Back to the Garden

    I arrived back in BC on the 5th and did a quick walk around the garden before unpacking a bit and heading to bed early (it was a long day!).  

    Yesterday, I got a closer look at how the garden fared.  It's obvious it was a rough season, weather-wise.  Many of the tomatoes are underdeveloped, marked from hail, or so cat-faced they won't be worth the effort to process.  It looks like Neves Azorean Red and Gary O'Sena will be write-offs and Mrs. Schlaubaugh's Famous Strawberry is very, very small and is not true to form.  Some of the tomato plants had reasonable fruit on them, but only 2 or three on the whole plant.  I began pulling tomato plants that were not going to produce anything useable, as well as those that had only a few fruit on them.  

 

Neves Azorean Red

 

Bellestar - productive, though a number were damaged by hail.

   The radishes had gone to seed, so I pulled those, too.  The green shelling peas, which produced almost nothing this summer, started sending up new shoots a few weeks ago.  I doubt they'll produce anything and would prefer to just pull the plants, but R. figures we should leave them a while longer just in case.

   The beans (Tiger Eye, Beka Brown) had very stunted growth and any bean pods that have developed thus far are small, thin, and green.  Again, I think these will be a write-off and would just as soon pull them and clean the beds, but will hold off for a while longer.

 

Tiger Eye beans - usually 3 feet tall, by this point!

   The yellow dry peas (Gold Harvest) did very poorly.  Still, R. managed to save enough to replace the number in the original packet.  We'll try them again next summer.

 

Gold Harvest dry peas

   The majority of strawberry plants in the strawberry bed roasted in the heat and died. I think we only have 8 left.  

   A small plot of carrots were planted, but they didn't get thinned.  The largest I've pulled has been the size of my pinky finger, with the majority being very small/thin.  I will pull the whole kit-and-kaboodle in the next week or two.

 

Carrots

  

   Raspberries were a complete write-off this year.  The patch is grown up like a jungle with grass and weeds.  Due to the extreme heat and lack of rain, so raspberries developped (the few that did roasted on the plants).

   The crabapple tree produced about 1/3 of the amount of apples it usually does. They were smaller than usual, and started dropping off the tree before they were even ripe. Weird.

The apple tree has produced some apples - far fewer than usual, and the apples are smaller than usual, but there are enough for a small harvest.  They started to drop off the tree this week.

   On the positive side, the Swedish Red dry peas produced 2-3 times the amount that was in the packet R. planted this Spring. No doubt they produce much more in a good growing season, but this year, I'm happy if anything produced the amount of seed equivalent to (or exceeding) the amount planted.

 

Swedish Red dry peas

A few new Swedish Red dry pea shoots have come up in the last few weeks.  The flowers are so pretty!

  There were two green and three yellow zucchini on the plants. They were quite large, so picked them and then pulled the plants.

   The onions were pulled before I got home and are in the laundry room waiting to be processed.  They are all smaller than usual this year.

 

My assistant this afternoon, Loulou.

 

   The garlic bulbs and rounds were pulled last month by R., and were cured and sorted by type.  The bulbs are MUCH smaller than usual.  It was shocking to see Red Russian, typically a large, solid, dependable variety, a third of it's usual size.

   The peppers did better this year than any other year we've grown them. The ones planted in pots and placed on the black weed cover on the East garden did the best.  I don't think they'll ripen on the plants - our season is too short - but they'll be a good size when picked this month and they can ripen in brown paper bags.

 

Shepherd peppers

 

Shepherd pepper

   The potato plants look fantastic.  Hoping the harvest of potatoes is just as good.

   Update:  R. dug up some potatoes today (September 8th) for supper.  Looks like they did well!  This is a portion of what was growing in one mound. 

   Volunteer pansies are everywhere!

 

   The herbs - mint (several kinds), pineapple sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley and marjoram - all did very well.  Some came from overwintered clippings, some was grown from seed, and some (the oregano and 2 mints) were bought as transplants.  There will be plenty to use fresh and in teas, and plenty to share with friends.

   There is one small pumpkin going strong from a transplant in a raised bed near the East garden.

   Of the tomato varieties grown this summer, the ones that have done the best (relatively speaking) are Black Sea Man, Ropreco, EM-Champion, and Valencia.  

