What have you done today in the Garden?

@Sjoerd here's 2 videos
Saskatoons

And haskap berry

 

Thanks a mil, Loggie.
Saskatoon = honeyberry = honingbes.

Ahhh. I know this fruit. Thanks again.

 

Your welcome

 

I've really done nothing much this week at all, apart from feed the birds, squirrels, the hedgehog and a few jobs around the house.

I woke up on Monday morning with "a sprained left wrist." Not really of course, but I may have slept on it and it might have inflamed the tendons. It happened before about six months ago. It was extremely painful and couldn't so much as hold as kettle in that hand.
There was stuff I had to do, but I had to use the other hand. Being left handed, like many, I can use my right hand foor most things.

So I did what I did last time. Soaked a hand towel in water, put it in a freezer bag and stuck it the freezer for about half an hour. Then spent as much time as I could spare, sitting with my wrist resting on the towel on the arm of the chair. The towel has been in and out of the freezer many times in the past four days.

Like last time, I'm now almost back to normal. Not good enough to play golf tomorrow, I'll leave that until Monday. But I think I'll be able to vac up the huge amount of wisteria blooms on the patio and mow the lawns on Sunday.

 

Sorry to hear that @Doghouse Riley and glad that you know what to do. That happened to me before in last December after I had my first cataract done and when I was able to do things i started doing a bit of cleaning. It started with my bad elbow on my right arm and then spread over those muscles and tendons. I'm right handed but I can do some things with my left, it's a lot better but hasn't gone completely. Take care.

 

I picked green beans, examined the garlic (which is next on the to-do list for picking), watered the tomatoes and got the very last of the sugar peas. Those will come out in the next few days, along with their trellis.
I need to cage the pepper plants because Timi has developed a fondness for rubbing against them, and tie up the cucumbers again. That will wait until tomorrow because Formula One practice session is coming on the TV!

 

Chuckle….you and Formula 1. I should call you, “Speedy Janezales”. Toot-toot.

 

Thank you for the kindness Sjoerd. It is challenging, but perhaps that is part of the reward in the end.

The asparagus is grown green. I have tried the white asparagus, but found it a bit too much work on my knees to keep up. We have five 25 foot rows ( I do not know what we were thinking 18 years ago). We do love it many ways fresh though, and when we tire of that we pickle the rest. It is very expensive and travels a weary long journey at the grocery stores, so it is a real treat for us.

Both Saskatoons and Haskaps are part of the serviceberry family.

The saskatoon berries are a native plant to the forests of BC, as well as the prairie provinces. The BC berries are plentiful, but very seedy and can be quite dry. ( I made a BC Saskatoon pie for my Saskatchewan born Father In Law once, and it was like slicing into sawdust vs the juicy saskatoon pie he remembered from his childhood. ) They are a staple for the bears, and when a saskatoon year is poor the bears suffer for it, as does everyone else while they try to make up for it in thier diet. We have some wild trees in our yard and field.

The Prairie saskatoons are larger and sweeter. They have been cultivated as a commercial crop through the University of Saskatchewan. It takes a while for them to establish, but the berries are large like a blue berry with much less seeds and sweeter than the BC Saskatoons.

The Haskap Berries are called many other things such as Blue Honeysuckle, and HoneyBerry. They as well are native to the BC forests but apparently not very palatable. ( hence the "renaming" or "rebranding" of the name). They were also cultivated and crossed by the University of Saskatchewn ( I believe with a variety in Japan??) and are now becoming very popular. I have three varieties that must cross polinate in order to have fruit. Again, they are very cold hardy. There are parts of Europe that market haskap wine. It is said to have the taste between a raspberry and a blueberry.



Both berry trees require a period of dormancy, so can only grow in certain parts of the hemisphere. ( I'll try to find a link that eludes me right now) I'm pretty excited to finally get them. I've been humming and hawing for about 8 years.

 

I planted the sauce tomatoes and set up their kraft paper mulch.

Then I planted most of the squashes.

Still a lot of cleanup remaining. Also annual flowers and sweetcorn. And pickle cucumbers.

 

It has been a busy few days starting with another unplanned trip to town. We ordered a back up pump for fire season, encase the one we have should ever break down. It is impossible to get parts these days, and most things break when we need them so we did not want to chance it. On the way home we checked the mail and my strawberries, haskaps and saskatoons were in. There are still two more haskaps to arrive from a seed company on the other side of Canada, but hopefully within the week.

That meant planting had to be done right away. Strawberries are in. A little closer together than I would have liked but they may not all survive either. 12 inches apart was the best I could wrangle. The June Berries were mulched as well.





Yesterday morning our internet went down for a number of hours, which lead to a walking tour of what needs to be done....which lead to a lot needing to be done. The Memory Garden did not get weeded after June of last year due to the "heat dome" and then the fires lasting into September. My asthma did not allow a lot of outside time. Then the old plant growth was left to help stave off the low temps this spring. It's taken two days but I think I've tracked down most of the quack grass roots in the memory garden.

There was sadly a lot of destruction over the winter. I wondered why an Ermine was living in the Memory Garden over winter. Now I know. He was hunting the little furry monsters that survived the long winter by eating the roots of the Pasque flowers, the Peonies and Autumn Sedum. What a mess. Some plants only have a few new sproinks. We will have to see what they decide to do this summer. I cleaned them up as best I could, divided a few and gave everyone some TLC. I was happy to see some roses hung on and survived the winter. I'm sure their thorns helped stave off the meadow mice. This is a photo of what the once large Pasque flower looked like when I uncovered it. Still some beauties hanging on though.





I covered everything last night, but I'm unsure who will have made it through the -3 this morning. The sun is just coming around now, so I will check soon. Even the Columbine and wild Solomon's Seals were laying a bit flat this morning. Rhubarb survived many freezings, only to get frosted once again.

 

The predicted rain hasn't arrived yet, so we watered the herbs well and then dug and hung the garlic. We got back to the house in time to watch the Formula One qualifying.

 

I believe that I read once that you collect rain water for your gardens. How difficult is watering for you when the rain doesn't cooperate? I hope the rain shows up soon.

 

Planted up my 2 hanging baskets with trailing geraniums, trailing fuchsias and eurigeron.

 

Done nothing other than take these photos avoiding the "scruffy bits."

Hopefully, my wrist is feeling better, so I can get into the garden tomorrow and more importantly, be able to get back to playing golf on Monday (weather permitting).

The white wisteria on the garage pergola.









The "rose patio."









Our sambucus is starting to flower.




Some contrasts in rhodos. The mauve ones are those I "rescued" fom Aldi a couple of years ago. They were very cheap as they were dying through lack of water. as the staff aren't allowed to water them. "'elf n' safety."

 

Melody, watering from the rain collection cubes isn't difficult, just time and muscle consuming! We fill buckets which we take to the plants, empty the buckets in needed areas or into watering cans for more targeted watering, and repeat and repeat and repeat.
We have three 250 gal. cubes and two 55 gal. trash cans to collect water from the barn, garage, and house roofs. I've posted these photos before, but I hope it helps you understand what we are doing. The cans we dip and carry, and the big cubes have a spigot on the bottom to fill buckets or watering cans. We also use the rain water collected to water our hens.
The cubes can be gotten free or at minimal cost from car washing businesses or farm suppliers. Just flush them out thoroughly and then put them under a downspout. The cans don't need to be flushed, but they do need to be under a downspout.