The vegetable garden has taken on a flavor of its own this year. With a few new additions, it’s looking better then ever. It takes a lot of preparation to make a vegetable garden. Caliegh and I worked hard for a good month just shaping and designing this garden. Thanks, Caleigh, for all your hard work!

This year the eagle has found a new home here, as Neegle has told you in an earlier blog. For awhile I thought I wouldn’t have any seeds left as the crows moved in with it, but once they found out it wasn’t going anywhere they seemed to subside.

We have also added a jungle gym. It’s been painted fire engine red and serves as a trellis for the pumpkin, watermelon, melon, squash, beans and sunflowers. I have trained them to climb up the jungle gym and they are trailing very nicely across the top now. I am very excited to watch them grow! I also have some different (but interesting) plants growing this year, but that’s a topic for another day.

Sweet Pea

I would like to apologize to all the children who have come to the Garden in hopes of sitting in the grass chair. Last year it did not grow well. This year it was in desperate need of repair. I stripped the dead grass, removed the old soil and replaced it with new. Unfortunately, the new soil settled more than I thought it would and the sod has nothing for its roots to grow in. I am going to have to make further repairs. Some of the grass roots have taken hold and I was delighted to see big patches of dark green. I was very disappointed, however, to see patches of brown.

I will try again to make the chair grow, so all of you can enjoy a living chair. So please bear with me. Maybe the next time you come to visit, the chair will be alive and well again.

Neegle

As gardeners, a lot of what we learn doesn’t come from books but from trying out things by ourselves, learning from our errors, sharing our success and acquiring information from fellow gardeners. And if it’s true we have a lot to offer visitors in terms of gardening knowledge, it is also true that sometimes we can learn a lot from them too!

A month ago, a couple from Greece shared with me that one of the weeds growing throughout the garden is in fact edible. Now, for someone of my generation, the idea of eating an invasive herb doesn’t, shall we say, go down all that well. But, according to my Greek sources, you can eat it like spinach, boiled for a brief period of time to soften it. In fact, in Greece (where they eat a wide variety of herbaceous plants that we consider weeds, including dandelion) they grow it in fields for human consumption. But unfortunately, they could not tell me the name of it since they knew the name only in Greek, but promptly showed it to me and taught me how to identify it. The very same day, I looked it up.

I’ve always known this weed simply as “compost weed”! In fact, our compost piles at the back of the maintenance building are covered with it. And it always seems to grow along with another weed that looks very much like it, especially in its growing habit, but it has a different leaf shape and colour. Doing research on them, I finally learned that this companion weed is called “lambsquarters” (which can also be eaten like spinach!). And the edible weed itself that the couple showed me is called “pigweed”! Furthermore, the culinary potential of it is impressively extensive as the seed can also be ground into a flour. (Ed. note: In the photo above, the pigweed is at the front with lambsquarters directly behind it.)

So now the question is, will I dare try it out for myself? The thing is, I don’t like eating spinach in the first place, unless it’s in a quiche and transformed beyond the point of recognition. So what are the odds that I will like eating pigweed?

But if you are less fussy than me, greenery wise, you should know that if spinach is not recommended in your diet, you should also avoid its culinary cousins the lambsquarters and pigweed. Also, consumption is not recommended for children due to the nitrate content of the leaves.

Other than that, look it up by clicking here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranthus#Nutritional_value

Or maybe just give it a taste… and let me know!

Culinarily yours,
Bonsai Girl

Kingsbrae Garden has many unusual things scattered throughout its 27 acres. This guy is only one of them. (Ed. note: No, this is NOT Gnomey!)  It might not seem like a fun thing for children to do, just walking around looking at flowers. But here at Kingsbrae Garden there is a lot to entertain kids (of all ages!).

They can participate in a scavenger hunt by getting the clue list from the Visitors Center on arrival. There are three different hunts, and a prize for completion! There is a ladybug release at 10:30 every day, usually in the Rose Garden. Every day at 1:30 there is a Children’s Program in the Fantasy Garden where they can make crafts and just have fun.The Secret Garden is fun to look for and the Maze presents a small challenge.

In our Edible Garden we have a wide variety of berries, many of which are ripe now, and various fruit, which won’t be ready for awhile yet. We use no chemicals on this garden so it is very safe to eat. We also have goats, ducks and peacocks. You might even see our cats, Peanut, Pumpkin and Harry Potter.

Spend a day, bring the kids. See if you can find the gnome. I’ll give you a hint, he’s not on the regular path and usually in the shade. That would be a welcome relief after the weather we’ve had these past two weeks. Happy hunting!

Neegle

Alex and Bubba went for a walk, alone, this morning. Not far, just up over the hill.

Doesn’t sound unusual but they are the garden’s dogs. Either their electric fence isn’t working properly or the batteries in their collars are dead. They are restricted to our maintenance compound and the woodland trail.

They roam freely in the 1-2 acre compound and twice a day are walked through the woods. The main purpose of the walk is, hopefully, to keep the deer off the property. They don’t chase the deer. Just their territorial marking seems to work pretty well. Although, come to think of it, it did not deter the moose that strolled through, leaving antler scrapings and foot prints.

Alex and Bubba came to us a few years ago from the Animal Rescue League in Saint John. Bubba is very quiet and well mannered except when big trucks come into the compound or he sees a squirrel in the woods. When he succeeds in scaring away the truck or gives up on the squirrel, he is quiet and happy again. He is, we assume, an older dog and very content to sit quietly at your feet in hopes of receiving a little pat or scratch behind the ears.

Alex is not so content. He is very rambunctious and full of energy.  Always on the go, hoping for a treat, he will not usually sit long enough for a scratch behind the ear. While in the woods he seldom leaves your side. He craves attention, and once received, is a friend for life. Although still puppy-like in his actions, the occasional jumping and short attention span, he is learning and responds well to treats. He will make a fine pet once he matures.

Although Alex and Bubba are excited to see us and get underfoot first thing in the morning, we do love our dogs. I am very glad they enjoy their home and have adapted well.

Neegle