Gardening

Our 2024 Garden: how does the garden grow? and other updates

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We aren’t expected to get as hot today as the last few days, but it’s still supposed to get right up there, so I went ahead and watered the garden again this morning. As I write this, we are at “only” 24C/75F, but feeling like 28C/82F. Over the next 5 days, we’re supposed to be back at or near 30C/86F.

Considering how many heat loving plants we ended up with in the garden this year (not really our original intention), this works out. Most of them also need a lot of water, too. Especially the squash and melons.

Last night, I went around and took photos, with my hand as reference, of the developing fruit. At least the larger ones that have clearly been successfully pollinated. There were a few I saw that are still at the sage where they might wither away and fall off the vine, so I didn’t bother taking photos of them. I will see if I can stick to taking photos in the evening, though maybe not every evening, so I can have a progression on how quickly they are growing in this heat.

First up, the Sumer of Melons Blend melons in the trellis bed.

Digging around the leaves, I found more larger melons developing that aren’t easily seen, which was nice. There are lots of little ones all over, too.

The pumpkins are really something! There is one really big one, plus quite a few more developing on the two plants. If we were after growing the largest pumpkin we could, we’d prune all but the biggest one from each plant, but I’m not after growing a show stopper, so we will take what they give us. I even hand pollinated a couple more this morning. Last night, I noticed some were getting large enough that I put scrap boards under them, to protect them from getting rotten spots on the ground. There was even a pair of them so close together, I put a longer piece of board that they can both rest on, once their weight has them both lying on the ground.

I’m quite happy with the winter squash. I don’t know why I’ve become so obsessed with winter squash! There’s one really big one growing on the corner of the log frame. I’d put a piece of scrap board under it but, now that it’s getting bigger, it was starting to roll off the narrow board. After I took the photo, I found a wider piece to put under it, and tried to stabilize it so it wouldn’t roll off and break its own stem or vine. There’s a large green squash that had also been resting on a log, but I found it rolled into the bed. Thankfully, there was no damage to stem or vine, so I found a scrap board to put under it and stabilize it. I even put boards under some smaller ones, just to get ahead of the game.

We also have a single Purple Dragonfly pepper that has changed colour. This morning, it was even more fully purple. I suppose it’s ripe enough to harvest now, but with just one pepper, I’m not in any hurry. There are others developing among the other plants, but this one started forming much earlier. I might harvest it tonight or something.

While I was watering the squash and corn bed, pausing to hand pollinate more flowers and checking on the developing squash, I spotted a garter snake! I was so happy to see it! First one I’ve seen in the garden all year. It disappeared before I could try for a photo. Hopefully, it is busily eating all the slugs, and not any of the many, many frogs we have this year, which also eat the slugs.

They (the frogs, not the snakes) are absolutely everywhere, this year! I don’t remember ever seeing so many before. I love it! Most that we see are Wood frogs, though looking up our native frogs, it’s possible some are the Boreal Chorus frog.

This morning, I spotted this beautiful friend and was able to get a photo.

This is the gray tree frog, even though it’s green at the moment. They can change colour. Definitely one of my favourite local frogs! I love their round, round bellies. 😁 This one is sitting on a raspberry leaf.

It looks like our raspberries are starting to wind down for the season.

The last thing I reached to water this morning was the grape vines, and I found some damage. The weight of the vines has pulled down the wire mesh from the rebar that was holding it up. I was able to lift it part way back, but we’ll have to figure out a way to secure the mesh to the rebar more effectively so it will stay. The grape vines are definitely the biggest I’ve ever seen them get since we discovered them buried in the spirea!

I really want to transplant them into a better location, and onto more stable and permanent trellis. I’m picturing an arch over a bench would be awesome. I’d originally considered planting them against the chain link fence, so they can use the fence as a trellis, but we shall see. It will be a while before we get to them, so we have time to find a good spot for them and plan it out.

