So… I didn’t make it to the city again. I didn’t even make it to the garden to harvest until the late afternoon.
I will cover why in my next post.
When I did make it out, my daughter was there to help me with the walker and to harvest the bush beans. Then, as I was feeling well enough, she started doing the watering while I went to the old kitchen garden to harvest a bit more.
The amount of bush beans available to harvest has dropped quite a bit by now, so we didn’t have much to pick. I also harvested what will likely be the only kohlrabi we’ll get this year. Then a grabbed the two largest Green Benning scallop squash. We will definitely be getting more of those, later on! Those are looking really beautiful. Last of all, I grabbed a bunch of mint, to make fresh mint tea.
Then I decided I felt well enough to harvest the garlic. As I started on that, my younger daughter got a message from her sister asking what we were picking, as she was thinking to do a stir fry. So I told her where the colander with the vegetables was, then grabbed a few Swiss Chard leaves for her, for added greens. There wasn’t a lot of surviving Swiss Chard between the garlic large enough to pick, but enough to add to a stir fry.
I am so happy with the garlic. This is easily our best year for garlic, with SO many huge garlic heads! I believe the variety is Porcelain Music, if I remember correctly. They are from our own saved garlic, not purchased.
The first image of the slide show above is where I’d stacked them all while digging them up, on the mulch by the potatoes. There was one garlic head that broke off when I tried to pull it up, even after digging under it with the garden fork, with a snap so loud my daughter heard it while watering at the other end of the garden! I’m happy to say, I timed it right this year. Last year, I’d put it off longer and about half a dozen bulbs had starts to split. Which is fine. Those just got eaten right away. There were no split bulbs at all this time.
Yesterday evening, I’d set up the canopy tent and the folding table. You can see the bundle in the second image. In the last image, they’re all laid out with the bulbs off the edges of the table. I’ll leave them to dry overnight, then string them up to hang for curing tomorrow.
Today was much cooler, with possible rain, so I didn’t need to water the garden today. I did get a harvest, though. This time, from the opposite end of the row.
These are the Viking potatoes. Not as many as when I harvested from the south end of the bed, but there was a definite reason for that. SO many elm roots under just the two plants at the end of the bed I dug under! Very frustrating.
In the next image is the complete harvest. More tri-colour bush beans, a few little carrots (they don’t seem to be getting any bigger; the soil is probably too compact again) and a couple of stalks from the walking onions. I broke off most of the bulbils and laid them down where I want to keep the walking onions growing, otherwise, they’d take over in the grass beyond the garden. The “stalks” are so big, I only grabbed two of them, which was more than enough for the day’s use.
I checked out one of the corn cobs that had dried out silks. It was on the outer edge, and I found it was very poorly pollinated. Very few developing kernels. I did try to shake the pollen down and make sure the stalks along the outside were dusted, to sort of imitate the wind, but I guess it didn’t work very well. I really should have had that second block I’d intended to plant but was never able to, right next to it. That would have improved things. Ah, well. We should still have something!
I then headed out for most of the day, which I’ll cover in another post, and the girls will be doing something with what I picked. I look forward to seeing what they come up with!
So, today didn’t happen as planned, but it sort of happened as expected.
For all that I felt so well yesterday, I had a mostly sleepless night. I finally just got up, fed the outside cats, and did my morning routine. I made sure to bring a container along, as the bush beans had not been harvested yesterday, so I knew there would be plenty to pick, today.
I pretty much filled the colander I was using. It was mostly yellow beans, as we have more plants of those, and they seem to be more prolific, but there were plenty of purple and green pods to pick, too.
Once back inside, I stayed long enough that knew the lab would be open, then headed out. The plan was still to go to Costco after I got my blood work and EKG done, so I made sure to grab ice packs. By the time I got to the hospital, though, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else. I was just too tired and sleepy, on top of all my joints aching from tossing and turning all night.
At the lab, I was called in very quickly after dropping off my requisition papers. Blood was drawn first, and then it was straight to gown up for the EKG. The test itself took less time than it took to wire me up!
From there, I just stopped to get a bit more gas before heading home, had a light lunch, took some pain killers and tried to lie down.
It didn’t really work. Neither the painkillers, nor the attempt at a nap.
When I finally gave up, I was soon back outside again. It was a bit early, but I went ahead and did the evening cat feeding, as well as refreshing their water bowls and putting in new frozen water bottles. My brother and SIL had their own plans change a few times, but they will be coming out today; while my brother works on his tractor, my SIL planned to start mowing the lawn. It goes a lot faster with their big zero turn mower, that’s for sure! They’ll be going back to the city for the night, though, and coming back tomorrow.
I decided to do a bit of weed trimming.
One area I wanted to get trimmed is what will be a stone framed flower garden near the gate, around my mother’s angel statue. I had already started to place rocks down but wasn’t happy with it. I moved them all aside, then weed trimmed the area before laying them back out in what I think is a better set up. Eventually, soil will be added to make a slightly raised bed, as that area is low and becomes a pond at times. The plan is to sow varieties of flower seeds in there that do better being planted in the fall and going through a winter’s deep freeze.
After that, I did some trimming around the garage and the baler my brother parked beside it. I’ve got my first two logs meant for the outdoor kitchen in there, too, and it’s hard to get in there with a mower, so it was starting to get pretty overgrown.
