Unboxing...

I love surprises especially the kind that are delivered by the post office in a box 😃.

This week, I received one such mystery box.  What made this package a surprise was not so much the receiving part (I knew it was coming at some point as I had ordered it waaaaaay back in July) but rather, what was inside.  I ordered so long ago, I completely forgot what I had ordered.

Anticipation....

One Bed Down and 99 To Go

The garden is slowly winding down and I’m getting into clean-up mode.  This has been a so-so year in terms of productivity, both in terms of the gardens yield and how much I got done.   I’ve tried a few strategies in the past in the hopes of getting ahead of the game and none have been as successful as I would have liked.  One of my goals this winter is to spend some time thinking about the basics of what I want to accomplish and how to go about doing that.  More importantly, I need to be (more) realistic when it comes to time restraints, which I realize has been my major downfall up until now.

But I’ll get into all that once I figure out my plan.  For now, I’ll share some pics that I took this morning.  I’m harvesting a bit of surprise kale recently:

Red Russian and Red Ursa Kale

Onions Harvested...and all is good :)

The summer has, once again, flown by and we are now into the cooler (and dare I say, much more pleasant!) autumn weather.  I’ve been away in Salt Lake City and, now that I’m back, it’s time for some final harvests and garden cleanup to begin.

The onions were the first crop on my “to harvest” list.  My intention had been to harvest them before I left, in the first couple of days of September, but I ran out of time.  I was actually quite concerned that they may not be fairing that well over the past couple of weeks as we’ve had a lot of rain.  Well, my concern was all for naught.

Hello my pretty...

Too Busy to Deadhead - The Payoff

You know what I've realized of late - I'm horrible at multi-tasking.  I'm not referring to doing multiple things at once, which I'm also horrible at, but doing multiple things in one day.  More often than not, when I'm doing one "thing", such as working in the garden or sorting through the gazillion photos I took in Denver (still on the to-do list), everything else gets put on the back-burner.

This weeks time guzzler was stage 1 of restoring an invasive infested border

that's been on the to-do list for years.

Often it's the everyday chores that end up slipping through the cracks...as the basket of laundry that's been sitting in my bedroom since last Friday can attest to.

Family member:  When's dinner?
Me:  What time is it?
Family member:  5:00
Me:  Soon (delude myself into thinking I still have a bit of time)
Family member:  What are we having?
Me:  I haven't decided yet (realize that I really should get cracking on dinner, set aside what I'm doing and try to come up with a meal that can be ready in 30 minutes.  We end up eating at 7 'cause I'm no Rachel Ray.)

Much like everyone else, I'm afflicted with "too much to do, too little time" syndrome and the garden is no small part of that.  Certain garden tasks that go undone, however, end up being blessings.  I'm talking about deadheading, or lack thereof, and the self-seeding that results.  And while some of the self-seeded surprises in my garden may be "same ol', same ol'" for someone in a more southerly climate, around here (in Canadian zone 5/6, U.S. zone 4/5)  they are truly something to celebrate 😃

Zinnia Parade

Most of you know how much I LOVE zinnias - they bring such joy to the garden (and the gardener!).  Ever since I sowed those very first seeds several years ago (sent to me by the gorgeous Tammy over at Casa Mariposa), my garden has been graced with their presence. And this year is no exception.

The zinnia that started it all...'Peggy's Delight'

The Heat, the Rain....and the Skeeters!

Well, hello again.  It’s been an eventful month in both a good way (the Denver fling was amazing!) and not so good way (I was knocked out with the flu for a good chunk of time).  So much for “flu season” (eye roll).  I have never felt so tired and achy before…makes me wonder if I’ve ever had the flu before or just really bad colds.

Echinacea "Cheyenne Spirit" (started from seed a couple of years ago) is doing amazing

...as are the weeds but let's ignore that bit, shall we 😄

Goings-on in the Veg Garden

Just as with the rest of the garden, on the veg front, it’s been slow going until recently.

Spring crops (lettuce, arugula, radishes, mache, claytonia, turnips & beets) were sown/transplanted seemingly eons ago, but with the unusually cool weather, they grew at a snail’s pace.  Now that warmer temperatures have arrived, they are finally sizing up.

My favourite variety of arugula, 'Speedy', not only sizes up quickly, but is also very mild,

which is a bonus in my book as I find some arugula to be a tad overpowering.