, originally uploaded by sarahkit.
For as long as I can remember there would be raspberries on my birthday when we arrived back from camping in the Okanogan. I would climb though the stalks barefoot popping them into my mouth or filling a little bucket with them to share with my family or store away for winter and the desperate need for berry muffins when the weather got miserable outside. Blueberries were picked off the bushes that poked out from the cedar trees, huckleberries from the forest, salmon berries and blackberries brought home from the roadside.
A few years ago I started growing more vegetables in the rich soils in my yard but without much luck. unsuccessful strips of 'carrot paper' that never sprouted were eventually met with bush green beans that seemed to finally grow all on their own with all but a little help from me. The soil where I had planted them wasn't very good but they still managed to pump out handfuls of juicy plump pods that I happily crunched, and this time shared with my father as we would sit on the couch watching TNG. I ended up leaving a few that seemed to be all too developed and a few weeks later I was sure they were seed so I took them in, excised their innards and dried them for wishful planting in the future.
This year things have started to blossom in a new way for me and my garden. Being granted rights to cut up the lawn, my brother and I put in a little raised bed and tilled the soil for a regular one beside it. I said goodbye to my beautiful tulips and forget-me-nots that would show spring and summers changes in the little terraces to the upper lawn and planted carrots, romaine lettus, broccoli and spinach in their wake. For the green beans that didn't have much of a chance, their seeds were given new life in the new front bed, lined with peas and unsuccessful office-grown green beans that were tall as hell but weren't born to feel the elements so it seems. Cardoons and an artichoke were popped in and soon became the feed for aphids as I learned their work as the cows of the bug world. Butternut squash have taken over my raised bed and there are about 9 little yellow gourds coming into the world at the neck of the vine with yellow blossoms coming down from their hard work. To top it all off a little stack of stolen tires have helped my blue potato grow to be about 5 feet tall. It's purple flowers have created little bulbs that I need to look up on the Internet for more information on.
At work in Environmental Services, the folks who started the TC Bean Growing Competition had some organic potatoes that had gone to eye and I was encouraged to take them home for planting along with two pumpkins grown from seed in little paper water cups. Unfortunately a day or two later my dog had gotten to the potatoes before I had so they were to rejoin the circle of life sooner than I had hoped however one survived. Raiding my neighbours pantry I came up with a few sprouted spuds of different variety and after popping them in pots on the windowsills of my house, along with some healthy looking tomato babies, they were well on their way. Who says you need seed potatoes?!.
In the fun of planting potatoes I came across three well developed carrot stalks in the back where I had once attempted to grow them. After taking their time to germinate at their own pace one has suddenly jumped into a blossom that I expect will bring enough seeds for next years supply. My spuds are doing well in their now heaps of forest soil and the whole thing seems to be in bloom. I had planted hubbard squash seeds at the start of all of this right where the green beans once didn't fair all that well, however this seems to be a good spot for them as little plump babies are growing where the blossoms have been germinated.
My only great interventions in the whole affair involved some careful thinning and re-planting of carrots so they could all have the space they needed to grow, some further window-sill lettus, tomatoes, spinach and
After 5 good harvests my raspberries have ended their season with a swam of wasps taking their last tastes of what was left for the birds and I am excited to see my remaining beans go to seed once more in preparation for an even more well thought out little farm next year.
