Skyscrapers!

 I guess that I really should have thought about a pea with the name "Skyscraper" - it would be tall.  It's much too tall for my pea stakes.  I spent a few minutes this morning connecting the peas to the upper part of the stakes with some string and I hope they'll survive.  We had a bit of a windstorm yesterday for an hour and they did get messed up a bit.  Today they seem good.  This is the first June that I've ever picked peas pods and I've had 4 pickings of sweet peas so far from the plants that I seeded last November.  They probably got a 3-week jump start on flowers compared with spring planted sweet peas.  Happy Canada Day, everyone!

The Rain Gauge

 This is my Lee Valley rain gauge and even though it's in inches, there was one heck of a lot of rain.  It's actually full.  There's been more than 100 mm of rain over the past 3 days (that's 5.5 inches in my rain gauge).  We did need this rain - just not so darn much at one time.  It will keep the forest fires at bay for another week or two and the garden wet for another week.  I've learned that water is feast or famine.  There's lots of road closures in the area and our dear river trail has been partly washed away, but compared to the devastation of so many other places it's very calm in our neighbourhood.

Using Mirrors

 My favourite garden on the tour was at the Slocan Valley version of a guest home known as The Artful Lodger.  The owner is a an artist and her place was full of interesting sculpture, tile work, hanging items and design.  I have never thought of using mirrors in a garden, particularly when this was a large, open space, but it really works.  The wanderer has the opportunity to view sky, garden and vista while approaching the mirror.  The artist sells many of these tiles mirrors and I just may chose to put one of the designs on my Christmas list.  This garden had something of interest every step of the way.

Slocan Valley Art & Garden Tour

 Father's Day is the traditional day for the annual Slocan Valley Garden Tour.  For the first time I attended, along with 3 other women from the Kaslo area.  We couldn't have asked for better weather and the gardens were an interesting combination of food, perennials, water gardens and greenhouse/commercial market gardening.  The Slocan Valley does seem to be hotter than our valley and everything is slightly ahead of the Kootenay Valley.  The garden pictured here is at Valhalla Ranch, right on Highway 6, south of Slocan City.  It was enormous and so well weeded.  I admired the religiously straight rows (some thing that I can never achieve no matter how short).  These folks had chickens, cattle, horses, huge gardens and bees.  They are making a living (?) the hard way and thankfully there are still a few people left who are willing to work that hard.  They had a gorgeous view of the Vahallas across the Slocan River.  Quite a slice of paradise.

State of the Garden 3

 The first pea flower opened on the pea plants so it does really feel like the growing season is well under way.  I actually have two flowers on the sweet peas that I planted in the fall - they aren't open yet, but they are going to be red!!  I love it!  The greens continue to produce well and we're getting a bit sick of beet greens after thinning the beets last Sunday.  The carrots are one crop I'm a little concerned about - they are growing, just not well.  The zucc and squash have been slow and heat will help immensely.  The tomato plants all look healthy.  Garlic scapes are beginning to appear.  In the perennial border,  the Siberian irises are at their peak and the daylilies are setting up for their big show.  The smell of roses is everywhere along the roadsides; a joy when hiking or biking!