I’ve been working on another raised bed cover, with difficulty. I had to give up on plan A and switch to plan B, which involved stealing the hoops from the high raised bed. I left that for this morning, though. The beans still need to be protected from deer, though, so the raised bed cover I’d put over the carrots got moved over. With a daughter’s help, I was able to put it in place without damaging the beans, then drape the mesh over the fence wire.
That mesh catches on EVERYTHING!!!
I got a bit of a surprise, though. That bed is supposed to be 9′ x 4′ on the outside, to match the low raised beds, so the covers can be interchangeable. The low raised beds are 9′ x 3′, but with the log walls, the growing space is closer to 3′ than 4′, so that’s okay.
What I didn’t expect was for the cover to be almost 6 inches longer than the bed!
It works, though. Plus, the fence wire is open enough that I can just lift the mesh to reach in to weed and harvest, without taking the whole cover off. I also can use the ground staples to secure the mesh to the fence wire, which was not yet done when I took the above picture.
I did get a decent harvest this morning, though!
The green beans are really starting to recover from being eating by deer – they got hit a lot worse than the yellow beans. I finally picked that first yellow zucchini, and a G-Star patty pan. There is still a larger one that I’m leaving on the plant.
Last night, while doing my evening rounds, I discovered that the Black Beauty tomatoes needed help! The storm we had yesterday morning probably added to the problem. The tomatoes are getting so heavy, the entire support structure was starting to lean over with the weight, as well as more tomato laden branched hanging down. I’ve been tying them off regularly, but some still manage to escape. I’d already had to add a second support stake at the end, and last night I had to add three bamboo stakes, diagonally, to push back and hold the vertical supports.
The other photos in the slide show are from this morning. There are Spoon tomatoes starting to turn red! The earliest Sweet Chocolate peppers are starting to turn brown. (Most of the other short season varieties I started indoors later aren’t even blooming yet.) Some of the grapes are starting to turn colour, too!
I didn’t take photos, but there are more winter squash showing up, and I hand pollinated what I could. There is a single green zucchini that burst into bloom this morning – a female flower, with no male flowers blooming at all! I ended up hand pollinating it with a winter squash flower because none of the summer squash had male flowers available. Hopefully, that will be sufficient.
I salvaged some welded wire hardware cloth from the old squash tunnel this morning. Once I’m done with the raised bed cover I’m currently working on, there is one more frame left. I think I can use the salvaged mesh for that one. I’ll see if it will need hoops to support it, too. I hope not, because I’m out of useable hoops for that! There are still 2 more sections of hardware cloth on the old squash tunnel to salvage, which should be enough to wrap around the box cover over the popcorn bed. The cobs are developing nicely, which means the deer and racoons will be after it, soon!
High winds had started to knock down some of the purple corn, so they ended up getting stakes to support them. Their cobs are developing, too, but I don’t really have anything to protect that bed. I could use the fence wire for that, but it would be really difficult to manipulate and support that around the bed – and once it was up, we wouldn’t have access to tend it. Plus, the racoons would be able to climb over or squeeze through it, anyhow.
We’re looking at a high of 30C/86F today, and no rain, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some painting done today. The humidity is at 76%, though, and that certainly won’t help. Still, it needs to get done, and it’s one of the few things I can do in the heat. We’re not that hot yet, though, so I want to head back out right away and get as much done as I can before it gets unbearable!
The garlic had been curing on the picnic table and last night I trimmed, cleaned, strung and hung them, keeping the different varieties apart. Several couldn’t be hung and I brought them in to be used right away. We have so little garlic this year! A little is better than none, though. We’ll leave them hanging in the market tend for a while longer before bringing them inside.
The chamomile in the wattle weave bed is blooming nicely!
I got a picture of the developing gourds from the drum gourd and zucca melon bed. That is most definitely a zucca melon, not a drum gourd. I most definitely got mixed up with the labels. Which means we have no drum gourds developing at all. Not even female flowers.
We do have a couple of Caveman’s Club gourds, though! Well. One, so far. I just hand pollinated another one last night. We’ll see if it takes.
The Purple Peruvian potatoes in their grow bags are looking absolutely lush! The Irish Cobbler are getting yellow and falling over, and the Red Thumb are getting into that stage, but the Purple Peruvian look like they’re going to be growing for quite a while longer.
Last of all was an unusual find, as I was checking the squash to see what might need pollinating. I found a double flower!
Today is the last day of July, and our growing season is quickly running out. I have seen people in my local gardening groups who are even further north than we are, posting pictures of their much larger squash. I wish I knew how theirs are so much further ahead! Things are growing well this year, but I still can’t shake the feeling we are behind. So many squash plants still aren’t even producing female flowers yet.
Ah, well. We’ll get what we get, and every year is another year to improve our soil and growing conditions.
