growing food

Our 2024 Garden: Finally! plus some updates

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My daughters took care of the garden this morning, while I headed into town for groceries, so I didn’t get a chance to check things out until this afternoon.

I had a very lovely surprise!

The white scallop squash is finally blooming!

All male flowers, though.

Meanwhile, not counting today, we’ve got only 14 days left before average first frost. Hard to say if we’ll get anything!

I did check on the long range forecast, and it has changed back to saying we’ll have temperatures of 30C/86F for the 10th and 11th – and his 32C/90F on the 12th! In fact, most of that week is now supposed to have highs in the 30s! Even the week after is supposed to be just below 30C/86F! The last time I looked at the September forecasts, we were looking at highs below 20C/68F, and lows dropping down to 2 or 3C/36-37F

What a difference in forecasts!

Me, I’m hoping the heat stays longer. With everything behind by about a month, we need every hot day we can get!

Right now, things have been pleasantly cooler. Overnight, we reached a low of 9C/48F. It got cold enough I actually turns the fans off in my bedroom. It must have been quite a relief for the girls upstairs! They get so much hotter out there.

In other things, I have not had any calls back from the other two septic companies. I’ll be in the city tomorrow, so I’ll give them that one more day, then try calling them again after that. If I still can’t get through to them, then we’ll just have to go with the one company I did connect with. I’ll just have to get confirmation with my mother, in paying for it, and my brother. I was a bit perplexed when he started messaging me, suggesting I track down someone that had done this sort of work for my father in the past, but who may not even live in the area anymore. Heck, for all I know, he might not even be alive anymore. I recognize the name, but have probably never met him in person. I thought my brother had a problem with the companies I’d contacted, but I think maybe he just remembered this guy and started suggesting him to me.

Then he started telling me about how the emergency back up pipe will need to be installed while it’s being worked on, and how he’s got a pipe extension that will drain the effluent into the maple grove (which we may still need) … as if it was going to be done tomorrow, or something!

I’m so anxious about all this, I honestly couldn’t tell if this was his way of telling me what I should be doing, instead of what I am doing. My brother is awesome, but we don’t do things the same way at times. I hadn’t even considered going to somebody who happens to have an excavator, rather than a licensed and insured company that specializes in this kind of work. When I asked him more about it, he just came back with, it’s not a problem, going with a company is fine.

I hate to think I’m doing something he thinks is the wrong way!

So basically, there was a potential diversion, but then it went away.

I did not call the scrap company today. I will do that later, because I did contact the guy that bought scrap cars for parts last year, as I remembered they’d been looking at them. I told him that we were looking into calling the scrap dealer for the threshing machine and several vehicles, including those two, but wanted to know if he was still interested in them.

So those are now sold. Not for as much as before, but still more than we’d likely get from the scrap dealer for them. He won’t be able to pick them up until the end of September, though, as he’d going into surgery tomorrow, and needs the time to recover. There was another vehicle, which basically just the shell of a panel van, he asked about, but my brother and I didn’t talk about any of the vehicles on that side of the outer yard fence. I would hope the scrap company can come earlier than the end of September, but if they do, I hope they can work around the two cars by the threshing machine.

Okay, I’m getting perplexed. As I’m writing this, I keep hearing the septic pump go off, but no one is using any water. It’s shutting itself off as it should, but why is the tank filling so quickly? I’m not hearing the well pump go off more often, which would happen if we had a leak of some kind that was fast enough to trigger the septic pump that often.

I wonder if it’s related to the problems at the expeller end? That’s some 300 feet away, though.

Man, I’ve been paranoid about the pumps since we’ve moved out here. Now, it’s even worse!

Relax, Re-Farmer. Breathe.

Think gardening thoughts. That should calm me down!

Meanwhile, I took advantage of the lovely cooler day and got some lawn mowing done, using the lawn tractor my brother lent us. I was going to try our riding mower, but the battery was dead again. My brother replaced that battery when he repaired it for us, so it shouldn’t be dying so quickly. I didn’t want to take the time to charge it, and just used my brother’s machine, instead. Not all the lawns needed to be done, and one area still has a piece of tree that broke in our recent storm, waiting to be broken down into firewood for the the fire pit. The grass around there doesn’t grow very fast, so it can do without being mowed for a while. I did get to do the outer yard and driveway, though, and will have plenty of clippings to collect and set aside for mulch and for composting.

