2026 garden

Our 2026 Garden; getting covered, a harvest, and brave flowers

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This evening, I was able to head out to the garden before things got dark and cold. We are looking at a potential low of 1-2C/34-36F, depending on what app I look at. 1C/34F is cold enough for potential frost.

So I first made sure to bring our single winter squash that was curing, into the house. Then I took our frost cloths (repurposed old sheets) to see what we could cover. My older daughter came out to help.

Embedding from Instagram seems to crop the images quite a bit. Irritating!

Three of the clothes I brought were the right size to wrap around the protective tomato cages around the California Wonder bell peppers, and another around the Sweet Chocolate peppers and eggplant. I got some garden wire and my daughter helped me fasten the bamboo supports for the Chocolate Stripe tomatoes at the top. This old sheet was large enough to drape over the supports and reach all the way to the ground on all sides! All of these got secured with garden clips and clothes pegs, to keep them from blowing away.

After that, my daughter started to harvest the fully dry caraway seed heads while I started harvesting some bush beans. She finished first, then helped me pick beans. After that, she watered the melons – we had lots of rain the past few days, but they were covered, so they didn’t get any direct watering – while I moved on to pick beans from beside the Arikara squash plant. Then I picked some of the ripest larger tomatoes. My daughter joined me in time to work on harvesting the Orange Currant tomatoes.

She had to go inside before we got all the tiny tomatoes. This bed is one we don’t have anything large enough to cover and protect from frost.

I was finishing up and gathering the containers when I noticed something in the next bed.

Every single Swiss Chard in that bed is gone.

*sigh*

They never got quite large enough to be worth harvesting yet!!

From there, I went to the old kitchen garden and harvested what little there was that looked big enough. Then I used my last and largest sheet to cover the self seeded tomatoes in the wattle weave bed, which you can see in the second image of the slide show above.

In the last picture, you can see the harvest. The larger tomatoes that are split, I will cut the split off then dehydrate the rest of the tomatoes. I finally harvested the one green scallop squash I had been leaving to get bigger. There was only one other that was at all large enough to harvest. I grabbed a few little yellow zucchini.

If we do get a frost tonight, this is very likely the last harvest we get of the summer squash, beans and tomatoes. There are so many green tomatoes on the plants. I was talking to the girls about bringing them inside to ripen, but they tell me that it’s not worth it. They say tomatoes ripened indoors don’t test as good, but mealy instead. I’ll have to take their word for it.

One thing that isn’t having a hard time with the cooler weather are the marigolds and cosmos!

These are the French Dwarf marigolds that suddenly got quite a bit taller. I neglected to get a picture, but the Crackerjack marigolds by the high raised bed have gotten taller than any marigolds I’ve ever seen before – well above the height of the high raised bed. The cosmos are a dwarf variety, so they aren’t as tall as what we had last year, but some of them still reach higher than the high raised bed, too.

With the cooler weather, there are still some thing I expect to harvest. There are the carrots, which we haven’t been trying to get at lately. We will need to start digging those up, though they can stay in the ground for quite a while longer. There are also the Red Beard bunching onions, which can stay longer. None of the onions from our own seed appear to have survived much after transplanting. They got smushed at some point. Probably rolled on by cats. There’s the beets and the parsnips, and I still can’t tell if we have much root development in those. I’m also not sure about the chicory. At this stage, I don’t expect them to bloom anymore, but will they still have roots worth harvesting? The Florence Fennel all bolted, but I should be able to harvest seeds from them, instead. I don’t expect to have any Diakon radish, since they all bolted, too. I don’t think we can even harvest seed pods from those, they are so badly damaged.

If we get frost, that’ll be it for the winter squash on the chain link fence. The sunflowers might be okay, but it doesn’t look like we’ll have any seed heads worth harvesting.

Tomorrow morning, the covers will need to come off. We are supposed to get rain from about 3pm – 9pm, and the overnight low is supposed to be warmer than tonight, so we might be able to get away with not covering them again for quite some time. The rain itself would prevent an actual frost and covering them while it’s raining might be worse than not covering them at all. It looks like things will actually be decently warm for the next 10-15 days or so! All it takes is one cold night to kill everything off, though.

We need to leave by about 9am tomorrow morning for my daughter’s appointment at the Women’s Hospital in the city. This time around, I’m not even going to try an park by the hospital and keep adding $2 to the meter every half hour, when we don’t know how long it’ll be. I’ll drop the girls off at the door, then head back out to a shopping area with free parking. Maybe check out a Michaels and see their craft supplies. My bead kit came in today, so there isn’t much more I need to find before I can start making the Christmas ornaments I have in mind. I’ll just need somewhere to hang out until my daughters message me to come pick them up. Depending on how long her appointment ends up being, we might be able to get home before the rain starts.