Oh, something I forgot to mention. Last winter, a neighbour who is moving had offered us a shed they needed to get rid of, that I was hoping to use as a chicken coop. Unfortunately, it didn’t handle the rest of the winter well, and they ended up scrapping it entirely. Now that the renter’s cows have been rotated out, I should grab the wagon along with some tools and see about getting that antique wagon chassis in the car graveyard. I still have hopes to build a mobile chicken coop on there.
I chose Cherry Belle radishes and Bresko beets. I wasn’t sure how many seeds I had left, so I brought two different varieties of spinach. I was able to sow the Lakeside variety, which is what we planted in the spring. I was so impressed with how they didn’t go bitter, even when they started to bolt, I definitely wanted to sow those again.
I used the boards I’d brought out to shelter the tomatoes from the wind in the spring and laid them out around the edges, where weeds are such a problem, as well as across the middle to divide the bed into three sections. I ended up adding a couple more boards at the ends, too. Aside from hopefully keeping the crab grass at bay and dividing the bed, they also give me something to step on while tending the middle rows.
The first thing I did was give the entire bed a watering, using the cone setting on my sprayer for more even coverage. Then I used a hoe to trench out three rows in each section. Those got a watering on the jet setting, because I wanted to drive the water deep. Even though I’d already watered the bed, the moisture didn’t get very far, and the trenches were quite dry. The water also leveled out the soil in the trenches, so they weren’t so deep.
Next, I used grass clippings to mulch along the boards and in between the rows. Once the mulch was down, I used a broken piece of bamboo stake to make the rows the seeds would be planted in.
I picked up a seeder at Dollar Tree, and this is the first time I used it. It worked rather well. In the photo are the beet seeds, which were easiest. The rounder radish and spinach seeds did sometimes get a bit out of control, though! 😄
The beets went into the middle sections, the spinach at the end closer to the house, and the radishes at the far end.
Once the seeds were in and lightly covered, I used the flat setting on the hose to water each row and settle the soil further around the seeds. The grass clippings were toasted dry in the sun, so I used the cone and shower settings to soak the mulch. Last of all, I used the jet setting to clean the loose grass clippings off the boards.
What I will probably do later is put some kind of cover over the whole thing. I think we have some mosquito netting long enough for it. I mostly want to keep the insects from eating the greens. Last year, the radishes seemed particularly vulnerable. As they get bigger, they will definitely be tempted for the deer, too!
We were at 26C/79F while I was out there. Another reason to make sure the bed got extra watering! The two northernmost rows of squash were wilting in the heat again, so I’ve got the sprinkler going on those. Squash need a lot of water, anyhow! I had been concerned that the two southern rows would have trouble because they get so much more shade, while the two northern rows basically get zero shade from sunrise to sunset. With this year’s heat, that shade it turning out to be helpful! Last year, with the flooding, it was the other way around. The squash that were in full sun strove mightily to recover from the flooding, while those in shade basically had no chance at all.
For the next week to ten days, we’re going to see increased heat. Depending on which app I look at, we’ll either have no rain at all, have several days or rain, or several days of thunderstorms! It’s awfully hard to plan things with such conflicting information!
Just a wee one, but big enough that I didn’t have room in my pocket for the patty pan. I’m going to have to start bringing out my harvest colander, just in case!
Also, it is SO much more comfortable to harvest bush beans in a high raised bed. Even in the low raised bed we grew some in last year, while much better than harvesting at ground level, it was still painful. The high raised bed is just awesome!
Not a bad first bean harvest, considering the plants got eaten by a deer. Especially the green beans. They’ve still got a lot more recovery, but I’m seeing so many developing pods in the process! I did pick some beans a couple of days ago; just a tiny handful, and not enough to call a “harvest”, really. Plus there have been a few early Romas ripening every few days or so. I picked one of the two larger G Star patty pans, leaving the other to get larger, while still more are developing.
While checking the garden, I found more blooming female squash flowers to hand pollinate. It looks like we’ve got a few squash that have pollinated successfully. Here are some of them.
Goldy yellow zucchini. I’m happy to see that large one developing, as there were no male flowers on the plant. I hand pollinated from a hulless pumpkin that was blooming, and it seems to have taken!
G Star patty pan. These are easily the most successful plants we have. I picked one of the larger squash, choosing the slightly misshapen on, leaving the other to get bigger. There are many more developing.
Georgia Candy Roaster. Another one that got hand pollinated from another variety.
Sunburst patty pans. The one surviving plant is looking strong and healthy now, and starting to bloom.
Pink Banana. The first, tiny female flower! I’ll have to keep an eye on it, to make sure it gets pollinated as soon as it opens.
Honeyboat Delicata. There’s still just the one, even though we have the most plants of these. It seems to be doing all right.
