Thornbury Farmer's Market

After that beautiful Day Lily garden we visited last Sunday, we headed for the Thornbury Farmer's Market, held downtown on a patch of grass next to the Town Hall.  We had never been here before, and we found a number of interesting vendors.

This is the Thornbury Canada 150 mural, celebrating everything local.  If you look closely you'll see there are lots of apples in the tree.

There weren't any fresh veggies yet, but there were flowers and 'green' garlic (not quite mature).

There were both honey and maple syrup.  We've been to the Miner's maple sugar bush, so we know this is good!

 They've also acquired a popcorn popper, so they're now selling maple-flavoured popcorn.  Delicious!

There were a number of craft vendors, these ones with wood products.

And a stained glass artist too.

These two guys provided musical background while we wandered around.

I was also pleased to see the local Bruce Trail Club had an information both.  Good stuff!  I hope they got lots of inquiries.

More Garden Shots

The beautiful Day Lily garden we visited on Sunday featured much more than Day Lilies.  A few garden sculptures and other plants among the paths kept us interested, and they had a small but very full veggie garden hidden surreptitiously behind the shed in the back.

My favourite is their blue bottle sculpture.  They work with a local iron worker to make the frames for these.

You could have your choice of teapots.

 A little vertical structure for the garden.

Two very frilly poppies, and ...

a clump of bright yellow Yarrow.

A beautiful blue Clematis.  I love the lacy seed heads.

They also have a number of very interesting trees - why have ordinary ones?  These are a Redbud and a Gingko.
 

They've got a great collection of miniature Hostas too.

And just to remind you, here are some more Day Lilies.

The last one here is the only name I remember, 'Milk Chocolate', and it really is just the colour of chocolate milk.

I'll leave you with my favourite garden feature, the blue bottle culpture.

Day Lilies Galore!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of visiting a beautiful, no a stunning Day Lily garden.  This is a private garden, a labour of love for the owners.  They have transformed their back yard into a spectacular show of colour.  I could not possibly keep track of the names of every variety (you can tell I'm not a true connoisseur), but the colours are glorious!

A big highlight of the summer for us.  The biggest challenge was the sun glaring on the screen of my iphone, but I'm pretty pleased with these pictures.

By the way today we hit 47 years, and still together!

Achy Back Acres

On the way to physio on Friday we saw a roadside sign for fresh peas, so naturally on the way home we stopped in.  That's when we discovered Achy Back Acres, and resolved a riddle that we'd been pondering for 3 or 4 months.

This was the sign that enticed us in,

And these were the peas, their first real crop of the season, late because it's been so dry.  We bought a large basket, and they were delicious.

Here's the riddle.  We'd been driving past this farm every time we went to Owen Sound for physio, and have been wondering what all these barrels out in the field were for.  As we saw crops coming up in the rows between them, we realized it must be some form of garden.

Once we got a close look we learned all about it.  Indeed, we met the owners, a retired couple, who work incredibly long hours to do this.  They told us all about their 'retirement project'.

A row of garlic, and their watering system (in the absence of rain).  They fill these big plastic jugs with a hose, and then take them out to fill the barrels.  They water the plants with a watering can from the barrels.  An enormous amount of work!

You can see in these two pictures how they plant in rows, leaving a wide strip of grass in between.  They suggest that this controls erosion on this slightly sloping site, and reduces insect damage.  It's totally organic.

These are their tomatoes, 130 heritage varieties!  They'll have lots of other veggies available through August and September, especially after last might's rain.  And we'll be back to pick some up.

A new use for an old farm.

We said good-bye to the field of barrels and headed home to enjoy our peas.