The June rainy season winds down and with more sun the plants begin to grow noticeably more. All have been well taken care of while on vacation by neighbours and friends.
Kale, broccoli, cauliflower, volunteer sunflowers from birdseed (not sure what kind yet. Any guesses?).
Norland Potatoes.
Volunteer sunflowers in compost pile.
Tomatoes, peas, carrots, swiss chard.
Rhubard showing some hail damage. Several hail storms with pea-sized hail this year, but most plants survived and recovered. Also purple beans (Royal Burgundy) around rhubard, snow peas and broccoli.
Yet more garden expansion for next year.
Flowers and miscellaneous annuals from Aunt Mary.
Norland Potatoes.
Mystery plant. The bird feeder is just above. The birds are messy eaters. Our neighbour's guess is sunflowers.
Broccoli, kale, cauliflower, red onions, lovage, radishes, random mystery plants (birdseed was likely in the compost).
Tomatoes and peppers from Aunt Mary in the last minute garden expansion due to lack of room.
Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peas, Swiss Chard, Carrots, Radishes
Plant's eye view (L to R: Peas, swiss chard, carrots)
Rhubarb, broccoli
Mystery compost plants (squash??)
Life in the dead of winter: 
Fried squash leaves and flowers served with perogies!
Front flower bed progresses.
Rudbeckia triloba (Brown-Eyed Susan) in bloom. This is a species native to the United States. The Canadian Brown-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) common on the prairies around here are slighly smaller as well as other subtle differences.
Sneezewort (lower left), Sage (upper left) and Yarrow (upper right)
Spaghetti Squash (Cucurbita pepo) which grew out of the compost from seeds of the discarded innards of a Spaghetti Squash which we bought from Co-op that we ate during winter (ate the squash, composted the innards, not vice versa). The squash's parent was grown in Mexico, so we were surprised to see it grow here! The flowers made great salad or stir fry additions. For the latter you can batter and fry. It did grow some squash, though they were mostly small and did not ripen completely before the first major frosts at the end of August and early September, but we still ate them anyway. In the end we harvested more flowers than squash! The flowers kept popping up every couple of days all summer.
Smooth Brome (Bromus ramosus ssp. racemosus) in the back alley. We are thinking to try planting some raspberries here.
Unknown Mystery Flower that came with the property. Any guesses? 
Potatoes (store-bought from Co-op), we didn't eat them in time so into the garden they went. A struggling paper birch (Betula papyrifera) behind dying a slow death due to my destruction of it's roots in the above garden expansion.
Mystery flowers, peppers, and spaghetti squash attacking the baby stroller.
Spinach (left), rhubarb and snow peas climbing in the back.
New garden expansion, ready for next year.
Left to right: 
The Purple one is "Clustered Bellflower" or Calmpanula glomerata
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