Red Kuri. We have a couple of these, one on each plant. Previously, we grew these on trellises. It should be interesting to see how they do, without climbing.
Endeavor zucchini. One sad green zucchini plant is finally looking stronger and healthier, and starting to produce female flowers.
There are others, but I didn’t take pictures of everything. The entire squash patch looks SO much better than last year. The slugs may have done a number on the summer squash, but now they seem to be leaving them alone.
July is almost gone, though. We’re really going to need a long, mild fall for the winter squash to reach full maturity.
I’ll have to remember to take photos, but I’m wondering if I’ve miss labelled the little patch with the African Drum gourds and Zucca melons. While transplanting, there were three labelled Drum gourd, three labelled Zucca melon, and three where I could no longer reach the label, so it could be one or the other. These got planted and replanted when starting the seeds.
Right now, we are seeing female flowers in the drum gourd row that I’ve been hand pollinating. As they get bigger and start dropping down, I’m seeing that they are developing a sort of hourglass shape.
Kinda like this shape, except tiny, and fuzzy.
That is an image of mature zucca melon, from the Baker Creek website.
This is the Baker Creek image for the African drum gourd. The developing gourds we have do not look like that.
If I accidentally mislabelled things, does that mean the other plants, which have no female flowers yet, are the drum gourds? Or are they all zucca, and no drums? The flowers and leaves for all the gourds we’ve grown look very similar. Even compared to the attempted apple and canteen gourds from last year. The plants on the chain link fence were the surviving first seed starts; one of each, and I know those were labelled correctly. They are blooming, but the vines are so long and skinny, and there are only male flowers, so there isn’t much to help identify there.
I get regular emails from Veseys, promoting their products, and got a very interesting one today. On following the link, I knew I had to place an order!
“Exclusively Canadian, these bulbs are produced in Quebec. “
Okay, to technically they are a zone 4 bulb, but so is our Liberty apple tree. We’ll just have to make sure they get adequate protection over the winter, too.
One package is for 20 bulbs but, according to the website, “Bulbs typically triple their flower output year over year.” So if they survive their first year, we should continue to have increased amounts, year after year.
The bulbs ship in the middle of August and need to be planted right away. As they need full sun, we’ll just add them to the area where we currently have the tulips planted. We’ll have time to prep it before they get shipped.
Then, because I wanted to use a promo code from Maritime Gardening to get free shipping, I had to order at least one packet of seeds, so I asked my daughters if they had any preferences. My younger daughter came down to look at flower seeds for our zone and chose these.
These are Orange Shades Butterfly flowers. Also known as milkweed, so they will not only be great for the pollinators, but for the monarch butterfly caterpillars.
The first unexpected thing of the morning was being awakened by my husband, asking what the current status was for feeding the indoor cats.
With Leyendecker getting his meds morning and evening for 10 days (the next 10 days will be evening only), and having to control what he eats, the girls have been putting food out for all the cats at the same time.
It wasn’t done at the usual time this morning.
Which means Leyendecker’s meds weren’t done, either. I slept right through it.
Why did I sleep right though it? I have reminders set to go off on my phone.
The next unexpected thing was not being able to move. I had a Question asleep on my neck, and several other kittens sleeping on various parts of my body.
I was eventually able to reach my phone, unplug it and check it.
It was off.
I did not turn it off. I have my phone playing soothing music or whatever, to help me fall asleep. It was active when I fell asleep.
I turned the power on, the start up routine began and…
Nothing.
My phone was a brick.
After prying off the rest of the kittens, I was eventually able to find that the charger itself had been unplugged at the power bar. Because of the cats, I actually have the power bar hanging from under my craft table. Somehow, the kittens rough and tumbled enough to yank it right out.
So I did my morning rounds with no phone, which means no pictures!
I’ll just share this picture from last night with you, instead.
Retired Grandma has finally accepted the kittens. I now regularly find her asleep on my bed, with at least Question or Ghosty snuggled up. This is the first time I saw her with 5 out of 6 kittens!
After extricating myself from the kittens again, I was able to give Leyendecker his meds and feed the indoor cats. We’re still not seeing Leyendecker eating. I don’t know what to make of it. He’s certainly drinking plenty, and we are still catching him trying to spray around the house, so he’s not blocked. When he’s getting meds once a day instead of twice, we’ll see if his appetite picks up.
I have yet to see the girls this morning. They both pulled all-nighters, I think. My older daughter was working, of course, but in between working on commissions, she came down to help her sister. My younger daughter was doing some baking during the night, because it’s too hot to bake during the day. One of the things they’ve been working on is the living room. Being a cat free zone now, we’ve been putting way too many things in there to get them away from the cats. We need to organize it and move things around because… !!!
My brother is coming out tomorrow morning with an air conditioner for us!!!