Well, it’s just hit 9pm right now, and I should be going to bed. I want to start for the city quite early.

Hopefully, I’ll get some decent sleep tonight!

The Re-Farmer

[addendum: okay, this is too funny! After I hit publish, I went ahead and clicked on the AI “Generate Feedback” button. This time, I didn’t get suggestions on breaking up paragraphs or adding pictures. Nope. This time, I got suggestions for regular maintenance on equipment, better communication with my brother, and possibly getting help to deal with my anxiety over the septic issues, and ensuring good self-care. 😄😄😄]

Our 2024 Garden: a little harvest, and a little friend!

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Today turned out very different than I expected, but I’ll cover that in my next post.

My morning routine was pretty much the usual, and I even got a little harvest in.

I have what have become the usual beans – all three kinds – G Star patty pans and Forme de Couer tomatoes, but today I picked the largest of the purple Dragonfly peppers. There are quite a few more, but I’m giving them more time to ripen.

Of course, I also fed the outside cats and, as I was going around the sun room door, I found a little green friend.

This little guy was not much bigger than the top of my thumb! He was above the rain barrel, where I have a board for the diverter to rest on, this rock, and a brick on the other side, to hold it in place.

In yesterday’s sudden, severe storm yesterday morning, the brick actually got knocked right off, and the diverter almost did, too!

Gosh, I love these little tree frogs! I like all the frogs, but these ones are just too adorable!

That was about all that was usual about today, but the update will need its own post, next!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: first black cherries

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While checking around the yard and garden beds for storm damage, I noticed a whole lot of the black cherry tomatoes were looking dark, so I picked a few.

I honestly don’t know if how ripe they are, but these are indeterminate tomatoes, and with so many of them on the clusters looking like this, I thought some of them had to be ripe. I’ve asked my family to let me know after they’ve tried them!

This image is from the T&T Seeds website, where I bought them from, and it is supposed to be what they look like when ripe. Not quite there, I guess! I only picked the four, though. There’s almost a dozen that looked the same as the ones I picked, so we’ll see over the next day or two, if they get dark like in the company’s photo or not.

It should be interesting to see just how many we get of these! We have only 6 plants, but they have grown so incredibly tall, up into the lilac branches about. High enough that if things start ripening near the top of the vines before frost hits, I’d need a stool or something to be able to harvest them!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: a harvest before the storm!

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I was in a world of hurt this morning, after all the stuff done yesterday. The girls took care of feeding the outside cats. We gave eye baby her medication and a modified bottle feed last night, but then she went back outside. She’s getting too active to keep her in a cat carrier all night. Since we can’t wash her eye anymore – it’s not leaking, but is still insanely swollen – and no longer have eye drops, we didn’t take her in this morning. She seems to prefer kibble, anyhow. We’ll bring her in for her antibiotics in the evening, then let her back out again.

I tried to get more sleep, but got messages from my brother and couldn’t fall asleep after that. I’ll get to that part, later.

It was late morning before I got outside to check on the garden and see what could be harvested. We were supposed to get storms last night, but only got a brief rain. We were now being told to expect thunderstorms in the late morning, but very briefly. While I was in the garden, I could hear thunder in the distance.

This is what I was able to gather today.

That big G Star patty pan squash grew so much, just overnight! Yesterday, it wasn’t much bigger than the other one!

I finally picked our first yellow zucchini.

Those are all Forme de Couer tomatoes; no others were ready to pick. The beans are mostly the Royal Burgundy bush beans, which I did not pick at all, yesterday, with maybe a half dozen Carminat pole beans.

I do have to share about the enameled tub the harvest is in. It has been hanging on the wall behind the warming shelf of the wood cookstove for I don’t know now many decades. I brought it out and washed it, thinking we might need to use it for sponge baths, if we couldn’t get the septic going again.

I actually remember my mother bathing me in that, when I was a wee one. She had it on the table in the kitchen, close to the stove, with its reservoir of warm water handy. It was probably used for my late brother, too. Which would make it older than I am!

