Due to the unusually AWESOME weather we have experienced lately, this will be the first year that we have the backyard up and running before the long weekend. Chris and I were so ahead of the game we had to wait for the garden centres to get their herbs in.

This will be my fifth year living in this apartment and Chris’ fourth, and every year we have tried growing stuff in the backyard — some successful, others not. By now we know what will and won’t work and just have to work with what we got, which is basically shade tolerant plants and herbs. The bane of Chris’ existence are two Manitoba Maple trees (his least favourite tree) which provide us with lots of privacy and shade in the back, but limits sun exposure.

A nice surprise this year though was our chives came back from last year, so we got that going for us. Even though the backyard is quite small and is hard to successfully grow stuff, I love the space we have. It’s perfect for us right now and is a nice retreat to hang out with friends, BBQ, play darts and read.

This year we planted rosemary, mint, cilantro, dill, basil and parsley. We planted two mint plants due to our Mojito consumption, hopefully it’s enough!