We have not seen it yet, but it’s one of those portable ones that would normally be set up in a window. We have no windows it can be set up in. It also needs a 3 prong outlet, and we don’t have a lot of those in the house.
So what my brother will be doing is making a hole in the wall under the big picture window in the living room to install a vent for the AC hose. To make space for the AC set up, the girls plan to rearrange the living room. It’s as good an excuse as any to finally get to reorganizing the room, and taking out stuff that shouldn’t be in there in the first place!
As I will likely be in the city for our Costco shop, my brother plans to come out quite early in the morning, so we can get it done before I leave.
My brother is a morning person.
I am not.
Anyhow. That’s now arranged, and having that AC is going to make live much more comfortable in the house!
So that will be done tomorrow.
After taking care of Leyencker’s meds, I headed outside to do my morning rounds. My husband had already put food out for the yard cats, which was much appreciated. There are a couple of kittens that allow me to clean their eyes, so I check for them right away. One white and grey one was looking much better this morning, which was a relief. I’d done its eyes last night, because one was stuck completely shut. as soon as I cleaned it to the point that the lids become unstuck, goo absolutely poured out, completely covering the damp paper towel I was using to clean it. It took me three sheets of towel to get its eyes and face cleaned up. Its nose is also really sticky and last night it was so bad, there was even kibble stuck to its face! Thankfully, it did not need any eye washing or nose clearing at all, this morning.
In checking the garden beds, I took extra care to check the Black Beauty tomatoes. Last night, I found several branches bent over from the weight of the tomatoes, in spite of their supports. I was finding and tying supports to those, even adding another bamboo stake at the end of the bed, when the girls came out for an evening walk. They helped me add more support lines to the melon bed trellis, as those are getting long enough to need training up the trellis.
This morning, the bent tomato branches I tied off are looking good – no wilting to show they were badly damaged. The melon vines were holding out on the trellis, too.
In checking the bush beans, I was able to actually harvest a handful of both green and yellow beans! They are recovering quite nicely from being eaten. I expect to have plenty more to harvest, soon.
Oh, speaking of unexpected things; I was looking over the squash growing in our compost ring, and a couple of new female flowers were blooming, so I hand pollinated them, just in case. On one vine, the developing squash look pretty usual; just round, green balls, as I would expect from a pumpkin. Another vine, however, is clearly some sort of hybrid. The developing squash are more elongated, but had flat parts on the surface. Completely unlike anything we’ve grown before.
It should be interesting to see what we get out of those!
There is also a developing Caveman’s Club gourd on the chain link fence trellis that’s looking pretty good!
In the main garden, the G-Star patty pan squash have exploded in huge flowers – but only one female! Previously, it was female flowers blooming, but no males. Checking the other squash, I have been finding developing fruit that point to successful pollination. There is still just the one Honeyboat Delicata that I hand pollinated, though that variety has the most transplants of them all. I was checking the label on another and saw we have some Red Kuri/Little Gem squash developing. It’s a good thing I label these, because I forgot we had any of those germinate at all. I’m also seeing some Candy Roasters and Winter Sweets developing. There are even some summer squash starting to show up. We have no surviving Madga squash at all, but there is one each of the yellow pattypan, yellow zucchini and green zucchini, and all of them are showing both male and female flowers.
The African Drum gourds seem to be doing well. I was able to hand pollinate another female flower this morning. Still no female Zucca melon flowers, though.
I spotted a hidden female flower among the Crespo squash, too, but I’m really wondering about those. The plants look completely different from the first years we grew those.
We’ll find out, eventually! Praying for a long mild fall, so give all these time to fully mature on the vine!
While it was still cool, I started working on that water pipe to the garden tap. I moved off the rocks around the tap base, then started digging a trench. I’ll have to go back later with the loppers, as there are so many roots to cut away from over and around the pipe.
What I found so far is even more of a mystery. I will be sure to take photos to show what I mean, now that my phone is no longer a dead brick. I wish I knew what was going on when this pipe was laid, because I’m just even more confused than ever. Perhaps when my brother comes out tomorrow, he’ll be able to look at it and remember something.
Now, the easy thing would be for us to simply run a hose from the house tap to the garden tap on the surface, then put the hose away for the winter. But I really like the original, more permanent set up. Once we get this old hose cleared out, I want to have another buried line, but I want to learn from what we’ve got going right now. I plant to lay down pipe large enough to accommodate a garden hose. The pipe comes in sections, so if for some reason there is damage, only a section would need to be dug up and replaced, not the whole thing. I also plan to drill drainage holes, in case the hose somehow gets damaged, or in case water gets in some other way. We can buy pipe with drainage holes, but the extra cost for something I can do myself isn’t worth it. They won’t even need that many drainage holes. At each end of the pipe, I want to have 45° fittings. At the garden end, I plan for the end to go into the support pillar the tap and pipe will be fitted into. At the house end, the opening will be closed/filled around the hose end to prevent dirt, water or critters from getting in, but something easily removed.