In other things, the kitties are doing okay. I was concerned when I didn’t see the one orange and white kitten anywhere, but as I was moving the hose to water the east garden beds, I spotted him on the tarp covered pile of boards, nursing on Caramel. I guess they still use their “nest” under there at times. I’m concerned about Button. He, and other kittens, are starting to get leaky eyes, but he’s so much smaller than the others it concerns me more on him.

Oh, that reminds me. It’s been a month since we tried to order the 4 pound bucket of lysine for a second time (the first one was lost and we got refunded, but it still showed up on Amazon as being on its way). There is no option to cancel the order for a refund by this point, but I’ve still requested a refund, since we never got it. Last information we got, it was hung up at the border. If it hasn’t arrived by now, it’s not going to. We ordered the stuff we got last time, which is very granular and doesn’t stick to the kibble was well as the fine powder that we can’t find anymore. I was hoping the 4lb bucket would be the fine powder, but even if it wasn’t, it would last us a good long time. We’ll see how that works. The next time I’m at the feed store to get their 40 pound bags of kibble, I need to remember to ask if they carry lysine, too.

As for Button, I’m seriously considering bringing him inside. If it weren’t for the fact that the mamas are still letting him nurse, and that’s the best for him right now, I probably would.

I did get an update from the Cat Lady about her son that’s in the hospital. He’s going to be there for a while longer. They’ve got a team of doctors working on him and trying to avoid surgery. Poor kid. So there’s no way they’re going to be picking up Button anytime soon. They’ve got too many other things to worry about right now!

On the home front, my daughter has been managing to keep her computer going enough to work on commissions – commissions that she needs to pay for a new machine! Usually, while working, she’s got Discord up, or a podcast playing in the background, etc. Right now, she has nothing extra running in the background as she works, is saving everything constantly, and is backing things up to her cloud storage AND a thumb drive every chance she gets. Once she’s done working, it gets shut off. No browsing or game playing with her online friends.

If all goes well, we’ll be able to get her computer ordered within the next few days, while the system she wants is still on sale. She’s ordering from Memory Express, and there’s a location in the city that’s easy for us to get to, so we could even drive in to pick it up, which might be faster than having it delivered.

Thankfully, she has really good customers, who are understanding if there is some sort of delay because her computer died!

We shall see how things work out over the next few days.

Meanwhile, I have my outside stuff and gardening to keep me busy and sane, and I am thankful for it!

The Re-Farmer

The difference a day makes in the garden, and another sad find

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Before I get into things, I wanted to share a couple of photos I took of a developing melon.

This is the largest of the melons that I’ve seen (there might be others, hiding in the leaves) from the Summer of Melons mix. This mix of seeds has early, mid and late season melons, and the early ones – whatever varieties they are – are definitely showing up in the trellis bed, where the first transplants went in.

I took one photo yesterday and the other today. What a lot of growth in just one day!

I think I’ll try and make a point of taking photos of the melons and squash more often, with my hand as a size reference. The winter squash and pumpkins has also been getting visibly bigger, from day to day.

Today, we reached our expected high of 29C/84F, but I didn’t notice what the humidex was at at the time. Tomorrow, we’re expected to hit 30C/86F, and the humidex is expected to reach 38C/100F. Our low tonight is supposed to drop to 17C/63F by about 3-5am. I’ll definitely be out early to do the watering again, while it’s still cool.

My husband and I had plans to meet a friend in the city today, but unfortunately, his pain levels were just too high. I am expecting to do our first stock up shop tomorrow, as CPP Disability is supposed to come in on Monday, and when the disability payments are due on a Monday, they’ve instead been deposited on Saturday. However, just in case, I went into town early this evening to pick up a few things to tide us over the weekend. There were some really good sales on, so I got more than planned, and was still in budget, which is always nice.

After what happened this morning, with having to bury 4 newborn kittens, every time I’ve gone outside, I’ve been looking all over, hoping not to find any more. After chasing some raccoons out of the sun room, I gave the cats their evening feeding, then stayed outside to make sure the cats got a chance to eat before the raccoons came back. There was one bugger that was watching me from behind a tree for a while, but I didn’t want to get too close to chase it off, as that would have scared away the more feral cats eating under the shrine. Tricky bugger! It did eventually leave, though.

