I Love My Gardens

Several years ago I jumped on the square foot garden craze and Jay helped me to build 2 of them. Every year we've planted a little something. My first year there were onions, carrots, beets, lettuce, Romas, peas etc. They did really well until the weather started getting really dry and we went away to camp. Then the lettuce bolted, the peas died, the beets didn't get any bigger than my baby finger and the carrots? we won't even talk about the carrots.

The Roma's on the other hand thrived and we had a bountiful harvest, 2 big bowls full! After that I decided that Roma tomatoes were my square foot garden veggie and until 2 years ago, I faithfully planted them and gratefully harvested them. Until last year. Did you know that tomato plants can reseed themselves? I certainly didn't. That is until I noticed all these tomato plants growing in my garden. I hadn't gotten around to doing any plantings last spring, but lo and behold I had a bumper crop of beautiful juicy Roma's.

This year, I decided not to chance it again though and the kids and I planted all sorts of tomatoe seeds in March. We now have grape, cherry, beefsteak, roma, and golden tomatoes growing in our gardens and on our deck.

We also have seedless English cucumber, acorn squash, cantaloupe, mini bell peppers, jalapenos and chili peppers. We also started from seed all kinds of wonderful smelling herbs; sweet basil, Greek basil,Italian parsley, chives, rosemary, oregano, and thyme. We also grew cilantro but it bolted in the heat :( therefore, no cilantro, we'll try again next year.

It's wonderful to go outside and pick the fresh herbs I need for a dish I'm preparing. I also like to just go outside, run my hands through all the herbs and smell the different combination's. The fragrance on a hot day is out of this world.

This first picture is of one square foot garden. See the acorn squash running up the post. I read about this in a gardening book that talked about square foot gardens before it became popular. This author showed pics of squash, pumpkins, cucumbers etc all growing up trellis' and posts. The fruits/veggies did NOT fall off. As they grow they are remarkably strong and will hold on until ripe.

I figured I'd try it with one plant this year and see how it goes. This plant has 3 golf ball to softball size squash on it so far.


A mixture of Roma's, beefsteak, golden and cherry tomatoes interspersed with basil and marigolds of course.




These are my jalapeno plants. If you click on the pic you can see the tiny little peppers.






Chili Peppers


Oregano, chives and thyme


Sweet basil, cherry tomatoes, Italian parsley, rosemary, more parsley, Greek basil and more sweet basil.


Grape tomatoes


I love my gardens this year.

Now onto flower gardens.

Amy and I decided in the spring that we wanted to make some more flower gardens. So we got busy...really busy...back breakingly busy. Oh, but the payoff has been lovely.

The back of our house is a partial shade area. Full morning sun, but then all shade for the rest of the day. Therefore, we needed to come up with some shade perennials for this garden.

Here's a BEFORE pic of one corner...very nasty looking.


After we dug out the garden area...


We got the idea to take out several hostas from our front garden, divide them and replant in the back. Talk about heavy plants! It took the two of us to lift and carry each plant to the wagon.


Amy surveying the results of the hosta transplants



The next day we went to a local landscaper with Jay's pickup truck and bought a square yard of red mulch and a local store for some perennials. We picked up honeysuckle, toad lily, foxglove, and a couple others whose names escape me at the moment.






Now to do something about that back wall...can you say U-G-L-Y?


We used the balance of the mulch on the front gardens and here is the result of all our hard work.






and in bloom :)








This rose bush had the most incredible bouquet of roses on it. If you look closely you'll see all the flowers are on one stem. Absolutely gorgeous. I thought it would make the most beautiful bridal bouquet.




BTW, did I mention that for some very odd reason we have a raspberry bush in our front garden? I have no idea how it got there but we've been enjoying the berries mmm mmm mmm. Our consumed count before leaving for camp was approximately 98 berries. Will have to transplant to the backyard in the fall.

Home Again

Well another year of family camps is over and I am feeling a little sad and a whole lot relieved :)

We came home on Sunday and emptied the trailer into our kitchen. Oooh la la the mess!! You could hardly see any floor or counters. Jay ended up taking us to Belleville for dinner 'cause I couldn't prepare anything in the kitchen much less find any food.