Ropreco

 

EM-Champion - of all varieties, these fared the best.

Valencia

A sunflower on the South side of the house.

 

   Today, I took a bunch of clippings from the herbs and planted them so we can overwinter them indoors.  I also planted clippings from the French lavender and the variegated ivy houseplants - they were on their last legs and new plants need to be started.  For now, they are sitting in the shade, very wilted.  Hopefully, they will bounce back, getting their roots in this month sitting out in the sunshine, and then we'll bring them in. 

 

 

 

   I also deaded-headed the dahlias and irises, and started organizing/putting away the pots, transplant trays, heat mats, and assorted seed-started paraphernalia in the storage trunks outside. It's nice to have that task mostly finished by the time hard frosts begin to hit.

   Overnight temperatures for the next week are forecast to be well above zero.  It's so unusual to reach mid-September without having had a hard frost or two.  It's nice to have the "extra" time to let things mature and not to have to run around in the evenings covering the garden with blankets.

   On tomorrow's agenda: onion and zucchini processing.  

Bea, Smokey, Smores, and The Garden

    An end-of-August garden update from BC.  Thanks to R. for pictures and notes.  (And behold, his loving assistant below, Bea.) 

 

 

   One big zucchini is left on the plant.  I gather it wasn't a stellar year for zucchini, but R. harvested enough to put some aside (dehydrated slices) for winter soups.

 

    Whoa!  Those are some ginormous zucchini!  What a beautiful colour.  I don't know if these will still be good for eating, but if not, then R. should be able to save seeds from them.

 

   The onions (yellow, white, and red) had a hard time this year and were still quite small when harvested this week.  They're large enough to process, though, so they'll either be sliced and deyhdrated or chopped and frozen.  I bet that will be an eye-watering task, as it sometimes seems the smaller the onion, the stronger it is.  My eyes are stinging from here.
 

   While most crops struggled with the heat and drought this summer, the Chocolate peppers loved it!  I don't think we've ever had sweet peppers do this well.

Pineapple sage, going strong.

 

Sage, rosemary, peppermint, and pansies.

 

 

   I was surprised with the news that we have two new furry friends in the family!  Meet Smores (brown and white, in the foreground) and Smokey (black with a white-tipped tail) .  These little doelings are staying at my in-law's place and have a fanastic little house all of their own.

 

Deluxe goat house

   The poor shelling peas had a rough summer and the yield was very low.  Hard to expect good yields from plants that were roasted by the heat.  Where there's life, there's hope, though - check out the new shoots that came up in the last little while.

 

    A good number of the tomatoes are ripening and doing okay despite the summer's extreme heat and the hail storm earlier this month.  It looks like more are ripening on the vine this year than typically do.  

Maglia Rosa

 

 

You can see the hail damage on these tomatoes (EM-Champion - click to enlarge).

 

Bellestar

 

Bellestar

 

Assessing The Damage

  R. sent some pictures of the damage to the garden that resulted from the storm on August 5th.  Between this summer's heat, drought, high winds, and then this storm, things are looking rough.  

   Starting with the tomatoes on the south side of the house...

  

   The Bellestar tomatoes planted by the North garden along the rock wall sustained the worst damage from the hail.  Many of the tomatoes are pitted and scarred as a result.  The ones that rotted have been removed.  Hopefully, the remaining ones can be processed for sauce, if nothing else, and some seeds can be saved from them. 

  

Blossom End Rot has been an issue with some of the tomatoes this summer as well, especially Bellestar.

Ripening Maglia Rosa tomatoes

Swedish Red dry peas.  R. told me that he discovered that one of the pods had been shot through by a pellet of hail, cutting it clean in half.

 

 

Mint gone wild.  I'm praying that none of it suckered or seeded into the ground...!

 

One last zucchini

The potatoes have held up well.  I'm eager to see if the harvest is as abundant as the above-ground foliage.

Balcony "Garden"

My balcony gardening experiment in Halifax has gone as follows...

May 14

   I potted up the seedlings on the 12th and put them on our neighbour's balcony yesterday.  The seedlings started in water-jugs looked great, but had almost no roots.  The seedlings started in the Lee Valley kit had much more developed roots.

   Once the weather has warmed up, I'll start some nasturtiums and transplant the pansy seedlings as well.

