Early July Update

It is remarkable how differently things in the garden do from year to year.  This time last year, I had a beautiful dahlia on one of the plants and a large tomato growing.  This year, there are no signs of buds on the dahlia plants yet and the tomato I spotted is small.  The carrots, however, are doing better than in all the years I have grown them. *Touch wood*

I laughed out loud, looking back at a June 2013 post and seeing how small the currant bush was!  It is now a sprawling monster.  Strangely, it has never given us currants.  It was loaded with the beginnings of them this Spring but for some reason, they all dropped off.  Maybe the soil is lacking something they need? 

North garden

Along the fence - Early Annie tomatoes, sunflower, eggplant, zinnias

Tiger Eye beans, garlic (bulbils) in foreground, garlic (cloves) to the right.

Lettuce and 3 Burpless Muncher cucumbers. Cattle beans to the right.

Detroit Red beets, onions, and carrots

Onions and carrots

Leeks.  They still look so small!

Galeux D'Eysines squash

Galeux D'Eysines squash

Potatoes (R), Green Macerata cauliflower, zinnias, & Speckled Algonquin beans (L)

Green Macerata cauliflower

Cabbage bed - mostly Red Express cabbage

Pea patch - zinnias, peppers, and string beans (sprouting!) along the front.

Painted Pony dry beans & Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes. Water barrels along side.

Bush cucumber

Basket of petunias Floofy's owner gave us.  Lettuce in the green container.

South side of the house; tomatoes, peppers, parsley, eggplant, cabbage

Assorted Mint, kale, parsley

Pepper plant (they are all still small and feeble looking) and lettuce.

South side of house; Russian Rose tomatoes, sunflower, Tene's beans (dry)

Zucchini

Behind the house; assorted lettuce, beets, and Swiss chard

Dapple Grey dry bush beans

Flashy Butter Oak lettuce

Cherokee Purple and The Thunder Rolls

We continue to have cool, damp weather.  This morning brought some welcome sunshine and mild temps, though the sky is quickly darkening as I type (3:00pm) and I hear thunder rumbling, heading this way.  Will we have sunny days next week?

About two weeks ago, my daikon radish, which was doing so well, suddenly started to bolt.  I'm not sure why, especially considering how cool this spring/early summer has been.  I reluctantly pulled it up (it smelled so fresh and good), composted it, and planted Yellow Crookneck Squash seeds in it's place.  I wasn't sure if these would germinate, as the seeds were 5+ years old.  I planted 12 to cover my bases.  They began to come up the day before yesterday - more than I expected, so I will have to thin them out!  This is my first time growing this variety, and I look forward to seeing what these squash are like. 

One of the radish starting to bolt.

Yellow Crookneck Squash starting to come up. Thinned out a few already!

Tiger Eye beans with bamboo stakes in the north garden.

The first tomato!  A Cherokee Purple.

Italian Giant Leaf parsley

Purple kohlrabi

The apples are starting to form.

The carrot and onion bed is doing well!  I'm so glad I learned about planting carrot seeds while the weather is still cool (as with beets, peas, and leeks).  What a difference it makes.

Crab apples

Pansies (and Bachelor Buttons that have not yet bloomed).

The raspberry bushes are LOADED with developing fruit.  For the last few weeks, the patch has hummed with bees of all sizes.  A sight for sore eyes, as it seems there are fewer and fewer bees in the garden each year.  I hoped to get a picture of one of the large, fuzzy ones, but this fellow was most accommodating.

It is now 3:30pm and the sky just opened up. The thunder rolls and the rain pours.  It is dark enough that we have had to turn on the lights mid-afternoon.  Time to finish up this entry and log off!


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Lost A Little Friend

I lost a little friend yesterday.  A cat we'd come to call, "Floofy" started visiting last year. In the last few months, he had become an almost constant presence, sleeping on the doorstep or around the property, sometimes all night.  He wasn't ours, but seemed to want to be.  

On the frosty step ~6am.  Settled in to sleep the night despite -8 temps.

Early one May morning, incubating a dahlia tuber.

Early yesterday morning, I discovered him at the back the house, meowing plaintively and unable to use his back legs or get up. R. alerted Floofy's owner, who took him to the vet.  His owner came by later that day to let us know that Floofy did not make it.

I am missing him terribly today.  He was a big, affectionate, gentle lovebug who followed me all around the garden, nuzzling my hands as I pulled weeds and flopping on the ground to watch me plant seeds.  He would give me slow, loving blinks as I talked to him. If we had allowed him to come into our house, I don't think he would have left.