Since I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, I kept moving around, eventually going into the West yard.

That’s when I saw one of the cats in the lawn near the old kitchen garden. They’ve worn a path in the grass from the lilacs behind where the tulip bed it, and the corner of the old kitchen garden. There was something in front of the cat that was still there when she ran off. Other cats also went to see it, so I had to check it out.

Yup. It was another dead kitten. It looked to be only a couple of weeks old, and had been dead for a while. It seems a mama was bringing it to the house and it didn’t make it, like the one I found in the old kitchen garden not long ago.

That’s 5 kittens I buried, in just one day.

It’s getting to the point that every time we go outside, we’re nervous about what we’ll find. With this heat, the kittens by the house tend to just splatter themselves all over, in the grass, on the sidewalk blocks, in the sun room, all stretched out and sleeping, and we have been checking to see if they’re breathing!

It’s Button that really gets me. He will sleep absolutely anywhere, usually in high traffic areas. Since he is so very tiny, and has a forever home to go to, I’m the most paranoid about him! I chatted with the Cat Lady today and we have a tentative date to connect on Sunday, if she is able to come out this way. Unfortunately, she just had surgery on one of her hands not long ago, and it’s been hurting a lot, so she might not be up to making the trip.

Hmmm… if I do go to the city tomorrow, I wonder if there is somewhere closer to her place where we could meet, and I can bring Button with me? I’ll have to message her and find out.

We shall see what tomorrow will bring.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: morning in the garden and NOOOOooooo!!!! *sniff*

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I headed out early this morning, while it was still relatively cool, to do the watering and make use of the grass clippings that had been collected and spread out on the black tarp.

I was getting near the end of watering in the main garden area, about to move on to the strawberry bed, when I realized…

I wasn’t seeing any strawberry plants.

At all.

Noooooooo!!

Yup. A deer got to them!

I have to admit, I was complacent. I’d seen a deer around the garden area a few times, but it never went to any of the beds and stayed in the tall grass. We’ve got spinners and flashy things and other distractions all over. It seemed they were making a difference…

Now, this.

Obviously, it’s late in the game, but I put a net around the bed so it won’t happen again. The plants will recover, and the runners are still there and rooting themselves. The main thing with the netting is to be able to lift it, as needed, to tend the bed. It’s held down with ground staples in the corners

*sigh*

The next time I can get to a Dollarama, I will see if I can pick up more of those green, plastic coated support posts. They are very handy!

The netting was put up last of all, though. Before that, as soon as the watering was done, I started filling the wheelbarrow with grass clippings and mulching things.

First I laid a pretty thick layer around the edges of the tomato and onion bed. Then I did the onion, shallot and summer squash bed. Setting handfuls of grass clippings between every onion took a while!

These two beds took up most of the grass clippings, but there was maybe half a wheelbarrow left, so I mulched around the onions going to seed, and around some melons at the end of the bed where the bush beans are trying to recover.

After that, I just had to get some photos of the huge vines we’ve got now!

The pumpkins are blooming enthusiastically, and I even hand pollinated a couple more. There’s one pretty large pumpkin developing, plus a few smaller ones. I got a picture of just the largest one.

There are lots of drum gourd flowers, but no female flowers, yet.

The winter squash that are developing right now are getting so big, so fast! So far, the only one I can identify – I think – is what is likely a Turk’s Turban squash. It will probably be a while before we can identify the others – two of which I think are the same variety. I was able to hand pollinate a couple of winter squash, too.

I also got some photos of the Forme de Coure tomatoes.

I think having the sump pump hose draining at one end of the bed is making a difference. A lot of the water does end up flowing down one of the paths, but the bed itself is benefiting from being watered indirectly like this. The tomato plants are lush and bushy, and the tomatoes seem to be growing much faster than other varieties.

It was about 17C/63F when I headed out to water the garden beds, at about 6:30-7am. It’s now coming up on 11, and we are at 24C/75F with the humidex putting us at 27C/81F. We are expected to reach a high of 29C/84F, with highs of around 30C/86F starting tomorrow and staying at or near that range into August.

