few mosaics.  First, just in "normal" modes:

Good camera speed, good focus, good colour.

Then I discovered an effect called "Posterize", which was pretty cool for an in-camera feature, something you would expect to find instead in digital post-processing :

My favourite, though, was a feature by which you could select to see only green, blue, red, or yellow, and the remainder of the photo was in black and white :

Since you actually see the result through the digital display (which also swivels, to handle some extreme camera angles), I wonder if you could use this to help finding lost keys, if you marked your keys with a dot of one of these colours?

Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC

In May, my husband and I celebrated our 15th anniversary with a cruise from San Diego, CA back to our home in Vancouver, BC.  We had the wonderful opportunity to spend a day in Victoria BC (which may sound funny but this is a rare occurrence for us, since the trip otherwise involves a lengthy and expensive ferry ride from Vancouver).  We decided to spend part of the day at the world famous Butchart Gardens - my first visit.  Even though it was early in the year, it seemed the entire garden was already in bloom.  Here are a few photos I compiled into mosaics.

As you see from the next set, even the garbage bins were in bloom:

We spent 3 hours in the garden, and that was barely enough time to make it through all the areas, with me taking photos (I had told myself I would just enjoy it, but it was so photogenic I couldn't help myself).  Another time I would plan for 4 hours.  But as it was, after a stop downtown to visit our two favourite stores, we made it back to the ship just in time to reboard.

If you ever have a chance to visit Victoria, this is a visit I would recommend.  As I would a Pacific coastal or Alaska cruise.

As for my recent absence of garden posts, I have actually been quite busy in the garden this, doing some major cleanup and projects.  Most of the time, I have been too busy to stop and take photos.

Then 4 weeks ago, I sprained my ankle while walking through moist grass in our sloped front yard.  I am finally walking almost normally, but I am still slow navigating stairs, and can feel pain or discomfort in my ankle any time the ground is uneven or sloped in any direction.  I'm now back in the garden, but need to be careful not to forget myself, and aggravate it again.

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 2012

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival 2012

It has been many years (6 years, actually - see 2006 post) since we last went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in La Conner, WA.  So this Saturday, we rounded up the family and visited again.  It didn't disappoint.  However, this year we didn't pick the large commercialized Tulip Town or Roozengaarde fields, but instead a quieter field, but one with beautifully contrasting swaths of yellow and red.

Here are some more photos that don't do justice to the beautiful colours there:

I loved this muddy ol' truck in the field.  A small group of Mexican workers were gathering armfuls of tulips (presumably the old blooms, although I couldn't see how they were different than any of the other blooms around us) and tossing them onto the truck.  I think it made for a neat photo.

Of course, the real aim of any such visit it to catch some nice photos of the family, especially the kids.  We got our share of our teenage daughter looking grumpy and squinting into the sun, and my son goofing around.  But then there were a couple of gems which made the photographic attempts worthwhile.

It's funny, looking back on these few happy and relaxed photos of the kids, that all of them were in the daffodil field, where we spontaneously pulled over to the side of the road, on our way while driving around to decide on a tulip field.  Once we were actually in the tulip field, it seems all the kids wanted to do was leave.  Reminder to self: Plan for an impromptu photo session prior to the real photo session again next time.

Forsythia : You Can Grow That!

I received so many encouraging comments on my "You Can Grow That" post about espalier fruit trees last month, that I have been looking forward to joining C.L. Fornari of Whole Life Gardening, in this month's edition of "You Can Grow That".

At first I planned to write about strawberries in the garden, but I may save that for a future post.  Instead, I have been admiring the cheery yellow blooms of forsythia all around the city, and have chosen that for today's topic.

You can grow forsythia, and if you know of any bushes in your area, you can start your own very economically.  Forsythia cuttings can be easily rooted in water.  So all you need to do is clip a twig or two, and set them in a vase.  Soon they will be sprouting and likely will send out roots.  Once the roots are visible, the forsythia can be planted out into the garden, and will quickly grow into a shrub.  I have a forsythia plant behind my compost boxes (see photo below), which was started this way, a couple of years ago.

Although you can cut a flowering twig, and both enjoy the blooms, and then the greenery which will quickly develop, the best time to take a cutting is once the blooms have disappeared, and the plant is directing its energy into growth.  No growth hormones or special treatment are required.

