Well, our little red wagon has run off the rails. We have badly fallen off the wagon and failed to post a picture a day. However, we are trying to finish our series anyway with 365 pictures from Susan’s Garden. But it has taken way longer than 365 days and we have not been following the seasons as they pass by. Sorry about that. This page is the last of the six pages covering two months each, except it is really just the last 59 pictures to complete the set.
Day 307 and we have wildlife in Susan’s Garden. CoCo does not like the winter but she still guards her kingdom. This week we had to take her to the vet because she had an infection from a fight protecting the garden. She’s OK but is on antibiotics for a few days.
Day 308. In the spring there is lots of maintenance to do for the coming season. I help out with the heavy lifting and digging. Last year I painted the two big urns we have in front of the house, Not very interesting but, hey, it is part of the gardening.
Day 309. The urns I painted last year, and spoke of in the last post, stood by the stairs at the front of the house and they looked pretty good.
Day 310. Susan loves her roses and she is good at growing them. We go for a walk and if she sees a rose she likes she can take a small piece of it and create a whole new plant. And she has them everywhere in her garden.
Day 311. In a back corner of the garden we get poppies coming up every year. I don’t think Susan ever plants them. They just keep coming back. Their little corner is close to the compost pile so I think they like it there. Lots of food!
This is not part of the Susan’s Garden Series but it is an image from the North Shore Mountains taken from the front yard while standing in Susan’s Garden.
Day 312 is about children in the garden. All of the grandchildren, mine and Susan’s, have played in Susan’s garden over the years. Today we see my grand daughter Olivia sitting with Susan’s swan’s. This picture was taken years ago but it is still charming.
Day 313 in Susan’s Garden. When Olivia was very little we had the good fortune to babysit Olivia for her Mom Keiko and her father, my son Flynn. Here Susan is giving Olivia lunch on the patio. As you can see, the garden was lovely that year.
It is spring in Susan’s Garden and the apple tree is in bloom. If you look closely there are so many wonders to find in a garden in spring. Day 314 in our picture series.
Day 315 in Susan’s Garden. We have just seen the end of the apple blossoms and I was spraying the fruit trees yesterday. The blossoms were so nice, especially if you get up close and really look at them.
It has been raining the last few days and the garden is soaking it up. The roses are almost ready to bloom. Here they are soaked with the rain this week.
Day 317. It is summer in Susan’s garden and again it is a delight! She spends her days now just tending her flowers. Last night we had salad for dinner and it was all from the garden: lettuce, radicchio, garlic, chives, tomatoes, carrots, basilico, parsley all picked minutes before dinner. Her garden is wonderful.
Day 317 There is so much to look at in a garden. There are big flowers and there are little details. It makes a walk in a garden so pleasurable because there is always something to see and explore. We have so many little grapes forming! Every year I make jam from them and it is wonderful.
Day 319 Susan has a tool shed in her garden and a few years ago she planted a rose bush beside it. I trained the roses to run up over the gable and now each year it is covered in blossoms. This is a great bush that never stops sending out new shoots. It needs constant pruning.
Day 320 As the summer progresses some flowers fade and others arrive. There are always new flower arrangements to be seen.
Day 321 Every year the flowers around our garden Madonna change and every year she is beautiful. I love this lady and I never fail to talk to her when I pass by.
Day 325 Every year some of Susan’s flower reseed themselves and in the process the flowers we have change from year to year depending on who likes the weather and produces the most seeds.
Day 326 Still with snapdragons, by the tool shed this year they had replaced, almost, the calla lilies. Every year the garden is different.
Day 323 Our old bird house, after several seasons sheltering young birds, finally fell apart. Last year Caesar built a new one for us and this year we had a family of little birds. Susan’s garden is a paradise for these little ones, except of course, they have to keep an eye open for CoCo!
Day 322 Back on May 19th I posted a picture of rosebuds in the rain. They were all closed up at that time but we have been enjoying the blossoms for two weeks now. They are really very beautiful!
Day 324 In the back of the garden I built a trellis for Susan for her raspberry canes and every year we get bowl fulls of wonderful fruit. While they are producing we eat handfulls while standing under the vines with the bees buzzing around us. These is the way to eat fruit!