I hadn’t brought a container with me while going through the garden, and just used the bottom of my shirt to carry the produce. As I was transferring them to the tub, I could hear the thunder and figured I would top of the cat kibble outside, but just in the kibble house and sun room, so the cats would be sheltered next to food. I was in the process of putting the kibble out when the storm hit.

Hard.

We went from basically hot and muggy with no wind, to driving rain and winds strong enough for things started to get blown around, and I was half expecting branches to start breaking off! I got completely soaked in seconds!

Once back in the sun room, I made sure to tie off the outer door and partially close the inner door – normally, during the day, both are kept wide open. Cats where running all over the place, trying to find shelter. A number of kittens that normally run away from me ran into the sun room, saw me there, and panicked – but didn’t run back outside into that driving rain!

The storm has already passed, though. The system is continuing to the north east, and it looks like we got it pretty mild, compared to other places.

I’ll still be waiting a while before going back outside!

I need to go check out the expeller for the septic, out by the barn. I remembered that the septic guy had suggested that, if we still had problems, to take the cap and inner pipe of the expeller out completely, and leave it off for about a month. The grey water would build up in the outer pipe and overflow it, eventually, clearing out any collected gunk from inside the pipes that might be clogging the pipe. I was thinking of taking it out and seeing if there was any outflow.

My brother had had the same thought, and messaged me this morning about it. I’d told him about the septic guy suggesting leaving it out for a month, but my brother wasn’t too keen on that idea; that cap is there for a reason. But it might we worthwhile to do it for a few days, at least.

I was going to do that after topping up the cat kibble, thinking I had time before the storm hit.

I was wrong.

😂😂

So I will have to go out there later today, and see what there is to see!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: potato harvest, and here we go again??

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Okay, first the pleasant stuff.

My brother and his wife are still on their way here. My brother had estimated the tractor could average 20km/h. Now that they’ve been on the road for a while, my SIL thinks it’s more like 12km/h

It’s going to be a while for them to get here, still!

Before I got the messages about this, I’d gone outside to open the gate and get things done out there, so I’d be there when they arrived. One of the first things I did was harvest potatoes at the chain link fence.

On the right, in the photo, are the last of the red thumb fingerling potatoes that I could find. There were some surprisingly large ones in there, for the type of potato! Especially considering we planted the little potatoes that were left from last year, out of the bin we’d been going into throughout the winter.

The potatoes on the left are the purple caribe. These are the ones that most of them did not come up at all. Just a few in the middle of the bed, and a couple at one end. I’ve left the couple at one end, and just harvested the ones in the middle.

There aren’t a lot but, under the circumstances, it’s actually better than I thought it would be. There are some decent sized potatoes in there! Unfortunately, I damaged some with the garden fork. The soil had become quite compacted, so I had to use it quite a bit. All that means is, we have to use the potatoes right away.

No hardship there!

After harvesting the potatoes, I set the bin in the sun for now. I was going to start weed trimming around the house, in preparation for lawn mowing soon. Next to the house is a row of lilacs with the cherry trees in the middle. The cherry trees keep trying to spread through their roots, so I decided to cut those away, first.

There turned out to be a lot more than I expected!

When I got the messages about the delay, a paused for a while and had some supper.

Which is a good thing, because I was inside to hear that the septic pump was running and not shutting off again.

This happened earlier today. The filter was empty and the pump was running dry, so I shut off the power switch, primed the filter, then went outside to check the tank. I used the hose to spray the float free, and when I turned the power back on to the pump, it did not turn on.

I was expecting the same thing this time, but when I opened the tank, I could see that it was full enough to trigger the float. The pump was running, because it needed to.

I went back to the pump and turned the power on. The pump started running, but nothing was happening in the filter. It didn’t even drain through the outflow at the base. The pump was running, but nothing was happening.

I opened up the access pipe in the floor and ran the hose through – it was pretty clogged in places – but I didn’t want to run too much water through there with the tank already so full and not being emptied. It made no difference, anyhow.

I’ve left it off and sent a message to my brother and SIL, letting them know about it. I hate to even bring it up, considering how hot and exhausted my brother is going to be by the time they get here. No AC in the tractor! I heard back from them while I was writing this post. They’ve arrived at a gas station in the town my mother lives in and have stopped for a break.

