June's evening Work Party

Great turn out for our first evening work party of the season. All this rain has made the garden lush... well not for beans and other plants that need the sun!!

Lots of weeding and editing was done in all the communal areas - and it was nice that the weather cooperated - a lovely evening. We have become accustomed to tasty treats from our local Capers at our work parties. This is  provided through their Community Chest program - and they did not disappoint. A lovely tray of organic fruit and sandwiches was our evening snack. Oh, a big highlight of the night was the take down of the existing compost bins. Let's face it, they were never really very functional but I did have a little pang in my heart as they did give us some lovely compost over the years - and they were nice and big to throw all our green material into! Can't wait to see the new system installed that will give us our important element of compost for the garden.

Ha ha - a goutweed bouquet!!

what on earth is Geoff doing?!

A snap from today... (can you tell by the grey sky?!) a busy little bee (perched on the bottom blossom) on the Borago officinalis - better known as borage. Did you know that this plant is edible and medicinal? The leaves can be eaten raw or sauteed... and the flowers look gorgeous in a salad. And lord knows we have a lot of salad with all this rain. Oh yeah - enjoy the rain over the next few days.

Busy Busy Little Bees...

I have to admit that this continuing grey, cold and rainy weather is bringing out the darker side... so when I typed in the title to this latest blog entry 'busy busy little bees...' I couldn't help but think of Joachim Phoenix's messed up character Emperor Commodus in the movie 'Gladiator' when he is warning his sister that he knows the plot against him has been found out... but enough of that - I am glad that I was able to show our wonderfully busy busy little bees in the garden - they are hard to capture! I wanted to get closer but my little digital has it's limitations.

I have observed that they (the bee's) seem absolutely focused on two plants in particular in the garden - the alliums and the angelica - their nectar must be sweet. You can see their little bodies loaded up with orangey pollen. Every time I'm at the garden (uh, pretty much every day) they seem to be all over these two plants...Did you know that there are two bee hives down the block near the railroad tracks in what is called the 'burm' - run by volunteers in the Maple Community Garden? I'm not sure if that is why we have so many honey bees this year - but it is a good thing! 

Let's put all our mental energy and thoughts to bringing back the sun!! Happy gardening... and
Solas na gréine (which means sunshine in irish)

Brrrrrr...

Just a quick post to say hang in there with the weather!! It is a bit on the chilly side but I guess it's good for our greens. Our most senior member of the garden, Helen, turned 90 this week and she had a lovely tea to which all the members were invited... great to see some of you there. Wow, the cake was amazing. A few pictures including the lovely iris flowers currently gracing our garden. They seem particularly spectacular this year but maybe it's the grey skies setting off their stunning colours!!