What I should be working on now is preparing beds for the winter, and for the garlic we need to be planting in October. Something may not be physically able to do, if I’m going to be having surgery by the middle of October. There’s only so much my daughters can do, as they are dealing with quite a lot of pain issues, too, though very different from my own.

This year has basically been in a holding pattern. Virtually no progress. We even had a lot of good weather days that I should have been able to take advantage off. Instead, I am largely banned from manual labour, and spend way too much time having to lie down due to pain.

Ah, well. It is what it is. We do what we can with what we’ve got!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: Will they make it?

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I’m glad I was able to get outside this morning. It started raining in the afternoon and is expected to continue through to about 3am.

Last night, we dropped to about 5 or 6C/41 or 43F, depending on which app I check. Tonight, it’s supposed to drop to 9 or 11C/48 or52F, depending on where I look, so no worries of frost. The next night, however, is expected to drop to 3 or 4C/37 or 39F Definitely enough to start covering things, even if we don’t get frost.

Some things can’t be covered, though. Things like this Butterneck squash.

These are the two largest ones. In the second photo, you can just see a bit of wind damage. The Black Russian sunflowers on this side are shorter than the Mammoth ones, and the high winds have been pushing them all over the place. I’ve had to untangle both varieties of sunflowers from each other. In this corner, a couple of shorter sunflowers had gotten tangled with the squash vines climbing the fence. One of them ended up right against that second developing squash. The stalks of sunflowers are quite course and the winds pushing them around damaged the squash’ skin like sandpaper.

I know these are unlikely to survive an actual frost. Will they survive temperatures just above that? Hard to say. The colder temperature and shorter daylight hours also mean they are growing more slowly, so they will take more time to mature even without the colder temperatures.

These squash are from the second sowing of seed starts I did after discovering all the squash and melon seedlings were destroyed overnight, so these are also already quite late. One of the other things from the second sowing that got transplanted is a Black Futsu squash. When I bought some butternut transplants and the plants seemed to be growing all right after being transplanted, but they are barely even blooming now. The winter squash in that area that is growing and actually has female flowers and developing melons are the Black Futsu. They look like little green golf balls right now, and one of the earlier ones seems to have disappeared. So we won’t be getting any butternut squash from from the purchased transplants at all.

I headed out again not long ago to do the evening cat feeding, but it was raining pretty hard, so I didn’t check any of the garden beds. Unfortunately, it looks like we’ve lost more cats. Neither my daughters nor I have seen Bug for a while now. My precious little Bug is missing! I was never even able to get her to accept pets from me again, other than sneaking them while she was eating.

We need to do another head out in the morning. That’s when most of them show up.

I’m so glad we got Slick’s orphans to the rescue when we did. I got a quick update on them. They are allowing themselves to be held, and the one that was the most alarmed and scared and fighting us off? That was the first one to start purring!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: curing and collecting

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Well, I’m certainly glad I was able to cover those melons yesterday. According to the weather app on my phone, we dropped to 4C/39F last night. No frost, but still cold enough to potentially cause problems for heat lovers like melons.

When I headed out to check the garden beds this morning, I made sure to fill the slow watering jugs by the melons. Hopefully, that will help give them the heat and moisture they need for those few little melons to develop.

What can I say. I’m an optomist.

Nothing seemed to be damaged by the cold night, thankfully. The Spring Blush peas are completely dried out, so I collected the pods. They’re not in a bowl in the cat free zone, waiting to be put into a jar or something. Then I completely forgot about them. 😄

When I headed out again this evening, I took care of a few things. The first was to bring in the onions, which have had enough time to cure.

They all got their stems trimmed off and the dirt on them gently removed. I also trimmed the Giganthemum poppy pods off their stalks and brought those in. In the next image, you can see what seeds we got (some of the pods were empty), in an amber glass jar. The plan it to sow those in the fall, just before the ground freezes. Between these and the bread seed poppy seeds we have, I am hoping to finally grow enough poppies to have seeds for baking with as well as for sowing the next year. I have a couple of spots in mind to sow the different varieties, so they don’t cross pollinate.

I also finally harvested our single Arikara squash.

