Sunny... sunny.... so good for me.....

Thought that I should do a little post about my now, psuedo in shape garden. As you can see from the first image it was looking rather lush. The problem with this is that I hadn't planted anything yet this year. The very large bushes are in fact the parsley border that my Mom and I planted last year. And there are a few volunteer flowers, like the 4 foot tall bachelor's buttons. The bronze fennel is enormous already and the raspberries are going gang busters. So here it is before...

And after a few hours of work in the afternoon sun.
As you can see I left the flowers for now. How can you rip out flowers?! I planted 3 tomato plants - two cherry and one reg. Some radishes, beets, beans, peppers, and despite their tragic showing last year, carrots. Oh yeah and some mesculin mix for salad. I think I will add some lettuce, and zuchinni and maybe some cukes too. Also in todays plantings.... a nastursium border along the rock wall in front of the Japanese maple. A little splash of colour.

The raspberries, from my Grampa, are doing so well this year. I put them in last year and got a small but tasty crop. This year they are all over the place, buzzing with bees and blossoms and fruit. There are so many new shoots they are overtaking that side if the garden. I don't mind though, makes me feel good that Grampa's raspberries are happy at my house!

And here they are up close in all there glory. For those of you that didn't have the pleasure of meeting my paternal Gramps, he was a true gentleman. Soft spoken, strong willed and opinionated when he felt the need - and a great gardener. He was the king of the razzle dazzle berries and man did we ever appreciate all of his hard work. He grew the berries, my Grannie transformed them some how and we ate them - fresh, in a pie or the all time family favorite; Grannies raspberry jam. This stuff is like gold. If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some, you make it last, try not to spend it all in one place and don't tell your friends or neighbours about the stash unless you are a fool. Maybe this year I will try my hand at making my own. Although there will be no comparison, ain't nothing like the real thing baby!

What a good team Grannie and Grampa were, growing and creating together - I think I may have to see if FIL wants to learn how to make jam, since I am growing the berries!