By the time I was done that area, plus trimming around some rocks in the yard so no one would accidentally go over them with a mower, I was also just plain done. Even this small amount of physical activity has trigged a return of my abdominal pain. Something I’d hoped wouldn’t happen, after not having any of this pain at all yesterday. Even so, I hoped I could rest and go back outside, but as I sit here typing, I’m realizing that this is not going to happen after all.
*sigh*
I did, however, do something else today, for next year’s garden.
I’m starting to think I’m addicted to seeds. 😂🤣
I’d been going through the MI Gardener site last night and even went so far as to start a shopping cart going, but then headed to bed. I don’t actually need more seeds, but I wanted to try some new varieties, fill some gaps, and there was a modest sale on.
Well, today a 40% off seed sale started, so I went back and added a few more things and placed the order.
I am such a sucker for seeds!
This is what I ordered today.
Yes, I got more tomatoes. These mature in only 42 days, hence the name, 42 Day Tomato, which means they can actually be direct sown in the spring rather than started indoors.
I tried another variety of spinach, Verdil. I still have others, but we like spinach, but have not been able to actually get good results for a while. This variety is less prone to bolting.
I also got yet another variety of pepper, Diamond Bell. We’re still working out what varieties the family enjoys most.
The Honey Rock Melon is a short season variety that could also be potentially direct sowed, rather than starting indoors.
The Tendergreen Cucumber can be harvested small for pickling or long for fresh eating, and the girls have expressed a desire for a slicing variety.
I got yet another variety of corn – Double Red Sweet. Not a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two. I just like the look of them, and like to try something other than your basic yellow corn.
I got even more carrot seeds. I’m coming to the conclusion that we can’t plant too many carrots. I chose an orange variety called Tendersweet, and…
… I got a yellow variety, just for something different.
Yes, I still have Atomic Red carrots, too. Variety is good.
I have had no luck with the tiny bok choi, as they always seem to bolt, so I’ve decided to try a Pak Choi cabbage that is less prone to bolting.
I was looking at the beets and decided to just get another Assorted Beet Mix – and then got another Sugar Beet packet. I still have some, but I want to try growing enough both to try making my own sugar, and to use as chicken feed, when we finally get our birds.
The Black Sesame seed is something I am curious to try, though it might not be next year.
I already got the plain garbanzo beans, and I figured I may as well try the black version, too.
I also wanted to try a new zucchini variety; Bianco Di Trieste. Because we never manage to have “too much” summer squash!
I have so many different types of melon sees, but I couldn’t resist getting some Tendersweet Orange watermelon – another shorter season variety.
I also have quite a few varieties of peas, but decided to try the Wando pea as well. We have yet to grow grow enough peas to do much more than snack on them, so I hope this variety does better. There aren’t a lot of seeds in the packages, so I got two.
I’ve been interesting in growing leeks for some time, and today I finally picked up Carentan Leek; a variety that has a shorter growing season.
And finally, I picked up some Copenhagen cabbage which, if I remember correctly, is the variety of cabbage I bought transplants for when I didn’t think the Purple Savoy cabbage would grow at all. So we will have both varieties again, next year.
Once of the things I’ll be doing closer to fall is going through my entire seed inventory and organizing it into things I can plant in the fall for winter sowing, things that need to be started indoors, and things for direct sowing.
Hopefully, after I’ve had my surgery, I’ll be better able, physically, to build and prepare beds. This forced inactivity is driving me nuts.
If I’m not careful, I might end up buying more seeds again…
Today was a combination of direct sowing and clean up in the garden. I’d gone out earlier to do finally clean up the cat mess in the dirt floor of the garage around my mother’s car, only to get rained on, which was fine. It meant I didn’t need to water, and we didn’t get the thunderstorms other areas were getting warnings for.
After the rains were done, I headed out again. First up was the newly reclaimed square raised bed.
I found I was able to lift the netting and secure it to itself with the ground staples to work under it. The netting was still a bit in the way, but nothing I couldn’t work around.
I set a collar in the middle of the bed, where I hope to transplant a winter squash at some point, but the beans went around the perimeter. I didn’t soak them first, so I made sure the furrow was thoroughly watered, and then watered some more. There weren’t a lot of seeds in the packet, having already used some in the high raised bed, but it’s a small bed so I ended up not using all of it.
Next, I decided to sow the super sugar snap peas I’d saved last year, in the remaining third of the chain link fence bed.
In the first image above, you can see how the elm seeds are germinating like crazy. I broke up the unplanted area, weeding out as many of the elm seedlings as I could, then gave a thorough watering before planting the peas. In this bed, there are two protective collars that were set up but never got anything planted in them, left for open space. The cold nights we’ve been having seems to have done in some of the melons and one of the winter squash, and none of the short season luffa have germinated, even with the protective collars. I’ll give it a bit more time before I decide if I will plant in those spaces again.
The next area to work on was the summer squash bed.
I had considered removing the protective collars but decided against it. I did move them off while weeding and thinning, but put them back again. I also ended up thinning by transplanting for the most part, shoving the thinned out seedlings in empty spaces in the wattle weave bed and in some of the retaining wall blocks that were empty.
Once the protective collars were all back in place, I grabbed straw and heavily mulched around them. Hopefully, it will be enough to keep the weeds from returning.
