July 25 '19

After the excitement of a birthday and an anniversary comes the normalcy of every day life. Because I am on summer break right now, my days consist of all the normal tasks that everybody is responsible for: tidying, gathering up garbage and blue box (recycling), making meals, laundry, getting groceries...

A big part of my time has been spent digging. As described before, I hand dug my vegetable garden where the strawberries and ridiculous amount of weeds and grasses had taken hold. Here is my garden now, with the plants that I had already put in (in the little space that was to be had in the late spring). Now I have thrown a few more seeds in the ground and covered them with husband-designed rabbit munching prevention devices. If some of them germinate and produce by the time fall frosts come, well then, that will be a success.  You can see the old carpet (upside down) on some of the bare earth. I want to see what else we have lying around that can be used on the other bare parts to kill off anything that I didn't manage to hand dig / pull.

I need to be more diligent in watering the plants that are already up. This heat has been pretty tough on growth (when there hasn't been much rain at all). I'm looking at the picture and it really doesn't fully show the size of the garden area that I dug up and weeded. It really makes the whole thing look quite small, but trust me- there was a lot of digging - in 28 degree heat with a humidex of 36, 38, even 40 (this is Celsius, by the way).

Anyway, late July is not as spectacular in the flower gardens as beautiful late June, but here are some of the highlights:

Salieri Daylily.

Cement planter with sweet potato vine, geranium, and coleus.

Our little arbor with potted red geraniums, covered in trumpet vine. There are some buds, so hopefully it will put on a decent show. The bugs tend to eat the buds before they can open.

Lucifer crocosmia.

Daylily, possibly 'red magic'.

So, the heat has been a little hard to take (I'm actually fine with it, but son, the cats, the chickens seemed to have more difficulty). Here is symmetrical Samson in one of his favourite spots, where he can look over his kingdom.

The chickens prefer it when things are little cooler. I think egg production was down a bit during the extreme heat. I made sure to give them fresh water every day. They have shade in their run as well. When I come out the back door, they race to the fence, as I am usually the provider of food. Their favourite is leaves of dandelions, although leftover mashed potatoes can send them into a frenzy as well.

Sorry, girls. No treats right now.

Now that most of the hens are old enough to lay, I get a lovely collection of eggs.

There is a whole variety of shapes, shades, and sizes depending on who laid what and how old they are.

And there you have it.

Going for it!

      After being a lurker for quite a while now, I am beginning my own blog. In this light-hearted blog I will share my trials and tribulations with gardening, (both flower and vegetable), inform you about which particular do-it-himself project the husband is currently working on, figure out what's for supper, and tell you how many times I've let the cat out.
      I'm not quite at the half century mark and have accumulated some experience and wisdom (?) in a few areas. I'm a Canadian mom of two teenagers who have turned out to be pretty great kids. I have a full-time career of 25 years. My family and I live in an old brick house in a really small village. We are quite rural, and up until a year ago had a backyard coop of several chickens. The husband also has a career and is pretty confident in doing projects himself, from car work, to general repairs, to renovations. Long-suffering wives of D.I.Y. husbands may enjoy this aspect of "Coffee on the Porch with Me".
      I love growing things and digging in the dirt, and I'm a true believer in the "survival of the fittest" approach to gardening. I've never hired a landscaper or garden designer (perhaps that shows!) and I am happy to share perennials as well as advice. I get an incredible amount of joy from eating, freezing, and canning vegetables that I have grown. My vegetable garden is not pristine, and if bindweed was a cash crop, I'd be independently wealthy.
      I am embarking on the new experience of sending a child off to university this fall, so there may be future posts on that topic as well. Also, my second child is beginning highschool in the fall. Many firsts for our family.
      I am looking forward to learning more about blogging and posting what are hopefully amusing, interesting snippits of my life. So, please join me for a cup of coffee on the porch.

These happy eggs happened accidentally when I was making chocolate zuchinni cake the other day!