Day 328 I know it is a little mundane but I want to talk about zucchini. At the end of the walk in Susan’s vegetable garden by the compost pile she planted Zucchini this year and they have taken over that end of the garden. These plants are up to my waist!
Day 329 We were talking about Zucchine. I think the best part of the plant are the flowers. Stuffed with cheese, dipped in egg and bread crumbs and fried they are amazing.
Day 327 I remember laughing at a family friend who was always taking pictures of flowers. Now here I am doing just the same thing and loving it. They fill me with wonder.
Day 332 We have a balcony off the kitchen which you might think is part of the house and not the garden. You would be wrong! Covered in grape vines, with flowers in window boxes and humming bird feeders hanging from the vines, it is very much a part of our garden.
Day 330 The Zucchine plants are amazing. They are producing more than we can eat and they grow so fast that some hide and get away on us. When we find them they are huge! But even these can be used.
Day 331 I don’t know how Susan manages to squeeze so much into what is really only a single family lot. Yes it is a big pie shaped lot but it still only has a single family home on it. It is almost fall now and the grapes are getting sweet. We have two varieties: green seedless and purple with seeds.
Day 333 Susan manages to grow so many veggies that at this time of year we cannot possibly eat it all. We try but the garden gets ahead of us every year! As a result we generally share it with all of our friends. We took this box over to our friend Maria Fronzo.
Day 335 Right now we have more zucchine in the garden than we know what to do with. Well, not really. Here is what we do with them: fried zucchine rounds or zucchine flowers stuffed with cheese and fried.
Day 337 Fall is such a wonderful time. Today we are going to make pasta sauce and can it for winter. Fresh tomatoes, garlic, basil, and parsley. Susan’s sauce tastes nothing like store bought ones. So rich and flavourful!
Day 334 The veggies in the upper part of the garden are nice but my favorite is the side of the house where the Madonna dei Fiori stands tending to her flowers. Every time I walk by there, which is two or three times a day, I think how beautiful it is. I never fail to talk to the Madonna. The picture of the kitchen balcony a few days back is just above this side of the house.
Day 336 Along the side of the house, with the Madonna of the Flowers, I have built planters for Susan in which she puts tomatoes every year. And so right now we have more of them than we can eat. In these boxes she puts the small tomatoes which make wonderful pasta sauce and great salads. You should come by and get some!
Today was Pasta Sauce Day! Susan picked tomatoes and we made pasta sauce. Garlic we bought but everything else came out of the garden: tomatoes, parsley, celery, basil. Some good olive oil, a little pepper and there you have a simple sugo Primavera. We canned it for the winter. Day 338.
Susan grows Red Peppers. But when I say grow, well, she grows them big! The problem is what to do with them. Well, I made my hot pepper relish. I make it hot and spicey and the kids love it. Once you get a taste for hot peppers food tends to taste flat without it. We have jars and jars of it. And still we have more peppers!!! Day 339.
I do not want you to think that Susan only grows red peppers or that she only grew one big one. There are others, many others and some are yellow. The long yellow ones are not hot and they are super tasty just fried in a bit of olive oil. We grow enough of own hot peppers each year for our hot pepper relish. Day 340.
Today we are making Tomato Sauce. That involved a morning chopping tomatoes. Day 341
And what happens to all of these chopped Tomatoes? That is not hard to figure out!!! Into the pot with herbs and spices! Day 342.
Day 344 I think the preserving is just about done. I am glad because I am getting tired. But we have our jars for the winter. About 50 of them. Here is a selection I photographed today on the garden wall. Day 344
CoCo finds mice around the compost pile. She does not kill them but she will play with them for hours until they eventually get away. But she has a bad habit: she loves to bring them in the house. Day 343.
Day 345 Today I looked out at the garden and CoCo was surveying her kingdom from on top of a hose bib. She sits there often just watching. She loves Susan’s Garden more than I do! Day 345. Twenty more pictures and we will have a years worth of images from the garden (although it has taken much more than a year!).
I don’t know how I missed it but in by the Swiss Chard I found this cauliflower. Day 346.