The next area to work on was the wattle weave bed. The netting I’d put over there originally had to be removed. At first, it would out fine, using the dollar store netting with channels to hold wire supports that I had replaced with my first hoop kit with fiberglass rods and plastic connectors. After a while, though, it got too low. The cats kept using it as a hammock, and the hoops were getting pushed lower and lower into the soil. I reset the hoops, setting the ends of the hoops inside the wattle weave. Unfortunately, the rods were thin enough that they slide through the wattle weave, flattening the netting over the peas and garlic. Cats lying on it would flatten them more. The netting also started lifting on the sides and cats would get under – then panic trying to get out. I found a substantial tear in the netting while I was removing it from the bed! It looks like we also lost a few pea plants, likely from cats simply lying on top of them.
After weeding the bed, I decided to use my remaining Pex pipe hoops, though I didn’t have enough of them for the space I wanted to cover, so one of the hoops is from what was used in the netting I’d removed.
These hoops are a lot higher, so there should be enough space for the dwarf peas and the garlic. I also had some used paracord available so I used that across the top of the hoops to keep things from sagging or shifting out of place. They’re mostly secured with zip ties, though some of the vertical posts in the wattle weave were too thick for the length of zip tied I had, and I ended up using wire twist ties, instead. With this netting and set up, I don’t think the cats will try to use it as a hammock anymore.
I will definitely not be buying this one again. Not only did the plastic connectors bend, but even some of the rod tips bent, too! I like the kit with the metal connectors and slightly longer rods better.
I got pretty much everything I wanted to get done today, since I don’t expect to get much done in the garden tomorrow, when we are planning to do combined birthday and Father’s day celebrating.
It’s past 9pm and still quite like out. I think I’ll head out for one more walkabout before heading to bed. A couple more days of this, and then the days will start getting shorter!
Today was definitely on the chilly side. Even overnight; apparently, we dropped to 3C/37F last night, which is colder than was forecast. I’m glad we got that plastic over the winter squash!
We’re supposed to drop to 4C/39F tonight, which means we can expect it to get colder. I never removed the plastic cover on the winter squash, though. We got rain last night, which means the squash didn’t get any natural watering, but I do have the soaker hose still set up with them. I rarely used it, as filling their collars with water several times was more efficient. Today, however, I lifted one corner of the cover, hooked up the hose, then covered it again, letting the soaker hose run for an hour.
We did reach our expected high of 12C/54F this afternoon, so the girls and I took advantage of it to get some final harvests done on some things.
I started off in the East garden beds, pulling most of the corn (I left some stalks just to have a bit of protection for the bush beans). There were very few cobs to harvest and, as you can see, they were very small. I did find some yellow bush beans to harvest, though, then later found a few of the Royal Burgundy in the main garden area.
The chocolate cherry had the most to pick green. There were a few Black Beauties and Sub Arctic Plenty to pick. These are now sitting near the window in the cat free zone (aka, the living room) to ripen.
I also picked as many dried super sugar snap pea pods as I could find, as well as the dried radish seed pods. The girls, meanwhile, pulled all the spoon tomatoes, then sat with the plants to pick up the ripest ones. That took long enough that I finished first, then joined them. We made sure to not have any little stems on them before adding them to the bowl. It’s a lot more difficult to get those off if they’re left for later! With the Spoon tomatoes, we did NOT harvest the green ones. They’re so tiny, it really wasn’t worth doing it. So those went into the compost with the vines.
I suspect we’re going to have another year of compost tomatoes next year, and that most of them will be Spoon tomatoes!
Later on, before covering the eggplant and peppers for the night, I harvested a couple of kohl rabi and Turkish Orange eggplant. I have no idea if the eggplant is right, but at this point, it’s unlikely the greener ones will finish ripening, even with protective covers. The plants were already drooping from last night’s cold, in spite of the cover and bottles of hot water to help keep them a bit warmer. I chose the two that looked the most orange, but the rest still have green on them. I don’t think eggplant is something you can pick and will ripen indoors, like tomatoes and peppers can.
The kohl rabi I picked are pretty small, and there are just a few left, but I wanted to snack on them. That bed is almost done.
While the day was chilly, it was quite warm in the portable greenhouse! We have kept the “door” rolled up for quite some time but, yesterday, my daughter unrolled it half way and pulled the zippers down.
The thermometer in there was reading over 30C/86F, late this afternoon!
I’d moved our succulents and coffee plant into there yesterday evening. I’m glad I remembered to, as they likely would not have survived the night, but they would be very happy with the heat they got today! I’m hoping to keep those outdoors as long as possible, as they seem to be doing much better than in our living room.
In the next photo, you can see our first male luffa flower starting to bloom. They fell off when I moved a leaf to get the picture, but there were ants climbing around the stem and base of the flower. Which means, pollinators are still getting into the greenhouse. I still plan to hand pollinate, should the opportunity arise.
My daughter and I were checking on it when we spotted our first female flower buds starting to form. No visible baby luffa yet, they were were too small, but we knew they were female flowers, and those form in singles, while the male flowers form in clusters.
As of now, we no longer have any tomatoes in the garden. There are still bush beans, which will probably be killed off by the cold tonight. I’m debating when to just pick the green peppers and bring them in. I’m really surprised by how well the summer squash is holding out. I don’t expect things like the pumpkins, melons, bush beans, the stalled pole beans or sunflowers to survive tonight’s cold, but you never know. Things like the remaining radish plants that still have greener pods on them, the root vegetables, kohl rabi, chard, and even the tiny onions we’ve got growing in the old kitchen garden, can handle frost. We harvested some herbs at the last minute but I haven’t covered that bed with anything. The basil probably won’t make it, but I think the other herds might. We shall see in the morning.
