Summer is well on its way, time for a garden update – summer 2019 on video. We toured the garden on August 8.
Summer 2019 has been slow to start and cooler and wetter than usual. But then again, I do not really know what is usual here at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta Canada.
One thing is sure unusual, our garden has no hail damage as of today. We are in the Hailstorm Alley and it’s been hailing here all around. But we have been spared and are very grateful for it.
As you see in the real-life video, we grow for production, not perfection. We did not clean up or make it special nice for the video. We love our garden and enjoy it a lot.
On our blog, under Growing, you can find lots of information on how to grow and what to grow in cold climate and short growing season. We grow what grows well here in our climate, things like garlic, cabbage, potatoes, etc, and also what is more of a challenge, things like sweet potatoes.
Hope you enjoy the tour.
Please tell us what grows in your garden and how has your summer been, we love to hear from our readers.
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It’s just after 5 A.M. and I can’t think of a better way to wake-up to the day than with a stroll through a garden! Bless you!I noticed you had some carrots with beautiful green tops and that is excellent for making Carrot Top Pesto. I’m not sure if you still use dairy but maybe you have found something in the vegan market to replace the Parmesan cheese. I do not have measurements but I first started with the almonds (less expensive than pine nuts) and added the other ingredients from there. Next time I make this I’ll try a gentle roasting of my almonds first. I have a late crop of basil (they got shaded out) so I used up my store-bought jar of basil for this. What I discovered was I liked the carrot-top pesto better than the basil-based pesto. It was so good that I would grow carrots just for their tops! (The excess carrot tops were wrapped in a paper towel & put into a freezer bag for later use.) The pesto can easily be frozen in small containers for later use.
Carrot Top Pesto:
Pulse fresh garden garlic cloves and Almonds in a food processor until coarse. Add basil, Parmesan cheese and pulse, then slowly feed-in carrot tops and pulse. Add Olive or Avocado oil and pulse until combined to the proper consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
Thank you, Sheri for your kind words and the recipe. As you have seen, we have a lot of carrot tops.
Hello from Manitoba. I love these garden updates. It’s so encouraging to see the bounty and the hand of the Creator in your garden!
It has been very dry for us this year. Whatever rain came decided to go north and south of us, but not on us! I’ve done some spot watering, but I have a large garden and watering it all isn’t feasible. Even the creatures are showing signs of thirst – grasshoppers, crickets, birds, a “thirteen-lined ground squirrel” are all spending a lot of time in my garden eating away at things. I threw some over-sized zucchini on a garden path and found it the next day with a bunch of bite marks in it. My husband says we have rain forecast for the afternoon. Maybe it will hit us!
You probably have this information in another post, but can you remind me of the kind of cherry tree that was in the video?
Hoping for some rain for your garden Heather. The cherries that are getting picked are the Carmine Jewel Cherry. It’s a great variety for cold climate. It really is just a bush, but so loaded with yummy sour cherries. Makes great jam and they also dry well.
Greetings again from Northern Idaho and thank you for the inspiring video…I had assumed you lived on large acreage! It was inspiring to see you have a backyard not unlike mine. This year was one of lots of firsts for us. Like you we are growing sweet potatoes and so far the vines are beautiful…planted right next to the corn and perennials in the front yard. Other firsts are Cucumbers and lemon cucumbers (I know! I never liked them till I tasted a home grown), Radicchio (my favorite bitter plant…healing to the liver) and onions. I planted a new island this year for herbs only…Calendula, Borage (the bees favorite), basil, amaranthus, Lobelia, camomile and hyssop. Even though spring started late we have an abundance of 5 types of tomatoes, 3 types of radish, 3 apple trees, sour cherry and cherry trees, honeyberries, blackberries, 3 types of grapes, 12 blueberry plants, white currants, serviceberries, peach tree, Mini and japanese eggplant, 4 types of squash, chard varieties, red cabbage, red and orange carrots, white potatoes (after all I live in Idaho), beets, asparagus and pole beans, sugar snap peas and my favorite culinary herbs, tarragon, rosemary, thyme and sage. We have only utilized about half the backyard and we only live on 1/3 of an acre. Thank you again for your blog and letting me ramble on about my garder…I sure to love to grow!
Loved reading about your bountiful garden! It is amazing how much can be grown in a small space. And I agree, Idaho or not, potatoes are a must have ;).
I can’t tell you how excited I am to have found you! A fellow Albertan! We live west of Edmonton in Zone 3A.
I’m looking forward to snooping around to see what you have been up to.
2019 was the worst growing season in history for us. A total tomato crop failure from so much rain, cold weather and lack of sun. No tomatoes but other crops did well so very grateful for that!
Welcome, we love fellow Alberta readers. We are all together in this ;). Tomatoes do better in a greenhouse, or just give them a covering for rain. In Germany, it is common to put a bag with holes over the tomatoes, so simple and it works.