Which means I’ll be out watering the garden in the cool of the morning pretty regularly.

Most of the prairies are under heat warnings and/or air quality warnings. We’ve got an increase in wildfires up north, but really, we’re doing all right, all things considered. Alberta is being hit hard, and Jasper had to be evacuated and seems to have mostly burned down! Thank God, there don’t appear to be any injuries or loss of life. The most recent article I can find, as of this writing, is here. (link will open in a new tab)

And that is why having a “bug out bag” is a good idea! As well as having emergency supplies in your vehicle, if you have one.

So we will do what we can with our own heat, and be thankful that it’s all we have to deal with!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: grass clippings are gold!

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I’m going to be feeling this tomorrow, but I got what I wanted to do, done – and then some!

I just finished mowing the area of the outer yard that I’d been able to mow previously. I had considered mowing until I finished a tank of gas at first. Since this area had already been done before, even with the constant stopping to empty the bag, that would have meant expanding the area I was able to get done last time. In the end, though, I just filled one last wagon load and stopped. I finished at about 3:30 or so, and we’re at 25C/77F, with the humidex at 28C/82F, and we’re not even at the hottest part of the day, yet.

I spread out only a couple of wagon loads on the black tarp I’ve got over the previous year’s squash patch. The rest, I used right away.

I did the eggplant and hot pepper bed first, because it was closer. These have not been doing well, and I’m hoping the extra layer of mulch, on top of the paper and cardboard mulch, will help. That took most of a wagon load, and what was left went into the compost ring next to the eggplant and peppers bed.

Next I did the bed that needed it the most: the bell peppers and onions in the high raised bed. They are pretty crowded in places, so it was a bit more difficult to keep the mulch away from the stems and bulbs, but I was still able to get a good layer down. There was just enough left in the wagon to mulch the surviving bush beans, which I didn’t bother taking a photo of.

The last wagon load was used to mulch the chocolate cherry tomatoes at the chain link fence. I also added some supports to the tomatoes that didn’t already have cages around them; I only got two cages, as these are dollar store cages and I wanted to test them out before getting more. The Goldy yellow zucchini by the gate got a bit more mulch, too.

There was just enough left in the wagon to lay a deep mulch down at other chain link fence bed, by the vehicle gate. This is where there are just two Purple Caribe potatoes growing, and where I’ve started kohlrabi. Since everything is so sparce at that end, there is a ridiculous amount of weeds. So the two potato plants are now mulched, as is each side of the tiny kohlrabi seedlings, and the empty space in between.

After putting everything away, I also rolled up the mosquito netting still attached to the chain link fence, and just left the rolls fastened at the top of the fence sections.

By then, the heat and humidity was really starting to get to me, and I was more than happy to finally get inside!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, so I want to make use of the clippings I’ve laid out on the black tarp to finish mulching around the San Marzano tomato and onion bed, and then lay more mulch down around the onions, shallots and summer squash. If there’s any left over, I’ll see if I can mulch the rest of the bed with the melons, bush beans and onions going to seed. That will be done early in the morning, before things start getting hot. Depending on how I find the soil, I might do another watering.

Grass clippings are gold!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: hot peppers and first corn silks!

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We’re looking at another hot day today, so I made sure to give the garden a good watering while it was still cool.

We have a couple of hot peppers developing, just on one plant so far. I also spotted our first corn silks this morning!

I found some new female winter squash and a pumpkin blossoming and hand pollinated them. Today was the first time I found a female squash blossom in the squash bed with the corn, which got transplanted after the ones with the peas and beans. The area around the pumpkins and winter squash is getting hard to walk through to water, the vines are getting so big! I need to find a way to set up supports for the hose above ground at each bed, so it doesn’t get dragged on top of the vines. I really should have set up the soaker and sprinkler hoses around the beds before they got so big.

