I will start with the good news!
I phoned the vet clinic today and asked about the kitten we brought over last week because of it’s messed up eye, that promptly got adopted. He is doing fine! His eye was removed just a couple of days ago. While talking to the receptionist, she told me her daughter was playing with, as we were speaking.
That was really wonderful to hear!
I wonder if he will end up becoming a clinic cat? They had one before they moved to the new location, but I haven’t seen it since the move.
Next the concerning news.
I phoned the vet clinic today.
For the past while, we’ve been having issues with cats spraying around the house, but lately there have been massive problems with finding huge puddles of pee all over the place. Some regular spots included in front of the fridge, in front of the washing machine, in front of the main door, in front of the toilet, and under my older daughter’s bed.
It turns out to be Leyendecker. He’s not just spraying anymore. He seems to be losing bladder control, and he’s not happy about it!
We have an appointment for him on Saturday.
The last time he was there, it was because he was blocked and couldn’t pee at all. Now, he can’t stop peeing!
Poor bugger.
On a completely different note…
While going through the gardens beds this morning, I was thinking it’s time to pull the peas.
They’re about done their season, but mostly it’s because their tops are gone, and so are most of the developing pods. They never got very tall, but are now even shorter. My guess is a deer has simply been walking along the chain link fence, munching away. On both sides! There are still some pods developing, but I’ve been harvesting maybe 3 of 4 pods, at most, in the mornings and just snacking on them while I do my rounds.
When it comes to pulling the plants, though, they won’t actually be pulled, but cut. Peas are nitrogen fixers, but to take advantage of that while planting something else, it turns out the roots should be left in the ground.
One more reason I’m happy to have discovered the Gardening in Canada channel! I did not know that until recently.
Once those are clear, however, that leaves a long bed with room for something else.
In the second half of July.
We only have about 50 days before first frost.
Maybe. For the past couple of years, we didn’t get a first frost until much, much later. Based on those years, we may actually have another 4-4 1/2 months of growing season left.
Or we can get frost in July or August. It happens. That’s the problem when working with averages. The real world doesn’t know what those are! 😄
There are actually quite a few options available.
Among the usual recommendations are some we just won’t bother with. Arugula, for example, is something we just don’t eat, so we don’t even have the seeds. Radishes are another one, and we do have seeds, but they are something I want to grow for the pods to try, so they need a full season. None of us are actually keen on eating radish bulbs.
Among the greens we could plant, and have seeds for, spinach is something we enjoy. We haven’t done well with lettuces, as I found they got bitter even before they bolted. We also still have Swiss Chard seeds if we want a different green.
Bok Choy is a recommended crop, but the only seeds I had were the tiny ones that got smothered by the Chinese elm seeds. The few surviving ones are going to seed and pods are developing, so I’m hoping to save seed and try them again next year. Somewhere else!
Some varieties of carrots can be started now, as they handle frost well and can be left in the soil in the winter, if covered well enough. We already have 2 types of carrots, and I don’t want to start more now.
Summer squash is supposed to be something that can still be sown now, since they get harvested while small. I’ve already reseeded summer squash three times with poor success, so that’s out. They would be too big for the space, anyhow.
It’s the same issue with planting bush beans. We could use more beans, but we’ve got the onions planted where the Czech lettuce and tiny bok choy were choked out. Bush beans would cover them completely.
We could try more turnips and/or beets. The beets we planted earlier are really struggling. Perhaps they would do better in this bed. The Gold Ball turnips are growing, but I do have some leftover seed from varieties we tried last year, too.
We could actually plant the Dalvay peas again. We certainly have enough seeds, but I’m not interested in feeding the deer even more, as much as I would love to have a real pea crop to harvest!
Hhhmm. I think it will come down to either beets or spinach. Considering the length of the bed, and how the chain link fence posts conveniently divide it into three equal sections, we could do smaller rows of three different things, and still get decent potential quantities.
Whatever we decide on, we’ll be making sure to work in the early morning hours over the next week or more. We’re looking at temperatures at, or over, 30C/86F to deal with, and the hottest part of the day it typically around 4 or 5pm, and it stays hot until 8 or 9pm. As I write this, it’s almost 6:30pm, and we’ve been at our high of 27C/81F for a couple of hours already. It’s not going to drop to comfortable temperatures until almost midnight. Looking at the long range forecast, we’ll be getting temperatures just below 30C/86F for the rest of the month.
Which makes it weird to think about what cool weather/frost hardy crops we can plant right now!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 