Category Archives: garden visits

exploring other gardens

garden visits, months 04-06: spring, perrennials, projects

June’s Berries

07/08/2012 svseekins 3 Comments

strawberries in hand — photo by SVSeekins

For me strawberry season is that magical time between the fresh energy of spring & the lazy warmth of summer. It’s my happy place.

When else would I actually pay to perform manual labor in a dusty field?

Even that strip of sunburned back (where my t-shirt pulls out of my jeans because of bending for berries) is an acceptable part of the experience.

It’s all because not much else is better than the sweet taste of a strawberry picked in the sunshine.

Strawberries have been my favorite fruit since I was a little kid.

Dan's Farm has a U-Pick strawberry field — photo by SVSeekins

This year I enjoyed a morning in a local u-pick strawberry field with my friend June.

June is a picking expert. For a couple of years, on her little farm, strawberries were her business.

Even though they’re perennial, strawberries have a peak production life. That makes it worthwhile for growers to replace older plants with new ones to increase yields. That’s where June’s business came in. Her farm grew strawberry plants, not for the berries, but for the ‘runners’, or baby strawberry plants. Her customers were the farmers that grew strawberries for the berries.

Unfortunately the busy time for her was early in the cold wet spring. Digging baby plants out of muck in March is a far cry from picking berries in the sunshine of June. Understandably farm helpers weren’t super excited to work in the rain. June put in some pretty long hours harvesting runners. She wasn’t ready to stick to that workload for too many years.

Instead June decided not to sell the strawberry plants in her fields. With the plan of harvesting the berries in the warmth of June, she’d at least mitigate some of the original expenses of the business.

June picking strawberries — photo by SVSeekins

Believe it or not, there aren’t that many folk excited about daily field labor even in the warmer weather.

When big orders from community clubs hosting strawberry tea parties came June’s way, she was often the only one out in the field. She became a pretty fast picker.

I’d have thought that by the time the berry production petered-out & June plowed over the field, she’d be well and truly DONE with strawberries.

Happily she still enjoys the delicious fruit & was as excited as I was to spend a sunny morning picking our fill in a strawberry field at Dan’s Farm.

Next up – raspberries!

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garden visits, months 04-06: spring, projects

Nix the Lawn

Aside 07/03/2012 svseekins Leave a comment

The lush green symmetry of a well-tended lawn is something I can appreciate. But I can’t be bothered fussing with it myself.

Just down the road our neighbors have a teeny tiny front yard. They chose something other than the classic square of grass. There’s something artistic about it that really appeals to me.

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boulevard garden, months 04-06: spring, months 07-09: summer, natives, urban deer

California Poppy

06/28/2012 svseekins 5 Comments

I like the saturated orange of the California Poppy bloom. It’s bright and happy.

Even more, I like that the plant survives well on roadsides & rocky areas. A plant that doesn’t need nurturing – bonus!

California Poppy at Snake Rock, garden Victoria BC — photo by SVSeekins

This little patch of poppies lives just down the street at Snake Rock. It blooms in mid-spring & continues well into the dry summer.

Of course, the thought occurred to me, “We NEED that in our garden!” Can’t you imagine how lovely a wave of bright orange would be in the shrub border?

California poppy - seed pod, garden Victoria BC — photo by SVSeekins

Even C is encouraging. He really likes the bright orange blooms, too. So, for the past 5 years, I’ve gathered seed from the roadside, then spread it through our gardens.

There’s been the occasional reward, but mostly I’ve had little success.

The California Poppy has a long tap-root, so where ever it pops up, that’s where it has to stay. It does not like being moved. And it doesn’t seem to like being watered either. Nor fed. Nor coddled in any way.

The shrub border had a fair amount of fertilizer, mulch & water over the past few years, as the plants were all so new & getting established. Maybe that’s been too much attention for the poppy.

The most successful patch is on our rocky hillside. It’s a well-drained site and bakes in the sun. The California Poppy will grow in the soil, but seems even happier in the gravel of the pathway! Go figure.

California Poppy in gravel path, garden Victoria BC — photo by SVSeekins

So far, I’m resisting the urge to weed it out of the path. I’ve decided that it’s ‘whimsical’ growing there.

I’m happy about growing a local wildflower. I’m also delighted that the deer, who spend their afternoons on our little mountain, leave the California Poppy alone.

My plan is to keep spreading seed in the rest of the garden & be happy with whatever we get. That’s the true definition of ‘low maintenance,’ isn’t it?

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