We take our garden camping in Grand Manan

Josh and I just got back from a wonderful week in Grand Manan. This year, for the first time ever, we did a big harvest just before we left and also raided our frozen supplies still remaining from last year’s garden to take with us for supplies. Some of my garlic was just ready, so we had fresh picked garlic, the last of the pesto from last year, tomato sauce, refried beans and chili made from tomatoes pureed in the freezer (its July and they are still going), fresh lemon basil and Thai basil, lettuce, coriander. 

While on the island we found wild mushrooms, chanterelles, shrimp rousselas and boletus to add to our supplies. Needless to say, we ate well.

This year we decided to do things we did not get to last year. We did a lot of hiking and walking, spent half a day sea kayaking, visited the Whale museum and research station.

On the sea kayaking trip we saw the cliffs of Grand Manan from below, and I regretted not having brought a water proof camera to photograph the beautiful and incredibly resilient wild flowers which grew upside down off the nooks and crannies all along the cliffs. Considering that the tide rises up to 27 feet daily, and storms can push the waves more than double that height, it is amazing what can live on those rocks.  These pictures are from a short hike we did in Pette's Cove, near where we were camping. 

Sea urchin on the top of a cliff. 

 

We saw a lot of honeybees on the wildflowers.

This is a sunset photo from our campsite of the Swallowtail lighthouse.

Wildflowers on the rocks, Pette's Cove. 

We went back to White Head Island where we went last year, but this year we took more time and went for a long walk on the beach up to the light house. We went to visit Alphie, an incredibly bright and gregarious woman who has lived part time on White Head island for many years, and as of this year full year round. She lives in an old lobster shack during the summer, and has a hobby/business of painting beach rocks with beautiful paintings and selling them from a little table in front of her cabin. 

We stayed for a while to chat, and I told her about my interest in gardening and wildflowers, and she took us for a walk to see a variety of her favorite local wildflowers: wild beach morning glories, beach peas (I took some home to see if they will grow here. Chloe suggested I spray salt water on them), viper bugloss (she pronounced it bluegloss). I did not plan to repeat my blog from last year, so I took most of the wildflower photos on White Head rather than on the cliffs around the Hole in the Wall campsite, where we stayed again on the most scenic cliff 26.

This year we got much luckier with the wildlife, as it was a great year for herring and with the schools of herring followed harbor porpoises, Minke whales, Finback whales, harbor seals, grey seals and Humpback whales, cormorants, herring gulls and big black backed gulls, and a slew of other water birds. We took a lot of photos of whales, most of which look like a dark smudge on the water, but a few turned out acceptable and even recognizable.


 What was amazing was that we saw them all, even the Humpback though only from the Ferry ride home, and not close enough to get a good photo. This, by the way, was best viewed directly from our campsite. We turned our picnic table so we could sit side by side at breakfast and dinner facing the sea with camera close by. Although whales really have nothing to do with gardening, I have included a few of the best photos of the sea and the whales.

We spent a whole morning slogging around the Castalia Marsh, which is like walking around on the sea bottom at low tide. I suspect like many of the island beaches, it pretty much disappears at high tide, along with some roads which run on the edge of the island and between Grand Manan and the adjacent Ross Island (you need to plan your hikes carefully).  On the marsh and on the beach at White Head Island you can find the most amazing variety of rocks which wash up from just about anywhere on the planet. I filled my pockets and Josh’s as well, and left piles of the larger stones in strategic spots to pick up later. I came home with a lot of great stones, and some of the larger ones are going to become part of my garden. I will take a picture and post when I decide where they go.

One of the interesting plants I noticed this year was a ground hugging juniper which grew along the clifftops and down over the rocks. On a long hike we did from the southernmost tip of Grand Manan up part of the eastern (unpopulated) side of the island to Bradford’s Cove, we stopped to rest and look out for whales over the basalt cliffs and sat on the very springy, fragrant and comfortable juniper plants. No whales, although we spent too much time watching what ended up being a large rock that was whale-like in its shape. The photos which Josh and I took are real whales, not rock whales.

In addition to the very lush forests and wildflower meadows, the sun and the sea and the clouds are breathtaking. We were woken daily at dawn to the sound of whales blowing, and made sure to be awake and on our campsite for both sunrise and sunset daily. 

These very strange photos are of the world's largest axe in Nackawick, NB. The park where it is located is on a beautiful river with gorgeous flowers and landscaping. That tiny person below the axe on the right side photo is me. We took some shots of the flowers right in front so I had an excuse to include it on my blog.

Back home, I have now harvested most of the garlic which is drying in my bike shed. Our cucumbers are in full production, even as they are succumbing to the cucumber beetles. Josh and I decided to try hanging the plants next year rather than planting them in the ground. My tomatoes are still green, with one red one looking ready to harvest. No flowers yet on the pepper plants, but the basil is about ready for the first harvest.