Little Squash and A Midday Visit

   Yesterday, I made a small batch of raspberry jelly.  Thank goodness we had some raspberry juice frozen from our last good crop, as we got nothing from the patch this year.  Around noon, as I was rinsing out pots and measuring cups at the kitchen sink, I glanced up to find myself eyeball to eyeball with a doe  (the "Midnight Snacker"?).  I was so shocked, I turned my head toward the living room and called R's name.  When I turned back at the window, she was gone.  We went outside and spotted her in the alley, several properties down, tail flicking and munching on the leaves of a tree.  It has always been a little unusual for deer to be in town in the summer, especially in the middle of the day.

   The Burpee's Butterbush plants have been setting lots of squash and have remained quite compact.  This variety is supposed to be early (75-80 DTM).  If it is, and the squash matures well, then this will be added to my list of favourites.

 

 

White scallop squash ("UFO squash")

 

 

   The cucumber bed is flourishing.  All the seeds I planted germinated and there are loads of yellow flowers.  Dragon's Egg has been the earliest, but the others (Earliest Mincu and Muncher) are coming along as well.  On the left-hand side of the bed are Alaska Red Shades nasturtiums, and at the back, Black Sea Man tomatoes.

 

   

Dragon's Egg cucumbers

 

 

 

 Garlic hanging to cure in the laundry room.  Rustic.  Ahem.

 

   An interesting cloud formation a half hour or so before a minor thunderstorm passed through on the 13th.

 

 

Mint Jelly and Early Tomatoes

   I have batches of zucchini relish, blueberry jam, and pickled garlic scapes under my belt this summer.  I thought it would be fun to try something new, and decided on mint jelly.  The recipe looked straightforward, though it called for a lot more mint than expected and it called for liquid pectin, which I hadn't used before.

   The good news is that it looks pretty and smells wonderful.  The bad new is, it didn't set!  Arhg!  (Mint syrup, anyone?)  It can still be used as a cooking glaze, in tea, or on desserts, but I was hoping for the same kind of set I'd achieved with crabapple and raspberry jellies.

 

A few tomatoes that are ahead of the pack in ripening:

Dina (the colour of a creamsicle)

 

 

Early Annie

 

Monomakh's Hat (these are large, solid, and heavy)

 

 

Japanese Black Trifele

Indigo Pear Drops
 

 

 

The Midnight Snacker Strikes Again

 I won't even lead up to it.  Here are the pictures:

   The Midnight Snacker struck again.  There's no shortage of food for deer in the summer, but it would seem that our garden has become a Ponderosa salad bar for someone.  As soon as I saw the sunflower, I headed straight to the cabbage bed.  Last time, it munched on a red cabbage.  This time, it was the one savoy cabbage in the bed.  I decided to harvest the two other green cabbage that have heads.  They're small, but I don't want them damaged before I can use them.  One of them will go into a cabbage roll casserole, and the other will make a small batch of sauerkraut.  The Snacker nibbled on several kale plants again, but that's not really a problem.  There's plenty of kale.

   At least he or she isn't going after the tomatoes (the blossom end rot is taking care of the tomatoes.  *sigh*)

   On a happier note, the cucumber plants are growing like mad, a few Burpee's Butterbush squash have set, and most of the zinnias I planted have finally bloomed.  I made two batches of zucchini relish last week, and if the plants keep producing, there will be more batches made soon.

Update - August 17th - 7:00 a.m.

   Oh, my goodness.  He was back last night.  He ate some more of the sunflower pictured above...

 

 ...and chewed on two new sunflowers.

 

He sampled some kale...

...and bit the top off yet another cabbage (this is the third one).

 

   I'm going to have to dig out some old pillowcases to cover up the remaining cabbage at night.  I might cover the pumpkins, too.  R. said he read that some gardeners report that deer have eaten their squash and pumpkins with gusto.

  

 

Garlic Harvest

   There is a chance of thundershowers tomorrow, so I decided to harvest the garlic today. 

   Overall, the garlic was a decent batch this year.  I should have put much more mulch on the garlic patch throughout the summer, especially considering how clay-heavy it is and how quickly it dries out.  Some sections were like cement to dig up.  Yikes.  The wrappers were already very dry and pulling the bulbs out of this clay made some of the outer layers tear.  Hopefully, they will cure and store well despite that.  I bundled the garlic in twine and will leave it outside in a shady spot this weekend to let the mud caked on the bottoms crumble off.  I'll hang it indoors to cure next week.

Red Russian – I plant more of this variety than any other.  It is reliable in our climate and in a good year, the bulbs can get huge. 

 

Northern Quebec – This is another reliable variety for our region.  At first glance, I think these were this year’s winners in terms of size and condition when harvested.

Central Siberian – You'd think this variety would be perfect for our region, but for whatever reason, I have found it hit-or-miss.  It did fairly well this year.

