My Aunt's Garden in Saskatoon

I spent a lovely afternoon in my aunt's garden in Saskatoon.

She has several lush ponds.

 I have never seen bee collecting pollen from grape vines, but honeybees and bumblebees were loading up on it. Grapes are pollinated by wind and gravity, but bees are definitely taking it back to their nests and hives.

 This large plant is mentioned in my book and I had never seen it in a garden: giant fleeceflower (Persicaria polymorpha). I would love to see this plant in bloom.

Anne told me she has very few haskap berries because the flowers froze when they were in bloom. I'm curious to know if other folks had this problem this year. She's sad that she won't have handfuls of fresh berries to toss into porridge and muffins.

My aunt's raspberries and her raspberry jams are legendary. I have many fond memories of picking golden and ruby raspberries on warm summer days.

 The raspberry blossoms were full of many species of bees. The native bees had a lot of competition from honeybees.

These are all herbs from my Aunt's garden. She is one of the best cooks I know.

She made curry and homemade chapatis for dinner and it was delicious! I also got to take home a jar of haskap jam. Lucky me!

Here's a great video on what makes it possible for bumblebees to pollinate haskap flowers in low temperatures.