After moving here in May, as we started meeting people and they found out which house we had purchased, their first question always had to do with whether or not we gardened. This was because the former owners of the house had a large garden on the side lot. We were told by many people that they watched to see when the former owners planted their garden, when moved plants from the greenhouse into the garden, and when they pulled the plants out in the fall. We strongly suggested to people that they do not look to us for the same direction as we had no idea how to garden in this climate.

In late-May we boldly decided that it was warm enough to plant a bunch of seeds in the garden and to move the motley crew of plants we had purchased from local greenhouses and yard sales from the greenhouse into the garden.

We might have been a bit early with the move as many of the plants suffered in the transition. All the Zucchinis expired and the tomatoes really suffered.

By mid-July things were still looking quite stunted, but the sunflowers that were planted as seeds started to make an appearance.

By the beginning of August things had really taken off. We had peas, the beans were coming along, carrots had appeared and squash-like plants had started to appear (were weren’t really sure what had been planted where when it came to the squash…. had any zucchini survived? were these squash or were they pumpkins?)

The air quality was up and down over the summer because of the forest fires, but, thankfully, none were too close to Robson Valley, but the smoke still came through, turning the sun an apocalyptic red and dropping the temperature by 10 degrees Celsius.

By the end of August, things were starting to get cold at night, and the beans were starting to die back a bit, so we decided it was time to start harvesting….. and wow.

The totes in the back are filled with basil plants that we pulled and brought inside to pick the leaves off of. Needless to say, we made a lot of pesto. We froze some of the carrots, and many of them were pickled in with the beans. We made over thirty, one-litre jars of pickled beans. It turns out that purple carrots really change the colour of the pickling solution, it almost looks like there are beets in there!

We also had 40 pints of frozen raspberries and from later in the month there were squash, potatoes and rhubarb. The tomatoes came quite late, but eventually made an appearance.

Something else that happened in the middle of August, was the annual Salmon Run. Salmon are such amazing creatures. Salmon are born in freshwater, but live most of their lives in the ocean. When they have matured (8 to 9 years later) they migrate back up the freshwater rivers, back to where they were born, to spawn before they die. But it’s the distance that they travel which is truly amazing. Here is an image from a report from Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River.

The dark lines indicate the rivers that the salmon swim up from the Pacific Ocean along the Fraser River and its tributaries. I added a star to show where Valemount is. As you can see, we are at the end of how far the salmon fight their way up the Fraser River to spawn in the fall. By the time they reach Valemount, the salmon have fought their way over 1,300km upriver, against the current and up over waterfalls. It’s incredible. There are a couple of places where you can view them around town, and there are signs posted, letting you know to stay out of the water during spawning season, and to avoid casting your shadow into the water as it can frighten the salmon. It was amazing to see them in the water, having travelled so far to be there.

Here are a couple of videos. One of three salmon just kind of hanging out, surfing in the current, and another video of one fighting its way to go further upstream. It was quite a beautiful thing to see!