Quite a few things that were looking wimpy and behind are starting to perk up, too, like the last onion transplants and the melon bed. Most of the tomatoes are getting big and bushy. I have not been on top of the pruning this year and, at this point, don’t really intend to do much of that. I’ll take off some of the lower leaves, but the stalks that grow out of the leaf “elbows” just got away with me. I figured I may as well leave them, since they will produce fruit. The black cherry tomatoes are vining so tall, the double lilac bush with branches above them is actually helping to support them! That group will need extra support around them, though.

The tomatoes growing in the concrete blocks, both at the chain link fence and the retaining wall, are not getting bushy, though. They are starting to produce tomatoes, but the plants themselves are not as strong and bushy as the others.

I’m going to have to rethink what we grow in those blocks. Perennials like the mint and chives are doing great. We did successfully grow cucamelons in the retaining wall blocks, though their vines remained spindly. They did not do well at the chain link fence. Onions and shallots don’t seem to do well in them, either, which is odd considering how well the chives are doing.

So it looks like we should be looking at saving the blocks for things like perennial herbs. The old kitchen garden is meant to eventually be a combination herd garden and kitchen garden, for both annuals and perennials. Basically, mostly things that we’d want to harvest as needed throughout the summer. I want to see if we can grow things like rosemary (which would be an annual, in our short growing season), sage or savory, which we tend to use quite a lot. We know now that chamomile will self seed nicely. We’re not using the thyme we have right now, as we don’t have a lot of it, and I want to see if it will either self seed or survive the winter, if it gets mulched well enough. In the fall, I want to find someplace to transplant those “wild” strawberries out of the wattle weave bed to where we can just let them do their thing.

Ah, the fun thing about gardening. I’m always thinking years in advance!

I rather enjoy that.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: tiny harvest, and first pepper showing

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I just got back from my evening rounds, and a bit of a harvest from the garden. Since I was focusing on watering the garden this morning, I didn’t bother checking to see if anything was ready to be picked. It’s really just sugar snap peas and raspberries to pick right now.

I have been leaving the peas to get a bit bigger between harvests, as I find they are tastier on the larger side. I got about a handful harvested (minus the ones I ate!), and a decent amount of raspberries.

I also got a picture of our first bell pepper; a Purple Dragonfly. I can see other peppers forming, but they are still barely larger than the flower buds.

A couple of the winter squash that are growing nicely were lying directly on the ground, so I grabbed a couple of bricks to set under them and protect them from the soil. The others that are currently developing have naturally set on the log frame, which is handy.

According to my weather app, we got a bit of rain this afternoon, but it seems to have missed us. I now see that we are supposed to get rain from about 9pm to midnight. If I look at the weather radar, the system that’s supposed to reach us by then is large enough we should actually get rain, and it should continue past midnight by some hours.

We shall see!

Right now, it’s over the lake to the north of us, and there’s quite a lot of lightning happening in parts of it. Mostly over the lake. There is no rain at all over where the fires are, though.

At least we are finally starting to cool down a bit.

The Re-Farmer

July garden tour video up, and another sad find

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Well, I finally got my mid July garden tour video done and uploaded. I actually finished it yesterday, but waited to go over it one last time today before deciding it was done. It’s just a plain narration video with very little editing. I hope the video quality is okay.

I’m happy to say that, since this was taken, we do have a couple of white scallop squash growing, though not in the pot and, so far, they are still surviving!

In other things…

We had another loss this morning, but it was a new one. When I went into the sun room to start feeding the cats, I saw something through the window in the old kitchen garden. A little ball of black and white fur. *sigh* Several adults paused to sniff at it, and one or two seemed to try and move it.

Once the kibble was dispersed, I went to look, and it was a very young kitten. Maybe a few weeks old, so not one we’ve seen before. I am thinking it didn’t survive the mother trying to move it. No visible evidence of why it died, though.

I was able to bury it under a rose bush.