After the update, I went to check on the pump again, and found the filter reservoir had drained. It shouldn’t do that. I topped it up, and started seeing … gurgling? … from the outflow at the bottom.

It shouldn’t do that, either.

Turning the power on, the pump ran, but again, no flow. The tank is not draining.

This is not good.

Once I’ve posted this, I’m going to head out to the outflow pipe near the barn to see if anything has happened there. I think the renter’s cows have been rotated away again. I haven’t seen them in a while. Which means the electric fence should be off.

We have had so many problems with this septic system! Especially this year.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: melons and squash and gourds, oh my!

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While doing my evening rounds, I was able to take progress photos of the melons, winter squash, pumpkins and drum gourds, using my hand as a size reference, before losing the light.

I am just amazed by how many melons we’ve got! Instagram slideshows have a maximum of 10 images. For the East bed alone, I ended up with 21 images. This, even with images having multiple melons in it. There was at least one in the bed that I found as I was taking the photos!

Here are the photos, split up into three slideshows.

Then there were the ones in the West bed. I was able to catch multiple melons in a single shot several times, so this one got split into only two slideshows.

The second slide show include the Cream of Saskatchewan watermelons. We’ve actually lost one of those, but there is a new one that looks like it will make it. Plus, there are more female flowers showing up!

There are even new female flowers showing up in the winter squash beds that I’ve been hand pollinating. It’s almost impossible for them to fully mature with the growing season we have left, but I just can’t help wanting to give them a chance!

First is the East bed winter squash.

Then the West bed.

We do still have drum gourd doing their best.

There’s just the one that’s been getting bigger, but it seems to be starting to turn yellow, so I don’t know if it’s going to make it. As you can see, though, there are more female flowers blooming!

All the pumpkins, meanwhile, have turned orange.

There’s just one that still has a tiny big of green on it.

I’m also really impressed with the Crespo squash. Not only have the vines themselves had a growth spurt, with huge leaves, and the vines spreading all over – including climbing a nearby cherry tree! – but there are more squash developing!

One is definitely a loss, but we’ve got two new ones along with the very first one that is getting all nubbly. There are more female flowers that have been hand pollinated – including one on the vine climbing the cherry tree – but it’s too early to know if the pollination took. Plus, there are more female flower buds that will probably bloom in a few days.

All this, and the only thing that’s been harvested is one winter squash that broke its own stem. Nothing is ready for harvesting, though some of the winter squash are close. With the melons, some of them are supposed to be early melons and we should have been able to already harvest some of those, but with so many things almost a month behind, that hasn’t happened yet. All the melons and squash are supposed to be short season varieties, but that wet, wet spring we had really set things back.

We have only 18 days before our average first frost date.

Looking at the long range forecast, the predictions have flip flopped again, and it’s now looking like we’ll, at the very least, have a first frost in the second week of September, with highs around 15C/59F and lows as far down as 2C/36F, which can have frost – but then we are supposed to climb back up to highs of 29C/84F and lows of 13C/55F.

I’ll bet if I look again in the morning, the long range forecast will completely change again.

Meanwhile, we are under a heat warning right now. Over the weekend, we’re expecting highs of 30C/86F, with the humidex at 38C/100F. The predicted rain and thunderstorms are no longer in the forecast, though other parts of Canada are getting thunderstorm warnings right now. It’s just not supposed to reach us, anymore.

Looks like I’m going to be watering the garden in the morning, again!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: morning harvest, and a volunteer

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We’re set for another hot day today, and I thought I’d be watering the garden this morning. It seems we got more rain during the night, though, and it wasn’t needed.

I did get a decent harvest, instead!

Check it out! Our very first – and so far, only – Magda squash! I picked a couple of patty pans smaller than before, more to encourage the plants to continue blooming and producing.

I picked a few oddly small corn cobs that turned out to be ripe, but just… oddly small. There are a few green Seychelle beans, a decent amount of the Royal Burgundy bush beans, but it’s the Carminat beans that really surprise me. So few plants, and they are so productive!

