white paper and dirty dirt

Connie's tomatoes in the foreground

- with beams of morning sun bouncing
off The Hangar behind.

July 15, 2008

My first (and I suppose aesthetic) thought is that they are such strange neighbors. Together though, they illustrate quite well the partnership of urban spaces and gardens. SOME CONTRAST.

Except, this perspective is just one, from one rather large tomato garden to one rather large athletic facility. If you didn't know it was an athletic facility, this picture might make you think I'm talking about growing tomatoes on a runway. Had I turned around and taken the picture into the rising sun, you would think I was sitting in cleared space of a forest, with a river running through it. I love that about our garden.

Many thanks to Erin, Heidi & Bryan with their Roots to Harvest teams for all the helping hands in the garden!

Sara has been carefully tending to the tomatoes, plucking beetles and eggs (grin) and staking. All of the plants look wonderful. She also has been busy planting, and transplanting two other FSRN 30x15ft gardens - with attention to companion planting. I'll update more on those later. Around the tomatoes she's planted herbs and peppers.
One of these days I'll capture her as she flies into my office with hair askew and dirt all over, clutching her great pink hat and filthy, filthy notebook. It's a fantastic image even in a one line description. you should see it.
A common challenge in the life of a gardenerd is white paper and dirty dirt.

Old Brooks
70-85 days
great texture, sharp acidic flavour - great in sauces and pastes

four reasons why I love Hazeldean

The Hogarth Plantation

The Hogarth Plantation is a 44 hectare property used by the Faculty of Forestry and the Forest Environment for teaching and research.

Also using it for research is Connie, who is growing blueberries in a cleared section of the forest.
These pictures were taken last September, right around the same time I stumbled upon potatoes growing in the tilled rugby field.

I know that what attracts me most to the Hogarth forest is it's resemblance to the pine "plantation" that bordered the house I grew up in. The property was named 'Singing Pines', and for years there was a sign at the entrance tp the driveway. Over the years, each spring after winter, my father would replace or re-erect the sign which would get knocked down by the snowplows (sometimes driven by himself), until eventually the sign just never went up again.

The Pines always sang through the chickadees, and were beautiful - planted much like the Hogarth trees. I love the way they smell, and how the needles collect all over beneath them; even the way they eerily creek. The trees surrounded my playhouse, running from the road to the river west to east and north until they eventually thickened with the trees of Wishart.