'California Wonder'

 

 This is one of six 'California Wonder' pepper plants grown in 10" pots. They are very productive, have a large root system so tend to need water every second day in the heat. Love fertilizer. A great summer for them. First fruit picked in July. Fruit goes from green to red, tasty either way! Some are still in our store room, seem to keep well but aren't changing colour. Many went for stuffed peppers in the freezer.

shared by member Ken MacDonald

Morning Glory Madness

 

Planted in  mid June, three plants of this morning glory (multi-petal, small purple flower) were planted with the hopes of just filling up some of this trellis, as the sweet peas weren't doing so well. Tendrils were everywhere, growth was profuse, leaves enormous. They took over!

Somewhere in this planting are two planter boxes of wave petunia, dwarf petunia and bacopa. Anyone grow morning glory this year?

Shared with us by our editor, member Ken MacDonald. Photo taken on October 16, 2012.

New Gallery Photos

New gallery photos are posted. From nostalgic images of winter gardens to morning glory that were blooming last October, members have shared some of their garden photos with us. Check them out by clicking here!

This photo was taken by our membership director, Alan Mlazgar in his garden on January 4, 2013. The gallery version is much larger and stunning in detail.

Thank you to all the members that share their photos with us! We love to browse garden photos.

Tomato Vegetable Soup

Tomato Vegetable soup recipe, served and enjoyed at the SHA convention, from member Beth Graas. We hope you enjoy!

Tomato Vegetable Soup 3 tbsp. butter 1 cup diced onion 1/2 cup diced potato 1/2 cup diced carrot 3 Tbsp. flour 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 2 cup chicken stock 14 oz. canned tomatoes crushed 1 tsp. sugar 1/2 cup cream or top milk Put butter, onion, potato, and carrot in saucepan. Saute until onion and carrot are soft and clear. Mix in flour, salt, pepper. Add chicken stock (slowly). Stir until it boils and thickens. Simmer 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and sugar. Heat through. Stir in cream. DO NOT BOIL after adding cream. Makes about 4 cups. I do not use the cream as I find it "creamy" enough without. Does give it a different flavour though. I do not use canned tomatoes - just cook the fresh ones from the garden until they are the consistency I want them and add to the soup when required.

Groundcover: Forget-Me-Not

Forget-me-not makes a fantastic groundcover for areas that get a lot of shade. It will bloom in part shade or full sun but it does tend to wither in full Saskatchewan sun. It is a biennial that self-seeds so it does not take long to grow from a few plants into a very large patch. My patch has white and blue flowers. The blue flowers fade to pink so at more than one point each year, there are 3 colours of blooms in this spot. I grow Forget-me-not in 2 spots here. This shady spot, under trees and with Hosta and in a sunny spot where it needs afternoon protection provided by an old slide. One of the nicest things about Forget-me-not is that you can pretty much ignore it and get at least 3 waves of blooms in a single patch. If you treat it nice, you will get more! 

contributed by member Danielle Carrier

Anyone still harvesting?

A little while ago, member Denise Mlazgar sent in these photo's. Sharing her harvest and the fun that her daughter Chanelle and grandson, Aidan had while helping put the garden to bed for the season. For me, little Aidan reminds me of all the things I loved about gardens when I was a child.

 

I look at these and then out my window, where pots of daylily and bags of iris rhisomes still need to be planted, and I wonder... is mine the only garden not ready for winter?