Although the forsythia naturally grows as a floppy bush, it can be trimmed into a hedge, as I see in many yards.  It can also be grown as a standard.  I discovered a wonderful example some years ago while driving, not far from home, and have a photo somewhere of this wonderful forsythia standard in bloom.  I returned the following year to discover that it was gone, replaced by a very small forsythia twig, which the owner appeared to be training in standard form.  I wondered if the wonderful one I had seen had been damaged, and he/she was starting over, or whether it was so beautiful that someone had bought or relocated it.  I never did find out.

I don't know how much work it would be to trim and train it into standard form, but since it grows quite vigorously and is flexible and easy to trim, I don't imagine it would be difficult, if one had patience to wait for the result.  With some diligence at supporting the stem so that it grows straight, trimming away any other stems or lower branches, and trimming the upper branches into a globular shape, but you should be able to grow that, too.  Some day I want to give it a try.  When I'm ready, I can take a cutting from the bush behind my compost bins.

Espalier Fruit Trees - You Can Grow That!

I was delighted to discover today the first collaborative posting of the monthly "You Can Grow That" blogging meme series, hosted by C.L. Fornari of Whole Life Gardening, and I knew I had to join.  At least this first one.  I don't know how often I'll remember it's the 4th day of the month, or have something I can organize, but I instantly knew what I wanted to share : my espalier fruit trees.

My espalier fruit trees are a continual delight to me, as well as to my garden and garden blog visitors.  All three are in the horizontal cordon espalier form, and all of them feature 3 different varieties of the same fruit, one on each horizontal level.  I have had my apple and asian pear espaliers about 7 years now, in which time their branches have grown from about 1 1/2 feet long to about 8 feet long.  My european pear is quite new, added only 4 years ago.

Here is my apple espalier tree, with a closeup of 2 of the varieties of apples:

And here is my espalier asian pear, with a closeup of all 3 varieties of asian pears:

For me, the process of planting and getting them set up was an interative approach, but some of the lessons I've learned are :

1. Leave lots of room for horizontal growth of the branches.  I like the look of mine at 8 feet (16 overall), since this is the length of my cedar fence panels.  But I think the branches could easily grow to 12 feet or more, with adequate supports.
2. If you plant against a wall or fence, leave room behind for access.  Mine are planted about 12" from the fence, and this provides good access to reach behind, to trim branches, etc.
3. You don't need a fence behind.  At the UBC Botanical gardens, there are some wonderful examples of espaliers growing beside a path in the food garden, and the espaliers themselves form a fence.  But if you have a fence or wall available, it helps to provide reflective heat for fruit production.
4. Provide adequate supports for the branches.  Mine are a thick vinyl-coated copper wire ( roughly equivalent to a clothesline), tied to landscaping posts through eyelet hooks.  But over time the eyelet hooks are coming loose, so if I re-tied them, I would tie them directly around the posts, and bend a nail over them to keep them from sliding up/down the post.
5. Be diligent in pruning.  Over time you will learn to recognize fruit-bearing spurs (which are compact) and the vertical growth which need to be trimmed back aggressively, to allow the tree to put its energy into fruit rather than branch development.  I prune them at various times during the year, mostly in spring and summer, when the growth is quite vigorous, and needs to be diverted to the fruit.
6. Be diligent in thinning the fruit.  Yes, the fruit is so plentiful, that it needs to be pruned, in order to allow the fruit to develop.  Best not to leave more than one or two per fruiting spur, and not closer than 6" apart.  This is the task I find the hardest, and I tend to leave too much fruit, creating undue strain on the tree, and ending up with fruits that don't ripen as quickly or fully as they could.

But most of all, I've learned with all of my fruit trees :
7. Start now!  Trees are an excellent investment, and grow every year, so if you are thinking about a purchase, don't put it off another year.  Prepare your hole, and head to the nursery!  The best stock arrives (usually bareroot) in late winter/early spring, so it is that time, or soon will be!

PS. Come join in the 4th of each month with your own "You Can Grow That" post, at Whole Life Gardening.

Signs of Spring

I keep telling myself that I'll stop collecting compost during the Winter, but the habit is too strongly entrenched.  Lately, the weather has been quite wet, and it already dark after work, so the compost container on the kitchen counter is a mouldy mushy mess by the time I find a clear weekend day to dump it in the far back corner of the yard.  Today was finally that clear day.  On my way, I stopped to see signs of Spring.  In addition to the many green shoots pushing through the soil, there were some flowers, too.