July 2016, in the shade by the strawberries.

Just last week - wanting to come inside, but content to be near.

We found out Floofy's name was Vixen.  I found out last year while trying to track down his owner that his SPCA name had been, "Love".  He certainly was the embodiment of that.

A Place For Everything, Everything In Its Place

     It has been a busy week or two, and I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We planted the peas and potatoes May 23rd, and I started planting the other transplants (tomatoes, peppers, kale, cabbage, and cauliflower) on the 28th.  I planted most of the dry beans May 29th and then the string beans on May 30th.  

     We have cut corners this year in order to get the basics done.  R. is limited as to what he can do outside, still recovering from breaking his leg last October.  I simply do not have the stamina I used to, and this is the first year I have felt genuinely overwhelmed by prepping, planting, and maintaining the garden (let alone dealing with the house and yard).  Things are not exactly the way I would like them to be, but the seeds and transplants are finally in the ground.  All that remains to be done is pounding in wood stakes around the tomatoes, bamboo poles around the Tiger Eye beans, putting small trellises near the cucumbers, and mulching things as we can (i.e., every time the lawn in mowed).  Our nephew has been coming once a week to put a dent in the mowing and whippersnipping.  It has been a learning curve for him, but we are grateful to have the yard work at least minimally under control.

The hayfield...I mean, the raspberry patch.

Potato Patch

This year, we only planted half the potatoes we usually do.  We do not have a good place to store vegetables through the winter, and always end up composting a large chunk of what we harvest because it is inedible come Spring.   We planted mostly Russets and a few Red Norlands and Blue Russians.  In the rest of the potato patch, I planted zinnias, cherry tomatoes (Chocolate Cherry and Snow White Cherry), Speckled Algonquin dry bush beans, 2 or 3 Cuor di Bue cabbage (from my tiny transplants) and Green Macerata cauliflower (from my transplants).

Small Macerata cauliflower transplants protected by milk jug tops.

Raised Beds Along Driveway

My winter squash this year is Galeux D'Eysines.  All four I started survived being hardened off and transplanted outside this year. In the other beds are carrots (a variety of heirloom types), zinnias, Detroit Red beets, Muncher cucumbers, Heritage Mix dry bush beans, leeks, Cattle bean (d/b), red and white onions, Daikon radish, tomatoes (Berkeley Tie Dye and Emerald Evergreen), Painted Pony dry bush beans, summer squash (the white scallop squash didn't germinate, so I replanted with Gelber Englischer Custard Squash seeds), Sunspot sunflowers, purple kohlrabi (seeds are older, so fingers crossed it comes up) and Tendergreen snap beans.

Galeux D'Eysines squash

Pots filled with stones planted between the squash to facilitate watering.

Carrots and onions. Beets at far end of bed (not visible).

Daikon radish. First planting at the back, 2nd & 3rd row planted 3 weeks later.

Rock bed

Red Express cabbage (from my transplants), nasturtiums, and 1 or 2 Cuor di Bue cabbage.

Red Express cabbage transplants beneath those milk jug tops!

North Garden

Romanesco cauliflower (my transplants), green cabbage and broccoli (bought from the greenhouse), Tiger Eye (dry bush w/runners), Red Swan (pink snap or dry bush), Galopka bean (yellow snap bush), Calima (green filet bush), Red Ruby sunflowers, and garlic (assorted, from cloves and bulbils)

Assorted garlic varieties from bulbils.

South Garden

Green Arrow peas

Beds along South Side of the House

Tomatoes, peppers (sweet yellow banana), and basil seed.

Behind House

Leeks, assorted lettuce, Dapple Grey dry bush beans, Detroit Red beets, Lacinato kale, Swiss chard, green zucchini, jalapeno pepper, and bush cucumber.


Assorted pots and Containers

Mint, Lacinato and Red Russian kale, lettuce, rosemary, Ajvarski peppers, jalapeno peppers, Early Annie (determinate) tomato, bush cucumbers, Romanesco cauliflower, Sunspot sunflowers, Fairyland Candytuft (flowers), Thumbelina zinnias, allyssum, pansies, 1 Ping Tung eggplant, nasturtiums.

The lilacs are at their peak right now - what a beautiful scent!

Neighbour cat (we call her L'Oreal) came over to visit.

Flaked out on the nice, warm gravel.

Woolly Thyme