End of June Update

   It is another cool, overcast, drizzly day, 15 degrees at 11:20AM.  The forecast shows more of the same for the coming week.  Since last summer, my mantra has been, "I hope we don't have another summer like that.".  At risk of sounding woo-woo or New Age-y, what has manifested has been a reminder that one should focus on what one does want rather than what one doesn't...! 

   There are weeds galore, especially chickweed.  Getting into the plots to weed has been tricky because the ground is so wet, so they are flourishing.  Thistles are coming up in the East garden and even in a few of the raised beds, thanks to an untended no-go-zone on our neighbour's property.

   This morning, I applied a diluted mixture of Effective Microorganisms to the garden and raised beds.  If any of the neighbours looked out their windows at that time, it must have struck them rather odd that I was watering the garden in the rain.  Ha!  Applying the EMs when the ground is already wet makes it easier for the mixture to reach the roots of the plants.  The bottle of EMs I purchased two years ago is almost gone (it's potency is likely questionable at this point, anyway), so I will have to stock up next Spring.  The first year I applied it, the garden ended up a jungle!  Also, there were almost no issues with soil-dwelling pests.

   The end-of-June update...

North garden  (peas)

North garden (garlic)

South garden - string beans, cauliflower, Principe Borghese tomato, Early Prolific summer squash, Cosmos, and a volunteer sunflower.  Everything except the tomato seems behind (small), compared to past years.

Cauliflower

   String beans - Red Swan and Calima.

Cosmos

   At the end of last summer, I made notes as a reminder of what to do, and what not to do, in this year's garden.  In all-caps, highlighted in red, I wrote, "Don't plant extra tomatoes in containers along the fence or in the driveway!  Too hard to deal with them by myself at the end of the season."  

   So what did I do?  (Another lesson from on high: How do you expect others to listen to you when you don't even listen to yourself?)

Lettuce and chard

Table King Acorn squash.  Look how small!

The carrot bed

   The cabbage bed - Early Golden Acre, Cour di Bue, Red Express, Brunswick

Corn, Beka Brown dry beans, and Galeux D'Eysines squash

Gaspe Flint corn - a short-season, heirloom variety

Galeux D'Eysines squash.  Something is up with this squash.  :(  One plant looks fine, the other three are small and pale. 

What's wrong?  Speak to me! 

   Hallelujah!  R weeded the very overgrown raspberry patch.  It's a lot of work.  After multiple bee stings in past years, it's a task I put on the "Not doin' it" list this summer.

   The East garden.  We call it, "the potato patch" whether it has potatoes in it or not.  This plot is looking pretty sad at the moment.  Tomatoes, broccoli, marigolds, two peppers (Anaheim), three very small zucchini plants, and a strip of Red Norland potatoes (along the right-hand side of the picture).  The dry pole beans and sunflower seeds I planted did not germinate.  Chickweed and thistles abound.

   Dry bush beans, curly kale, and tomatoes.  Most of the beans planted this year, dry and snap, had a large number of casualties.  Something undergound gnawed off the cotyledons so they had no leaves when they emerged from the ground.

One of my garden assistants, little Loulou.

Cucumbers.  Squint, you'll see them.

The Candy Sweet Icicle tomato plants are starting to put out flowers.

Agate pinto beans from Annapolis Seeds. The garbage cans are being used as rain barrels.

Lou spots a bug.

The south side of the house: tomatoes, a pepper, carrots, lettuce, beets, sage, and lemon balm.

Lolla Rosa lettuce

Tam jalapeno

Lemon Balm

Tomatoes (Hungarian Heart and Work Release Paste), a Tam jalapeno pepper, and Red Chantenay carrots.  Lemon Balm in the window box.

The Work Release Paste tomatoes are putting out a good number of yellow flowers.  It is the earliest oxheart-type I've grown.  Brad's Black Heart would be a close second.

Ye Olde Bathtubbe.  Greens, parsley, and a few pansies.  It is in a lot of shade this year from the large crabapple tree next door, so things have been slow to grow.

South side of the house: tomatoes, pansies, mint, Pineapple sage.

Lou assessing the tomatoes.

The Bellestar tomatoes are putting out flowers.  I am eager to see what these tomatoes are like at the end of the season.

Lacinato kale and assorted lettuce varieties.

Apples forming  :-)

In Bloom

Checking on the 'Maters

   The photos of tomatoes I most enjoy looking at are ones that show the wide variety of colours, shapes, and sizes of the fruit.  Tomato plants, with few exceptions, pretty much look the same.  I took a few pictures of the plants today to have on file so I can compare their sizes and growth rates with varieties I grow in the future.  Not so exciting for the non-gardeners among you, but it's helpful to me.  ;)

    The irises have started to open.  They are beautiful; the pictures never do them justice.

   One of the Jewish tomato plants I have on the go.  These will be small, red oxhearts.  The seeds were obtained from a lady in Florida who was hosting a large, generous seed giveaway this past Spring.  This one seems to be a rare variety; there is little information about it online.

Another Jewish tomato

Lou decided to join me in my tour of the tomatoes.

A Hungarian Heart tomato plant (with a bit of sage in the pot beside it).

   The first damselfly of the season!  So pretty.  The picture was taken quickly before it flew away.  Hopefully, more damselflies will visit the garden in the coming weeks and I will be able to capture a clearer picture.

Lou photobombing the picture of the Candy Sweet Icicle plant...

...and the Candy Sweet Icicle without little Lou!

