Garden Log

[CECTPA]

@CECTPA - I was thinking of you as I munched on peas today.

Ahahaha, I'm munching them every day! So awesome! Isn't peas the best food ever? If I ever consider moving down south that would only be for the reason of a longer pea season lol. However, since we don't really get extreme heat, gardening here is very fruitful.

My lasagna bed is going crazy! It has become very thin because of soil compaction, but so far everything is thriving.


The no-dig no-weeding experimental patch of beans and corn is living it's life along with weeds without any concerns.


The same variety of corn on a conventional bed with Brussel sprouts. Also doing not bad, but less green. Probably should not have planted them that close together, oh well. I'm learning

[George the original one]

Wife has been enjoying the broccoli harvest. I've continued grazing on fresh peas while out in the garden... none seem to make it into the house, LOL.

Vine-ripe tomatoes have been excellent, but still not quite enough sun to ripen quickly, so production is slightly less than desired at the moment. Plants are pushing 6' tall and it has been tough to keep up with pinching off side shoots. One plant did not have enough support and a branch broke off, so note to my future self is to have more tall stakes on hand. Cucumbers are producing just the right amount and I've pinched back the vines to keep them from taking over the greenhouse. Watermelon have made many blossoms, but no obvious fruit. Experimental watermelon outside the greenhouse has not blossomed and doesn't look so good. Bell peppers disappointingly producing very little.

The early red potato vines are falling over now while the gold yukons are still standing tall (yes, very tall!). As said before, we just dig them as we need them until the fall rains threaten.

Walla walla onions are awesomely huge (softball size) and show no signs of stopping growth yet. The purplette variety are not getting as large (still approaching tennis ball size) and have a tendency to form seed heads that I pinch off. Winter/spring planted green onions didn't really come into their own until a couple weeks ago. This has been a much better success than last year's onion attempts.

Carrots are a long-term thing. They're doing fine, but we won't get to harvest any for another couple months. I occasionally pull a couple to make sure they're not crowded and to check on progress.

Corn has not done well. Only about 10% germinated. Probably the result of not covering with plastic when we had an extended cool spell.

Acorn squash finally has blossoms. I need to start these in the greenhouse next year so they get a better running start as they sure don't like our cool nights.

Fighting some sort of scale on the leaves in the apple orchard. Current technique is to strip off all the infected leaves and dispose of them in the trashcan. No signs of major reinfection and the trees look healthy afterwards.

Blueberries are on! For the next month and a half, I get to eat a fresh bowl of blueberries with ice cream every day.

[enigmaT120]

Do your Walla Walla onions take two years to mature?

[George the original one]

I ordered plants via Johnny's. They came as little babies, significantly smaller than green onions you buy at the store. It appears the Texas farm drops seed in large pots (the roots were a tangled mess) in the fall to get the babies they ship in February.

[CECTPA]

I'm harvesting less and less peas every day There are 2 other spaces with younger plants that will give me (hopefully) some harvest later on.

Cabbage butterflies discovered my kale and brussel sprouts, we're removing caterpillars manually every day. Not too worried about kale, because I've got plenty of other greens.

Some corn plants are tasselling, but no ears. I read about it, looks like the plants are stressed, but ears will follow. Of course they are stressed, we're zone 2. That's why people here only plant Monsanto corn. We started using diluted pee on our corn, but it's probably too late. The experimental corn (see above) is super vigorous and green, but tasselling without ears too. Maybe because our nights are chilly, corn doesn't like it here.

We're actively eating beets, root and greens. The greens are delicious, that's why we don't worry about the kale. I think beets is a great food for ERE, easy to grow, you eat the whole thing and rather good caloric density.

Some beans have blossoms, some don't.

Thinking what should I plant to harvested bare ground. Maybe carrots and clover as a cover crop.

[BlueNote]

I've got 5 tomato plants on my balcony:

2x Garden Treasure (brandywine hybrid)

2x New Hybrid from Univ. of Florida

and 1x Maglia Rosa (the turtle pot picture below)

Toronto has had a couple of heat waves this summer and I have lost maybe half of my blossoms as a result

On the bright side fruit is setting and being on the 10th floor of an apartment has helped keep the woodchucks at bay

[CECTPA]

BlueNote, great tomato plants! I'm jealous! Most def will plant tomatoes next year!

Good news, shortly after tasselling my corn plants started to grow ears here and there. I can see the first silks peeking out!

Also, there is a new growth and new flowers on my almost barren pea bushes! Life is good!

