Before

Todays post is a before, as I am hoping to get some clean up down this afternoon. If all goes as planned, I will post the after tomorrow.
A few weeks ago I posted about planting some Kale seeds that I forgot about last season. 18 days later most of the seeds have grown into young seedlings.
I won't be doing anything with these just yet, but in a couple weeks if all the seedling survive I will be doing some thinning and transplanting.
On the east deck, these three are the only current residence. The first is a Sedum that I rescued from a yard waste container of a client. I had taken three trimming samples, stuck them in some soil and two took root and grew. They were transplanted into a garden then this one was potted when we moved. Next to it is a Black Mondo Grass and a Hosta I purchased at last years Van Dusen Plant Sale. This years Plant Sale is April 25 by the way.
Inside is on the Piano where they got as much light as the Vancouver winter can offer I have an Aloe that I brought home from my dads cactus garden in Delia Alberta. I will have to do a post on it next we are out that way. He has been collect cacti since I was in High School. Behind that is a Sassafras I purchased at Kits Farmers Market last year and potted to bring with us. In the big pot we have a combination that I put together. I don't remember what the main plant is called, but I think it is some kind of Fuscia. I divided a Chinese Lantern I got at the Ambleside Farmers Market last year after we moved to the North Shore. I also added the offspring of the Black Mondo Grass I mentioned earlier to this pot as well.
In front of the window are some failed seeds. Sometimes seeds and a three year old do not go well together. There is also the previously mentioned Chinese Lantern and a Money Tree that was a house warming gift when we first moved to Kits almost 3 years ago. It has had a rough time. It has Almost died twice and was well on the road to recovery when Cillian pulled it out of the put a week or so ago. It still has some green and hopefully, like our finances will pull through!

On the south deck I have a random collection of pots. The green cooking put out from is a Passion Flower I rescued and stuck in some soil. It started to grow until the temperature started to drop, I expect it will start where it finished off this spring. There are also the two roses I rescues from an abandoned house, Cillians mini rose, two Azeleas, Strawberry bush, and our Norfork Pine we used as a Christmas tree that dried out while we were away.

Cillians Mini Rose is off to a good start.

Across the street from my previous place was an empty home that the realtors where looking for a developer to buy and take down. The yard was wildly over grown include several roses huge rose bushes. I had told Suzanne that I wanted to go over there and dig up the roses and she insisted that I couldn't do that. I gave up the idea of stealing these beautiful roses as technically it was stealing. Within 2 weeks of that conversation the city of Vancouver came in an leveled the yard. The grass, roses and everything else cut to ground and trucked away to the dump. I was instantly sorry I had not help myself, obviously no one would have carried. Months later I was walking past the yard and realized that three of the rose bushes had sprung back and, although awkwardly, began to reach for the sky. That night I ran over with my shovel and liberated them. They bloomed nicely that summer and in the fall I dug them up two of them and brought them with me.
This one has some Hens and Chicks sharing the pot with it and the other has another Mondo Grass. I am looking forward to seeing them bloom again this year.

Old Man Cherry

When we first moved into our last home it was Sept 2006. In the back corner of our yard stood a great old cherry cherry. In a neighborhood where cherry trees line the streets, this was the grand daddy of the all, spending his retirement creating the cool shade of my back yard. He must stand 25 - 30 feet tall with a wide reach. This tree may not live much longer and the year we moved in there did not appear to have been much of a crop. There were no pits or stems on the ground or in the alley way under his stretched out limbs. The next year was much the same, no crop. In the summer of 07 I added some composted top soil underneath to start a small garden, and started a compost bin underneath as well. (Side note, a compost bin under a tree is not usually a good idea, but with the age of this cherry I don't expect its roots to grow up into the bin.)

I think that with those two steps combined with the dry spring and early summer, which allowed for more pollen to float around and find its way into the cherry blossoms, this year we got a bumper crop of delicious dark red cherries.The challenge of harvesting a cherry tree this age is the height. There are no branches low enough to reach the ground and I do not own a step ladder. I started on the roof of our carport the first day. The second day I tried to get a ladder in the alley before the neighboring produce store's multitude of delivery trucks started their daily pilgrimage of keeping the store stocked with fresh produce and clogging my alleyway. When the first truck did arrive I was up an extension ladder resting on an old tired arm that swayed with my every movement, with my wife holding the base and trying to maintain control over our 2 year old running around the hood in a diaper. The drivers offer their assistance.
Being able to get up on the truck gave me access to many branches with have to move a ladder around and I was able to fill two containers within 30 minutes.
We snacked on some, a pie was made and the rest went into the freezer to be enjoyed in the winter.

Our new home, an apartment you will learn more about in future posts, does not present the opportunity to pick cherries right in the back yard, but it did come with a deep freeze, so we have been making more trips to the farmers markets and u-pick berry farms and filling the freezer for winter. The next few years will bring a chance to learn many new things, like the art of freezing and container gardening. We are also gearing up to learn more about canning and preserving.

I hope you will continue to read and learn along with us.