The first photo is to give a perspective of how big it is, in the wheelbarrow. As it got bigger, I set it on a brick, then later added a board, so keep it off the damp ground. The rough surface you can see is what was face down on the board. It was a bit damp so, when I set it on the curing frame (over the cross piece, to support the weight), I made sure the damp part was facing up.

This, I expect, will be the only winter squash we will get this year, and I’m glad we finally got an Arikara squash, since I specifically want to save the seeds from this rare variety. There’s no chance of cross pollination since there were no other winter squash around to cross pollinate with.

We do have the winter squash on the chain link fence, and we do have a few Butterneck squash developing. Some are large enough now that I could be harvesting them as a summer squash. I don’t expect that they will have a chance to reach full maturity, but even young winter squash can be eaten.

According to the weather app on my desktop, we dropped to 6C/43F last night, not 4C/39F. Tonight might be just as chilly as last night, but shouldn’t be any colder. By Tuesday night, though, both apps are saying we will be dropping to 3C/37F overnight. At that point, I might want to add jugs of hot water under the plastic with the melons, and drape frost cloths over the peppers and eggplant. After that, we’re expected to warm up again for a while.

I definitely need to remember to close my window for the night. It’s only open a few inches, and I was cozy under my covers, but I woke to find 6 cats plastered against me, 4 around my face and shoulders, trying to keep warm! 😄🤣

I am so not looking forward to winter. My tolerance for cold, and winter in general, has really dropped a lot in the last few years! Medical emergencies and vehicle breakdowns have contributed significantly to that. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: protecting melons

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Today, I went through my supplies to figure out what I could use to create a makeshift greenhouse over the melons. It was a cooler day today, and some areas of the province – not ours – are getting frost warnings. Our local forecast for overnight lows are not that far, but last year we frequently had nights colder than predicted, rather than warmer, which caused a fair amount of damage.

Some things, there isn’t much we can do to protect them. The winter squash on the chain link fence for example, share the bed with sunflowers that are quite a bit taller, and there’s no real way to cover them. In theory the tomato bed, which has the box frame around it, could be covered, if I had anything large enough to go over the vertical support stakes as well. I do not.

The peppers, eggplant and Chocolate Stripe tomatoes could be rather easily covered, if necessary, at least. The summer squash, growing vertically, could also be potentially covered if we had anything large enough. Again, we do not.

The melons, however, can be done. I had a couple of options and this is what I ended up with.

I ended up using two clear shower curtains. Must stronger than the other plastic I had. I had to push the hoops and vertical stakes down quite a bit and, at the end over the very tiny surviving transplant from our own seeds, I made the hoop shorter by one rod. Just pushing the hoops in took a lot more effort than expected, as I started hitting rocks. One of them had to be pulled up and moved several times before I had to be satisfied with the height it was, because there was no getting them any lower, and they weren’t at a location where I could simply remove one of the rods.

I set the shower curtains with the grommets at the ends where I could weave ground staples through the holes to gather the excess and secure it to the ground, then weighting them down. Of course, the wind started picking up, trying to blow things away while I worked, but I made sure the overlap was facing a direction where it was less likely to be picked up by the wind. I was able to use clips from the hoop kit to secure the plastic in key areas, though the thicker plastic made that more difficult. Hopefully, not less secure.

Then I put together more rods to make a couple of hoops to go on the outside of the plastic, further securing it. Wind will still be an issue, but hopefully not by much.

It started to rain while I was working on this. We barely hit 13C/55F today, so it was pretty chilly!

One of the sheets of plastic can’t quite reach the ground near the south end. It’s still enough to keep the heat in, and still allow some air circulation. I should be able to raise the sides on hotter days, or to be able to water them. I even tested that out without even having to raise them much at all, and was able to fill the upside down gallon water bottles I’ve got in between the plants for slower, deeper watering.

Hopefully, this will work out. As we build the walls around these beds, I will be making wire mesh covers for them that will be easier to cover with insect netting or plastic. This will do for now, as least.

Hopefully, this will be enough to protect the melons and give them the heat they needs. The developing melons are about the size of a golf ball, with some slightly bigger. It’s highly unlikely they will have time to reach full maturity, but I at least want to give them a chance!

I had intended to get the riding mower out and work on the lawn but, even with just a light rain, the grass was just too wet. So I started working on the cat stuff that had been soaking in the old bath tub. I took everything out, dividing them into piles of stuff that can be hung on the clothes line, and stuff that can’t. I started washing fleece cat blanket, using the wheelbarrow as a tub, only for the rain to start up again. So I left it to soak – there’s a lot worked into the fabric I will not be able to work loose, but the soaking will help – and headed back inside.

