Summer beauty

Summer has arrived in earnest around here. We've been berry picking three times now. We have survived the first heat wave, when every day tempts you to the beach to float in the cool ocean water. And the early, succulent spring flowers have given way to feathery, wiry, gaudy summer flowers that bob and nod in the sweltering afternoons and the blissfully cool evenings.

Construction and garden maintenance are also in full swing. One day, a chainsaw buzzed all day just outside our living room windows. The next day, a jackhammer... well, hammered all day across the street. The next day, we heard the incessant thump, thump, plonk! of a basketball in the alley, followed by distressed or celebratory "oohhh!"s from the dozen 18 year olds who are subletting the big house next door. And the next? A weedblower. Right under the bedroom window. Really, is using a broom or a rake so difficult?

Despite that, we've had family visiting, and have enjoyed showing off our beautiful city in the summertime. Jordan's brother, and then parents, have come out to visit us. We took them to the glistening Shannon Falls, hiked the Chief, and took the gondola to the top of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. Oh yes, and went blueberry picking. Jordan's dad, a Manitoban farmboy at heart, especially loved blueberry picking. But who's kidding who? We loved it too.

And we've been grilling, cooking, eating well. Blueberry tarts with a sweet-crunchy shortbread crust, spiked with lemon zest and topped with floppy, just-sweet whipped cream. Ice cream with brandied-rhubarb compote. Barbequed pork chops with last summer's applesauce. Perfectly-roasted rosemary-scented potatoes.

Yes, summer has been good to us so far. Un vraiment bon été.

Has it been so for you?

Rooftop Farms: Brooklyn, New York

Rooftop Farms in Brooklyn, New York, has transformed the roof of this old warehouse into a thriving urban farm. The farm supplies organic food to local restaurants and cafes, as well as providing protection for the roof its built upon.

The creation of urban farms can (and I believe will) slowly transform a barren urban landscape into a place where slow food and neighborhood connections can thrive. Read one Brooklyn-ite's experience of Rooftop Farms. He and his wife went for a Sunday afternoon visit, and came home with produce for the week. They walked there, and walked home. How many of us, living in cities where it's easy to pass a day without anyone recognizing you or knowing your name, would benefit from this kind of neighborhood interaction?

Guerrilla Gardening

I wish I could be this cool.

Keep up the amazing work, wherever you are!

o for a bit of earth...

Tonight I stole J.'s camera and shot some photos on my way to the last choir rehearsal of the summer. I'm so proud of my little seedlings that I couldn't wait to show them to y'all! I wish I had pictures of the garden-before-it-was-a-garden, i.e. a weedpatch. But alas. I was too excited to dig things out to take photos that day. 

How did our little garden come to be? We asked the dudes-in-charge if we could plant a garden in the weedpatch that bordered the parking lot on the west side of our church's property. Word got out, and a friend D. asked to plant a few things, too. So, we broke sod together, tearing out all the weeds, double digging the beds, and prepping the soil. It's quite sandy soil... perhaps because it's so close to the preschool's playground? :) D. brought in bags and bags of good ol' Vancouver Island Sea Soil, but I just added Gaia Organic Fertilizer to the soil. He already had seedlings started, but I had yet to order all my seeds. I bought them through Bob at The Natural Gardener, and he has become my most valued resource! Most of them came from West Coast Seeds, and I basically went through their catalogue page by page, making a list of everything I wanted to grow.  

Now, all the seedlings are coming up, including the yellow bell peppers, patty pan squash, and bush beans I planted in the last two weeks, and I will have to be creative about spacing and making room for all the plants I have going. I gave a cucumber plant to E. and M. tonight after choir... E. used to work in Africa as an agriculturalist, so I figured he would give the yellow-blossomed plant a good home. 

There were also some berry canes were in the weedpatch before we started. We decided to keep them in, to see what would grow. When I met a a few neighborhood friends (little two-year old W. and his nanny A.) I found out that they actually "harvested" the raspberries last summer! I pruned and fertilized them, and now they're showing beautiful buds and flowers. I'll have to bake a little tart for W. and A. when August rolls around. 

In the meantime, here are a few photos from the garden: 

Little bull's blood beetlings! I need to thin them out so they'll grow properly. I'm not going to have enough room for all my veggies... it's a serious problem. I've been so blessed to get permission to plant a garden in this space at all, but I have a problem with moderation. Meaning, I don't do anything half-way. So, I planted ALL of my seeds, not realizing that 2 summer squash plants feed a family of FOUR! Plus, they sprawl. I also planted ALL of my pepper, tomato, cuke, beet, carrot, and pea seeds. Oops. 

Arugula seedlings! My friend E. said they look like little hearts. Sweet little hearts I want to put in my mouth. 

We trellised our Alderman tall telephone peas on these metal trellises from Ikea. They come in boxes of 9 and you can screw them together to make any shape or height you need. We will definitely be adding to these. I'm sure J. was glad to be doing some "construction" work this last weekend putting these trellises together after digging and screening the last of our four beds last weekend! At the end of that day he said, "I feel like I've been digging holes and filling them back in all day!" Yup. Thank you, my dear husband. 

Our mixed greens (and reds) are growing! Okay, so maybe lettuce isn't sexy to everyone. But I think it's beautiful. Because this is my first year gardening, I'm just ecstatic that anything is growing at all! 

I've been noticing plants, flowers, and veggies everywhere. I've been especially impressed by the rising number of places where Vancouverites are planting veggie beds! It's incredible! 

I happened upon this one just the other day. 

It has been growing right under my nose for years. I walk past this backyard nearly every day on my way from home to my church. Maybe the gardener just put it in... or maybe I'm just growing a new pair of eyes. 

This garden is particularly interesting to me. First, the tall poles all lined up in a row there are deliciously exciting. What is the gardener growing? There were some berry bushes behind the poles, and I noticed at least one fruit tree. There are some things growing in pots, and good Vancouverite that this gardener is, the compost bin is in the front right. 

When I notice these little gardens springing up all over the city, what should I do? Try to take a photo surreptitiously... without seeming creepy? Introduce myself to the gardener in person or by a note left in the mailbox? I'm not shy about chatting with someone who's out in the yard working. After all, since I've started my little garden at church, I've met SO many people from the neighborhood! It's a lovely feeling to see little gardens coming to life in my neighborhood, and I want to make friends with the kind of people who would tear up the sod in their whole backyard to plant a veggie garden. At the very least, I have yard-lust. So, I will garden vicariously through my neighbor-gardeners, savoring my own small bit of earth.