Meanwhile, I’m now going to find some suitable containers, set up something to watch, then start opening up those dried pods and collect their seeds!
With all the extra stuff that needed to be done yesterday, I did finally get to water the garden yesterday evening. The poor Turkish Orange eggplant were drooping so badly!
This morning, I made sure to give it another watering, before things got too hot – we’re supposed to break past 30C/86F, and the humidex will make it feel even hotter! Before I did, though, I checked on things and got a harvest done.
I’ve been hemming and hawing for a while now about the corn. Being a short season corn, with only 65 days to maturity, they should have been ready to harvest a while ago but – like everything else – they were way behind. In the process of taking a closer look, I found something else.
Our very first female Arikara squash flower buds. There had been only male flowers until now, but now that we’ve got some females about to bloom, there isn’t a male flower to be seen!
*sigh*
Today is the last day of August. We’ve got one more hot day, and then things are going to cool right down, with overnight temperatures low enough that we’ll need to cover some things.
While watering, I also spotted new female flowers on the Mashed Potato and Baked Potato squash. I’ll have to check them again this evening and see if they opened up and can be hand pollinated.
Why I bother, I have no idea. They won’t have enough time to mature, and they are in beds we won’t be able to cover.
Ah, well. You never know. It’s not like weather forecasts don’t constantly change!
I came prepared to do some harvesting, including stainless steel container for the Spoon tomatoes.
I decided to go ahead and harvest some of the corn. Since the stalks had one cob each, I pulled the entire stalk on the ones that looked ready enough. Handily, the beds are right next to the compost pile.
While I was picking beans and corn, I had company.
Sir Robin was absolutely fascinated by the reflections inside the stainless steel bowl and was busy trying to catch whatever he was seeing.
In the next picture, you can see I got a whole bunch of tiny corn cobs. This is not a large cob variety of corn, but they should have been bigger than this. A few little ones had so few developed kernels on them, they weren’t work keeping. So I just ate them. 😄
It was SO nice to finally pick a decent amount of beans! Finally!
The one Sub Arctic Plenty tomato looks like it should have been picked earlier. I think the heat got to it a bit. There was a decent amount of chocolate cherry tomatoes to pick this time.
The carrots are from the bed that was sown in the spring, rather than the ones sown in the fall. With the Atomic Red ones, it’s still somewhat of a thinning by harvesting situation. The Uzbek Golden carrots were planted using home made seed tape, so spacing was not an issue.
I’m always amazed by the Royal Burgundy bush beans. We have only three surviving plants, and one of those got chomped by a deer. Yet even that one had beans to harvest today! The plants are still really prolific, considering how small they are and how delayed their growth has been.
It wasn’t until later, when I was watering the summer squash, that I realized I missed a zucchini! Just one, though I found a couple that I was able to hand pollinate.
I’m quite happy with this harvest. Sure, we’ve had better in previous years. A harvest like this was something I had picked every couple of days throughout the summer but, for how things have gone this year, this is pretty amazing!
Also, it took forever to pick all those little Spoon tomatoes. Aside from the plants being stunted and short this year, it was pretty painful to pick them from the low raised bed. It did help that I could put a foot on the log wall when I needed to, to take some of the pressure off. In theory, I should be squatting to pick them, but I can’t squat with the condition of my knees, so I’m having to bend over, instead.
Thankfully, I got the harvesting and watering done before it got too hot. The watering got interrupted for a while as I spent some time with my brother, going over my mother’s car. It’s going to need a new battery, and that tire was almost flat again. My brother will take care of a few things on it, and we will take care of emptying it out and getting it detailed, and then it’s going to be sold.
As much as it would be good to have a second vehicle again, we just don’t have the budget to insure and fuel two vehicles anymore – and I would really use the space the car it taking up in the garage! That addition was made to be a work/storage space. My mother’s car is just small enough to fit in there, as long as the passenger side it close enough to the wall, so the driver’s side door can be opened wide enough to squeeze out. I would rather store things like the lawn mowers, snow blowers and wood chipper in there, so that the other side they are stored in can be a work shop again. When I was building the cat isolation shelter, I had to keep our vehicle parked outside for months, so that I had the space to build in.
All in good time. There is no hurry, but it would be nice if we could sell it before the winter.
Winter is on my mind a lot these days, even when we’ve got heat like today!
The littles are happily discovering the perks of being close to the house. They’ve been sleeping on various cat beds all over the place, enjoying reliable access to food and water, and the creche mothers are taking good care of them. Some are still super shy, but even they are getting brave enough to go into the sun room.
I was on the late side getting out this morning. I had a rough night. What little lawn mowing a managed with the push more did more than remind me I hadn’t fully recovered from suddenly getting sick.
It reinjured me.
My left arm, that I injured in a fall more than a month ago, had been feeling fine for awhile. Well enough that I wondered just what we’d be talking about when I see my doctor at the end of the month, to go over the X-rays.
Last night, all the joints were hurting enough that I got my older daughter to come over and rub them down with Voltaren. Only after that could I finally get some sleep. By then it was around 3am.
