Time to show off my handywork.
Well, it’s definately smaller than my own patch of land last year, but at least it’s something and I love it. So, while planting yesterday I took photos to share with everybody!
Let’s start with a few establishing shots, shall we (including the lovely gravel driveway I open my door up to)?
Freshly planted, so the perennials in the left hand corner are looking a little dinky, but with the area these boxes are in I suspect they’ll grow quite large. All within these two pictures are: “white swan” echinacea, shasta daisy, coreposis, gingko tree, rosemary, tri-coloured sage, lemon balm, green globe basil, green bell pepper, early girl tomato, sweet basil and dill.
Here’s my bay, this guy’s two years old this year. Unfortunately somehow a bit of the new growth has been burned so it hasn’t grown yet this year, but I see a little bit of new growth peeping through the burnt buds, so I’m hoping it’ll have a growth spurt soon.
This is possibly my favourite plant that I have (but don’t tell the others…). It’s my little gingko tree, also two years old. Last year all it had were about 10 HUGE leaves, this year it’s taking a bit more of a gingko-esque look.
And, some lovely little green globe basil.
My green bell pepper, early girl tomato, dill and sweet basil all still have to be potted up. That’s what I plan on doing today. When I was buying my plants last week I overestimated how much room I had in my planter boxes - but isn’t that always the way.
As for the veggies, I’m going to ask the tenants upstairs if they mind me throwing them into the little side garden. I’ve NEVER had luck with tomatoes in containers, but I’d really like to have my own fresh tomatoes this year.

May 17th, 2004 at 12:35 pm
Hi there,
Nice to see a yougrowgirl journaler from Vancouver (I’m in Burnaby). I’m also gardening in a small patch of the garden that’s shared with the other tennants of our house, and a bunch of planter boxes that I’ve been toting around for a few years now (each time I move to a new place with little to no garden space).
Anyway, this is ridiculous, but I’ve been looking for dill for close to 2 months now and haven’t been able to find any. It’s one of my very favorite herbs…where did you find yours?
midge.
May 17th, 2004 at 3:38 pm
I love seeing people on this site from Vancouver! :D
I actually found mine at Home Depot - the one right by the Ikea in Coquitlam (surprisingly enough!).
Go on a Friday, that’s when they go to the plant auction so all the plants are still healthy and green.
I always recommend one place for sure - Triple Tree. It’s in Maple Ridge though, where I used to live, but if you’re ever in the area go there. Everybody who works there is great and they have the best selection of plants I’ve ever seen (I was a customer there long before I got hired on).
May 17th, 2004 at 11:29 pm
Hmm. I’ve never been out to Maple Ridge, but Coquitlam I can do! I actually need to go pick up a patio table at the Ikea anyway. I got some really good heritage tomatoes at the Home Depot off Gilmour and Lougheed, but they didn’t have a lot of selection. I’ll have to try and get out to the other one on the weekend. Thanks!
ps. I put up a link to my blog–I just posted a whole bunch of photos of my garden tonight if you want to take a look. :+)
May 20th, 2004 at 12:28 am
Hi there. I’m in North Vancouver and have only really just got into gardening in the last couple of years. Judging by your pictures I’m guessing that it’s not too early to plant herbs? I had it in my head that I shouldn’t plant things like basil and cilantro until mid June or so.
May 20th, 2004 at 1:39 pm
Hey Mary Ann– some varieties of basil are fine (like the African basil that I have outside, globe basil is ok too), but others like sweet basil are a lot of trouble. The cilantro would probably be fine outside now too. Between myself and the people who live in the basement where we rent, we’ve got the following herbs outside (most have been there for at least a month by now): globe basil, african basil, chives, lavender, italian flatleaf parsley, coriander(cilantro), curry, sage, oregano, thyme, lemon thyme, mint…there could be others–our garden is full of herbs!
midge
May 20th, 2004 at 1:49 pm
Midge - I’ll definately take a look!
Mary Ann - you really have to just watch the weather and sort of guess when it would be okay to start putting out tender herbs. Around here it’s usually alright to put out basil, cilantro and herbs like that around the beginning of May. For the rest of my herbs and perennials, usually I find it’s warm enough around the beginning of April.
May 25th, 2004 at 4:26 pm
Thanks for the advice. I plan to get the herbs out this weekend! Last year I tried sweet basil (dismal) and oregano and cilantro. The oregano came back in the same pot (quite pleased!). We had curly parsley in the garden (from previous home owners), but it didn’t come back this year … perhaps we over-harvested! We also have mint and lavender.
May 26th, 2004 at 7:53 am
Yay for my favorite BC gardener!
May 27th, 2004 at 2:14 pm
OH MY GOSH! I finally got some dill on the weekend, and planted it in the garden. Last night I went out to get a sprig, and both plants were FULL of SLUGS!!! One of them was at least a few inches long, and there were tons of smaller ones. I don’t know if they climbed up there to get some air since it’s been raining so hard, but my dill is all slimy now! :-( I should’ve put it in my planter boxes on the deck, but I had no idea this would happen! Do you have yours in a garden or container? I thought for a minute I should dig them out, but they’re already all slimed up, so I think I might just leave them there as a decoy, and go get some new plants to put on the deck. YUCK!
midge
June 7th, 2004 at 1:20 pm
Yay — I love gingko! I saw this amazing 200 year old gingko tree in Washington DC last summer, right inside the fence of the White House grounds.
I just got done with my front yard — mostly tropicals! And I just got a lemon & a mexican lime tree — I am excited because I’ve always wanted citrus trees.
p.s. I loved the filmmaking allusion at the beginning of this post!
-yardenxanthe
June 30th, 2004 at 11:54 am
Hi Kelly - just read your journal for the first time today, and thought I’d let you (and other readers) know about a great event coming up in Vancouver on Sunday July 11th - The Strathcona and Cottonwood Community Garden Open House and Plant Sale. I’m a gardener at Cottonwood, a huge, incredible community garden in Strathcona neighbourhood, and the open house/plant sale is our main fundraiser for the year.
Come to find great, really inexpensive plants, van Dusen master gardeners, live music, garden tours, beekeeping demonstrations, garden-made honey, free kids’ activities and workshops and more!
Where: Strathcona and Cottonwood Community Gardens, corner of Hawkes and Prior.
When: Sunday July 11th, 10:00am - 2:00pm.
Admission: FREE
Ciao,
Michelle