A Grape-y Canopy

Our back deck is covered in a wood pergola on which several grape vines call home.  In addition to providing a beautiful shady spot, our vines produce a surplus of edible grapes.

 The predominant grape variety we grow is called Montreal Blues.  When mature, our grapes resemble those of the Concord variety.  They are red grapes that smaller and rounder than table grapes.  The grapes are not ripe yet so they are bright green.

The grapes are not very good for eating off the vine since they are tiny, pretty sour and full of seeds.  However, we have used them to make delicious grape juice and grape jelly - think Welch's but better.  The grapes do sweeten up very late in the season but by then most of them have been devoured by either the birds or the hornets.

The key to a superb grape harvest, you ask?  We have it figured out - it is essential to trim the vines right back to the main stem after the growing season.  This is a tip we picked up from visiting the vineyards in Niagara in the off season - all their vines were pruned right back.  We figured if it works for them, it might work for us too - and it did!  Here's to a very grape-y summer.

The (Very Slow) Growth of the Sugar Maples

When we first moved to Gael Glen Farm we decide to prioritize improvements to the property that would require a long time to grow before they would provide the benefit for which they were planted.  As such, one of the first tasks we undertook was planting a bunch of new trees.  In addition to the apple and pear trees we planted in the orchard, we also planted four sugar maple trees bordering the driveway.  Our hope is that one day they will be big enough to tap to make maple syrup - though, at the rate they are growing that day is likely a very, very long way off.

Our four sugar maple trees.  We have big plans for these little guys!

While making our own maple syrup seems like a bit of a pipe dream at this point, we have friends who live on a property nearby with mature maple trees that they tapped for the first time this spring.  They boiled down the sap on their kitchen stove and were able to make their own homemade maple syrup!  We have yet to taste test the fruits of their labour but we think it is so cool that they did it.  DIY maple syrup - who would have thought?!

A Pond Full of Flowers

Every spring we usually spend a substantial amount of time and effort manicuring our backyard pond.  This involves one of us stripping down to our underwear in the backyard (thank goodness we have no close neighbours) and struggling into Ian's hunting hip-waders.  The unlucky gardener then eases themselves into the frigid, murky waters of our chest deep pond.  Once in, we arrange the pots of lily pads on the bottom, cut back the cattails and trim the water irises.  This spring we did none of the above.  For some reason this rather unpleasant yard work task usually falls to me (Ian says he doesn't do flower gardens - only veggies) and I was too pregnant to fit into the waders - besides I was afraid the ice cold water might induce early labour.  As such, no hipwaders, no wading and no pond plant pruning.

Would you believe that the pond looks the best it has ever looked?  The plants are the healthiest they have ever been and we have had more flowers on the irises (a spring flower so no photos of these), spikes on the cattails and water lilies than ever before.

We may have had to undergo a forced eradication of our garden lilies in order to battle the Japanese Red Lily Beetle; however, we still have our water lilies!  Finally a type of lily the beetles don't like!

I guess sometimes a pond just needs the freedom to run wild.  In this case a little neglected yard work has worked out very much in our favour.