Stealthy Supervision

 

 

Flowers, Squash, Haze, and Relish

September, already.  Time flies!

   Smoky skies are back.  The last few days of August brought a yellow/orange hue to the air and the sun looked like neon during sunrise and sunset.  There are large wildfires in southern BC (particularly impacting Kelowna), in the Northwest Territories (most of the city of Yellowknife has been evacuated), and northern Alberta.

   We also had another stretch of 30+ degree weather at the end of August.  The overnight temps are forecast to be well above zero - sometimes in the double-digits - for the next two weeks.  The weather is so different from when I started gardening here years ago.  Hard ("killer") frosts were not uncommon at the end of August and were almost guaranteed during the first week of September.  More than once, I found myself in early September running around the yard, shivering in the freezing rain, buckets in hand, harvesting the tomatoes, peppers, and any remaining summer squash that were on the plants because a hard frost was imminent.  It has been a number of years since I've had to do that.  If the forecast is accurate, we might not have frost until mid-to-late September.  It's wonderful for the winter squash - they always thrive in a nice, long season.  Still, the change in the growing season has been so dramatic in recent years that it leaves me feeling a little uneasy.

   The last of the peas and string beans were harvested mid-month and I canned another batch of relish (Fresh Dill Cucumber Relish) and a batch of peach butter.  I thought I was finished with canning, but I made a small batch of plain sweet pickle relish (using zucchini rather than pickling cucumbers) last week.  Recipe in the video below.

 

 

On to the pictures!  (Click to enlarge, if you wish.)

 

Volunteer sunflowers in the south garden.

 

Double-Click cosmos

 

Dahlias

Volunteer petunias

Zucchini (one of the last ones!)

 

   Fernleaf dill, Double-Click cosmos, and Bush Delicata squash (which haven't, from what we can tell, produced very well.  I'll try them again in another spot).

Dragon's Egg cucumbers

China Asters

 They must taste good.  It would appear that a visiting deer snacked on them!

Strawflowers

Pink and yellow dahlias (Unwin's Mix)

 

Pansies

A "pom pom" marigold (variety unknown)

 

Little Firebirds nasturtiums and purple alyssum.

Pansies

The apple tree is loaded this year, much to our delight.

Sunflowers in the butternut squash bed...

...and more in the French pumpkin (Galeux D'Eysines) bed.

   The Galeux D'Eysines are coming along well.  After the vines were topped and the tiny, stunted pumpkins removed mid-month, there are 7 medium to large ones remaining.

Burpee's Butterbush squash (a small butternut variety).

   A few cobs of the Gaspé Flint corn grown this summer.  I planted the seeds in a smaller space and in fewer numbers than I did three years ago.  As a result of that, and likely of the dry weather this summer, this harvest isn't as abundant or the cobs as well developed as they were then.  The cob pictured second from the left is the size they typically grow.

Here are the ingredients and general instructions for the Sweet Pickle Relish canning recipe featured in the video above (and taken from The Complete Book of Pickling).

• 10 cups chopped or grated cucumbers, or zucchini
• 1/3 cup canning salt
• 2.5 cups white sugar
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper 

Mix chopped/grated cucumber or zucchini with pickling salt in a stainless steel or glass bowl.  Add cold water to ~ 1 inch above mixture, stir, and set aside in fridge for 8 hours.

Strain cucumber mixture, rinse well in cold water, and allow to drain.  Squeeze excess water from the cucumber mixture and set aside. 

In a large stainless steel pot, combine white sugar, white vinegar, and pepper to make the pickling brine.  Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a gentle boil, add cucumber mixture, and bring back to a boil, stirring frequently.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Fill washed and prepared 250mL or 500mL jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Process in canner for 10 minutes (adjust canning time for altitude as necessary).  Remove jars from canner after 5 minutes resting time and let jars sit undisturbed for 24 hours before checking seals and storing.