Every year I seem to have this single yellow crocus emerging near the massive rotting leaves of my Gunnera.

Here is what seems to be the same crocus, back in March 2009.

I was surprised to see my mini irises, poking up underneath my granite bench, and also in a pot (I can't remember where it came from, but I guess it sat out all winter)!

I didn't have any of my new Hellebores bloom last Spring, but it looks like this year I have two : a near-black one, and what looks like a white one, both of which are in bud at the moment.

Here's to wishing for Spring!

Winter / Spring Cleanup

First it was the teens with machine guns, then the computer distracting me, and suddenly the window of sunshine (which probably lasted only 30 minutes) was gone.  But it was still pleasant - cold, but calm - when I finally got outside this afternoon to cut more blackberry vines for my stick bugs and spiny leaf bugs.  The machine guns?  Oh yeah, it's not really that kind of neighbourhood.  One of the teens in our neighbourhood was in the cul-de-sac, filming scenes with some of his friends.  I recognized the villains' vehicle as his parents' van, and they were holding up some poor guys driving his dad's delivery truck.  No actual shooting.  Perhaps the scene didn't need it, or they will add that sound later.  They apparently were on their lunch break, since they were gone by 1 o'clock.

Anyhow, once I did get out to clip blackberry vines, I was happy to stay out longer, to trim and clean up my front gardens.  I notice there are some tulips just starting to push through the soil, which gives me hope that Spring will arrive soon.  But when I suggested that to the local newspaper delivery man, he reminded me that we often have snow into March.  So true, but I'm ready for Spring anyhow. 

In 1 hour I easily filled the 48 gallon container which the city provides for yard waste recycling.  I always think that I wish I had a larger container, or was able to borrow one of my neighbours', but then when I come back in the house, I realize it was just about the right amount of exposure and exercise for now.  Besides, I have a list of a dozen items I need to get done inside the house, and I've only crossed off the first few.

Never Too Late for Spring Bulbs - Hopefully

I am not inclined to planting annuals - or bulbs, for that matter.  But I like to have some Spring surprises, and I love underplanting my fruit trees, to have some colour and life when the trees are still mostly bare (see below).  This past summer, I expanded the holes around my fruit trees, so was optimistic, and bought a number of different Spring bulbs.  I planted many of them before Winter set in, and suddenly it was dark every evening when I came home from work, and weekends were either too rainy or when clear, the ground was too frozen (okay, we don't really get frozen here, but still we get a layer of frozen on top, which makes it unpleasant to plant through).

Anyhow, the remaining bulbs have been sitting patiently in my pantry for a few months now, for their opportunity to be planted.  They are a bit shrivelled now, and some were sprouting, but today they got their chance.  Although we didn't get the deep snow that was continually forecast, the temperatures have stayed below freezing for the past week, so that the snow which was on the ground persisted.  Finally yesterday it turned to rain, and lots of it, so it cleared much of the snow away.  Then today it cleared up, and amazingly that coincided with my husband taking the kids skiing, and leaving me behind for the afternoon.

So I planted the remaining bulbs.  Some "Quebec" tulips (see photo below courtesy of Botanus - aren't they pretty?), some mini irises, some tete-a-tete daffs, and some muscari (hyacinths).  I feel a great sense of accomplishment, and relief.   Now I am ready for Spring.  If only Winter would hurry up and finish its course.

Girls Birthday Party and Arrival of Snow

My daughter had her birthday party with 7 of her friends last night in our house.  It was fun.  I made her 24 rat-themed cupcakes, and they were a big hit with her friends, who also enjoyed playing with her 4 rats.  There was only cupcake left this morning, which my daughter will have for lunch.  She's off to a handbell festival today.  (Click any photo for a better look, then ESC to return from the photo viewer.)

The parties are getting easier for me every year.  I didn't need to think of ideas to keep her friends entertained.  Between the rats, multiple rounds of eating, fashion shows (using hats and fishing nets and other items we didn't manage to clear away from the rec room), dancing, more dancing, .... they were very disappointed when their parents started arriving 3 hours later.   My daughter has a great group of friends.  She's an impressive girl too.  She spent MANY hours in the week prior to the party, purchasing songs on iTunes and fighting multiple rounds of uncooperative technology, to finally get a playlist on her MP3 playing on the sound system within the house, so the girls could dance in the rec room in the basement.

