Wanna see my punkins?

FINALLY.

2011 garden saga ends with this post. These are my pumpkins. The one in the back is a grocery store sugar pumpkin, just to show off how beautiful my heirloom Styrians are. They have naked seeds! That is, hull-less and super delicious.

So proud of these pretties. If I had started them earlier they'd be mottled with a bit more yellow/orange. Totally doing them again next year.

Now off to find a bunch of fur to make my awse costume this year! Thanks for readin', friends. We'll see what next spring brings (ie: if I'll have anywhere to plant... I might even move to a better-yarded house just for the garden potential. We'll see...)

Fruits of my Dirt's Loins

Behold the remnants of my efforts this season! Still to harvest are the pumpkins. I ask about them everyday like a nervous parent (which I am, so it works out). I will for sure post their glorious pics once they are back in my care.

T'maters! Black Prince (soooo meaty and amazing - my all-time favourite heirloom), Taxi, Tiger Stripe, and Gardener's Delight. Had some splitting issues after some of the heavy rains, but they were crazy delish nonetheless.

Dried the herbs, yo! 

Dried some mint from the back alley. This mint has seen some shit, you guys. 

 Soooo many yellow beans and I DIDN'T CAN ANY OF THEM. WTF?

A monster summer squash and it's mutant Patty Pan friend. Wish I could've added the pumpkins to this pic. Come home to me, dearies!

I don't know yet what I'll do for next year. Pretty epically bummed that I won't have tons of dirt to work with. Probably just container stuff, but I'll do it right. Heart. Break.

HAPPY NOTE ENDING.

Winding down.

Garden is still kickin' it. Let's all just ignore how heartbroken I'll be to leave this, mkay? SO MUCH WORK. I've loved this GD yard. Okokok I'm not going to spiral down that path... toooo saaaaad.

Anyway here are some pics of the upcoming HAPPY HARVEST. Yay.

It's Still Here! Life! August!

Holy heck! In all the recent hullaballoo re: my stupid life, you guys were probably FREAKING OUT wondering what was going on with my dearest and most darling garden. "Is she just going to ABANDON all her hard work?? What has become of her sticktuitiveness?? What kind of attitude is that and does it need adjusting??" Happy (and relieved, and sheepish) to say: my current garden and I are reconciling. I realized that everything I wanted I already had, and that this sweet little patch, in all its imperfections, was where my true happiness lived (LIFE ANALOGY ALERT).

So anyhooooooooooooooo... here's how my darlin lil garden grows!

Explodotowne! The one end is too shady (I will never learn my lesson! NEVERRRRR!) so the beets and carrots weren't super happy. There are some tomatoes there, peppers, and a late cucumber plant. The melons gave a feeble shot at being alive, but ultimately preferred being dead.

Heritage t'maters! Lots of 'em! Wearing their hail storm scars like little delicious troopers. Nice job boys, imma eat'cha soon! So far I've had a few ripe Tiger Stripes and a couple Taxis. SO DELISH.

Squash flowerpower!

Pattypan Squashes! They are called PATTYPAN SQUASHES. It's basically like eating pure cute.

Pumpkins are giving a noble shot at "getting themselves out there", but they had a late start and might be making fools of themselves by trying. I'll let them think that everything is going fine, though.

Swiss chard and peas! There was also lots of lettuce here which has since been picked and eaten ravenously. Side note: all of my marigolds decided to grow REALLY tall before blossoming. Don't get what they're trying to prove. Like OKAY marigolds. CHILL. OUT.

Mike took pity on my discarded heritage tomato seedlings and planted them around the house and WHAMMO. Massive and thriving tomato plants everywhere! (LIFE ANALOGY ALERT AGAIN) And yes, they do look like they're being strangled, but they like it, I swears (NOT A LIFE ANALOGY ALERT).

More underdog tomato plants and poppies! Poppies everywhere! Also a wasps nest! I don't remember planting wasps! HAHAHAHAHAA

Lil row of corn and beans. These are pretty late because I had originally intended to plant raspberries here, then ran out of time to plant them, so planted these guys. We'll probs get beans, but corn doesn't have a great chance. Ah well. Great job being plants, guys!

This is one of the Tiger Stripes. SERIOUSLY, RIGHT? So pretty and soooooooo so so delicious.

