Our garden end of August

Here are a few snapshots of the garden at this time of year, when harvests are bountiful, flowers are their fullest, and weeds are not able to be kept up with anymore.   This heat and humidity has meant a productive year for tomatoes, beans, basil, kale, rosemary, and the tallest sunflowers we've ever grown...

Take a walk through our garden!  Enter through the garden gate and follow along...

 The marigolds are absolutely vibrant this year!

The dragon's tongue beans, a favourite, growing in the hooped bed.  Planted as a second crop after our salad greens from spring were done.

 Interplantings of nasturtiums, kale, beans, and greens.

There's always something to snack on - we grow lots of quick and ready to eat veggies for the kids, such as cherry tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, green beans.

Water conservation is so important, especially in a dry summer like this one has been.  Gravity fed basins of water in the garden for convenient watering, fed from the house rain barrels.

View of the newly glazed passive solar greenhouse, south facing of course - with our patio of figs, lemon verbena bush, and sea buckthorn plants, and cold frames for extra greens in spring and tomatoes in summer.

Pond area, nice place to seek shelter during the hottest parts of the day.  Habitat for frogs, toads, birds, fish, and even the visiting raccoons.

Alkanet flower in the newly planted dye plant section of the herb garden!  I hope to use the root for soap making at some point.

 Kale is abundant, our barn studio in the background.

We try to grow new varieties where space permits - these are heirloom red kidney beans that we got from Seeds of Diversity, a Canadian seed saving non-profit where we can find amazing varieties of heirloom seeds that are shared.

Speaking of heirlooms, here are some tomatoes we grew this season - cherokee purple, Nebraska wedding, Brandywine...

We try to interplant flowers wherever there is space, for beauty, pollinators, cut flower bouquets, and companion planting.

And the hops arbour is full and ready for harvest. Always more to do...

August Garden Flowers - the Yellow & Orange Edition

The garden is awash in orange and yellow blooms!  I counted more than 25 types of orange and yellow flowers, including herbs, veggies and wild flowering plants.  Here's a sampling of what is in bloom in our garden right now (mid August)...after a long drought this season, these vibrant flowers are still blooming surprisingly well.

Flower Birthday

And then someone turned 8!  The birthday theme was flowers & fairies (or flower fairies), and the cake was decorated by our (not-so-little anymore) budding herbalist herself...

Our homestead was transformed into "Bergamot Hollow".  There were flower crowns, fairy wings, a garden scavenger hunt, wood-fired pizza from the outdoor oven, and this lovely flower topped cake.  All befitting an 8 year old with a dreamy imagination and love of the earth.