Garden Flowers

Zucchini

     We built our home in the centre of our farm at the end of a narrow winding driveway through an Aspen, Spruce, Willow and Birch forrest.  To the North of the house is a sheep pasture; to the South our Mongolian yurt, gardens, dog kennels and a small lake; to the East a barn, corrals, sheds and granaries; to the West our farm shop.  Our sheep are hefted, which means generations of sheep families have lived here, have formed grazing patterns from which they are disinclined to divert. In other words, they know where home is and have no desire to leave, so they don't, even when the gate is open. The fact that they are surrounded by bushland and prefer to graze in the open adds an extra incentive for them to adhere to their established pattern.  At night and oftentimes during the heat of the day they return to their barn to sleep. Because the sheep are hefted (and because we have extra confidence due to the presence of Chip, our Border Collie who is trained to herd them about when needed), we often open the barn gate and let the sheep into our yard. They keep our large lawn cropped short and we really enjoy seeing them up close. 

     Because our living lawn mowers enjoy a little variety in their cuisine they will happily munch on flowers and leaves as well as grass, so we have 3 fenced gardens (vegetable, berry, and potato), a fence around our crabapple tree and no flower borders around the house, no tasty shrubbery.  This suits me just fine - I am not a landscape artist!  But I do love flowers so I plant some in the garden along with the vegetables. I plant marigolds and poppies in patches here and there for colour, bee attraction, and because they are hardy and kindly make seed for me every year.  And, if they pop up on their own in a place where they won't be in the way I let them stay. On the north side of the garden are  little rock circles of hardy annuals like pansies, along with Saskatoons, lilacs, and several perennials I've picked up over the years from friends - a few I can name - hollyhocks, monkshood, lillies. Others I can't. 

     Vegetable flowers, to differentiate them from ornamental flowers, are everywhere as well and I like to mix it up a bit by planting a Scarlet Runner or two out of place, like in with the peas, and sunflowers in spots where they'll have some support.  My garden this year is lush, mainly due to the fact that we watered it during our terribly dry May, June and early July by pumping water from our lake and sprinkling, irrigating, and spot watering. Everything in the garden is on the verge of being ready to pick and I've been gazing at the incredible beauty of it all, waiting for the inevitable daily work of picking and preserving the harvest. My flowers for "pretty" and my flowers that attract pollinators to produce vegetables stand together in a glorious profusion of bounty. Is it obvious? I love my garden... 

Scarlet Runner Bean

potato