My left hip has also increasingly an issue. Not so much with pain, but stability. The lack of it! It’s gotten so that I have to sit down to put on my pants, because I can’t stand on my left leg. When taking the two steps from the original part of the house to the addition, I can only step up on my right leg. If I try to step up using my left leg, my hip just gives out.
Something else to talk about when I see my doctor!
With that in mind, I got one of my daughters to help me in the garden at the end of my morning rounds.
When I first got into the old kitchen to start preparing the wet and dry cat food mixture I feed them in the mornings, I spotted one of the white and grey littles, right at the window! This window used to be an exterior window, before the sun room was added on, so the sill on the outside is angled down for any moisture to drain away from the window. It makes it a challenge, but the smaller cats and kittens are still able to get onto it and not slide right off. To see the littles up there – I think the one I saw traded off with a second one while I was filling the kibble bowl – is good progress. They have figured out where the food comes from, and are comfortable with that.
Now if only the garage kittens would come out! They are SO hungry by the time I arrive to feed them, because they don’t come to the house where there is more food, after their bowl is empty. I’m seriously considering moving the isolation shelter closer to the garage, and use it to slowly get them closer to the house. The problem with that it, the littles and the outside yard kittens are already using it regularly.
Maybe the catio would work, instead.
After the cats were fed, I continued my rounds and checking on the garden.
I’m quite happy with what’s happening in the trellis bed. The noodle beans are still stunted, but the sunflowers and pumpkins are looking great!
One pumpkin plant – the one with the pumpkin in a sling – is the biggest of the five, and opened up a couple of massive flowers this morning. There’s just male flowers, though. I’ve been seeing tiny female flowers start to form but, so far, they’ve all shriveled up and fallen off, long before they opened up. So it looks like we’ll get a single pumpkin this year.
In the second image of the slideshow above, you can see the tallest of the Hopi Black Dye sunflowers. it has almost reached the height of the top horizontal support for the temporary trellis netting, which is at least 6 1/2 feet from the ground, so about 6 feet from the inside of the bed.
I’m surprised by all those little tomatoes I found when doing a major weeding, some time ago, and transplanted. I’ve since found three more that got missed, but I won’t bother moving those. Some of the transplants are getting surprisingly bed. The largest one is hidden under the leaves of the biggest pumpkin plant! One even has blossoms on it. I suspect that some of them, at least, might be Spoon tomatoes.
Speaking of Spoon tomatoes…
My younger daughter came out to help me pick them. With the instability of my hip, I can only pick from one side, where I can lean against the log wall. My daughter can actually get right into the bed, standing on the mulch in between the melons (which are not really growing, even if some are blooming) and pick the tomatoes on that side of the plants.
Yes, those are grapes! My daughter found the ripest looking clusters. There are lots more, but they are still more on the green side. If my guess is correct, these are Valiant grapes and they should get much bigger, not be the same size as the Spoon tomatoes. Once we figure out a place to transplant them, hopefully they will do better. The vines themselves are doing great where they are, but the fruit is not what it should be.
This is the first time in a couple of years we’ve been able to harvest some grapes before the raccoons ate them all.
Under the colander is a selection of fresh herbs; two types of oregano, two types of thyme, sage, basil, lemon balm and even some dill weed from the self seeded dill that came up among the herbs. I also gathers some walking onion bulbils; we don’t want them to spread beyond where they are now, so the bulbils are for eating, not growing! There’s a small amount of bush beans, some Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes and some Chocolate Cherry tomatoes.
At the bottom are some nasturtium seeds. My daughter was admiring the flower bed (the Cosmos are getting so tall!) and asked about the nasturtiums, which are winding down right now. While checking them out, we noticed some of the seeds had started to dry up and fall off the plants. Rather than leave them there to likely rot, we gathered them up. They are now in the cat free zone (the living room) where we are keeping gathered seeds and seed pods to stay cool and dry before they get stored away.
As for the rest of today, I’m not sure what I’ll manage to get done outside. I’ll give myself a chance to rest, but I most likely will just pain killer up and head out later and do as much as I can. We shall see.
This morning I collected our largest harvest yet, for this year!
I had some help, too.
When I prepared to transplant the melons, I set up a trellis for them using Dollarama steel fence posts and welded wire mesh salvaged from the old squash tunnel from years ago. When the Spoon tomatoes were planted in the other half of the bed, I use bamboo stakes to make them their own trellis.
Well, with the melons barely growing at all, they’re not going to need the trellis. So, with my daughter’s help, we pulled the posts, with the wire still on them, and moved them over to the corn and Arikara squash bed. It’s loosely set up for now, but the 4′ square bed will get a wire fence around it – the mesh is just long enough! – to hopefully keep the raccoons from getting into the corn, when the cobs are ready. I’ll probably have to put some sort of cover over it, too, or they’ll just climb up and over.
The corn bed has plastic netting around it. Hopefully, they will be dissuaded from the corn rather than tearing their way through.
After moving the melon trellis away, the Spoon tomatoes can now be reached from both sides, so my daughter helped me pick tomatoes on one side, while I did the other.
I’m glad I remembered to bring a separate container for the Spoon tomatoes!
There was also a whole two Royal Burgundy beans to pick, from the three surviving plants. I did pick a small handful of yellow bush beans last night, though, so there was enough to actually use. While checking last night, I noticed some ripening Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes and this morning, one was ready to grab.