[George the original one]

First heavy picking of blueberries netted 16 pints.

Sunshine! We finally had sunshine! Which means several tomatoes turned color and I got to pick 5 that I had my eye on. I also spied a watermelon forming.

[cmonkey]

DW and I had one of the most magical moments ever in our garden tonight. We went out after a long day working on the house to just potter around our jungle of a garden (it's very wild this year as I spend all my time working on the house*) and found a young least flycatcher flitting about our dill plants and sunflowers, eating seeds and catching bugs. We stood very still and he eventually started coming right up to us and would hover just inches from our faces.

We decided to put out our hands and it only took a few minutes until he landed. We also got some bird seed and some dill seed and he ate from our hands.

I think we spent about 20 minutes with him before he flew off into the orchard. We went about our way and about 10 minutes later he showed up again and landed on my shoulder. Just out of the blue! We are hopeful he'll stick around.





* This also means there are tons of birds, insects, frogs and snakes. We have identified at least 3 dozen different bird species this year. We even saw an orange colored snake in the orchard.

[C40]

Cmonkey, you are becoming one with nature.

[jennypenny]

Amazing pic, cmonkey!

Our garden is a giant fail this summer. No cherries or cucumbers at all, peaches are scabbed, and the heat fried my greens. Even my crab apple didn't bloom or fruit, and we have no flowers on the hydrangeas. We were able to pick some cherry tomatoes this week, but the bigger ones are still green. I'll pick my first zucchini this week.

I don't feel too bad because the farmers market has slim pickings, too. I think the cool spring followed by the hot summer was hard on everything. Good thing the apocalypse didn't happen this year or we'd be screwed.

[Dragline]

Amazing pic, cmonkey!

+1 Did you take it yourself while the bird was on you?

[unno2002]

We went out for a 5:00 AM walk this morning, and after our recent rains noted amaranth growing in the public right of way, where it will shortly be trampled… We decided to “rescue” a bag full of the seedlings and put them around our lot.

[enigmaT120]

Do you eat it as greens? I've never tried it.

[George the original one]

early red norland potatoes, gold Yukon potatoes, green bell pepper, lemon cucumber (center), walla walla onion, purplette onion, juliette tomato, & some forgotton variety of carrot that's not yet mature

[cmonkey]

Amazing pic, cmonkey!

+1 Did you take it yourself while the bird was on you?

Thanks jennypenny!

DW took both photos. One is on her hand and the other was on my hand. She took a bunch of photos and video but those two were the best.

[George the original one]

Second major picking of blueberries yielded another 2 gallons (16 pints) for the freezer, so we've now frozen the same amount as last year and we're not yet done with the season.

Pepper plants in the greenhouse have had a growth spurt and doubled in height during the past two weeks. Still aren't producing much.

Peas are producing more than ever. They really like our climate.

Squash have set fruit. Whew, didn't think they'd do so before fall reaches us.

[George the original one]

The tomato avalanche has begun... now picking 4+ tomatoes every day, so we're slightly behind in our eating. There was a mild disaster when the tallest tomato plant folded over after the support failed, but only recent green fruit were affected. Cucumbers had a pause, but are back in production. Peppers continue, slowly, but I still doubt I'll reach break-even with those plants. I spied one watermelon that's tennis ball size, so good odds of having at least one to eat before the season is over.

Outside the greenhouse: peas & broccoli still going strong, the few stalks of corn are growing taller, and there's plenty of potatoes & onions. 3 quarts of blueberries picked yesterday and we'll probably have 2-3 more pickings of ever-diminishing numbers.

[cmonkey]

DW picked and processed 30 LBS of tomatoes today. Ketchup tomorrow.

We also picked two 9 LB melons from our melon patch. Chicken poo works harder than I ever could!

Our Reliant Grape that we planted two years ago also has about 2 gallons of grapes on it. Both the melon and grapes are exceptionally delicious. I can't wait until I can actually spend some time out there again. I think I've spent a total of less than 5 hours working out there all season.

[George the original one]

DW picked and processed 30 LBS of tomatoes today.

Slightly envious. My wife won't can, doesn't like cooked tomatoes, and I'm not willing to do that hot work alone, so we only plant enough tomatoes to eat fresh (with potential for small surplus). The surplus, what I don't give away, will likely be frozen or dehydrated.

What else goes into the ketchup recipe you use? Hmm, 30 lbs isn't 1 lb per week for the year, so I suspect another processing day for y'all?