It's just after 6 o'clock in the morning and a cool 9 degrees C as I sit down to tackle an overdue garden update. It rained steadily overnight and the rain is still coming down. A welcome relief, not the least because it will save us from having to water the garden for a few days.
The weather this summer has been closer to what was typical for the area when I started gardening in the mid-2000s. Most days in the 20s, a few scorchers here and there, and at least a bit of rain - even if just a sprinkle - every week or two. Thankfully, our region has experienced less in the way of wildfire smoke this June and July than in recent years. The garden has loved the more moderate temperatures and the rain. The tomato plants look robust and most are loaded with yellow flowers right now. The bean and pea plants are going strong and the cabbage looks large and healthy.
I am behind on maintenance tasks like weeding, pruning the tomato plants and tying up sprawling branches, but started to work on those this past weekend. Slowly but surely wins the race (or so I tell myself).
Deer have been a problem in the garden this summer. Little did we realize how fortunate we were not to have had problems with sparrows or deer for the first 15 years we gardened! Cabbage moths, root maggots, and slugs were about as bad as it got. Despite a mesh barrier being erected around the strawberry bed, it did not deter the deer. They pushed through the mesh and chewed down almost every strawberry plant we had. It felt all the more frustrating because the plants were about 8 inches tall, lush, and full of flowers when they were eaten. The deer sampled the pansies, lettuce, kale, chard, calendula, the tips of some bean plants, and a few snow pea plants. One deer even bit a cabbage head THROUGH the floating row cover. Upon realizing it couldn't actually eat the cabbage through fabric, it spit it out!
R. tried several methods he had read about to deter them (everything from little cloth pouches of strongly scented soap hung around the garden to cayenne pepper sprinkled on the greens to peppermint and other essential oils on fabric swatches in key locations). The best option would be to build a solid 8-foot fence and gate across the front of the property, but short of a lotto win, that is not going to happen (it wouldn't prevent them from jumping over the fence at the back of the property, anyway). R. finally bought a pricey deterrent that is sprayed on decorative plants and trees. He sprayed it on the flowers throughout the garden and on a few of the "sacrificial" greens - kale and chard - so the deer would come to associate the terribly bitter taste with the vegetables. They haven't been back in several days. Here's hoping they have moved on to greener pastures (or better yet, back to the woods, where they are safer and where there should be an abundance of food for them at this time of year).
They do love a bit of cabbage...
One of the hungry visitors... Earlier this month, when R. returned home from running errands, he was greeted by this doe. Contentedly curled up beneath the overhanging lilac bushes at the front of the property. Perhaps resting after a leisurely brunch!
Some pictures taken in the last week of June (in my effort to play catch-up). Here is what the strawberry bed looked like a week or so before the Great Chewing:
The garlic scapes were curling and getting close to harvest-time (early, this year)
Pole beans (Flagg - a dry variety)
Poppies
Last year's sage made it through the winter and by the end of June was blooming.
We have incorporated a lot of dry manure from R's family's farm into the garden. This year, R. has kept on top of the button mushrooms as they emerge, getting to them before the bugs do.
Gold Harvest cooking beans flowering. Such a productive variety!
The lettuce in this container was so lush and healthy, and the deer couldn't resist. Sigh. Needless to say, the mesh was placed over it after the deer visited. We had convinced ourselves they wouldn't be such a problem this year and neglected to go all-out with fabric and mesh row covers from the start. Whoops.
Our kitty supervisors, in the shade near the garlic patch.
On to more recent pictures. These were taken July 19th. Things in the garden, particularly the tomatoes and beans, really shot up in the last two weeks!
The north garden
Along the fence...
Pathway of plants (mostly tomatoes - along the north fence)
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The garlic patch. Looking a little dry, unfortunately. I gave it a good watering a few days ago (and then, of course, it started to rain!) With the garlic being several weeks ahead of schedule this year, I might be able to start harvesting in early August.
Swedish Red cooking peas
Gold Harvest cooking peas
Black Coco beans (dry/bush) - starting to flower. :)
Sage
Summer Savoury
Dill
Galeux D'Eysines winter squash (C. maxima)
The first Galeux D'Eysines to be pollinated...
Fordhook zucchini - these are having a great year! Lots of flowers. Relish can't be far behind...
Tiger Eye bush beans (dry w/runners)
Dry bush beans (Beka Brown and Tene's Beans) and Dwarf Purple Heart tomatoes.
Peekaboo! A little sunflower behind the squash plants, and some volunteer bachelor buttons.
The first cosmos have started to bloom. These ones had a fuzzy little visitor that day.
R. made small greenhouses for the Ajvarski peppers.
Asparagus seed pods
Calendula (Pacific Beauty Mix)
Marigolds - Queen Sophia
French Marigolds with a volunteer aster (Early Charm) growing out the bottom of the pot!
Tomatoes along the driveway
South side tomatoes (along with Fiesta dry bush beans and chives).
Cabbage (mostly Copenhagen, with a few Early Jersey Wakefield). Three of the cabbage were lost to root maggots, and two had a bite taken from them by deer. What remains is doing well.
Dahlias
Dahliettas ("Unwin's Mix" dahlias)
Last, but certainly not least, Little Lou joining me on my garden rounds.