Work Release Paste

Black Sea Man

Bellestar, an open-pollinated determinate paste variety developed in Ontario in the early 1980's.

Too Much of a Good Thing

   
   The last few days have brought a few light sprinkles, but the heavy rain started last night.  The ground is saturated, all the water barrels and buckets are filled with water, and the driveway and gardens have puddles.  The basement sump pump is getting a workout.  This weather is similar to last year's soggy, cool summer. I am holding onto hope that things will dry out and warm up soon.

North garden - garlic, white scallop squash, cosmos, peas

The pea patch in the North garden

Planter with waterlogged flower seedlings

All the rain barrels, buckets, and watering cans are full.

The driveway.  If I can't have a pool, big puddles are the next best option.

South garden - string beans, cauliflower, tomato, zucchini, cosmos

 Grateful for the trench beside the house. This water (which is flowing like a river into the alley) would be in our basement, otherwise.

   Little Lou snoozing.  Or meditating.  It's hard to tell which, but she sure is sweet.  💛

   In the last week and a half, a few more tomatoes were planted (49 in total: 45 here and 4 at R's family's farm).  I also planted wax/string beans (Red Swan, Romano bush, and Calima) in the south garden.  Some of the summer squash (zucchini and Early Prolific) and acorn squash (Table King) that had been started indoors were transplanted into the garden.  The Ruckle, Beka Brown, and Agate Pinto dry beans have begun to germinate, as have the Gaspe Flint corn and the Muncher and Snacker cucumbers.  

   The two North Georgia Candy Roaster squash transplants that were planted at R's family's farm were killed by frost last week.  The Lower Salmon River squash and Long Pie Pumpkin transplants that were planted at the farm are apparently still doing okay.

   The only tomatoes that have developed yellow flowers thus far are "Cole", a very early variety.  The Coles have been transplanted at the farm.

   The flowers beds are a bit of a mess, as the vegetable gardens have taken priority up to this point.  The deep purple tulips planted last Fall have come up (beautiful!) and the irises will be blooming soon (thank you, Jackie, wherever you are).  The sunflowers I planted along the back have begun to germinate and some volunteer pansies appeared. The latter were transplanted into a pot on the front step. Getting the Creeping Thyme under control (it is pretty and the bees adore it, but it self-seeds and spreads like crazy) and the grass weeded out from the Woolly thyme is on my to-do list.

   There are three beds at the back of the house that haven't been planted yet.  They don't get much sun at this point, so I am pretty much limited to planting (yet more...) greens and a few herbs.

   A few items remain on a heat mat under a grow light indoors: summer squash (the one that just germinated is a zucchini), summer savoury, French lavender (clippings from our houseplant), and the waterlogged herb - brought inside from the rain - is marjorum.
    

 

Getting The Garden In

   June already.  How did this happen?  There have been some sunny days this past week, but the weather remains mild rather than toasty warm.  I have managed to get much of the garden in, but it has been slow going this year.

   Broccoli, Snowball cauliflower, cabbage (Cour di Bue, Red Express, Early Golden Acre), White Scallop summer squash, lettuce, kale, a bit of basil and sage, and Swiss chard have been planted.  I finally got the peas (Green Arrow and Laxton's Progress) planted yesterday, but not trellised.  A row of Norland Red potatoes are in the East garden.  R planted the rest of the potatoes (Kennebec, Russet, Red Norland) at his father's farm.  Cosmos (Rubenza and Sensation Mix) were transplanted in small bunches in all three garden plots.

   Peppers (Anaheim and Tam jalapeno) were planted yesterday and today.  The tomatoes were planted over the last three days.  True to form, the first week of June is very windy, so while I have given away a number of tomato transplants, I am keeping a bunch until the second week of June in case any of those I planted in the garden snap in the wind.  The tally at this point is 42 tomatoes in town (the varieties are listed here), and 2 (Cole) at the farm.  About a third of them still have to be staked, but at least they are in the ground.

   After last summer's dreadful weather, I decided to start most of the squash this year on heat mats and under grow-lights.  I staggered starting the varieties from mid to late May.  The Galeux D'Eysines was transplanted outside yesterday.  The Lower Salmon River and North Georgia Candy Roaster are hardening off and will likely be planted at the farm.  Long Pie Pumpkin, Fordhook Zucchini, and Early Prolific Straightneck are on the heat mats and will be planted outside once they've germinated and the weather warms up more.

   I planted a few small sections of dry beans in raised beds (Ruckle, Agate Pinto, Beka Brown), though am concerned that they might rot if the soil continues to be cool.  I will hold off on planting string beans until the weather is warmer; I don't have enough to risk them rotting and having to replant them.

   I have become aware that an acquaintance, who has property, resources, and gardening knowledge of their own, quietly follows this blog to see what transplants they might be able to hit me up for in June and what produce in September.  I have always been happy to share what I have but admit to a growing resentment of this kind of manipulation and the expectation that I will simply dish out. There is always one of these sorts in the bunch, I guess.

   The trees in our yard and in several of our neighbours' yards are loaded with blossoms. The scent is heavenly!   It's sad to see the petals being blown off so soon by the breeze, but it looks like confetti in the air, which is pretty in it's own way.

Apple tree and crabbaple trees in bloom

Tomatoes in, as well as a pepper, beets, and lemon balm.

North garden - peas, garlic, tomatoes

East garden - tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, broccoli, cosmos

The view down the driveway