'Tis the Season: Don Your Hoodie

   Seemingly overnight, the air has become filled with the tiny fungus gnats that make their appearance every year around this time.  They cover the plants in the garden, float in the water barrels, and stick to the car.  If you neglect to wear a hoodie outside, you'll have the little buggers falling out of your hair well after you've come back into the house.  If you don't cover your mouth with your hand, you'll be picking them out of your teeth.  I'm tempted this year to wear one of my 'covid' masks to keep them out of my nose and mouth.  The soundtrack of the fungus gnat experience is filled with pffts!, arhgs!, ffhmmphhs (blowing your nose), and select cursing.  Also refrains of, "They're everywhere...", and "How did it get into my eye?!"

   A few long-awaited cucumbers are growing in the raised bed.  This one was picked this morning. :)

 

 Red Russian garlic bulbils.  Almost ready to bring inside to dry.

   Some of the tomatoes have finally begun to ripen. Yay!  It felt like they never would. (Who, me?  Impatient, you say?)

Jewish tomatoes

 Candy Sweet Icicle tomatoes

 Black Krim tomatoes

 Bellestar tomatoes

 More Bellestars

 

 (15 degrees Celsius at 10:30am)

 

A Cabbage, A Squash, and Bulbils in the Making

It's another cool, breezy evening (15 degrees at ~8:00pm).  Daytime highs for the coming week are forecast to be below 20 degrees. 

A few pictures from this past weekend...

Beans and nasturtiums

 

Cour di Bue cabbage

 

I might get an 'Early Prolific' summer squash yet!

 

Carrot greens

 

Garlic bulbils in the making (Northern Quebec, Red Russian, and Baba Franchuk's).

 

A snoozing bee...

 

...and a snoozing Lou. 

 

I've processed enough crabbaples to get about 30 cups of juice, enough for 6 batches of crabapple jelly.  There are still plenty of crabapples left on the tree, so I'll offer them to anyone who wishes to pick!  I made a batch of jelly yesterday, will make a batch tomorrow, and have frozen the rest of the juice for future use.

 

Off to make a hot chocolate.  Maybe with a splash of something special.  Mwua hahaha!  Not your typical summertime drink, but then, this hasn't been your typical summer. 

G'night!  :-)

Could That Be Heat?

    Whaaaat?!  A day this month that actually smacks of summer?  It is 29 degrees and sunny this afternoon.  Feels good!

   Puttering around the yard, I took a few pictures to update the blog:

A volunteer petunia in the lemon balm

 

A volunteer pansy (Springtime Cassis)

 

Tomatoes, lemon balm, carrots, sage, and pineapple sage on south side of house

 

 

 

Bellestar tomatoes

 

Black Sea Man tomatoes

 

 

Hungarian Heart tomatoes

 

One little White Scallop summer squash!

 

Candy Sweet Icicle tomatoes

 

Principe Borghese tomatoes

 

First cucumber!

 

Along the driveway...

Carrots (yay!) and Acorn squash (which is doesn't seem to be progressing...boo...)

 

Cour di Bue cabbage

Jewish tomatoes

Cream sausage tomatoes (still loads of flowers on the plant)

Poppy pods

Crabapples ripening...

South garden (a little sparse...the poor bean plants never reached more than ~ 5 inches tall).

North garden (with a good deal of grass invading it)

East garden (dreadfully overtaken with weeds)

Garden Notes and Grumblings

 

   I enjoyed myself yesterday puttering in the kitchen and canning some sweet relish.  The crabapples on our tree are beginning to ripen nicely.  Once they’re ready to be picked, I’ll steam-juice some and try my hand at crabapple jelly.

 

Zucchini Relish

 

   Saturday was breezy and 13 degrees.  It felt like Autumn.  The last two days have been sunny but cool and breezy.  The 14-Day forecast calls for daytime highs between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius.  In August.  Remember the “old days”, when August was stinking hot?!  The weather this summer and last has been nuts.  Meanwhile, other parts of the country are dealing with heat warnings (e.g., it was 34 degrees in Halifax this past weekend).  Looking on the bright side, at least we haven’t had to manhandle the air conditioner this year.  It is still covered in storage.  Meanwhile, I’ve been making hot chocolate at least once a week all summer.

   The tomato plants are still covered with lots of yellow flowers.   It’s almost like they are stuck at this stage, especially the Candy Sweet Icicle and Hungarian Italian Paste varieties.  The varieties that typically produce large tomatoes (e.g., Work Release Paste, Black Krim, etc.), have put out fruit that is on the small side and some are misshapen as well.  The Striped German plants (a large bicolour beefsteak variety) only have a few tomatoes at this point and they are the size of grapes.  Yesterday, I noticed blossom end rot on some of the Jewish and Auria tomatoes, which had otherwise been doing reasonably well considering the poor growing weather.  The Bellestar tomatoes look like they are doing okay and are “on schedule” (they are an early determinate variety).  

 

Jewish tomato

 

 

Auria tomato

 

 

    Several Galeux D’Eysines squash have been hand-pollinated and they have set.  The weather in the coming weeks will determine whether they will be able to mature before heavy frosts hit.

 

The largest Galeux D'Eysines.  The others are the size of a tennis ball.