As for the hose itself, having it run through the pipe will make it easy to remove for repair or replacement. The support pillar box I plan to build for the garden tap end will have an access door that opens on one side (unless I go with a different design; it’s still flexible). There will be room enough to store things, including a length of cord that can be tied to the hose end. If the hose needs to be repaired or replaced, the hose, with the cord attached, can be pulled out at the house end, get taken care of, then the cord can be used to pull the repaired or replaced hose back through the pipe to the garden tap. If we wanted to, we could even remove the hose for the winter, though it shouldn’t be required.
Done right, this should last at least another 50 or more years, and allow for easy access for repair or maintenance, and not have a hose or pipe on the surface to have to work around.
Well, I sure got distracted! Here, I was supposed to be just writing about my morning. LOL
Aside from digging up more trench this morning, I also harvested the garlic. They are currently outside in the sun to dry a bit, then I will tie them off to hang in the old market tent to cure. Maybe. The humidity levels may be too high for that. I might have to find somewhere else to hang them to cure. We’ll see how the weather turns out.
We have quite a few soft neck garlic, but they are not very large. I probably should have left them longer, but so many have been broken flat by cats lying on them, I just went ahead and pulled them all. The hard neck garlic from saved cloves – the Porcelain Music – are the biggest we’ve ever grown! One is just huge. I can’t remember the other variety that we bought along with the soft neck garlic, but they are also quite large.
Once the bed is clear, I will do the fall planting I intended to do where the peas are. The peas have started blooming again! So I will just leave them. After talking with my daughters, we will do a fall planting of spinach, a few radish (turns out my younger daughter likes radish!) and some beets. All of these should grow fast enough that we’ll have something to harvest before first frost.
But first, I need to organize my garden supplies in the living room, move things out and make some space, so my daughters can rearrange the furniture.
This was the first time she nursed the babies in the comfort of my bed. She is so tiny!
And filthy. Especially her belly. Those kittens get her very dirty! She has gotten to the point where she actually enjoys being held and cuddled, so chances are pretty good we should at least be able to take a damp washcloth to her.
I spotted the two kittens in the junk pile, without mom around, playing. When it saw me, the black one went and hid, but the other one stayed and watched me while I took photos. The black one has a single small patch of white on its chest that I could see.
The third photo is of a kitten I’ve never seen before. I saw it again this morning, with two other kittens of similar size that I didn’t recognize. I have no idea which mother they came with. There are several of the more feral mamas that had kittens quite early in the spring, and I was wondering when their babies would start showing up.
Beside the main garden, there is an area we’ve allowed to grow wild that is now tall with what I thought was a type of alfalfa but, when I tried to look it up, I couldn’t find any images with white flowers like them.
Whatever it is, it was just buzzing with bees last night, and I managed to get a decent picture.
I also got a picture of our first fresh garlic – after cleaning it off with the hose!
The squash is our first Honeyboat Delicata. The one I hand pollinated from a different type of squash, as there were no Delicata male flowers blooming. There still aren’t. So far, it looks like the cross pollination took. Hopefully, we’ll have at least one Delicata to try and see if we like them, and if the Honeyboat variety really does store well. If so, we will plant them again – with purchased seeds, though, since the seeds from any we grow this year will likely all be cross pollinated.
And finally, a handful of Royalty raspberries I picked this morning! Most of those were from one plant, with a few from a second. The third is the smallest, and its berries are still unripe.
I’m still amazed we got any at all in their transplant year!
I forgot to get a picture, but one of the African Drum gourd female flowers was blooming this morning, so I made sure to pollinate it with one of the male flowers from another African Drum gourd. If it works out, it should be interesting to see just how fast the gourds develop, and if we have a mild enough fall for them to reach full maturity.
In other things, we’re concerned about Leyendecker. He’s getting his medications, but he’s still refusing to eat. We even mixed the new food with the food he’s used to, and he won’t eat either! He also spends most of his days just lying around, but that could be from the medications. This morning, while staying with him in the bathroom, trying to convince him to eat, he just sprawled tragically at the closed door. I took the opportunity to palpate his abdomen. He not only tolerated it, but shifted so I could reach better as I was pushing around where his bladder is. He had just gotten his medications, so it would have been too soon for the pain killers to kick in. If he were having blocking issues, my poking around would have been very uncomfortable for him, and I would have been able to feel an over full bladder. Neither was an issue. So we’re not sure what’s going on with him right now. 😟 We will continue to monitor him.
For now, I’m going to go help my daughter with juicing those cherries we picked. By request, we will be making jelly with them!
