Come with me on a tour of my garden. It's a humble size for a country yard, but I'm super grateful for its beauty and the fresh food it produces.
I'm not a natural at gardening, but I get better every year, and as my horticulture friend says, aim to "fail better next time."
Here's a pic of me with some of my favorite plants: Hopi Red Dye Amaranth.
Amaranth, how I love thee...
Amaranth amazes me. It's a tenacious plant. Its presence, to me, is a celebration of being alive.
These plants grew last year from seeds I bought 15 years ago, seeded prolifically as amaranth does, and returned this year in all their glory.
I hate pulling these plants out because I love them so much. I've weeded probably a hundred of them this year, eating some of the leaves, composting the rest. Now that they've flowered and are turning to seed, I'll leave them be until they're ready to be harvested.
Last year, I tried harvesting the seeds but I don't have a machine to separate the chaff from the seeds well enough to cook with them, so I just gave them to the birds.
We've had a super hot summer, and my other plants are grateful for the shade the amaranth provides. I love the way my heart rushes with joy when I'm around these generous, gorgeous plants.
Flowers
My sunflowers have been loving the heat we've had this summer.
They're not giants, but they're beautiful and the bees seem to love them as much as I do.
I grew lots of flowers in pots this year.
I have some cosmos from seeds a friend gave me, nasturtium from seeds I saved last year, and a whole bunch of petunias someone in the neighbourhood was giving away for free.
There are carrots in the two white pots, next to the nasturtium. I also have a few tomatoes in there. None have ripened yet, but I'm just impressed they've grown up here without a greenhouse.
Here's another flower pot, this one near my front door.
You see that sneaky amaranth? It planted itself there. I even pulled it out, but I felt so bad I left the seedling in the pot (as compost right?) and it re-rooted itself.
It grew into this beauty, standing guard over the other plants in that pot.
I love the marigolds in the picture below. Since I didn't start anything inside this year, I direct planted them from seeds I got from a friend.
They're tall and lovely. If you look closely, you can see a tiny spider on one of the petals.
The E-shaped Garden
Last year, we made some rock-walled raised beds. I dug out the ground beneath them and piled birch sticks and logs in before dumping soil on top, a la hugelkultur.
I get that hugelkultur is supposed to help with water and decompose into great soil, but so far it just seems like I built a haven for ants. Every so often they erupt from the ground by the hundreds and I douse them with diatomaceous earth. Seems to keep them under control, for the most part. I suspect they're down there eating all that birch up. The perfect soil in the making?
I really like the shape of these beds. They're connected, shaped a bit like an E, so I have three arms coming forward and one at the back.
You can see a bunch of calendula that seeded itself from last year in the front of the middle bed. There are carrots and beets at the back, and some lavender that I'm hoping will come back next year.
I just planted the empty bits with spinach seeds, and, of course, there are more sunflowers and my darling amaranth.
Here's the full view of my garden, including the pots, the rock raised beds, a box raised bed, and the kiddie pool at the back:
The Garden Box
Before 2020, this was the only garden bed I had, and some years it was entirely neglected. Last year motivated me to expand and get better at growing my own food.
It's wonderful to have fresh greens and herbs every day in the summer. I'm also freezing some things, and drying herbs for winter.
Swiss Chard and spinach are my favorite greens. I also have a few more carrots in this bed, plus chives, thyme, and beets.
The Kiddie Pool Garden
Have an old kiddie pool? Drill a bunch of holes in it, fill it with soil, and boom! Instant garden bed.
We have strawberries in this one, but the birds and ants always seem to get the berries before I do, so I might rip them out to plant more greens.
There's mint on the other side, which I rooted from a cutting and recently transplanted. Figured a contained bed is a good place to grow mint. And there are a bunch of new collard greens and spinach seedlings coming up in the center.
Wildcrafting
We're lucky to have berries and other medicinals growing wild in our yard. Here are a few we enjoy the most...
Raspberry season is over, but kids and I ate the berries right off the plant when they were ripe. Yesterday, I cut leaves from new growth and am drying them for tea.
We have several Saskatoon berry bushes, which are really more of a small, many-trunked tree. The birds LOVE these berries, but I picked a couple of large freezer bags full in their short season.
We've been eating a lot of Saskatoon berry scones lately. They're so good!
Though I've not harvested them yet, there are tons of wild rose bushes in our yard, and their rose hips are ripening now. They're so red and plump in the fall.
I know rose hips have are a good source of vitamin-C, but they're filled with seeds which have to be separated from the fruit before drying. This has been the factor that's kept me from taking on the task before.
It'll be work, but I'm hoping to harvest some this autumn.
Time to Head Outside
That's the tour of my garden! Thanks for coming with me.
Growing plants, and appreciating the ones around me, brings so many benefits to my life, from the joy of flowers to nourishing food, and time outside.
In fact, I think it's time I head out there now...
Peace @Katrina-Ariel / @LeiaTalon
All photos mine.