Unfortunately, even this little bit of manual labour is messing with me and the pain is returning, even with T3s. I will still be able to go out and do the evening cat feeding, but I won’t be able to help my daughter, who is currently starting to break down the fallen tree. For now, she’s just removing branches and hauling them away, using non-power tools. The downed tree is completely blocking the open lane between the spruce grove and the crab apple trees, so we really need to get that cleaned up.

It isn’t a lot, but it felt good to at least get this project done. We’ll just need to make sure it holds against the winds!

The Re-Farmer

Cozy cat, sleepy bees and a garden harvest

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Today, the girls and I headed into the city. Something we decided on later last night. The amazing thing is that my older daughter came along, too. Not for any medical appointments or another ER trip. Just because she wanted to get out of the house, and actually felt well enough to do it!

After the last few years of barely being able to get outside the house, this is HUGE!

As for me, I took the last of my generic Percocet and almost immediately got hit with dizziness. At that time, I was able to just go back to bed, though, so it didn’t mess things up for me too much.

I had company.

Potato Beetle took his turn on my leaning sheep. Which I seem to have lost entirely. After washing it, I had found it worked well as support under my knees so I could lie on my back, so I hadn’t put it back in the shelf that is my “headboard”. The cats have all claimed it at one point or another! It is now a cat bed.

*sigh*

We didn’t head out until about 11 and as I was on the way to the truck, I just had to stop and take some photos.

There were a couple of very sleepy bees on the sunflowers! It was a nice warm day by mid afternoon, but the morning was still cool enough that the bees were sluggish.

Our destination in the city was a Medigas. My husband had ordered new nasal “pillows” that he has instead of a CPAP mask. The pressure he needs on his CPAP is so high, the type of mask that covers the nose and mouth leaks air unless it’s tightened so much, he actually developed lesions. He’s gone through various styles of nasal prongs over the years, as designs changed and older ones were no longer being made. He isn’t able to order from his usual source in the US, though. For some reason, they no longer accept his prescription that’s required to buy replacements. So he had to buy from Medigas.

He got two nasal prongs, and it cost $110.

When he was able to buy them from the US supplier, he got a package with 6 different sizes for maybe Cdn$30.

He’ll be able to submit his receipt to his insurance company to be reimbursed for most of that, but the cost of CPAP supplies from Canadian sources is just insane and always has been.

By the time we got to the Medigas, we’d been on the road for over an hour and I was starting to hurt. My alarm for my afternoon dose of painkillers was about to go off after we got the nasal prongs, so I made sure to take the T3s I had with me before we made our next stop. I had hoped to take advantage of being in the city to stop at the Walmart to do a bit of shopping, but wasn’t up to it. The Medigas is on the same highway that we do our non-Costco stock up shopping on, and the international grocery store was on the way home, so we stopped there to get supper for when we got home. I picked a couple of things for my husband and I while the girls remembered they were out of oat milk and went to get some. They ended up coming back with a few other things as well, then went looking for something they wanted for their own supper – while I had to sit down. The T3s never really seemed to kick in.

In the end, the girls were sweethearts and paid for everything.

One thing I meant to get on the way out of the city was gas. Prices had gone up to $1.799/L, even in the city. On the way to Medigas I spotted a place that was $1.639 and on the same side of the highway we were on, so I got gas there. It was pre-pay only, so I went in to pay for $40 while my daughter took care of the pump. It turned out to be just enough to fill the tank from about 3/4s, which was nice.

After we picked stuff up at the grocery store, I had to get my younger daughter to take over driving. There was no dizziness at all with the T3s, but they don’t work as well. Frustrating.

Once we got home and my daughters brought things inside, my younger daughter took care of feeding the outside cats, before we had our food and relaxed a bit. I felt well enough later to head outside and into the garden to do some harvesting.

Something I did not harvest yet… bell peppers.

These are the California Wonder bell peppers, which are starting to turn colour. The Sweet Chocolate peppers are also starting to ripen. We won’t be getting a lot of peppers, but we’ll at least have a few! Since these have the tomato cages protecting them, if things get chilly overnight, they can be easily covered with some fabric we have for frost cloth.

What amazes me is just how many bush beans I was able to harvest! Most of them still from the high raised bed, that were planted earlier in the season.

The yellow beans on top are from the later planted ones in the Arikara Squash bed. There are a couple of Blueberry tomatoes, and a whole bunch of Orange Currant tomatoes. Some of them are fully red, like Spoon tomatoes, instead of orange. I also grabbed a couple of yellow zucchini.

