Last day of school teacher gift

Between  my daughter's piano class and making dinner I took a break to put together some flowers from outside.

 

 

These will be given to my daughter's teacher in appreciation of all that she has done for us and her class.

 

 

Happy last day of school!



garden fresh peas

Not much beats fresh picked peas, crunched open between your fingers, and eaten standing in the garden.   

We’ve been eating peas from the garden for a few days now but today was the first day that I actually managed to shell enough to bring indoors for cooking with.

I made fresh pea and mint soup and it was a hit for the whole family.  It always amazes me how many peas a 3 year old will eat when they are fresh from the garden.  This year I planted shelling peas instead of sugar snap and have realized that it is a bit of a pain since my daughter is unable to open them on her own and when she tries to eat the hole pod it is a little too stringy for her liking.  Reminder: plant sugar snap peas next year!

a jungle of sweet peas

Ever since I inherited my black chain link fence with the house, I have been working hard to disguise enhance it.  One of my annual plantings over the last few years has been sweet peas.  I normally plant them along the fence so they use chain link as a trellis.
 

Last summer I allowed some of the flowers to go to seed that I intended to harvest for planting this year but before I had a chance to collect them the pods released the seeds onto the soil and the new plants started to grow in late fall.  They overwintered and started growing strong in the spring so I already have an abundance of sweet peas scenting my garden.  Since it was nature doing the planting, the plants are strewn about the garden creating a sweet pea jungle instead of tidily along the fence.  I’m kind of enjoying the jungle!

 

 

 

 

 

 Somehow this pink guy got in the mix of white.

Nothing beats the smell of  fresh sweet peas brought inside!

 
 

 

Let there be Lettuce

 

 

Most of this lettuce was planted in March and we've been having salads for the last two months.  You can see that some of the plants are getting tall and frizzly which means that they will soon be finished and going to seed.  This also means that their lovely mild flavour will now become bitter.  I should pull them out and sow some more seeds this weekend so a fresh crop of lettuce will arrive in about a month.  Most lettuce tolerates cold well so can grow well to first frost without special attention.

 

 

The lettuce was planted in a 4 foot by 4 foot raised bed I built a couple years ago out of scrap wood.  I was quite proud of my mitred cuts on the corner top pieces, however, I since learned that mitred joints are not for outdoors as they encourage buckling with moisture.  Next time I'll keep it simple, no fancy angled cuts.

 

My favourite lettuce seeds rescued once before hiding in a pocket prior to being hucked into the laundry and found today in the bottom of my purse. 

 

Rasberries Galore

After 2.5 seasons my 6 or so raspberry canes (4 originally given to me from Shannon) are really producing well this year.  My daughter is the constant forager.

Please share your favourite raspberry recipes! 

If you are local, I would be happy to pass on some free raspberry canes that seem to sprout up in abundance.

A glimpse of Lauren's Yard

Lauren's yard consists of a west facing front yard that get full afternoon sun.  The backyard is neighboured by some woodland with more shade, though the vegetable garden is situated in the Northwest back corner to get the most sun.

 

A peek at Shannon's Yard

Shannon's yard is on a corner lot with a larger Northwest facing side yard.  The yard gets a lot of full sun though shady patches are starting to develop with the growth of plantings and new structures.