When we come out to the country estate, time whizzes by at the speed of light. Notice I said "come to the estate". First words of the blog ever written while actually at the country estate! A combination of using my cellphone as a Wifi connection and a rainy period between garden work and dinner prep created the perfect storm of opportunity to write while here!
Remember the Suzuki? Hunting buggy and gardening machine at the country estate? Well, it's gonna be sold, because Chuckles has found a newer, better, road worthy Jeep that he bought for a song and spent a few hours tinkering with to make it run well. Well, after weeks in the city being prepped for it's first highway drive, Chuckles drove it out to the country estate last Friday. It will be so handy to have a second insured vehicle at the property, without having to drive both our vehicles out weekly - which we rarely do as it costs a fortune in gas with our gas guzzlers.
The Jeep is here!
I have been very fortunate to be the recipient of many of the plants left over from the WI plant sale in Pemberton since Chuckles parents are very involved with that (and many of the plants for sale come from their garden in the first place!) This year I got a lot more hostas, hens and chicks, flowering red currant bush, soloman's seal, iris, and probably more that I have forgotten. I created the bed pictured below for most of the hostas.
New Hosta bed
Unrelated to any text in this blog, here are my first two poppies blooming. I have always wanted a poppy and it was my good fortune that there was one in the driveway bed. Although it was sickly when we moved in, I have amended the soil in this bed with the lovely composted horse manure we also inherited with the property and voila!!
We borrowed a friends bobcat a couple of weeks ago and have used it for raising the walls on the shop, filling up new beds with composted manure, clearing the garden area and putting load after bucket load of composted horse poop on that area too.
I now realize that I have been waiting my whole life for a Bobcat to come along. Who knew that a Bobcat could be so fulfilling? It is a fantastic tool that does many things, quickly, and with no muscle required! Chuckles has been using it to move around piles of wood that have come off the barn and will be used in the re-construction of the shop.
The wonderful Bobcat. With it, just two men were able to raise these wall panels and put them in place!
The bobcat hard at work clearing the veggie patch.
The raised beds built by Chuckles, filled by the Bobcat and planted by yours truly with tomatoes and peppers
The veggie beds are shaping up! Now we have tomatoes (early girl, roma and beefsteak) peppers (red and green so far) garlic, peas, cilantro, lots of lettuce in varying stages of development - we are eating our first head now; pole beans, bush beans, radishes, multiplier onions, beets, carrots, corn, potato (1 plant from my mom - she said it was a chrysanthemum but now there is enough foliage to confirm - a potato!
Garlic to be envied - Chuckles Dad (the gardener whom I respect most!) says our smallest garlic plants are bigger than his largest ones! (It's the manure)
Another friend brought by a machine and dug the trench for the water line from the barn to the garden area and Chuckles mounted a tap on a post. It's fantastic that we have water right there at the garden, it's the only way we could manage a garden this size living here only part-time as we do.
I have been keeping a garden book and documenting what is planted where, and what things are blooming when. Note to self - must learn more of the names of these plants, bushes and trees.
A recent entry in the garden book
The rhododendrons are just spectacular right now, as one finishes another begins blooming and there are at least 10 of them along the driveway and in the front yard. Every colour is represented! As well, there are three Laburnum trees with their yellow blossom bunches in full flower right now, so
stunning.
There are several rhodos around the perimeter of the front yard in various stages of bloom
This rhodo on the edge of the driveway reminds me of cotton candy