I think we have enough bush beans to actually be worth blanching and freezing in a medium sized freezer bag – and there are still developing beans we’ll be able to continue harvesting!

I am so grateful for the mild weather we are having so far. The forecast has changed again, of course, and now it’s looking like we won’t be hitting below 6C/43F for a couple of weeks, and will mostly be closer to 10C/50F. Not that I trust long range forecasts, but it does give something to plan on.

Tomorrow, we have no plans to go out anywhere. If we hadn’t gone in today to get my husband’s nasal prongs, it would have had to wait until Monday, and I didn’t want to do that to him. He really needed replacements, long ago. My younger daughter has been wanting to work on breaking down that fallen tree for a while now, but we have either not been home long enough, or it’s been too windy and rainy.

At some point, we’re going to need to get a gas powered chainsaw. There’s only so far we can get on extension cords, and battery powered anything won’t last long enough to finish the jobs we need to do. Our baby chainsaw (electric pruner) has two batteries and my brother’s weed trimmer has three, and none of them recharge fast enough to be able to cycle through them and finish most jobs.

Anyhow.

I’m just thankful to be able to get as much done as we have been, with all the crazy medical stuff going on.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

Sort of.

The Re-Farmer

In the garden: preparing protection

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Today is Sept. 10, which is the old average first frost date that I still go by. The new average frost date is now a range from Sept. 21-Sept. 30.

I don’t trust those new dates, at all!

Right now, however, we’re expecting temperatures to be all over the place. Today we hit a high of 27C/81F, and an expected low of 15C/59F Last night, we dropped to 9C/48F. By Tuesday, we’re supposed to drop to overnight lows of 6C/43F, and might go lower; the forecast changes depending on which app I look at.

Not a danger of frost, but temperatures that some of our garden plants don’t handle well. Some things, I won’t be able to do much to help them, like the summer and winter squash. Others, I might just be able to.

Like the melons.

When I was feeling better this evening, I went out to get some fresh and and, of course, check the garden beds. I had left the hoops over the harvested cabbage patch after removing the insect netting. Today, I shifted the hoops over to the melons, after replacing two taller vertical stakes with shorter ones I now had available.

The supports extend far enough to include the one lonely surviving melon from our own seed starts. It’s so tiny, I know it won’t make it, but I can’t help it. I want to give it every chance I can! 😄

I joined the hoops horizontally with twine at three levels to support the plastic it will be covered with, and to keep the hoops from tipping one way or the other. I also wound the muskmelon vines up the trellis support, then added twine at the vertical supports for a bit more structural integrity. They can’t be seen in this photo, but we have a surprising number of developing melons on there!

I haven’t decided on what I’ll use to cover this. The 6mm poly is out of the question, as it’s way too big and I don’t want to cut it at this point. The main thing is that I want to be able to lift the sides up. We don’t need to keep them covered completely all the time. I want to be able to lift the sides during warm days and for watering, then drop them for cooler nights, as needed.

I must say, I do appreciate the versatility of these hoop kits. The rods and connectors allow for a lot of flexibility. I had 5 hoops made with 5 rods each over the cabbage patch. I used that to make 4 hoops with 6 rods each to cover the melons. There was one extra rod leftover, and I’m using that to help secure one end of the horizontal twine, where it’s knotted together and secured with a ground staple, weighted down with a rock.

The kit with the metal connectors, rather than the plastic ones, works out better, too. I got two kits with the metal connectors and they are definitely worth getting more of.

The Re-Farmer

A rough day

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I have no idea what was different about today.

Pain levels kept increasing earlier than usual, with no physical activity that typically triggers it. I ended up spending most of the day in bed, which was incredibly frustrating.

A couple of things of note, though. First, the good stuff.

I did head out not long ago to do the evening cat feeding outside. More because I just couldn’t handle the inactivity anymore. Of course, I walked around a bit and checked on the garden beds.

The Black Russian sunflowers at the chain link fence bed are mostly blooming, and very busy with bumblebees!

I was only able to get a picture of one.

The Mammoth sunflowers seed heads are still very small, but some of the plants are now easily 7′ tall. Hard to say if we’ll get anything out of them.

Checking the tomato bed, there are plenty of Orange Currant tomatoes to pick, but I did not have a container for them. Same with the beans. I’ve asked my daughters to do those later. I checked on the Blueberry tomatoes, which are supposed to stay a dark colour with light blossom ends. Some of them felt soft and ripe, so I picked them.

