Garden Dreams and Squash Discoveries

I just found a book that I'm quite, quite in love with. :-)

It's called "The Complete Squash". It's like a coffee-table book about different varieties of summer and winter (winter!) squashes, written by someone who totally adores this family of plants. :-D

It's beautiful, awesome, and giving me ideas for what I'd like to grow next year. :-)

Oh, and the enormous crook-necked squash that I couldn't identify (but that looked like a crook-necked butternut)? It's quite probably an ancestor to the butternut called "Canadian Crookneck" -- a tastey winter squash. I certainly didn't plant it, but it must have been born from the seeds I saved from the random butternut I got last year. :-)
A gift from the Gods. :-D

Score! :-D
Thanks Girls! :-D


I also just got a new book. (The squash one was about three times what I'm willing to spend on an impulse buy -- it's going on my wish-list for sure, though).
The book I got is called "The Low-Maintenance Garden" and it has given me ideas that (for some reason) I never thought of before.

So I have now developed a plan for a 20mx30m back yard that consists of about two-thirds deck (two levels, plus a semi-sunken, green-roofed play-house for the kids, and a covered section on the top level), and one third garden.

The garden is cut into ten or eleven (not counting the play-house roof) raised beds that are delineated by irregular-shaped flat-patio-stone paths (with creeping thyme and/or mother of thyme/sage planted between the stones) and/or by different wall-hights.
There are a couple of "cottage garden" areas, featuring wild flowers, hardy roses, and edible flowers.
An acid-soil bed that includes a super-dwarf cedar tree, a bunch of blueberry bushes, and some rhododendrons and/or azhalias (depending on what will survive in the Ottawa climate). Possibly some creeping juniper as well, as a ground cover. (Mulch in this bed would have to be pine needles or something similar).
There would also be a long, skinny bed of red, black, and purple-flowering raspberries.

The shade and semi-shade areas are located under the Mac Apple, hazel-nut, and honey-berry trees. They include a small waterfountain, plus hostas, ostrich ferns, day-lillies, lilly-of-the-valley, forget-me-nots, columbines, sweet woodroffe (I think), pink and white bleeding-hearts, a few different mints, and a some climbing ivy.

There would, of course, be two large vegetable beds featuring a number of strong garden arches for the growing of *lots* of different winter squashes (but also runner/pole beans, telephone peas, and cucumbers).

While I can't do this in my current back yard (way too expensive, for a start), I think it would be a neat thing to do in any eventual house (with a larger yard) that Paul and I buy in the coming years. :-)

Whee!
This is so much fun! :-D

- Nam'ara,
- Amazon.

P.S.: Paul is home in two hours (or so)! Yay! :-D And he's still alive! :-D

Pretty, Shiny. :-)

.:Neptune:.

"You are a very passionate person, however,
this passion often remains hidden below the
surface. You have a great deal of compassion
for others and are always willing to help those
in need. You have a great generosity, sometimes
so great that you neglect yourself while giving
to others. You also have a stubborn side,
though, which serves to protect you from being
taken advantage of by those you help."


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