My vegetable garden this year.

I have always liked gardening.  Not that I am good at it; I can do a modest job and end up with some tasty produce at the end of it all though.  That's part of the reward, but I have to say the greater joy comes with watching stuff grow, taking care of it all, and being successful to some extent.  

I suppose I could grow flowers instead of veggies, and I would enjoy that too, but I have never really gone a big way into blooms.  I can't tell a delphinium from a zinnia, and peonies just sound rude.  Although, I have to give myself some credit as I did plant tulips and crocuses last year and planted petunias in my front garden.  All of my lavender died though, which saddens me, as I have to tear out a good portion of my front zero-scaped yard to correct the problem.

Last year I built the retaining walls that bracket the garden in.  Then I backfilled it with topsoil and got my first vegetable garden in Kelowna.  It all got done rather late though, and my cantaloupe was not as impressive as what I hope to get this year.  This year I built up the lower front area (the black garden bed boxes you can see in the right image) and added a sprinkler-irrigation system.  

I am camping at the moment but will be home shortly.  I can look forward to a great deal of weeding and micro-managing but will soon be rewarded with raspberries, tomatoes, and maybe some beans or peas.  I also have an apple tree, a plum tree, and an apricot tree that should start to produce this year.  I think the fall will be busy.  I will plant new lavender in the spring when it is cooler to give it a chance to root.

I had a lady at church as me, "How does your garden grow?" to which I answered, "With silver bells and cockle shells, but no pretty maids as my wife would kill me."  Gardening, it turns out, can be a deadly past time.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com