So there! I DON'T just give up on the things that I love and sometimes the most amazing surprises are just a few months of work away (OVERLOAD OF LIFE ANALOGY ALERTS).

Fall will be really nice.

pretty awse procrastinatin'

I have a zillion things to do, so I decided to go out and work in the yard instead. I mean, look at this goddamned yard! Can you blame me? Seriously. Seriously, guys. I'm serious about this.

Oh, hi apple tree in full bloom. You're the prettiest thing I've ever seen and I think we should go on some dates. Backyard dates are cool with me because I don't have a car either. 

City of Calgary is selling composters for $35.00, yo! Mine arrived today and I assembled it all by my strong and independent self, and when it was finished I shouted, "LIVE. LIIIVE" for like, 20 minutes. Nothing happened. Maybe once I put some stuff in it, who knows. As for the garden itself, everything is still tiny sprouts and, as such, are not super fun to look at in pics. Peas, lettuce, swiss chard, peppers, squash, carrots, beets, and tons of herbs are all up though! But a squirrel ate my pumpkin sprouts, grrr. You do NOT want to be in my backyard when the squirrel is around! Teeennnnsion!

 Summer squashes are doin' it right! Keep it up, champs!

Oh what, this? This is just my backyard. This is just 1/3 of it, it's totally huge, nbd. Sending future curses to the developers who will someday bulldoze the house and build shitty infills with piddly yards. Future stupids!

Not relevant to my yard, but this is my beloved bike. It's getting pretty junky, but I adore it and we have great times together. We're very close, but it's a plutonic close, you know? Friends forever or until it rusts to death. 

 Lilacs are bloomin'! And that's my kiddos' nanny's bike. She is also one of my BFFs and she is the best nanny of all time. Lotta love in this post!

EXCITING RECENT DEVELOPMENT: the landlords gave me the go-ahead to plant raspberries. I'm SO excited to add the little nerds to my pretty family!

Underdog tomatoes! My roomie/pal/neighbor/ex couldn't bear to see me toss out the left over heirloom tomato seedlings, so he planted them around the house. And wellzy wellzy, they're doing pretty damn good! Great job, runts!

This is my favourite part of the yard – the mysterious side-yard: neither front nor back, floating between two realitieeeesssss... if I was a kid I would spend ALL of my time here. 

And some happy surprises! Lily of The Valley's lining the north wall of the house! Hooray!!

Nice life, right? Inner city renting, man. We're close to five different playgrounds, groceries, river trails, Kensington shops and restaurants... I'll rent for eternity if it means living in this little paradise.

JUNE

I'm taking a quick break from cakes to think about my garden... sorry I couldn't come up with a better post title! It's June, though, hey? Cool!

I'm going to rename my Black Prince tomatoes "Ol' Reliables". This is my second year growing them from seed and they're hardy, awesome producers. They are also super delicious.

You can baaaarely make out the three rows of carrots. I kind of need to weed. And by "kind of" I mean, "I really, really, reallyreally need to weed".

Peas, lettuce and swiss chard! And weeds! One reason I'm putting off weeding is because I planted herbs all over the place and then neglected to mark them, so I'll be doing a lot of weed-tasting this weekend.

Beans! Helloooooo babieeess!

Apple tree is bustin out! It's not in full-bloom yet but hoo boy, I swoon and sigh every time I go outside.

The gate to the front. What's in the front yard? MAGIC AND ENCHANTMENT. And dandelions. Oh and a Nanking Cherry bush! Recently discovered! Alright!

Kay back to cakes. Wooo!

Staple gun sorceress!

This is what happens when I stare at a staple gun and a roll of poly long enough:

 Not bad, right? Everything is planted but wax beans and corn (just have to get the seeds), and rather than fret over cool nights and the first two weeks of crappy drizzle cold in June (happens every year, juz sayin), I've made a super-temporary greenhouse WITH MY MIND. And my hands. And a staple gun and plastic.

Best part is that as the weather gets warmer and the plants get bigger, I can pull away sections that need to go. Downsides: weeding is kinda hard with this set up, but it's not impossible. Also, if a storm whipped through, I doubt the thing could withstand crazy wind, BUT there's a bit of hail protection now, so yeah!

I've also been power drilling and wallpapering in my dining room, so I'm feeling preeeetty handy over here. This garden better 'preciate!