It looked like we got a light rainfall some time in the night. Just enough to make things damp, but that’s about it. (I wonder if the rain was a contributing factor re: the kitten…) So I went ahead and watered the garden before the heat of the day hit. As I write this, it is almost 3:30pm, and we’re at 27C/81F. The humidex has us at 31C/88F, and we’re still supposed to get warmer. Even while I was out early with the watering, we broke 20C/86F, having never really cooled down during the night. Yesterday, it was so hot upstairs, my older daughter gave up trying to sleep and went into the living room to be in the AC and ended up passing out on the couch. Today, her sister is crashing on the couch. It isn’t much better on the second floor during the night, when they are up and about, for all their fans and ice packs. Granted, the ice packs are more for their computers than for themselves! For all that the AC helps on the ground floor, it really doesn’t do much for their “apartment” upstairs. Especially with the high humidity.

Well, we do the best we can. Among the things the girls have been doing is the bulk of the dishes and the cooking at night, so it doesn’t have to be done during the hottest part of the day, which I greatly appreciate!

They were still doing some cooking when I finished the watering this morning, then grabbed a bowl to pick some raspberries and a bunch of the small strawberries. We don’t have a lot of raspberries, relatively speaking – most of the bushes are first year canes – but they ripen so quickly, they can be picked twice a day. I am thinking it would be good to prepare a place to transplant some of them, in the fall. Right now they are basically a big wild mass of plants covering the old compost pile. We were never able to use that compost, after I moved the ring out. When I started digging into it, I found it was filled with tree branches and someone had been using it for garbage. I got the garbage out and just left it to continue to decompose, and the raspberries are taking full advantage of that! We should be able to transplant out a very decent sized raspberry patch, when the time comes. It will be much easier to harvest them in rows than from one giant mass! There are others that are easier to reach, but not being in the old compost pile and getting too much shade from the chokecherry tree, they are much smaller. I’m really not sure why my mother decided to transplant the raspberries from a sunny location into a shady one. This was a flower bed. After we move the raspberries out, I want to convert it back into a flower bed and select shade loving flowers for it. There’s a black currant bush right under the chokecherry tree I want to move out. It bloomed a lot this spring, but I see almost zero berries forming. Currants need at lot more sunshine, but the two large bushes that were here when we moved in were both planted right under trees! Actually, one of them may have been seeded by birds.

While at the farmer’s market yesterday, talking to my cousin, I saw he had red currants for sale and talked to him about it. He told me currants can be propagated by just cutting a branch off and sticking it in the ground. Like a willow, they will take root, just like that! Which is good to know. They need regular pruning, too, which we’ve never done, and I know my mother never did. My sister gave her the currant that’s under the chokecherry, but my mother told me she never ate the berries. She was unfamiliar with them and afraid they were poisonous – as if my sister would give her a poisonous berry bush! I guess my mother thought it was just decorative. Meanwhile, she potted up and grew a cutting from a bush near her place and gave it to me to transplant. She told me she didn’t know what it was, but people in her building were eating berries from the bush, so she took a piece for the farm. I’ve planted it in the south yard, near the chain link fence, finding a spot not shaded by the elm trees or lilacs, and it’s doing really, really well this year. I don’t think it’ll have berries for another year or two, but the plant sure is looking strong and healthy. I had to ask my mother a lot of questions before I got enough information to conclude it was a black currant, too.

Ugh. I’m procrastinating right now. I’ve got stuff to do, but it’s so hot and sticky, I just don’t want to move.

From the state of my bed, neither do the cats. Cat puddles, all over the place!

I will need to make a trip into town, but I want to connect with the Cat Lady, so I’m waiting to hear back from her before I do. It might be a while. I believe she and her family have gone sailing today!

It must be pretty crowded at the beach right now! We should try and remember it exists, and make a trip out during the week, when it’s quieter, and take a dip in the water. Gotta make sure to have water socks, though. Zebra mussels can be very painful to step on.

But I digress.

Come on, Re-Farmer. Get your butt out of the chair and do something productive…

😄😄😉

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: morning firsts

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I had a couple of nice surprised while doing my morning rounds!

The first was spotting new seedlings – of White Scallop patty pan squash!!!