After that, I dug up some potatoes, then winter sown carrots from the high raised bed.
In the next image in the slide show above, you can see a very wonky potato!
That was from roots.
These potatoes were picked from about the middle of the bed, so at least twenty feet away from the trees. My garden fork was digging up more roots than potatoes.
Those trees have got to go.
Then I remembered we have herbs and stuff, so I went to the old kitchen garden, where I gathers some lemon thyme, lemon balm and oregano. In the winter sown bed, I grabbed a few Swiss Chard leaves. I even grabbed some bulbils from the walking onions, since we don’t want them to spread any further.
Once inside, the longest time was spent getting all those little green bits of stem off all those Spoon tomatoes! I also set aside some of the ripest looking ones to collect seeds from, later. Their seeds are so tiny, I’ll have to consider how best to do that!
In the last photo – which looked much better and in focus on my phone, I swear! – it what I made with it. There’s still potatoes and Spoon tomatoes left, plus the one Sub Arctic Plenty tomato, but I used up all the carrots, julienned, a handful of bush beans cut small, the onion bulbils and a whole head of garlic. We still have fresh garlic left of the ones that were too far along for curing and winter storage. Then there was the chard and herbs.
When I went into town to get kibble yesterday, I also picked up some chicken legs and thighs that were on sale, which my older daughter prepared last night, so breakfast (brunch?) was the vegetables gathered this morning, plus oven roasted chicken legs.
After soooo much wonderful rain yesterday, I really wanted to see how things were going in the garden while doing my rounds.
When I got to the bed with the ripening Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes, I decided to go ahead and harvest them. They’re a touch on the green side, but they will continue to ripen inside. I also grabbed the few bush beans that were available to gather.
I rather like the effect of the tomatoes reflected in the stainless steel bowl I put them in!
The next photo is of the one developing pumpkin that I hand pollinated; there’s another on that vine, but its flower has now opened yet. I’ve added support to the vine itself, to take some of the weight off the plastic trellis netting, but the pumpkin has already gotten heavier enough to start pulling down on it again. We will construct a sling for it soon. The vine can handle the weight. The temporary plastic trellis netting cannot.
The Hopi Black Dye sunflowers have had a lovely growth spurt and are getting quite tall. They should have seed heads by now, though, so it’s unlikely we will get anything to harvest. Even the Red Noodle beans have started to show signs of growth. Just barely. I don’t expect them to even start climbing the trellis before the growing season is done.
Of course, I checked on the new food forest transplants. Especially the Opal plum, with its fresh new growth.
And newly missing leaves.
I guess all that rain washed off the anti-deer spray I used on it, and the protective frame.
I went and got the piece of chicken wire I’d used to try and protect the Albion strawberries last year. It turned out to be just long enough to to around the frame. This, at least, the deer will not be able to get through!
The big crab apple tree that has the small but delicious apples is just reaching its peak period. Many of the apples are looking very red right now, though there are still plenty that aren’t ripe yet, among them. We could probably start harvesting some crab apples now, though they’re so small, it’s a lot more work to use them for any cooking. I grab a few on the way by to munch on as I do my morning rounds.
I was debating which project to work on today, but everything it still so wet, I might just stick to indoor projects and start some laundry. No hanging on the line, today, even though we’re not expecting rain. It’s still too humid. We’re also still under an air quality warning for smoke, though we are now on condition yellow instead of condition red.
We have had enough rain that even the grass has come out of dormancy and had started to grow again. We might even have lawn to mow, instead of having just a few patches growing. The overgrown area where the old garden used to be is going to need cleaning up soon. I’d left the alfalfa that was coming up to bloom for any pollinators we might have – there’s a lot less these days, than in the spring, probably because of all the smoke. Their bloom time is ending now, and the burdock is starting to get big, will start flowering soon, so we need to cut all that back before the burrs get too nasty. We might be able to start on that tomorrow. Depending on how things go today, I should be able to go in with the loppers and cut back the poplars saplings that are trying to take over.
I didn’t get a picture but the rain came down so yard yesterday that the almost white lengths of maple used in the wattle weave bed in progress are now grey with splattered soil from inside the bed! Which is saying something, since the soil is all pulled into the middle, to make room to work on the wattle weaving.
According to the forecast, today and tomorrow are going to reach a relatively cool high of 19C/66F, but the day after, we’re expected to scream up to a high of 28C/82F, with a possible small rainfall in the early evening. Then its supposed to drop down to more humane highs, hovering around 20C/68F, for the next while. No more rain, though. The monthly forecasts sees only one more rainfall between tomorrow and the end of the month. It also says we can expect the temperatures to climb up to 31C/88F on the last day of the month, and 33C/91F by Sept. 1st.
We’ll see what actually happens.
If we’re going to get any sort of harvest with the winter squash or pole beans, we need to have all of September to be warm. Especially the overnight temperatures, and that’s where things get dicey.
What this does show me is that, as we build our raised beds, we’ll have to think ahead to including ways we can cover them to protect them during cold nights, or even create mini greenhouses, with frames that can go over relatively tall plants. I couldn’t cover the radish bushes to protect them from the deer, for example, because none of the covers I have had room for them, except the box frame which is currently protecting the corn bed. We are working to keep the same dimensions on all the beds, so the covers can be interchangeable. The beds in the East yard are all 3’x9′, and that’s the size we’re working with. The log beds in the main garden area will all be 4′ wide on the outside which, with the thickness of the logs, means about 3′ of growing space inside. They will all be 18′ long, so two covers will fit on each bed. Once we have chickens, some of those covers will be mobile chicken coops, too, so we can let the chickens clean up and fertilize the beds after they’ve been harvested from.