Well, I did get some sleep last night! The kittens did tackle me, but I almost slept through it. I really, really have to watch myself, though. I leaned forward in bed this morning, and something moved. Turned out I had a kitten curled up right against my belly!
My daughter, unfortunately, did not get any sleep at all last night. Big Rig would not leave her alone! So she was up and about early to find Leyendecker for his morning medications. As I was getting up to help her, I realized I was hearing pouring rain over the sound of my fan! We were not supposed to get rain today. That’s why I watered the garden yesterday!
My daughter went on to feed the outside cats while I supervised Leyendecker, trying to get him to eat his new food. The first time my daughter gave it to him, he ate it hungrily. Now, he won’t eat it at all. We’re not sure what’s going on. Even when he’s around the main food bowls, which we now keep empty between feedings, he hasn’t even really been looking for more food. It’s likely the medications are causing him to loose his appetite, but I don’t remember it happening when he was on them before.
Since it was pouring so hard out, I went back to bed. My sense of time is now completely messed up! I went out to do my “morning” rounds a little while ago, but it was about 3pm. It still feels like morning.
Anyhow, here are some of my finds of the day!
When I saw Octomom heading for the kibble house, I checked on her babies. Usually, they’re asleep when she leaves, but not today!
It took me watching this a couple of times, counting and recounting, before I finally spotted the eighth kitten, under the two black ones! 😄
While finishing my rounds, I spotted the kittens in the junk pile with their mama.
Looks like it’s just the 2 of them, and they’re starting to go further afield! I expect we’ll soon be seeing them eating in the bowl under the shrine. 😊
I managed to get a picture of the tuxedo with the messed up eye. This photo is cropped closer, to see it better.
I’m really surprised. That eye is clearing up really well! The inner eyelid is swollen like crazy, but I was sure he was going to lose that eye completely. I am happy to say, it looks like I was wrong!
Meanwhile, I had a first in the (very well watered!) garden today!
Our very first ripe Roma tomato! It picked itself. This was the first tomato to show up, so no surprise it ripened first. I reached out to touch it and it fell off the vine into my hand!
The next picture is of ripening Indigo Blue Chocolate tomatoes. Now I can see where the “chocolate” part of the name came from!
I didn’t get a picture, but I saw a female Crespo squash in full flower, and I made sure to hand pollinate it. In the photos above, you can see the female African Drum gourd flowers are getting larger. The male flowers have been blooming consistently, so I expect to be able to pollinate those by hand when they finally open.
The last picture is of the G-Star patty pans, and we’ve got a switch on that one! The female flowers are blooming, but the male flowers just buds right now. Which means those lovely looking squash are not going to develop fully. There aren’t even any other summer squash blossoms I could use to pollinate with. I suppose I could try using a winter squash blossom, but I don’t know if they are similar enough for that to work. The G-Star plants are doing very well, though, so I expect we’ll have both male and female flowers blossoming at the same time, fairly soon.
I’m thinking it might be time to harvest the garlic. I want to give the bulbs time to get nice and big – we have so few of them this year – but the stems are drying out, which means they probably won’t get much bigger than they are now. That will free up an entire bed for something else, if we harvest those soon.
In the wattle weave bed, I transplanted 4 different early peppers, just in case we didn’t get a chance to transplant more in the grow bags. When watering last night, it looked like one of them has suddenly died. I could not find a reason why, but it’s wilting away. Nothing else around it is affected. There is no insect damage that I can find. It even looks strong around the stem and roots. I hope it perks up, but I don’t think it will. Everything else in that bed is doing well. Even the chamomile is starting to bloom. That first luffa we planted in there is getting so big, it has started to climb the lilac above it, and clusters of flower buds are starting to appear.
My sense of time is not just messed up about today, where I feel like it’s so much earlier in the day. I also get that sense, in reverse, when tending the garden. “Spring” arrived so early this year, it feels like we’re heading into fall, when we’ve still got half the summer to go. I keep thinking I should be harvesting things from the garden regularly by now. I’ve looked back at photos I took in July over the last two years to get some comparison, and we weren’t harvesting much at all at this time. When we grew melons successfully, 2 years ago, we had baseball sized fruits developing at this time. This year’s melons germinated so late, they’re just starting to bloom right now, and just male flowers so far. Some of the corn was behind what we have now, while others ahead. No surprise the summer squash was ahead compared to this year, since this year we have barely any and did direct sowing instead of transplants. I’m glad I took so many photos. It helps me get a sense of what to expect now, more or less, based on how things did in past years. Taking into account that 2 years ago was a drought year with heat waves (which the melons loved!) and last year a lot of things were lost to flooding in the spring.
I guess I feel better after looking at the photos from previous years. Some things, I can’t quite figure out why there is a significant different between them and this year. Others, it’s pretty obvious!
