The Taste of Summer

[L07 Shooting Star]

It's amazing how much you can grow in a relatively small space with a bit of planning.  The entire space we have for "veggies" is about 1200 sq. feet.  We usually dedicate about half for "serious" veggies for freezing, and the other half for experimenting or whatever.  That's why one half looks pretty organized, and the other doesn't.  We switch these two areas each year to kinda practise a bit of crop rotation.  The gourds are mostly in the experimental side.

I usually dedicate that half of the garden to growing Atlantic Giant Pumpkins.  I didn't grow any this year as they take a lot of maintenance and effort to grow a really big one and we don't have the climate to grow a world champion one.  I used to think I could be a contender for a world record or at least a western Canada record.  I've realized that's not going to happen in my garden.  I actually grew one that weighed 511 lbs. a few years ago.  But the world record is now over 1500 lbs.!  I grew some last year that were probably close to 300 lbs.   I gave them to the neighbor kids for making halloween jack-o-lanterns.  They were thrilled as you can imagine.

This year, I will have gourds of any shape, color, and size you can imagine.  I'm going to set them out on a shelf on my back fence with a sign that says "help yourself".  There is a city path along our fence so lots of people come by there walking their dogs, or biking, or jogging or whatever.

I attached a couple of pictures of what our back yard looks like from that path.

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[tuffythepug]

Kurt, you've got a beautiful yard and garden.   I'm sure it brings you lots of pleasure.

[L07 Shooting Star]

Kurt, you've got a beautiful yard and garden.   I'm sure it brings you lots of pleasure.

It does indeed.  The view from our house and deck is also very nice.  We overlook the North Saskatchewan River which runs through the centre of Edmonton.  There is the walking trail immediately along our fence, then beyond, a steep bank down to the river.  So there will never be anything built behind our yard.  It's almost like living in the country even though we are in the city.

Here are a couple of pics of the view from our upstairs bedroom window.  These were taken a couple of years ago.

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[ducktrapper]

OHMYGAWWD! A DOUBLE FRIGGIN' RAINBOW! 

[bluesman67]

Nice pics, great yard!  Got any ripe tomatoes?

[L07 Shooting Star]

Nice pics, great yard!  Got any ripe tomatoes?

The only ones that have ripened on the vine so far are the little orange "sungold" ones along the shed.  And boy are they tasty.  We just pick them as they ripen and eat them like candy.  All our other tomatoes are really slow this year.  We'll be lucky to have any ripen before it freezes.  If it looks like we might get a light frost for a night or two, then more days of frost free nights, we'll make the effort to cover them at night.  But, if it threatens to stay cold, we'll just pick them all and ripen them in the basement by spreading them on newspaper and checking them every few days.

Kurt

[dermot]

We live in flat in the heart of our little city, but we also own a share in a dairy herd so we get raw milk every week, Eva and i went out to the farm on Saturday to hang with Bert & Alice the folks who started the co-op;
Me & Bert solving all the problems of the world;

Eva and a goat who wanted the pear she had in her hand;

Me and Jade the cow;


Lovely gardens to play in!

d/