Petal Sunshine

 

 

 

If Pink Lemonade Was a Flower

 

 (Variety: Unwin's Mix)

 

 

Bubbly Jelly Blues and Lots O' Pumpkins

   The last few days have been pleasant and mild.  Low-to-mid 20s with cool mornings and a bit of drizzle.  The days are getting shorter; it's no longer bright and sunny outside at 5:00AM.

   The green beans have been producing well and we have blanched and frozen several batches already.  My favourites this year have been Provider and Roma II. 

   Mongolian Dwarf, Principe Borghese, Black Sea Man, EM-Champion, Sylvan Gaume, and even the Franchi Red Pear tomatoes are starting to ripen.  I am tempted to pull up Moonglow, Clear Pink Early, and Rose de Berne, as almost every single tomato on these plants has been ruined by blossom end rot.  I'm glad I only planted 1 each of Moonglow and Clear Pink Early (though 3 of Rose de Berne, unfortunately).

   The Burpee’s Butterbush squash plants are just now starting to put out flowers.  No squash has set yet.  I hand-pollinated the first one today.

   With the exception of Baba Franchuk's, all the garlic has been harvested and hung to cure.  The garlic was harvested between July 31st and August 11th.  Baba Franchuk’s was harvested August 11th and will be hung up in next few days.  I let a few of the plants develop umbels and was surprised to see how large the bulbils are for Kiev and Baba Franchuk's!

Baba Franchuk's garlic

   The sunflowers are finally blooming.  They certainly add some colour and cheer to the garden!

   This morning, I made jelly from the crabapple juice we froze last August.  It didn’t turn out clear and is full of little bubbles.  It will likely taste fine, it is just disappointing when it lacks the pretty "stained glass" appearance of a successfully canned batch of jelly.  I hesitate to give jellies and jams as gifts when they turns out less than perfect.  I plan to can peach butter in the next week, and hope that batch is a success.

The fenceline raised beds, looking up the driveway...

 

 ...and down the driveway.

   The Galeux D'Eysines (a French heirloom pumpkin) plants are thriving.  My standard has always been that if we get one or two good-sized pumpkins per plant (typically, 6-8 per season), then I've been happy.   

   There are many vines, making it difficult to tell which ones belong to which plants, but there are 13 set pumpkins so far.  Past experience has shown that sometimes, ones that have set will stop growing and shrivel up.  Even if a few do that, it looks like this might be a stellar year for Galeux D’Eysines.  I topped most of the vines in the last two days so more energy will be directed to the developing pumpkins.

 

 South garden (mostly potatoes this year).

 

  North garden, sans garlic.  AmaRosa potatoes, Fordhook zucchini, a sunflower (Sunspot?), calendula, marigolds, and green beans.

 

 

   One of the dahlias and the China Aster have the same baby pink-and-white colours.

 

 My one surviving cabbage!

 

   Two robust volunteers have grown in the front compost bin this summer.  Flowers have developed on the Galeux D'Eysines plant (we composted an old pumpkin that was past its prime in the Spring).  It will be fun if we actually get a pumpkin from this volunteer! 

 

 

   The second volunteer is a bush bean plant.  I don't know which variety it is.  If it grows to maturity, we might be able to figure it out. 

 

 

The Dragon’s Egg cukes are producing well.

 

Dahlias (Unwin's Mix)

 

 

Herbs and greens

   On the south side of the house: tomatoes (Hungarian Heart, Reinhard's Chocolate Heart, and Sylvan Guame), cucumbers, dry bush beans in window box planters, marigolds, and a smidgen each of dill and basil.

 

 

Cosmos on the left of the planter, Fernleaf dill on the right.

The mid-August tomato round-up:

Black Sea Man

 

Fred's Tie-Dye

Franchi Red Pear

Favorie de Bretagne

 

Fisher's Earliest Paste

 

 

Hungarian Heart

 

 Sylvan Guame

 

 

The first few ripe Mongolian Dwarf tomatoes.

 

   Meanwhile, inside the house, we found one of our kitties occupying a warm pot of soil that was destined to hold mint cuttings.  Such a cutie!