At least we’re not having to deal with groundhogs eating everything again! They seem to have moved on and are staying away, and I’m quite happy with that!
Now we just have to worry about racoons! Especially when it comes to the corn.
We picked as many as we could reach using the little household stepladder. The ground is too uneven to safely use the bigger A frame ladder, even with a spotter. Which is okay. We can leave the rest for the birds! We almost filled the colander we were using to gather them. Then my daughter used one of the window screens we found in a shed that have been so handy to lay them out. She gave them a good washing and picked over them to get rid of any damaged or bird eaten ones that got missed. I think we still had about 5 pounds of cherries when she was done. I’m thinking we might make a syrup out of them, but will look up different ideas to try, first.
There are SO many grape clusters! I’m still amazed. The most we’ve ever since since moving here. It will be some time before they’re ripe, though. The chokecherry tree by the compost ring and low raised beds will be ready to harvest soon. Actually, there are two of them, very close together. There’s a larger, healthier looking chokecherry tree by the main garden area, but with the tall trees beside it, it doesn’t get anywhere near as much sun as the one by the low raised beds. The berries on there are still mostly green, and there are far fewer of them. These trees are still pretty spindly, as they were quite choked out until we cleaned up around them, but they are just covered with berry clusters, weighing down the branches.
While checking the grape vines, I was on the lookout for more of those caterpillars, but accidentally knocked a big brown one onto the ground!
I tried to pick it up to put it back, but it kept flipping, uncurling and curling. It was remarkably strong! In my attempts to use leaves and twigs to move it, it flipped itself onto the step, which made it very convenient to take photos! I did finally get it on a grape leaf and back onto the vine.
Then I went to get one of the vines out of the spirea, where I found the green spotted caterpillar. So pretty! I was able to untangle the vine without disturbing it.
While I had the timer going for the sprinklers in the garden, I finally finished attaching the fence wire to the raised bed cover frame.
While setting up to work on it, I noticed that a screw in one corner – top right in the first photo – had snapped, allowing the pieces to rotate slightly. Not good!
Propping the frame up with boards helped steady it, but it was a real pain to attach that fence wire. Plus, Gooby decided that rolling around on the ground and sticking his head or feet right were I was hammering was a good idea.
It was not a good idea.
He was very determined, though!
I did finally get the fence wire attached. Between the snapped screw in one corner, and the likelihood of the U nails simply popping out while the frame is being moved, I decided adding extra boards to sandwich the fence wire was a necessity. I cut spare pieces to length, but by then I had worked my way through the sprinkler and soaker hoses, and needed to do the rest of the watering directly. My daughter was a sweetheart and attached the new lengths to the frame for me. That definitely made the whole thing stronger.
The lengths of fence wire for this was 5′, which made for a rather tall arc. This would be perfect for things like the bush beans on the high raised bed. For the next one, though, I’ll use 4′ lengths.
What I will not use, though, is that fence wire again! The twisted wire at every join is just too thick, making attaching it to the wood less secure. I still want to have something structurally sturdy, though, as it has to support any mesh, plastic or netting that is laid over it. Either that or I will need to add hoops to support the material. Hardware cloth or chicken wire would not be enough on their own.
With this one, I plan to cover it with the black netting we have, closing up the ends in the process. That will make sure no cats will get into the beds and lay down on our vegetables!
The buggers.
Meanwhile, the garden got a good watering. We hit 28C/82F today, as we did yesterday, but did not get any of the scattered rain showers that were predicted. Tomorrow, at least, will be a slightly more pleasant 23C/73F but it’s supposed to reach that temperature by noon and stay there until 7pm. To top it all off, we’ve got air quality advisories from all the wildfires. It was definitely on the hazy side, today! Just moderate air quality advisories for our area. Others are listed as extreme, so we don’t have much to complain about, that’s for sure.
I gave up trying to go to bed early today – at least not as early as the last couple of nights. Still debating whether I should try sleeping on the couch to reduce the interruptions by kittens.
Speaking of kittens, Question has absolutely glommed onto me today! She’s constantly climbing up me, whether I’m standing or sitting. While bending over to pick up the adult cat food bowls, I suddenly had a kitten hanging off my butt. Question had been on the bed behind me and went for it. When I stood up, she climbed her way up to my shoulders and stayed there! After feeding them, I sat down to work on the computer with my own supper. Even though she ate her own food enthusiastically, she was determined to eat mine, too! She was not happy that I would not let her! When we were done giving Leyendecker his medications, I settled at the computer again, only to have her climb up me again, to nap on my chest. As I write this, I’m leaning way back in my chair as she sits on my belly. I think she’s nodding off! None of the other kittens behave like this. Mind you, while her sister has been improving in health, Question is still really gooby, and doesn’t have as much energy as the other kittens.