She managed to also dig up her laser light for the dance party, so I tried a few photos of the girls in the dark, on a long shutter speed.  I think this one turned out pretty good.  My daughter is the one in the front with pink hair.

Late last night, after all the girls had gone home safely, it started to snow.   We awoke to a pretty good blanket of snow in the morning, so I snapped a few photos of the back yard, from the 2nd floor balcony :

...and from the main floor deck :

The front yard, from the porch :

It looks pretty.  Good thing I don't need to drive in it, at least not today.

Another Fursona

My son doesn't think this is him, but his fursona is a wolf, and he is an avid soccer player.

My daughter's birthday party with her friends is tomorrow night, so we'll see if the girls will try this "fursona" out for themselves.  Tonight I made some cupcakes which I'll decorate tomorrow so it will be a surprise.  I hope to share some photos once they're done.

My Fursona, or rather Scalesona

My daughter will turn 13 in another week, and she's at the wonderful age that she has all sorts of neat ideas to share with me.  So today (instead of cleaning the house, which I was also trying, but not very successful) we were exploring how to create a fursona.  She may ask her friends create them at her birthday, as a fun activity.

Fursona: A Furry Version Of Yourself


Scalesona: A Scaly Version Of Yourself

Feathersona: A Feathered Version Of Yourself

You could either pick a type of animal which you like, or associate with in personality.  Or you can take the quiz to find out what type of animal you are.  When she took the quiz, she turned out to be a small animal, such as a raccoon, or bunny or bat.  She chose the raccoon for her fursona :
 
 

 
I took the quiz, and found out that I am a winged creature, such as a dragon, owl or bat.  I chose the dragon, in this case as a scalesona :
 

I tried to personalize it as best I could - the dragon has my big belly, my green eyes, and shares my love of boots.
 
If you find this amusing, and take up the challenge, please let us know or send us a link to your fursona.  It would be fun to compare our results.

Spiny Leaf Insect Eating Molted Skin

'Twas two nights before Christmas, and rather than posting wishes for Peace on Earth and the Joy of the Season, she was posting videos of her spiny leaf insect eating her molted skin....

I was fascinated to find my spiny leaf bug this morning, hanging precariously from her molted skin.  I had missed the actual molt, but soon realized that she was eating her skin (no wonder I never find any in the cage, as I do with the stick bugs).  The whole process of chewing it, as she hung from it, took probably an hour.  I took two video clips, which I would like to share.  I promise to be more seasonal in upcoming posts.

Spiny Leaf Insects Eggs !!

I had a nice surprise tonight.  My oldest spiny leaf insect, who was born in April (see post), so is just shy of 8 months old, started laying eggs tonight!  My son helped me spot 5 eggs, which I have removed to another container on a layer of moist paper towels, to await the long 9 months until they will hatch.  Here they are in my hand (aren't they pretty?) :

By the time we looked back at the mom, she had an egg showing at the end of her tail (sorry for the blurry photo) :

My son and I waited until it dropped.  Pretty exciting.  I read that she could lay as many as 100 eggs.

This is pretty good timing, since it is a bittersweet time for me and my girls.  A long time ago, I posted an ad that I would be willing to sell up to 2 of my 5 girls, and recently I've been contacted by a lady who is so excited to buy them that she will have a friend bring them by airplane for her.  He is supposed to come this weekend to pick them up, and I've had such mixed feelings about parting with any of my girls, but I know they will be going to a good home where they will be appreciated.  Now I am also glad that I will have eggs to provide hope of a new generation once my dear bugs are gone.  If I have any sense, I won't keep all the eggs, and certainly not all the offspring! 

Here are some recent photos of all my girls.  This is #1, my big 8 month old girl (now a mom!) with the regenerating front leg.  She has a wonderful weight to her, when she is held, and little spines on her belly can be felt against my skin :

This is #2, she is a bit more green than my first one :

 This is # 3 :

This is # 4 :

This is # 5, who is 3 1/2 months old now :

I am thinking to keep #1, 2 & 5, and part with #3 & #4.