As winter approaches it is nice to think back over the year and all of the beautiful flowers that have grown in the garden. In the soil, in the pots and boxes, in the hanging baskets, thousands of blossoms. And every one a subject for a photograph. Day 347.
Every year Susan seems to have more and more roses. I cannot do it but she can take a small piece of a branch from a rosebush and get it to sprout and grow in her garden. Any time she sees a pretty rose she takes a small piece and creates a new bush. Day 350.
Behind the backyard fence under the apple tree a rose bush appeared a few years ago and it thrives in that location. It is a beautiful plant. It requires no care. It just comes back every year with beautiful blossoms that come through the fence as they reach for the sun. Day 348.
Day 351 Susan’s Garden has two levels. Up at the back is the vegetable garden and below is basically the flower garden. And there is a stairway connecting the two. The levels are defined by stonework built by Susan and her husband Guido. Day 351.
When photographing Susan’s Garden there are hundreds of beautiful images to be found. But there are more even than that because every day the light is different, different clouds, the sun at a different angle, the shadows in different places, different season’s, different weather. Day 349.
Sometimes when I take pictures I don’t look for individual subjects but rather I seek patterns, colors, and shapes that are pleasing to the eye. Here the colors create an abstract piece of art that would look wonderful on any gallery wall!. Day 352.
I love the color of the poppies in Susan’s Garden. They come back every year all by themselves and for the few days they are here they are magnificent! But they are delecate and they don’t last long. Even a day of rain will ruin the beautiful blossoms. Day 353.
Susan puts everybody to work in the garden. Years ago my grand daughter, Olivia, was staying with us and she was put to work. Age is no protection from “the gardner”. There must be child labour laws that prevent this abuse of innocnt children! Day 354.
Fall is here but still we have blossoms! Day 355
Susan’s veggie garden extends right across the back of our property. It is against the hedge and raised above the grass in the yard. There is a stone wall and a staircase leading up to it. Of course there are other garden beds and containers with tomatoes, peppers, and herbs as well as flowers. This spring I took this picture, several actually which I joined together, of the whole veggie garden and yard. Day 356.
Looking at some of my flower pictures you would think I arrange the flowers for each shot. I don’t. Maybe I move a leaf or two but that is all. I shoot my pictures as they are in the garden. What you are seeing actually exists because of Susan’s work. Day 357.
There seems to be different flowers every year but we can always rely on the poppies of every variety to fill the garden.Day 358.
There is nothing as delightfull as a plate of fresh green beans with butter melting over them to compliment a meal! Day 359.
Day 360 It is now October 16th and the red maple in the front yard is beginning to lose its leaves, which have deepened in color. Caesar gave this tree to his Mom twenty years ago and it is the prettiest tree on our street. Day 360.
Day 361 Yesterday I showed you what our red maple looks like today. In two months from now it may look like this again. Every year it is our Christmas Tree in the front yard. Day 361.
The weather is cold and the garden is going to sleep. Susan has picked the last of the tomatoes, the squash are all lined up on the sidewalk, the bean poles are down and put away till next year. It will not be long before the front garden beds look like this. Day 362.
On the front wall of the yard the garden always has daffodils. They do well there with a south facing stone wall behind them to keep them warm. Day 363.
Day 364 The “flags” are beautiful but very delicate flowers.
Day 365 And so we come to picture/day 365, the end of our project. So who is responsible for the beautiful gardens we have been looking at. Well, here she is. Susan will hate this picture. She likes to be so elegant when people are around. But for me this is the true girl raised on a farm in Italy. This picture tells me more about her than all of the elegant pictures of her taken together.
And there we have 365 pictures of Susan’s Garden. I do hope you enjoyed them. It is my intention to create a book with the best of these pictures organized is some sort of logical order. These Internet pages can evaporate in a minute but the printed page can survive for hundreds of years. I want to create a book because people in the future who never knew Susan should know that she existed and that she loved her flowers. Her garden was her world and she enriched the lives of all who had the opportunity to walk amongst her flowers and vegitables. The beauty of her garden was an external show of the beauty contained within her. Thank you Susan.