I won’t be taste testing them myself – I’m willing to try with something tiny like the Orange Currant tomatoes or Spoon tomatoes, but just thinking of eating a normal sized, fresh tomato – even smaller ones like this – makes my stomach churn. Odd, that.

I didn’t take a photo, but I pulled the Gigenthemum poppy plants with their fully dry pods and set them on the curing frame near the tomatoes I picked yesterday.

By that point, I needed to get indoor and sit down again.

*sigh*

On another note…

Back in July, my husband ordered himself a new office chair through Amazon. A bariatric chair that can double as a sleep chair, if necessary. Only after placing the order did it tell us that tracking wasn’t supported by the delivery company. It did have a delivery date in August. A long time, but okay. We’ve had that before, and things would still show up at the general store the post office is in. Frustrating, but not something we were too concerned about. Once things arrived, we’d at least see it chance to having been delivered.

What we didn’t know is that the seller had tried to contact us. My husband never got the messages (the system should have sent him emails about them). After the delivery date passed, my husband was going to get a refund, but never got a verification on that.

Which is when I looked around and found the messages from the seller. One saying there was a problem and asking for an alternate address. Basically, they could not deliver to a post office (so why was the PO box address accepted? That happens pretty often) and needed a physical address. So I answered on behalf of my husband.

There were some messages back and forth and we finally got a Purolator tracking number. That lead to “shipping label created”, and never changed. After a while, I sent another message to the seller telling them that, according to Purolator, they don’t have the parcel. I told them that if there was a problem with the address (Purolator delivers to the general store but not to our physical address), they could use the physical address for the general store.

I got a message back saying they would contact the delivery company with the new info. Not long after, I got another tracking number, saying the package was in transit, and an apology for the delay. I responded to that, and then we waited some more.

And waited.

Purolator tracking still said “shipping label created” and never changed.

This morning, I tried to contact Purolator about it but all the system could tell me was there was only a shipping label created. They don’t have the package.

So I messaged the seller again, telling them this and saying that, at this point, we want a refund.

Some time later, my husband forwarded an email to me from Amazon.

My message could not be delivered, as “The seller associated with your order or inquiry has left the Amazon store or is no longer able to receive any further email communications.” Then it gave a link to request an A-Z Claim.

Which is when I gave up on being bedridden and went looking.

According to the Amazon listing, the seller is still there, the chair is still available, and even on sale now.

I went through the claim process, copy and pasting the email from Amazon about the seller no longer receiving messages, and saying we wanted a refund. My husband has already gotten a response from Amazon, and they are looking into it.

Hopefully, that means he’ll soon get his refund and we can look into buying a chair from somewhere else. With his current chair, he got some extra life out of it by replacing the wheels, but it’s still breaking down. He can’t sit normally on a chair, so he really need something that can handle extra wear and tear.

The problem is, finding something that works for him off line is almost impossible. Mobility aid places don’t carry office chairs, and office supply places don’t tend to keep specialty bariatric chairs in stock. You can only order them online – and they can be mind bogglingly expensive. An actual sleep chair is a completely different design unsuitable for his space and needs.

Well… we’ll figure it out.

After he gets his refund!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: harvesting onions and tomatoes

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Today was too wet and windy to break down that fallen tree this afternoon, but I did manage to get some progress in the garden.

First up was to harvest some onions.

On the right and on the board in the middle are the Red Wethersfield onions that were interplanted with the bush beans in the high raised bed. The largest ones were all on the south end of the bed. The others were probably too overshadowed by the bush bean leaves to get as big.

The ones on the right are the Red Long of Tropea, which were interplanted with the caraway and along the west side of the bed with the (already harvested) turnips. On the other side of that bed, by the Daikon radish are the Red Beard bunching onions, which are looking very tall and strong.

I forgot to look for the onions that were planted near the celery, Those aren’t even visible anymore. Out of sight, out of mind!

That one tomato is a Chocolate Stripe tomato that I found fallen on the ground.

While checking other beds, I noticed some red tomatoes.

The little ones are supposed to be Blueberry tomatoes. 😄 The other, larger ones are Manitoba tomatoes. Then there’s that Chocolate Stripe tomato off to one side. They are now all set aside in the cat free zone to continue to ripen.

After harvesting the onions and the tomatoes, I checked on the summer squash and found a bit of wind damage. These are being grown vertically, but some did not get tied off high enough, yet, and one had been blown over, bending at the highest tie. So I spent a while going through all of them and securing them to their vertical posts with garden wire.

