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Everything hurts! :old But it's glorious aches because garden season is in full swing! Thank goodness I'm not a squatting weeder, but a standing up and hoeing type gardener, because the hours of squatting would be somewhat tortuous to this body. The last couple days of squatting/leaning on...

Black iris - sounds gorgeous! I've never heard of snapdragons being invasive? Then again, our winters are quite different so they may well be in your location. General rule with peas, smooth seeds are more starchy and the wrinkled more sweet tasting, and smooth peas are more cold hardy. I...

So they are more or less biennials? If they need to be overwintered, I suspect they wouldn't make it here. Parsley and even 'soup celery' (Zwolsche Krul) can't make it through winter to make seed for me. Darn! I would love to grow that pink celery and collect it's seed! I may leave the...

Well, my conscience is eased somewhat now. As I was pulling out my dead clematis vine this evening I took one last look around the mulched base to see if I could see rot, which I had assumed was the cause of death via too much love inspired watering. And voila, there it was. A vole tunnel...

OK this celery discussion has piqued my interest. I wonder though if everyone is having an easy time getting seed crops from it because your climates are milder and summers are longer than mine? I've always felt that celery seed was out of reach to me for that reason, but maybe I made...

Looks like you've got room to fit another one to me. More flowers is always better! Any flowers you had in mind?

These These look ready to harvest! It's funny you mention paper bags, because that's what I use to collect all my pea pods end of season. I suggested paper envelope because it seems a more common household item, but yes paper bags are even better. Roomy, stands upright and let's the pods...

Couple little garden updates. I've got some real challenges this year, but some things are going well. The cruciferous vegetables are one. The Osaka flowering kale is showing very little insect damage, knock on wood. I don't think the few tiny holes that are there are from cabbage moth...

Once the pods are dry to the touch, I'd pick them and put them in a paper envelope so they can breathe and complete the drying process fully. Some peas shatter really easily once they dry but I don't think Alaska is one of those, so you have some wiggle room.

How did you like the Chinese Pink? I've always wanted to try that one, especially since it apparently goes to seed fairly easily compared with the standard green celery. It's a beauty.

Fennel was a vegetable that had me puzzled in how to best use it, the flavor is strong with unusual notes. In the end, it always wound up in fresh salad and was appreciated there. Anise seeds, which to me seem to have an overlap with fresh fennel flavor, also had me guessing in how to use it...

The twining of the pole beans begins, and the award for earliest spinner goes to 'Vitalis', a variety sent to me from Spain. Wow, I can't help but wonder if the origin of the name is 'vitality'? It's super vigorous and probably already 3 feet tall at such a young age. Runners up goes to...

My car thermostat read 34 C/ 93 F this afternoon. Smokin' hot. Absolutely no one is used to weather like this, and the beach was packed to insanity levels. Everything in the gardens, both flowers and veggies alike, (except maybe the peppers) were utterly miserable. The collards looked like...

I'm growing Alenka this year too, but I don't think mine has even flowered yet!

If I could have chickens in my zoning, I'd consider keeping a small flock just for the poop. As it is now I'm buying it by the bag, at about $17, and I'd use a lot more of it if it was cheaper. IMO it is the finest manure on the planet for all things, works like magic to make plants, healthy...

I'm very late to the game when it comes to breathtaking perennials. For the better part of 17 years all I had were the rugged types; echinacea, shastas, lady's mantle, cornflowers and so forth. But when I got rid of most of the perennials I kept only what I really felt was special or...

What type of chickpea?

The stumps are all out & gone! 🥳 Our neighbour came over today and we loaded everything up on his trailer, he's going to burn everything at his camp. It was all cut up into manageable pieces. DH did all the worst work as usual, cutting roots with a saws all, the chainsaw, using a come along -...

Interesting about the moisture; I think what killed my clematis (mostly killed it, maybe one vine of the lot is not wilting) is I gave it too much water. I think I'm wrong that I killed the other, looks like it got hit and a piece of vine broke off - so relief on that (and less guilt). But...

Rain. Lots of rain. Which is good, it's been awhile. Nice to get a break from watering.