Vegetable garden

The deer fence that we put up in May seems to be doing its job well.  No deer damage or rabbit nibbles in evidence!

The potato plants have sprouted out of the hills and are growing well. The 3 spaghetti squash plants that I started from seeds in April (which I had collected from a spaghetti squash that we ate for supper this winter) are slowly growing.   The 3 zucchini plants that I planted out seem to be in limbo and don't show any growth yet.  (I hope that the 'Miracle Grow" that I put on everything a few days ago will make a difference.)
The 6 tomato plants (against the fence ) are all doing well and I am anxious to see which variety will do best. We have 1 Health Kick, 1 Super Fantastic, (wonder if it will live up to that name?)  1 Bush Champion, 1 Husky Red (it already has 2 small tomatoes on it) and a Lemon Boy (which gets sweet yellow tomatoes.)  The cherry tomato is growing in a large pot on the deck.  The competition has begun!!!

Giant rhubarb

The 3 rhubarb plants (which came up many weeks ago and have been here much longer than we have!) are huge and last week I cut 18 stems off them and baked 3 strawberry rhubarb pies! They turned out really well, if you don't count the mess they made at the bottom of the oven! :)

The vegetable seedlings are all sprouting now too. The first to sprout were the radishes. There are also a half dozen spinach plants that must have self seeded because they popped up in strange places around the garden and have already grown 3 or 4 inches tall (8 to 10 cm). (And one has even sprouted in a flower bed!)  The spinach seeds that I planted myself a few weeks ago are also up, but are quite tiny in comparison.

We somehow have 3 green onions that stayed in the ground all winter and have grown to an edible size already. The ones that we planted this year are only about 2 inches tall (5 cm, in case you think in metric! :)
But its gratifying to see that things are growing!
It never ceases to amaze me each year how a person can put a few seeds into the ground and for such little work, can get such a wonderful and bountiful harvest!

I can't forget to mention the chives! We have a huge clump of chives in the veggie garden that comes up as soon as the snow is gone and it is one of the very first things to turn green. It is a pleasure to go out and cut down a few fresh chives for a salad or to put in an omelet when everything else in the yard is still brown with little signs of life!  Chives are also self seeders and we have 3 or 4 chives plants in other locations, too. One huge chive plant is growing in my flower bed near the birdhouse, and 2 are growing under the deck stairs, just a few steps outside the door. It doesn't require a lot of effort harvest them, just snap off a few leaves and they quickly grow more all summer long.

Tiny strawberry plants, next to rhubarb. We are using grass clippings as mulch here.

We bought 10 new strawberry plants at the farmer's market today for $1.00 each. My diligent husband went out and hoed the chickweed which was trying to take over the strawberry bed, then planted the little strawberry plants into the ground. (I wonder if the fact that he wanted to go golfing tonight had any bearing on his helpfulness?  - "Whatever it takes!" I say....  :)


Tiny evidence of dill is showing, as well as tiny lettuce seedlings and miniature swiss chard. The carrots are being elusive, but I don't think they will be far behind.

This year we decided we would skip the battle to try and get the broccoli and cauliflower bedding plants to grow into anything worthwhile. We had such tremendous luck most years growing broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts as well when we gardened in northern Manitoba! Our garden there got a huge amount of sunlight and we harvested broccoli until the frost came.  The brussel sprouts did extremely well also and doesn't mind the cold weather in late September, in fact, I believe it helps the yield! But here in our central Alberta garden we have too many beautiful lush spruce trees around the garden providing shade. I guess we could always cut them down, but I really hate to do that! Some of them are over 20 years old now and very tall and beautiful.  So, we'll just have to make due!