It isn’t a lot, but it felt good to be able to do at least that much in the garden!

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day… not really in a good way

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Things were all right in the morning. After taking my morning painkillers, I went out to join my daughter during the cat feeding.

We did not get any kittens. They are still very skittish, and the older cats kept pushing their way in for the cat soup, even though they got some in the other food bowls. I tried distracting Sweetie with the cat toy but she was too hungry to be distracted, and insists on eating at the shrine feeding station, where the kittens come through the chain link fence. As today was supposed to be another day or rain and potential storms, we put the carrier and bait bowl back into the catio, with the regular food bowl set to keep the door from closing by accident, and let the kittens be for now.

I had brought my walker out so, after my daughter went inside, I went around the yard and checked on the garden beds. I found both winter and summer squash that I could hand pollinate. We should have some yellow zucchini large enough to harvest soon, and some of the green scallop squash. We might get more of the Early Prolific Straightneck squash, but there are still no yellow pattypans or lemon squash. Interestingly, I think one of the squash that were thinned by transplanting might be a lemon squash. The tiniest of round, yellow female flower buds are showing up and I don’t think they are pattypans.

In the main garden area, I just had to get a picture of a monster.

The first image above is of a carrot from the Rainbow Mix that has gone to seed. It is remarkably huge and sturdy! Normally, carrots don’t go into seed until their second year, but I don’t mind having one that I can save seed from.

The second image of the slide show above shows what’s left of the Daikon radish. The flea beetles not only denuded the stems of leaves, but they even ate a lot of the pods, too! There are still pods left, but nowhere near as many as before. Enough to collect seeds from, though, if they were not too badly damaged.

Once back inside, I was feeling well enough to have breakfast before trying to lie down for a bit. When I got up again, I was able to make a lunch using some leftover brisket, with potatoes and bush beans from the garden, to make a stew.

While I was cooking, I heard some noises outside the kitchen window. My brother was leveling the ground where the tree and patio blocks had been. He had to dig up some remarkable thick roots that were buried under where some patio blocks where. He also had to remove some of the soil along the edge of where the blocks would be so that it was lower than the blocks, instead of higher. He levels a block in the corner between the house and the concrete steps so it wasn’t draining towards the house as well, and the blocks along the outside edge were sloped slightly to drain away from the house. He ended up filling our wheelbarrow completely with dirt and detritus he’d removed. Probably the heaviest load it’s ever had. Which would have been fine, except the tire turned out to be flat! I had come out to talk to him and, as he pushed the wheelbarrow from the grass onto the sidewalk, I was able to see the flat. All he could tell is that it wasn’t rolling right. He’s checked the tire before and couldn’t see a valve, so he thought it was a solid rubber tire. He did find the valve, but it had been partially pushed in from lack of air. He assured me he’s take care of it and told me to go back inside. Later on, I saw that he had also loaded all the old hot water tanks and pumps into his little trailer. They’ll be taken to the scrap yard another time.

By the time I finished cooking, the painkillers had definitely worn off. After lunch, I took them when the 6 hour alarm went off and tried to stay up longer, but eventually had to lie down again. Frustrating when it becomes difficult just sitting upright in a chair. *sigh*

I did manage to get a basement check in. I had to turn on a couple of the fans. One, aimed at the well pump and pressure tank because there was so much condensation dripping, it was creating a puddle. The other more in the new basement, more for air circulation and humidity levels. The recent rain, which is still sort of happening now, hasn’t been enough to cause problems in the basements.

I was also able to head outside and do the evening cat feeding. Some of the skunks are getting quite brazen! As I was setting up some bowls with cat milk in the kibble, specifically for the kittens (with extra to draw the adult cats away), I heard a commotion. I’d put some kibble at the back of the shrine base. A skunk was there, but one of the little tabbies was wanting that food (even though there was more) and hissing and spitting at the skunk. Which was about 5x its size!!! I scooted the skunk away, going down a path behind a willow where there’s an opening under the chain link fence they can fit through. I knew it would be coming back, so I tossed some kibble into the grass of the path, so it would have no reason to go closer and scare the kittens.

I also move the shrine feeding station bowls next to the catio, on either side of the door, with the bait bowl inside the carrier again. The bigger cats will eat the closest food, which should leave the bait bowl inside the carrier for the kittens, when they go looking for food later.

If the skunks don’t eat it first.