Every year has been a different gardening year – especially weather wise! – and every year, we learn a bit more of what conditions we can expect, and can plan around in the future.
That is a process I expect will never quite end, and I’m okay with that!
First up, today has been the smokiest day we’ve had yet, and it hasn’t let up. It’s absolutely insane out there. It was also really hot and muggy, right from the get-go. We did get rain last night – enough to fill the rain barrel from half full, at least – but you’d never know it other than from the odd puddle in areas heavy with clay.
Just a handful of bush beans. Barely. The purple pods are from two of the three surviving Royal Burgundy plants. The one that got et by a deer is still recovering.
When I first headed out with the kibble, I was very happy to see that one of the feral kittens – the white and grey one – was INSIDE the sun room! All four of them, plus their mom, were near the house and shelters, and they even started eating from the trays by the house instead of running away to the shrine feeding station. Huge progress there! The garage kittens are still keeping their distance, though.
As I was doing my rounds, I spotted the four ferals again, on my late father’s car.
I had to zoom in from quite a distance. The faces on the white and grey and the calico as they stared at me… too funny! That white and grey has a very interesting shape to its face. I noticed fluffy Colby tends to be on his own, away from his siblings, more often than not.
My rounds done, I brought out my late father’s wheelchair that my daughter had dug out of storage for me. I took the plastic cover off and cleaned off the dust and cobwebs. I was going to lubricate it, too, but couldn’t find my cans anywhere. So I did as much as I could, then loaded it into the truck.
When I got back in, I found the girls were busily cooking as much as they could, before the power was to be shut off at 9am. I left them to it and called my mother to let her know I would be bringing the wheelchair over for her to try out, as we had discussed.
I have to admit, I was really angry at my mother by the end of the call.
She started off with saying, why so soon? I reminded her of our conversation. Then she kept throwing up more excuses, one after the other, about why I shouldn’t be bringing the wheelchair over. She wanted us to talk about it. I explained again, we need to know if she can handle a manual chair or not so we have something to discuss. At point point, she even tried to say that she only wanted it for if she fell down. As in, it would help her get up?? It made no sense.
Long story short: What she had really wanted was for my siblings and I to have some sort of meeting to talk about her wanting a wheelchair and what to get her. However, even that broke down to, she wants my brother to be doing it. She wants him to be at her beck and call at all times. She’s becoming increasingly obsessed with trying to control him and especially to get him away from his wife. Both of whom have never been anything but beyond kind to her.
When it became clear what she was really after, and she was starting to go on about, why doesn’t he call her, I told her flat out that she treats him like s***. Oh, and how does he treat me, she responded.
Like a queen, I told her. Of all of us, he treats her the best. No one treats her better than he does. And she hates him for it.
Yes, I used those exact words.
It blows me away, how her mind has become so twisted when it comes to my brother. We have a theory. As my brother ages, he’s looking more and more like our dad, so she’s treating him like she treated my late father. Which was not good. Our vandal has been abusive towards her for years, and she goes out of her way to defend him, but my brother helped her so much for so many years, making sacrifices, giving so much of himself to her, and she constantly stabs him in the back and makes more demands of him. Nothing he does is ever good enough.
When it comes to how my mother treats me, I don’t care. It took me many years of healing to get to this point. She can’t hurt me anymore. But she can, and does, hurt my brother, and that angers me.
I cut that conversation off and simply told her, I was coming over with the wheelchair for her to try. If she didn’t like it, I could take it back, but we needed to know if she could actually use it.
By the time I was on the road, it was not much past 8:30am. As I was turning onto the main gravel road, I could already see an electric company vehicle about a quarter mile up, parked across from our side of the road. I had to wait for another huge company vehicle to go by before I could continue. In the couple of miles to the highway, I passed a convoy of electric company vehicles, of all shapes and sizes, going the other when. The junction at the highway as a transformer station next to an off ramp, and there was practically an army of more company vehicles and staff milling about!
These folks were loaded for bear!
Later on, I got a message from my daughter. The power went off at 9am, on the nose.
I got to my mother’s shortly after 9. One of her neighbours happened to be by the main doors and was kind enough to open them for me as I brought in the wheelchair, and we chatted along the way. She, too, commented that it’s unlikely my mother has the arm strength to use it.
When I had called my mother, she was eating breakfast, so I was surprised to find she had gone back to bed. She started off saying that the home care aids hadn’t shown up to do her meds yet, but she was scheduled for 9:30, so it was still going to be a while. I had to move things around to make space for the wheelchair while my mother sat on her bed. She said she was really tired and ended up lying down again. I reminded her that this was for her to try out and see. Her apartment is not wheelchair friendly. If she did get a wheelchair, we would have to remove several pieces of furniture, at least, for her to be able to get around. I actually sat in it myself and tried moving around, and it’s incredibly easy to move. However, I’m not almost 94 years old with hardly any arm strength left.
In the end, I was done and heading out with still another 15 minutes before the aid was expected to arrive! My mother was like a completely different person than how she was on the phone.
