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Raspberries and peas, sweet carrots, new potatoes, young beets, and a feast of summer flowers make July a month filled with home-grown pleasures of the senses.

Dear Tony: Our high-rise building is one of the many that has been trapped by the high increases to insurance costs and deductibles.

Your backyard might have an old shed that has fallen into disrepair, just good enough to stash the lawnmower and a few bikes. With some inspiration and a bit of TLC, that could be your new favourite place to be. That shed could have many purposes.

From the first days of the pandemic I’ve felt an immense gratitude — first, for living in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and in this province, where government officials and medical health officers make regular, unvarnished reports to us and present clear plans for addressi

What: Teeny Tiny Garden Tour Where: Watch online, rain or shine, at victoriahospice.

Dear Helen: I have a young Mrs. N. Thompson clematis vine growing in a container, trained against a trellis. I’d like to know how to manage it. The vine produced a few large, spectacular blooms this month. K.G. Mrs. N.

Can you hear them out there, exulting as they wallow in the wet? Slugs, everywhere — under every leaf and rock, in the lettuce.

Dear Helen: Odd things have happened in my garden this spring. Shrubs that are modestly decorative year round but don’t usually bloom have produced flowers.

Dear Tony: We found out an owner has a tenant without permission as required by our bylaws. It’s unfair to the other owners who are patiently on the wait list waiting for their turn.

Over the course of a long winter, memories of the first spring vegetables, fresh from the garden and full of flavour, fade away. This spring, that forgetfulness vanished magically with my first bite into a garden zucchini on May 25.