 

 

Update (June 24th)

 

July 15 - the 'garden' is coming along, though in some respects, not as I expected.  The pansies are doing poorly on both our balcony and the neighbour's (even though she gets more sun). The Chinese cabbage started off beautifully, but some now looks like it might bolt (I have already pulled out one).  The red cabbage is doing well and looks hardy.  The nasturtiums have come up.  They're a bit leggy, but look healthy.  Some of the parsley looks excellent, some looks like it's barely hanging on.  The kale and chard look pretty good.  I hope they experience a growth spurt in early August so we can start enjoying in salads and stir-fries.

 

August 2 - Well, at least my intentions were good!  

   The Chinese cabbage has either been stunted in growth or has bolted, so I pulled all but one.  None of the pansies (which usually grow without effort, like weeds) were doing well, so I pulled them all and used the dirt when we divided and repotted Mom's big fern.  The large container of parsley I will bring down from the neighbour's balcony to ours, as it doesn't seem to be doing any better there than the small pot of parsley I have growing on our balcony.  The kale, chard, and nasturtiums are coming along so I haven't given up on them, yet.  The only thing that looks hardy and healthy is the red cabbage.  I wish I'd planted more than three, now!

August 16 -  After pulling and composting some more things that either weren't growing well (pansies) or got eaten (kale) by bugs (possibly earwigs), I'm down to a few small kale plants, 3 red cabbage, a few very small Swiss Chard, spindly nasturtiums, and parsley.  Note to self: unless you're in a south-facing, preferably corner apartment unit, vegetables might not be the best things to attempt to grow.

It was worth a try.  Live and learn!

 

 

And Then It Poured

    After weeks and weeks of high temperatures (including two heat waves) and almost no rain, a thunderstorm passed through the Peace Region last night.  It brought with it a heavy, sustained downpour and hail.  The potato plants ended up surrounded by little mounds of hail, and the alley behind the house turned into a small river.  Fortunately, the ground was so dry that most of the rain was absorbed, and there was no pooling in the garden plots.  I'll know later today whether the hail caused the plants any damage.

Early August Update

   An update from R. on our garden in BC!  While temperatures have returned to "summer normal", it is still very dry there.  The air has been hazy for weeks from the wildfires in the province.  Several of the crops R. planted were negatively impacted by the intense heat in July. Despite regular watering, some of them have just not bounced back or performed the way they would in a typical year.  (We haven't had a "typical" growing year in the past three.  This year, intense heat and lack of rain...2020 and 2019 were cool, overcast, and very wet.)

   The shelling peas (Green Arrow and Alaska) were stunted in their growth and put out far fewer pods than usual.  The Green Arrow pods were also smaller than usual.  I think the goal, at this point, is to snack on the precious few that are till tender and well-formed.  The rest will be allowed to dry out and will be saved as "back-up" seed for next summer.

   This was a day's harvest picked this past weekend.  Normally, a day's harvest of peas would be two or three full buckets. 

Alaska peas

 

 

Green Arrow  (shorter than usual)

 

Green Arrow (peas smaller than usual).

 

 

   The dry bush beans haven't been doing that well in the heat, either.  That's unfortunate - I always look at dry beans as one of the foolproof crops!  We'll see in the coming weeks what the harvest looks like.  In poor growing years, I'm happy if we're at least able to harvest the same amount of seed that was planted so we'll have it to plant again the following year.

   Bea, lounging on a warm water barrel while supervising R's effort.  Tomatoes and lettuce in the background, south side of the house.

 

 Tomatoes in the back, ground cherries in the front.

 

Ground cherries

 

 

   The Swedish Red dry peas seem to be doing well.  At the very least, we should have enough to grow out next summer.

 

 

   The potatoes are thriving.   Fingers crossed that the crop below the surface is as abundant as the leaves above ground!

 

Little Lou snoozing in the tall grass. 

 

 

   The peppers have loved this summer's extreme heat and are doing well.  I started Sweet Chocolate, Shepherd (a sweet, pointy red pepper), and Tam (mild jalapeno) seeds before leaving in late March.  

Not sure which pepper variety this is below...

 I think this is a Shepherd pepper plant.

 

 

And maybe this is one of the Chocolate pepper plants?

 

 

   The Pineapple sage flourishing!  We must pot some of this to overwinter inside again this Fall.  :)