Over the weekend I got outside into the garden with the camera to take a few photos of the plants under the snow. Today we are expecting enough rain to wash away the white that has blanketed the garden out back, so I thought I would post a few wintery photographs before it’s gone completely. Even as I sit and type these words, the sound of rain drumming on the roof of our house is all I can hear.

The snow that fell on Saturday night was very fluffy and pretty. It sat, stacked on shrubs and seed heads around the garden.

I'm glad I left this rudbeckia intact over the winter.

My little helper was happy to be out back, digging. If he can’t have dirt and sand, he’ll take the snow.

Even the heads of the broccoli plant that I left in place looked cool. (More on broccoli, later…)

Now I’m off to brew another coffee and watch the snow melt. If only it were March or April…

Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a shrub of holly outside your door to clip from and bring inside during the holidays? I have a small holly bush in my back yard garden, but nothing like this hedge of the stuff I saw at my friend Jude’s home in Powell River, British Columbia seven years ago.

Back then my camera was a Kodak EasyShare CX4230 Zoom, its 2.0 megapixel images a far cry from the Canon I use today to take photographs in the garden. My trip to British Columbia came just as I had first met Graham, before I had ideas about becoming a college teacher, before I made valuable ties here in my community with respect to gardening and growing food. This photo serves as a reminder of how far I’ve come.

May your days be merry and bright! Merry Christmas to all of my gardening buddies, and Happy New Year.

On Saturday my dad and my step-mom came over to help me weed the vegetable garden.  The weeds were getting out of control and the job was getting to be way too much of me and my belly to get done ourselves.  I’ve finally learned one of the rules of pregnancy: It’s okay to ask for help!  This applies in the garden as much as anywhere else.  It took the three of us about two hours to get it done.

I wanted to show you the vegetable garden while it’s relatively weed-free.  It won’t stay like this for long, I’m sure.  (Click on photo to view large-sized image.)

These ruby jewels are coming at a good pace these days…the real challenge is getting to them before the birds do.

Graham and I have been astonished at how aggressively our raspberry plants spread.  We knew they would spread, but we are constantly pulling young raspberry plants from the surrounding lawn and perennial garden.  Our plan is to move the patch from the back of the yard into our vegetable patch, where we will be able to monitor the plants more closely and keep the runners in check (or move them or give them away).  I’m sure that by now, our neighbours’ yards feature a small patch of raspberries, too!

I love to eat fresh, homegrown raspberries with granola and yogurt, tossed into a salad, or simply by the handful.

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that friends and family seemed somewhat relieved when it became evident that gardening and growing things had become a passion of mine. It makes it a lot easier to choose a gift for a friend or loved one when you know for certain that he or she is at least somewhat interested in the thing you’ve purchased for them. I’ve been the recipient of countless flower pots, pairs of gardening gloves, seed packets and yes, even the occasional gardener’s mug. Even my wedding shower had a gardening theme!

My mom gave me this mug last year because she said the “garden girl” on the mug reminded her of me. (Although my feet are nowhere near as huge as the cartoon woman’s feet!) Truth be told, I actually do really like this mug. It’s just the right size for my morning cup of coffee, and in the winter months it reminds me that I will, in fact, get to be the garden girl once again come spring.

What garden-themed gifts have you received lately?

Last week we got another foot or so of snow…this winter has been very snowy!  Of course I took some photos of the back yard under all of that snow.

I looked through some photos of the garden and yard this morning and the contrast between these photos of winter and summer in the garden and yard is startling.

This photograph was taken on August 13, 2008.

And this one was taken on January 19, 2009.

The white stuff is pretty, but I miss the green!

I saw this beautiful fella outside the living room window last week.  He stood up on his haunches like that for several minutes, long enough for me to get the camera and make it back to the window.

We have a real love-hate relationship, me and the rabbits.

Well, technically this is the garden yesterday but I promise it hasn’t changed since I took the picture.

I’m feeling pretty good about the garden in our back yard right now.  Graham helped me the other night by adding another layer of straw mulch while I weeded.

And this little bed at the back of the yard sprang up out of the compost.  I still have no idea what kind of squash we’ll have, if any of the plants produce fruit.  The sunflower is a volunteer, too!

I realize that posting on this site has been pretty light this summer. And filled with fluff. Not unlike a pancake, if you will.

Ahem.

The month of July has been very, very busy, but it’s also had its fair share of gardening. This weekend I spent most of my time in either my community plot or the back yard garden getting everything weeded and just “caught up.” Since I was away from the gardens for about two weeks last month, there was a lot of work to do. I’m feeling that familiar ache of my weeding muscles!

I mentioned recently that I was able to visit some beautiful gardens while I was in California (if you didn’t read about these gardens yet, head over to my vegetable gardens blog at Suite101.com to read about Visiting Gardens in California).  One of the gardens was a large, communal garden in Marin County tended to by, among others, one of my oldest and dearest friends.  I realized recently that I haven’t provided an installment of the Friends and Family Garden Tour series I started last season, and that showing you this garden would be a great way to kick off the tour this year.

Without further ado, here are a few of the photographs I took at the garden. Unfortunately, no amount of lovely photography can do a garden this wonderful the justice it deserves.

Bells of Ireland and amaranth in bloom near the potting shed.

Waves of calendula.

Awe-inspiring bed of squash. This was my favourite part of the garden.

Beets interplanted between a row of corn and a row of beans. No space is wasted.

Please click to read other posts in my Friends and Family Garden Tour.

I’ve been getting awfully sick of pulling weeds from the vegetable garden.  I decided it was time to get some mulch in there!  At my community garden, most of the gardeners mulch their plots with straw.  Graham and I went out in search of bales of straw on Friday afternoon, and found a farmer who sells them for just two bucks a bale!

Yesterday morning I mulched the garden.  One bale pretty much covered the whole vegetable garden with a thin layer.  I watered the garden first, with the hose, then after I put the straw down I wet it down again.  We had a good thunderstorm with heavy rain and wind last night so I doubt this straw is going anywhere, except down, into my soil where it will improve it greatly.

Here is the vegetable garden around 9:00 this morning.