 

Baba Franchuk’s – A cool, wet summer followed by a summer of heat waves, and I almost lost this variety after starting it from bulbils in 2016.  Last Fall, I planted the few small cloves I had left, and was happy to harvest 13 medium-sized bulbs this year.

 

Kiev –  Another variety I thought I'd lost after starting it from bulbils in 2016.  Happily harvested 11 medium-sized bulbs this year.

 

 

Brown Tempest –  I started this variety from bulbils in 2016.  The bulbs are still so small!  They have lovely light-brown outer wrappings.  13 bulbs and 4 rounds.

   The kitties enjoy snoozing in between the rows of garlic and often supervise us from their spots in the garlic patch while we work in the garden.  They always seem a little lost and disappointed when the garlic patch disappears in mid-August.  I think they'll like next year's patch.  It will be right in front of the house, and the soil will be much softer!

Eve of the Sturgeon Supermoon

   It's a warm one today, 31 degrees Celsius as I type (4:40 p.m.).

   I picked the first little harvest of string beans on August 5th (Calima at the bottom, Red Swan in the middle, Provider at the top) and enjoyed them steamed for supper.  So tasty!  The next picking was a bit larger;  some were steamed to enjoy with a meal and the rest blanched to freeze.  I am exercising as much restraint as possible and leaving them alone to grow so a large batch can be picked at the end of the week.  I'll either pickle or (more likely) freeze them.

 

 

   While walking around the garden on August 7th, R. discovered that one of the three red cabbages had been chewed on during the night.  It looks like The Midnight Snacker (who also sampled the kale again) returned!  Cabbage usually does well for me, but this has not been a great year for it.  In addition to having deer snack on it at least twice, I had a lapse of good judgement (or unrealistic plans) this Spring and started mostly Late Flat Dutch cabbage.  As the name implies, this is a variety that's late to mature, and it is the variety that was chewed by the first deer that came through the garden in June.  Note to self: stick with short season cabbages from now on.

 

The garlic bulbils (listed below) have been pulled up. The bulbs will be harvest later this month.

   Red Russian, Northern Quebec, and Red Rezen (new) – July 31 

   Russian Giant (new), Persian Star (new), Pyong Vang Korean (new), and Mother of Pearl (new and softneck)  – Aug. 10 

   Only four of the Pyong Vang Korean bulbils grew, though the resulting rounds are a decent size.

   The Mother of Pearl bulbils (the only softneck variety I have grown) fared better than I expected.  Some of the rounds are quite large!

   The “volunteer” bulbils that R. discovered tilling the north garden this Spring were pulled July 31.  I had planted them in several plastic pots and put them at the side of the house for the summer.  Most appear to be Red Russian, though it's possible some might be Baba Franchuk's or Kiev. 

   The garlic bulbils were bundled into coffee filters by variety and hung to dry down/cure.  There is a heavy wire stretched across our rather ratty-looking (especially during harvest season) laundry room that is there specifically for the purpose of curing the garlic.  Things here are not what one would call aesthetically pleasing, but they're functional.

 

 

   The peas (Green Arrow) have produced about as much as they're going to this summer.  It wasn't an overly impressive harvest compared to some past years, but we managed to freeze enough to enjoy with a few meals through the winter.  The snow peas (Green Beauty) have reached the end of their production, too.  They were delicious and tender!  The few left on the plants now are tough and oddly shaped, so they'll be left alone to dry for seed-saving at the end of the month.

   Zucchini has started to grow (woo-hoo!) and a few sunflowers have opened.  The bees are content.

 

 

 

White pattypan squash flowers are starting to appear.

 

 

 

The cucumber plants are taking off.  These are Dragon's Egg cucumbers.

 

Clear Pink Early tomatoes, starting to ripen.

 

Swiss Giant pansies, Johnny-Jump-Ups (small pansies), and Candytuft.

 

Gazania

Start of August

 July ended and August began with a short-lived (4 day) heat wave - sunny, clear, hot days in the low 30s.  The cucumbers and squash loved it.  The tomatoes and beans, not so much.  This morning was the opposite extreme: cool, grey, and drizzly, 14 degrees C at 11:30AM.

Here is where things stand in the garden at the start of August:

   The north garden - tomatoes (Clear Pink Early and Early Annie) and dry peas (Gold Harvest) along the back, dry and snap beans in the middle, and white scallop squash plants on the right side of this picture (no squash on them yet).

 

 

 

   

   The north garden from another angle.  Visible from this side: dry peas (Gold Harvest) at the back and a mish-mash of carrots, onions, volunteer pansies, Bonbon caledula, marigolds, Calima beans (bush/snap), Fordhook zucchini, and dry bush beans in the main section.

 

    The south garden is basically a big pea patch this year, with a bit of kale growing on the shady side.  On the left side of the picture is a row of Green Beauty snow peas and the rest are Green Arrow shelling peas.