Since I was in town anyhow, I decided to go to the home care office and see if I could talk to the case coordinator. There were things I wanted to update her on, in regards to the long term care panel. This morning’s phone call being a big one. Thankfully, she was in and able to take the time to see me.
I filled her in on some of the behavioral and cognitive changes I’ve been seeing. She was very surprised when I told her I’d just dropped off a wheelchair. The home care aids hadn’t noticed any changes in my mother’s mobility. They wouldn’t, though. They’re only there for 5 minutes, and my mother is usually sitting at her table, waiting for them.
I was happy to hear that there have been no complains about how my mother treats the home care aids, after a particular racist incident some time ago. I told her, my siblings and I had all had a talk with her about that, and that this sort of behavior would go against her being able to get into a nursing home, like she wants. So far, it seems to have worked!
My mother has an appointment with her doctor next week, so she suggested I ask the doctor for another mental health assessment. It’s been over a year since her last one, and some cognitive delay was noted, but not “enough” to get her into a nursing home. I brought up that I think her vision is also getting worse, but getting her into the special clinic in the city for treatment is just too much for her.
We did both agree that, with all the stuff she’s going going on, my mother is doing really amazing for someone who’s almost 94! Between her messed up knees, her feet, her hands, her vision, etc. the fact that she’s still doing as well as she is is amazing. Which, unfortunately, is the problem. She doing too “well”.
It’s so bizarre that we have someone that actually recognizes she needs to be in long term care, and actually WANTS to be in a nursing home, and they can’t approve her because she hasn’t fallen and broken a hip or something. So frustrating!
That done, I took advantage of being in town to pick up a few things at the grocery store, then another 40 pound bag of kibble at the feed store before heading home. In the last mile before our place, I was seeing guys up one of the power poles, but only one company vehicle on the road, well past our place.
As we were expecting a prescription delivery, plus my brother and SIL coming out with their new “house”, so I had left the gate open when I left for my mother’s. Much to all of our surprise, the power came back on just before 11:30, instead of the scheduled 2pm! That army of workers really got things done fast!
The phone rang almost immediately. It was the delivery driver letting us know we was almost at our place; something we’ve asked him to do, since we usually keep the gate locked. So I headed out to meet him, only to find an electric company truck driving in! They drove up to the main power pole, then reversed their way out the driveway again. As they were passing me, I let them know that there was a delivery about to arrive, just so they’d know a vehicle was on the way. They had just enough time to go to the driveway in the unoccupied property across from us when the delivery driver arrived.
That done and my husband newly supplied with medications, I got my computer going and started checking the trail cam files. For the gate cam, which also takes video, I’ve got a 32 gig card. For the sign cam, which is set to take only still shots, I have a 16 gig card.
I uploaded the sign cam first, then started on the other, only to discover the second card was empty.
It was also a 16 gig card.
I’d put the wrong card into the sign cam!
So, off I went to switch the cards to the right ones, then uploaded the files from the 13 gig card, transferring any new files from the sign cam into the appropriate folder, and started checking them. Which is when I realized that the electric company people had come to the closed gate several times yesterday, with someone climbing over the gate to get in to check the power pole in our yard.
Then I checked the new sign cam files, which were recorded after I made the mistake in switching them out this morning.
What I discovered was a whole bunch of files of our vandal on his ATV, going back and forth.
I went and switched out the gate cam’s card again, to see what was going on.
In that short time, I saw the electric company vehicle going in and out a few times. What I also saw was our vandal stopping on the road to stare down our driveway, several times. Not just while the electric company guys were there and there was something to see, but even while they were gone. There was even a recording time stamped *after* I’d switched out the sign cam cards, so after I’d already done out to meet the prescription delivery.
I was about to update my brother and SIL when I got a message that they had just arrived. So I headed out to talk to them while guy they’d hired to haul it out got unhitched. Then I went and closed the gate! I didn’t lock it, as the electric company guys might still have needed to come in, but it was at least closed. Then I opened and closed it for the driver as he left. I’ll go back later to chain it again.
In the end, my brother end up moving their new abode – which will be a permanent set up – to a different spot. One that can’t be seen from the driveway, and not very visible from the back up driveway, either.
They’re still here and setting up. It’s going to be great to have them as “neighbours”! I just wish we didn’t have to constantly be thinking of what our vandal might end up doing.
Do we really want to go through all the hassle of trying to get another restraining order? It’s such a pain to go through that, and having to drive so far to go the court office. And yet, he is escalating.
Also, for someone who is supposedly dying of cancer that he says we caused, he’s pretty darn mobile and active.
*sigh*
Looks like we need to get more cameras.
On a more ordinary note…
We’re still insanely smokey out there. Our ongoing air quality warning now also includes reduced visibility warnings. It’s also hot and muggy. We’re supposed to get a bit more rain this evening, then again tomorrow morning, but not in any significant amounts. Those thunderstorm and tornado warnings we were getting yesterday didn’t affect us, but apparently there was a possible tornado touch down south of the city. There were also insanely severe thunderstorms that caused lighting strikes as much as 20km away from the heart of the storms themselves!
If we could just get some rain. Just rain. Lots of it. We need it so badly!
With that in mind, I need to decide if I’ll trust the forecast, or go water the garden anyhow, after supper.
The Re-Farmer 