The Garden (CIP 1)

I thought I'd start with the garden since that was a major reason for my move to this location. My gardening mentor, Sara Williams, always used to emphasize the challenges of the Saskatchewan gardener. I'm not sure if I can agree with her any longer. I do have a much more amenable climate. However, the soil is a buggar to work with. For the past two summers when I was out here I'd been rock picking to clear an area where I could plant a few things. My trusty SK perennials were planted in some peat moss in an already very acidic soil. I can't say they are happy, but the are alive. The daylilies are actually doing okay and this year my Siberian irises are looking quite fine. The lilies (sigh) don't seem to be happy although the martagons that I brought last year - while they were flowering - have not blinked and are ready to flower again this year. Last year I managed to complete the two garden decks pictured above, and fill them with perennials. Each of these "decks" is getting about 4 -5 hours of sun per day. You can see some of my rock pickings and luckily for me, Dave has a natural affinity for building stone walls.

This year I'm trying to have a vegetable garden. I learned last year that my soil did not do a good job of growing vegetables and I only managed to get a few peas, potatoes and onions. We had hauled very fresh horse manure to the yard last fall and added some of it to our garden area. We've also added lime to it to help with the acidity. I planted peas, lettuce, and spinach on April 12. The peas that did come out (old seed turned out to be a problem) are doing fine, but the lettuce and spinach has remained at a constant 2 cm in height for the past month.

In mid-May I purchased some soil from the Slocan Valley and have added it to various parts of the garden and created some new beds. It is also acidic although less so than the stuff that grows a great cedar forest. We've used it on our new beds in front of the house and mixed it into stuff that now has tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and zuccini trying to grow in it. We'll wait to see the verdict!

The other issue are deer. I came back from our trip to Kokanne Glacier at the end of March to see that a few of my bulbs had been eaten by the deer. Every ornamental shurb had also been nibbled. In mid May we managed to put up a rather crude fence with an even cruder gate and we haven't seen deer in the yard for 3 weeks. It also has a line of electric fencing around the top of it. I have also not noticed any deer on our little peninsula for 3 weeks either, so I'm not sure if Our fence has been truly tested. Don't you think it makes our place look welcoming??!

We hope to complete the next phase of the deck in the next couple of weeks. Then I can begin work on the garden in a really hot spot in the yard. I do have plants right in front of the house and they look a little ridiculous as they are so small. There are times when I feel totally defeated by the whole garden thing - more than I ever did in SK. As well, I didn't want to have all these pictures together but I'm having difficulty moving them around once they are in the post. I need to learn a new method. Anyway, I'm sure you can recognize the dirt pile, the flower bed in the front, the rock walls and the garden and the gate! Happy planting, weeding and watering, readers.