This was our third attempt of sowing these, and I planted two pairs of seeds in the bed with the onions and shallots. There are still none in the pot (sowed them twice in there) and I had been thinking of what I could plant in the empty space where the Magda and White Scallops had failed, only to find these! So far, it’s just the one pair of seeds. No sign where the other pair was planted, but if it took this long for the first ones to show up, there is still hope!

Now, they just need to survive.

Still no Magda here, but a second one germinated in the pot on the steps.

There is also a nice little row of tiny kohlrabi seedlings popping up in the potato bed at the chain link fence.

I got a surprise phone call this morning, too. The scrap guy was going to be in our area. Did we want him to come by?

Today???

Yes, today.

*sigh*

I’m taking my mother to her medical appointment today, so that won’t be an option. We talked a bit about the state of the ground for getting to the barn and stuff. He’s going to be in the area again later – he has to wait for the ground to dry out more, first, so he can’t say exactly when, but he can call us first, if we want.

Yes, please!

We need to re-bag the aluminum, anyhow. Between the cats, racoons and skunks, quite a few bags have been torn up. That’s the down side of having so many cat food cans in there!

Since I’m going to be in the area, anyhow, after I bring my mother home from her appointment, I’m going to head over to my homesteading friend that sells eggs. She’s overwhelmed with eggs again – this has been a good year for eggs for a lot of people! – and is all but giving them away. When she posted about it on FB and someone asked the price, she just said “whatever is reasonable!”

We still had eggs, but the girls cooked some up with their supper, and boiled the rest for egg salad, so there is room in the fridge again. I’ve asked for 4 flats. I remembered to ask if she needed egg trays, and she does, so I’ll be bringing a bunch of those over for her, too.

With all the driving around, plus the likelihood that my mother will be seen late (hard to say; I’ve actually been seen early, at this clinic!), and a trip to pick up eggs, I’ll probably not get home until well into the evening.

Today, we’re supposed to reach a high of 28C/82F, and now the forecast has the same high for the next two days. As I write this, we’re at 23C/73F, but the humidex is already at 31C/88F! Humidity is at 81%, but apparently there’s just a 9% chance of rain this afternoon – or thunderstorms, if I look at a different app!

Next weekend, we’re supposed to reach highs of 30C/86F, and stay there for days.

I do wish we had better forecast regarding rain or storms, so we know whether the garden needs to be watered or not! I probably will anyhow, tomorrow morning, just so the garden can better handle the heat.

Especially our tiny little seedlings!

The Re-Farmer

Soooo tired

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I am absolutely exhausted right now.

I took advantage of today’s relatively cooler 20C/68F, give or take a degree or two, to mow the lawns. Last night, we actually dropped to 8C/46F! At least, that’s what it was at about 5:30am I actually felt cold last night! Not cold enough to close the window, though. I was enjoying it too much!

I’d already done most of the edges around the yard with the weed trimmer yesterday. Today, I went to start the riding mower, but the battery was dead. So I put the charger on it, then used the push mower to mow the edges wider, so it would be easier to make the turns with the larger riding mower.

After doing all the edges along the inner yard, I got the riding mower going and started doing the rest.

I doubt I got as much as 50 feet of mowing before I gave up and parked the riding mower. I don’t know what’s wrong with that thing, but it just won’t cut! It’ll cut for the first foot or two, then nothing. The grass wasn’t that tall, so I can’t blame it on that, this time. If I reverse, then go back and forth a couple of times, I can finally clear an area – but only if the deck is as low as it can go, and I use the slowest speed.

At which point, it’s faster to use the push mower.

So that’s what I did.

By the time I finished the south and east yards – the largest sections with the thickest grass – I’d been out there for several hours. I went in for supper and was considering finishing the rest tomorrow. The north and west yards are a lot smaller, and the grass is thinner, so it wouldn’t take long.

Then I saw that we’re supposed to hit 27C/81F tomorrow.

There is no way I want to be mowing in that heat!

So I went out and finished the last two sections, and even mowed the one path through the maple grove I’ve managed to clear this year.