  

   I harvested 3 zucchini (for the relish) and there are two small zucchini still growing on the plants.  It is so nice that we’ve been able to get a bit of summer squash this year!

   One of the two jalapeno plants has produced a few peppers.  Neither of the Anaheim pepper plants have peppers yet, but one is putting out flowers now.  Needless to say, it is rather late in the season to be just now putting out flowers.

   The broccoli plants have produced heads, but they are small (~5 inches across) and are already starting to bolt.  The plants as a whole are quite large.  The ones we harvested were delicious.  I wish we had about 20 of them to process for freezing!

   The carrots look like they are doing well.  They still need another month to grow.  The “snackers” – ones pulled to thin the rows – have been tasty. 

   The cabbages seem to be faring well and are slowly forming heads.

   The dry bush beans have loads of flowers and some are starting to develop pods, especially Beka Brown.  Agate pinto is almost entirely in the flower stage, so I am not sure it will have time to mature before frost.

 

Agate Pinto beans

 

   The snap beans (Red Swan, Calima, and 3 little Roma bean plants) are, to my surprise, flowering and beginning to develop beans. The plants are so small – only a few inches tall, in most cases – that I didn’t think we would get any snap beans this year.

   The lettuce, kale, chard, lemon balm, sage, and parsley have done well.  They seem to do fine in this cooler weather.

   This has been my first time growing Alaska Red Shades nasturtium, and it has been a breath of fresh air.  They produce masses of deep red flowers and the leaves are variegated.  Pretty!  

Alaska Red Shades nasturtium

 

   I’m curious to see how the garlic has fared.  Usually, it is harvested mid-August, but it won’t be ready to pull by mid-month this year, judging from the leaves.  It will be left in the ground a bit longer. 

A fuzzy bee enjoying the Bachelor Buttons.

 

Alaska Red Shades Nasturtium

August Update

What a mixed bag of a gardening season. So much cool, wet weather has taken it's toll.  My fingers are crossed that August will be sunny and hot so the things in the garden might have a chance to catch up.

This mess is the pea patch.  For the first time, we won't be harvesting any peas this year.  The roots became waterlogged last month and the plants stopped growing.  Most of them are only a few inches tall and are on the yellow side.  It is difficult to see them because of the mass of grass and weeds that have taken over.  Uhg.

(Click on pictures to enlarge them.)

I started to turn the pea patch one shovelful at a time, removing as many of the weeds as possible by hand.  The soil is as hard as a brick, making it slow going.  I moved the two Cream Sausage tomato plants to the pea patch so they would get more sun.

Sweet Alyssum, Dwarf Fairlyland Candytuft, and marjoram (in the small, black container).

Rosemary, Sweet Alyssum, Dwarf Fairyland Candytuft, and Indian Savoury mint (white container).

Another lackluster plot.  :-(  Cosmos, beans (Red Swan, Calima), cauliflower, a tomato plant (Principe Borghese), two Early Prolific squash plants, a volunteer sunflower and a few volunteer tomato plants.  Weeds everywhere, soil very damp.  The beans should be about a foot tall by now.

Red Swan beans (only a few inches tall, but there are flowers on them, so there's hope!).

Rubenza Comsos

Cream Sausage tomatoes

A mishmash of zinnias, Creeping Thyme, red Swiss Chard, and Wooley Thyme. And weeds/grass.

Auria tomatoes

Jewish tomatoes

Cabbage - Red Express, Early Golden Acre, Cour di Bue

Gaspe Flint corn (L) and Beka Brown dry beans (R)

Little cobs forming...

Galeux D'Eysines squash.  Lagging behind where it should be, though yesterday the first two female flowers opened and I was able to pollinate them.

The East garden - Cosmos, tomatoes, Anaheim peppers, zucchini, marigolds, broccoli.

Broccoli

The zucchini (Fordhook) have begun to put out flowers, even though the plants are smaller than they usually are at this point in the season.

One of two Emerald Evergreen tomato plants.

Ruckle dry beans and Black Sea Man tomatoes.

The raspberry patch.  We might not get any peas this year, but the raspberries look abundant.

Raised beds along the driveway...beans, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage...

Cucumbers, nasturtiums, Summer Savoury, Principe Borghese tomatoes

Peach Melba nasturtiums

Alaska Red Shades nasturtiums.  (I'm looking forward to seeing the blooms on these!)

Agate pinto beans (with runners) and Candy Sweet Icicle tomatoes, which are being dwarfed/shaded by the beans.  Opps.  Didn't realize the beans would grow this tall.

Even the strawberry bed is underperforming this year.  The ones we're picking are delicious, though.  :)

Candy Sweet Icicle tomatoes

Sweet Alyssum, Springtime Cassis pansies, and Johnny Jump-Ups.

Table King Acorn squash

Hungarian Heart tomato plant

South side of the house - tomatoes, sage, Red Chantenay carrots, lemon balm, jalapeno pepper, apple mint.

Work Release Paste tomatoes

South side of the house  - tomatoes, Pineapple sage, nasturtiums, basil

Springtime Cassis pansies

Assorted greens ("Crisp Mint lettuce" is a winner this year).

Greek basil