What a handful the litter bugger is, though. Literally. She’s just a tiny little handful. They all are! Not for long, though. They sure are growing fast!
Well, I need to make up my mind on where I plan to sleep tonight.
We’re supposed to get quite hot for the next while, so I tried going to be very early. Usually, I don’t go to bed until 2 am or so. Especially this time of year, when it’s still light out for so long. So “early” usually means “before midnight” for me. Instead, I tried to be in bed by about 8, hoping to be up and about outside by 5.
It didn’t work.
Some people can fall asleep soon after lying down. My husband has always been able to do that. I’ve never been one of these! I think I did finally fall asleep before midnight, but didn’t wake up any earlier.
Also, I need to start being very careful rolling over at night, because I’m starting to wake up with kittens chewing on my toes!
Anyhow.
The first order of business outside was to feed the cats. One of the first cats to show up was Octomom! I think the girls had called her Slick, but she’s around so infrequently, the name didn’t stick.
She is such a beauty! She didn’t like me being around, though, and kept moving away as I set kibble out in different places.
Last of all, I put kibble in the bowl in the garage for her. It was not only empty, but I could see in the box nest, that she had been digging around for any remaining kibble that might have been left behind in there.
Since the mama was at the kibble house, I took advantage of it. I grabbed one of the blankets, then went over to the barrel the kittens are in. After removing the “cover” (a sheet of aluminum weighed down with a brick), I took out the rotted pieces of the barrel top that had fallen inside, then lay down the blanket on one half of the bottom – which, I could not see, is just dirt. The barrel is upside down. The pieces I had taken out used to be the “floor” of the barrel. Now, it’s open at both ends.
After moving all the kittens onto the blanket, I went and got the other one and tucked it into the other half. Then I found some clean pieces of wood in the garage. They used to be part of the packaging for the wood chipper, if I remember correctly. They are longer, and I put them at angles above the kittens. This gives the mama something to land on when she jumps in, and an area to perch on above her kittens, when she needs a baby break.
By the time I was putting the cover back on, the mama was returning, and she was not happy to see me! She hovered around, growling at me, until I moved away. I watched as she climbed up to the rim of the barrel and looked down, but she did not go in yet. Instead, she perched on the edge and glared at me! The last I saw, she had moved onto the other barrel and continued to watch as I continued my morning rounds. I’ve been out that way a couple of times, since, and once I saw her in the grass. Later on, I’ll have to check again, when I’m sure the mama isn’t around.
As I headed back to the sun room, I spotted this.
It’s SuperAdam!
I don’t think any of those kittens are her own, and there are kittens from at least 3, possibly 4, litters that she is nursing!
One of the things I checked this morning was the raspberries, of course.
Those purple raspberries we transplanted this spring are doing amazing! The one in the photo is the largest of the three. We have been able to pick a whole 5 ripe raspberries from the three bushes.
The other image is of the raspberries I picked from the ones in the main garden area. My mother had transplanted them in the area long before we moved out here. Now that the crab apple tree that was there has died and was cut down, the raspberry bushes at that end, and around the old compost pile, are doing much better! The ones at the other end, closer to the chokecherry tree, are not doing as well.
Also, I don’t know if you’re seeing the bowl of raspberries okay, but after I uploaded the images to Instagram, that picture now looks like it’s got a semitransparent black overlay on it. Instagram seems to have issues with multiple images uploaded at once.
One of the other things I worked on this morning was an experiment.
I took the remains of some chicken wire and added it to the box frame. It’s just held in place with wire twists. I had a lot less chicken wire than I thought; not even enough to cover one side.
We do have enough of the black netting we got last year to cover it completely, which we might use as a temporary cover. I definitely want to use hardware cloth attached semi-permanently to the sides. I will probably put some on the top, too, but not permanently. The thing it, once the sides are covered, the only way to tend the bed would be to remove the box cover completely. That would be a 2 person job, to avoid damaging the corn.
Hmm… I was just thinking, as I look at that picture. Right now, I’ve got the excess wire over the top. The hardware cloth also comes in 4′ widths. I could have excess mesh on the bottom, covering the sides of the raised bed. That would ensure critters won’t be able to slip under the bottom of the box cover. It would also serve to keep the whole thing from getting knocked off the bed by a determined critter.
Something to think about.
By the time this was done, it was getting too hot and humid to stay outside, and it wasn’t even 10am yet!
We have a change in plans for today, anyhow.
We got a call from the vet clinic about Leyendecker’s appointment tomorrow. Looks like they got a cancellation or something, because they were asking if we could come in today, instead! So he now has a 4:30 appointment today.
Hopefully, it will not be something serious, but after his last vet visits, I have my doubts. 😟
The Re-Farmer 