Then I filled the tank one last time and started working on the outer yard. Usually, I work in a circle, but this time I started at the chain link fence and just went back and forth until I ran out of gas. I managed to cut around the junk pile – most of that was grass that hadn’t been cut this year – and a path to the electricity meter. By the time I ran out of gas, I had almost finished clearing as far as the last time I was able to mow, except the driveway. I didn’t even try for the driveway this time. Next time, I’ll grab the gate key and mow all the way to the road.

But not today.

It was past 7pm by the time I finished, and I am totally beat!

I’m really happy with how the yards look, though, Plus, the grass clippings get to dry in the sun tomorrow, and at the end of the day, I should be able to collect quite a lot of it to use as mulch. Especially around the junk pile, where the grass was the tallest.

Also, I think there is a new litter of kittens in the junk pile. I’m seeing some white and greys running around in there. Previously, there’s only been the one fluffy tabby, until I found Button. I’m not sure if I saw two or three or four kittens!

Aside from the mowing, I tried to record some video for the July garden tour. I did some recordings yesterday evening, but I wasn’t sure I was happy with them. So I did more this morning. I don’t think I’m happy with them, either. However, I was really tired while going through the files, both times, so I think I’ll get one or both of my daughters to review them and tell me what they think.

Meanwhile…

After making some recordings this morning, I got a bit of a harvest.

Just little one!

I also startled a deer this morning! It was on the far side of the row of problem trees on the north side of the main garden.

Deer make the most interesting huffing noises.

While doing my rounds and mowing the lawn, I also saw lots and lots of frogs. All that rain may mean we’ve got lots of mosquitoes, but we also have lots of frogs to eat them, too!

I found this beauty on the upside down garbage can we use to support a rain diverter I needed to move so I could mow in the north yard. It’s held in place by a brick on each side. When I moved the diverter, the frog scooted under one of the bricks. I just had to move it long enough to get a picture! What a beauty!

Then I spotted this one.

I was still trying to use the riding mower when I spotted it climbing up the tent canopy that’s draped over the chain link fence right now. If it weren’t for the running motor, I would have taken video. It looked so adorable, climbing up the canvas! It’s body was, at most, an inch long. Probably less.

Even when using the push mower, there were a few times I had to pause to let some frogs jump out of the way. One little thing got stuck in the grass and I ended up catching it and moving it. That was was only about half an inch long!

I like frogs, and am so happy we’ve got so many this year!

Now, if they would just eat up all those slugs in the garden!

Well, I think I’m rested enough. Time for a shower. I’ve already got one of my daughters to put the bath chair in the tub for me. I’m so tired and unsteady right now, I don’t want to take a chance, no matter how many arm bars we’ve got in there!

It’s a “good” tired, though. Everything looks so much better out there, and I really do enjoy mowing!

Tomorrow, however, will be a different story. I am definitely going to be paying for that last push to do the outer yard! Just the weed wacking I did yesterday had my damaged left elbow hurting so much, it kept waking me up during the night. The pain killers I have don’t really do much for this type of injury, though. *sigh* It had been pretty good for so many years. Why is it coming back so badly, now?

Being broken really sucks.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: a tiny morning harvest

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My plan after doing my morning rounds was to get started on the weed trimming. It seems we got more rain overnight, though, so it’s probably not going to happen until this afternoon.

I did, however, get this.

Yes, I found one last garlic scape!

Or is it really the last one, this time? 😂

This was the first time there were enough sugar snap peas to harvest an actual handful. I also got a handful of raspberries. There were a couple of everbearing strawberries, but I ate them. The strawberries in with the raspberries are the tiny ones in the wattle weave bed we grew from seed. Such huge, strong plants, and such small berries! As cute as they are, they don’t taste any better, and they’re taking up space. I might decide to transplant them somewhere in the yard to grow wild, and use the space for something more productive.

The strawberries with the asparagus are a lost cause. I was going to put more netting around the bed but, at this point, that’s just locking the barn door after the horses have run away. There’s hardly anything left of them.

I wonder if they would survive if I transplanted them into the wattle weave bed, next to the ones already there?

The Re-Farmer