 

 

   Green Beauty snow peas.  I am so glad I tried these this summer.  They produce abundantly and even though the pods get large for snow peas, they remain tender.  Excellent to snack on raw, and delicious steamed.  I've already had a few batches steamed with supper, and R. sometimes takes a bag with him for the guys to snack on during their RPG nights at the club.  

 

 R. spotted some volunteer shelling peas growing in the compost bin!

 Gold Harvest dry peas.  The plants are short (~ 2.5 feet tall) and the pods are small, but there are loads of them.

 

   The garlic and potato patch.  The garlic is typically harvested and hung in mid-August, if the weather cooperates.  I stop watering it 2-3 weeks before it's to be dug up so the skins on the bulbs have a chance to dry a bit before the garlic's pulled.

 

 

   Table King acorn squash in the two large containers, and lovage in the purple pot.  It's a long shot that we'll get acorn squash before the frost hits.  It's "DTM" (days-to-maturity) is long (90+ DTM) and I didn't get them started until early-to-mid June.  I should have started them indoors in late May on heat mats, though June was chilly so it might not have worked as a head-start even if I had.  Maybe we'll have a nice, warm September with no killing frosts until October and manage to get some acorn squash.  A girl can hope!

 

   Lacinato kale on the left, a sunflower on the right, and a Table King acorn squash plant in the middle.  I over-planted this container...  Might have to pull the kale out to give the squash space to continue growing.

 

    Flower bed on the left, tomatoes along the back, and dry bush beans in window-box planters along the front.

   Petitbec (or, "Doucet's Petit Bec") produced the first ripe tomatoes on August 1.  One of the earliest varieties I have grown.

 

   Indigo Pear Drops tomatoes.  When ripe, the bottoms will be yellow and the shoulders will remain purple.  Purple tomatoes are grabbing a lot of attention in the garden!

 

 

 

   Little Lou, eager to join me on an early morning tour of the garden.  The petunias were given to me by the daughters of a gardening friend.  It was a wonderful surprise, and they are such a soft, pretty pink.

 

Johnny Jump-Ups (pansies), Swiss Giant Pansies, and Little Firebirds nasturtiums.

Things are coming along nicely on the south side of the house.

Andean tomatoes

Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes

Reinhard's Chocolate Hearts tomatoes

   The weather was so hot early this week that many of the clusters of tomato flowers near the tops of the plants burned to a crisp and fell off.  Arhg!  This happened mainly on the EM-Champion plants, but also on Monomakh's Hat and a few Petitbec.

Dwarf Siberian kale

Orangelo Thyme

 

Queen Sophia marigolds on the left and Berna Velvet Blue pansies on the right.

Orangelo thyme on the left (little black pot) and lime basil on the right.

Dazzling Blue kale and a Swiss Giant pansy.

   Dazzling blue kale, Swiss Giant pansies, and Italian Flat-Leaf parsley along the front.

Little Lou watching me water the plants.

 

   I think these are French marigolds - Janie Bright, perhaps?  Love the little pompoms in the middle.

 

   Queen Sophia marigolds. These have done really well.  I have only had to dead-head 3 flowers from the plants all season.

Bonbon calendula

   Towards the end of July, the Frosted Salmon poppies began to drop their petals.  Each one seemed to last about 3 days after blooming before their petals fell.  The inside of the petals (near the pod) are white, while the outside is pink.  The colours remind me of peppermint candies.  So pretty.  I am eager to collect seeds at the end of the season to share with friends and replant next Spring. 

 

Little Lou enjoying some rain water.

 

   The white scallop squash is just starting to put out flowers (no female flowers yet).

We finally have some zucchini growing.  Relish, here I come!

   A few Bonbon calendula in the left-hand corner of the planter and a small sunflower and volunteer asparagus at the back.  In the center, two Burpee's Butterbush squash plants.  They're just starting to produce flowers - only male flowers thus far, so no squash has set.

 

Pineapple sage

 

 

Dark orange nasturtiums

   I found an old packet of cinnamon basil seeds I received in a trade years ago.  Those seeds were planted and a single little plant grew.  Enough to enjoy.  :)  

Sage in the background and a few undersized onions to the left.

 

So many plants to sniff and bugs to chase!  

   The garbage cans serve as water barrels.  Cucumbers and a bit of Summer Savoury at the bottom of the picture.

 

Alaska Red Shades nasturtiums

   Galeux D'Eysines (a French heirloom pumpkin).  This is my third time growing them.  Usually, we get 6-8 pumpkins by the end of the season, about 2 per plant.  This year, there have been loads of male flowers but few female flowers.  Only 4 or 5 have set, and of those, only 2 look like they're on track re: growth.  Maybe they need warmer weather?  Or some fertilizer?  In any case, I hope things pick up this month and we receive a typical harvest.  Even one good-sized, mature pumpkin per plant would be wonderful.

 These two are on-track...

...while the rest are about this size.  Tiny!