We grocery shopped yesterday and the cupboards are somewhat stocked again.

You should have seen the laundry mountain we had in our kitchen, clothes were the least of it. There were perhaps every single towel we own in there, plus 2 sleeping bags, comforters, pillows and cases, sheets, blankets etc etc etc. I have conquered the looming mountain and our kitchen is once again navigable.

Jay was with us at camp this time and it was awesome. While he was at work during the days, he did manage come home early enough to enjoy bonfires with us.





oooh pretty fire...



really neat shot of Simon and myself

Amy had a wonderful time again, or in her words "the best week I've ever had". She made lots of new friends and renewed a friendship she'd made a number of years ago with a girl named Kasi. We hardly ever saw her except at mealtimes and her 11pm curfew. She did really well keeping curfew and spent most of her time with the Youth programs in Harbour Ridge.

The only time she didn't make curfew was Friday night, so Jay and I went hunting :) Didn't have to look far, she was at the DMC where the Youth were having a Talent Night and things just sort of ran a little late (hehe). No worries. That night we also hosted a sleepover in Amy's tent with two of her friends, the hilariously irrepressible Kasi and the very gassy Kathleen. Gassy in that the girl drank 3 bottles of Coke in order to produce a mega burp for her talent. Um, yes I know and agree that a talent like that should probably be left behind doors, but kids will be kids. Poor girl had to get up 4 times in the night to make a run for the washrooms...I could have told her that too much to drink before bed would do that :-) I can't even drink 1 tea before bed anymore.

Here's a pic of the girls the morning after only 4 hours of sleep. We couldn't get Amy out of her pj's lol. Would you believe these girls are all the same age? Amy is usually taller than most of her friends, but this past week she was the smallest.


getting ready for the sleepover

We also had some very interesting weather. Sudden very violent thunderstorms! They'd come up practically from nowhere and just blast through the camp. One day the four of us, Jay, Amy, Simon and myself sat under our trailer awning and watched the light show. So beautiful and awesome to behold.

Si took some pics of the clouds one day. Oops, can't find the pics, very strange.

There were a couple of lightning/thunder claps that hit very close to home. Especially the one that hit a friends trailer and blew out his tv. Poor guy was in the trailer at the time and was sure he was going to Glory at that moment!

Simon has a blast and met up with some buddies, Bryce and Quentin, that he plays with at every 2nd family camp. They went to the Sandbanks and fishing. Here's a pic of Si with his catch...


The laughing woman in the background is the very brave and lovely Michelle (mom of Bryce and Quentin) who is willing to touch fish and worms and pull hooks out of fish...totally gross!




BTW, notice something different about Si? Yes, he got his hair cut. Family camp 1 was so traumatic for him. All the being called a girl and being mistaken in stores etc for a girl finally got to him. When Jay got home and needed to get his hair cut, my INCREDIBLY TALENTED stylist made room for both of them in her very busy salon.

NOTE: Here's my plug for Jen's place. Indulgence Spa and Salon in beautiful Wellington, Ontario. This place is soooo beautiful and peaceful and has a gorgeous view of the water. Should you ever go, tell her Vic sent you :)

Anyways I digress, here are some pics of Jen at work on Si.




and the finished product. He looks so much taller and older now. While I like his new cut very much, I am finding I miss the long hair a bit *sigh*



Shame on me, but I hardly took any pictures this summer at camp. Wish I had more but my memories will have to do.

Here are some other pics in case you're interested.

Pic of Amy taking some time to relax and draw.



just a nice pic of Simon

Amy and Simon setting up their tent


View of the barn from tent (and no that is not our satellite dish!)


Simon being helpful cleaning the trailer


Our campsite


On a different note:

This is a pic of Amy's friend Kasi, who does she look like to you?



I find the resemblance in this photo remarkable. For those of you who don't know, this is Ally Sheedy as she was in The Breakfast Club (one of my fave teen flicks).