*sigh*

Then it was back inside, and not doing much. The painkiller either didn’t kick in, or the pain was worse and the painkiller has managed to just take the edge off. At least I can tell myself that, with how wet it is outside, I wouldn’t be getting much done out there, anyhow. It’s supposed to continue raining, off and on, until about 2am. It does look like some onions are ready to harvest, though. Something I should be able to do tomorrow, if all goes well.

Tomorrow afternoon – if we’re not delivering kittens to the rescue – my daughter and I will work on breaking down that fallen tree. I can handle a chain saw, and my daughter will be able to clear away the branches and smaller logs. Normally, the two of us together will drag the bigger logs out, but we’re both pretty broken, so I just want to cut things to size. I’m hoping to be able to get an 18′ length for the next garden bed out of this tree. The base of its trunk looks like it will match the size of the one that’s currently in place for the garden bed fairly well.

That’s pretty much it for the day.

I am looking forward to seeing the doctor, a little over a week from now, and getting those test results. If things go as expected, she’ll get me in for a hysterectomy fairly soon. If not, then I’ll be referred to specialists in the city. Who knows how long that will take.

I feel like I’ve lost most of the year over this.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: winter squash and a harvest

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After a draining morning, I lay down after taking my pain killers to wait for it to pass.

It didn’t, but it at least got less severe.

Somewhere past 3:00, I headed back outside with my walker. I fed the outside cats, then say with the fishing rod toy to keep Sweetie busy so the littles had a chance to eat. We have storm warnings for tonight (as I started this, I could hear thunder in the distance!), so I took the bigger carrier we had set up for the kittens to explore and put it inside the catio, setting the door mostly closed. Then I headed to the garden.

One thing I noticed over the past while is that some of the winter squash on the chain link fence are producing more female flowers! I was even able to hand pollinate a few this morning.

Most of them are these Butterneck squash. There’s at least one that looks like it’s going to wither away, but the ones I got pictures of all look pretty darn good. I also spotted a new Black Futsu female flower that was open and hand pollinated it. Why I bother, I don’t know. It’s Sept. 6 today. There is basically no season left for them to mature! Still, I want to give them all the chance they can. It should be interesting to see how big they get before it gets too cold.

We will, however, have one winter squash this year, at least.

The outer shell of the Arikara squash is getting pretty hard. I should be able to cut it and set it to cure fairly soon. All the other squash that started on this plant have died off, almost as if it pruned itself.

The yellow bush beans around the Arikara squash are producing quite nicely, and I had plenty to pick from a relatively few number of plants. I also found a single red Manitoba tomato, hiding under some leaves that I picked. Then I went to the high raised bed and picked the bush beans there…

… after I picked the two Chocolate Stripes tomatoes that were ready.

In the above photo, all the beans to the left of the tomatoes are from the later planted beans by the Arikara squash. Everything to the right of the tomatoes are from the high raised bed. The yellow beans in that bed seem to have had a second life and are suddenly producing quite a lot, again. There’s only a couple of green bean plants, and they are not at all productive.

I didn’t keep this. I got a bowl for it all, then wheeled over to my brother and SIL’s caravan and offered it to them. They were quite happy to accept. After my SIL transferred them to their own container and brought back my bowl, we were able to stay outside and chat – I just sat on my walker rather than try to climb up into the caravan. They have stairs with a hand rail now, but they came outside rather than have me hobble my way in.

Unlike my mother, with her snarky comments about the little tomatoes I brought her, it was nice when my brother and SIL quite appreciated the beans and tomatoes I brought for them! They have been growing some things on their balcony, but no beans. My SIL is thinking that, next year, she’ll try to grow enough tomatoes to do some canning. This year, they have cucumbers and cucamelons that have done quite well!

We got all caught up with the birthday visit with my mother this morning. My brother hadn’t had a chance to go into detail with my SIL yet. My mother was so all over the place, it took both of us to describe things and figure out what she was saying. Part of the challenge is that her sense of time is completely gone. There was something she’d said that my brother thought had happened recently, but I’d caught her mentioned the town she used to live in, which means it could have happened several years ago. In some things, we had to mash together things, my sister had told me my mother had said to her, compared to what my mother had told me, compared to what my mother had told my brother, and work out what was actually intended. It’s like putting together a puzzle, but half the pieces are still missing, while pieces from another puzzle show up randomly, too.

Still, we do the best we can.

I can hear that the rain has started. My SIL was very happy to have gotten the mowing done!

It would be really awesome if the weather holds long enough for us to actually get more winter squash.

The Re-Farmer