There are a few chocolate cherry and Forme de Couer, and in the second photo of the slide show, you’ll see that we are FINALLY having black cherry tomatoes turning colour.

There are still some sugar snap peas being produced, and that bed where I was finally able to identify a volunteer.

A bit of greenery showed up at the very end of the bed. I thought it might be a weed, but something seemed familiar about it, so I left it. Now that it is bigger and even starting to bloom, I have been able to confirm:

It is an Aunt Molly’s ground cherry.

I am quite surprised to see it. We grew those a couple of years ago, in the spot next to the compost ring, where we now have a new framed bed with Crespo squash and Seychelle beans in it. There is another raised bed between that and the bed this ground cherry showed up in.

One of the things I was testing out with the ground cherries was whether they would easily self sow, as I’d been hearing from some people who have started to view it as a weed because it’s so hard to get rid of. The next year, though, nothing showed up. For one to now show up here is a bit of a mystery. I have no idea how it could have gotten there. It’s not like we had birds eating the ground cherries and potentially pooping the seeds out. The fruit was too thoroughly engulfed in leaves for any birds to get at. No other critters seemed interested in them, either.

I’m not going to complain, though. This is a lovely surprise, and I hope it actually gets a chance to mature and produce fruit, before our season runs out!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: afternoon harvest and a major change in plans

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I’m running a little short on sleep right now. Things did not turn out as planned, and I had to cancel the truck appointment for an oil change and diagnostic.

Before I get into that, though, here is this afternoon’s harvest.

I was quite pleased to have such largish harvests, two days in a row! Those are our first Forme de Coeur tomatoes in there, along with more Chocolate Cherry tomatoes. There’s a few sugar snap peas – those plants are somehow still producing! – and all three types of beans we planted this year.

I harvested in the afternoon rather than the morning, because I was busy with something else. I got the girls to water the garden for me this morning, too. The only thing I was able to do was feed the outside cats, while the girls tended to eye baby (we are out of eye drops, so I’m extra glad we have the oral antibiotics now!) before setting her outside.

The why of it needs a bit of background explanation.

You know how, when you walk into some stores, there are people who come up to you offering applications for credit cards?

I’ve said no to these for years, but one recent trip to Canadian Tire, I figured, what the heck. I’ll apply – while fully expecting to be turned down.

Much to my shock, I was approved for a Canadian Tire Mastercard.

It took about a week or more for the physical card to arrive, and then there was the process of activating it, getting things set up and so on. This meant I also got quite a few emails from Canadian Tire, with activation notifications, approval for this, set up for that, all along with the usual emails I get from them for sales and surveys and “rate your purchase” stuff. Some of these emails didn’t need to be addressed immediately and were set aside for later.

For those who don’t know, Canadian Tire has its own currency. You used to be able to get Cdn Tire money of various denominations. You could use the bills – legal tender recognized only by Canadian Tire – on your next shopping trip, or donate them to charity in bins that were set up by the exits.

Eventually, they switched to digital versions and you could collect your reward money by using a card of key fob with a bar code on it, just like other loyalty cards out there. Over time, it became the “Triangle” rewards card, which could be used at a number of different stores, and use the collected digital currency to buy things at those stores. When it comes to the Cdn Tire Mastercard, using it allows for collecting the digital money anywhere it gets used. I already had a Triangle card, but we don’t shop at Cdn Tire all that often, and don’t shop at the other stores at all, so the reward cash doesn’t accumulate quickly.

Costco takes Mastercard only.

For the amount we spend there, it would actually be practical to use the Cdn Tire card and collect the rewards cash faster. If we save up the digital money long enough, we could use it to make major purchases.

As long as I can avoid the credit card trap, of course!

Anyhow, loyalty points and rewards is part of the whole thing, and some of the emails I got were about that.

Well, yesterday evening, I had gone through some of the older emails from Cdn Tire I had set aside and followed through with them.

I blame missing what should have been obvious on the fact that it was almost midnight.

Later, while getting ready for bed and in the middle of my devotions, one of those emails popped into my head.

Something didn’t seem right.

I tried finding the deleted email on my phone but couldn’t, so I went onto my desktop to go through my email. My computer is on all night these days, playing purring sounds to sooth eye baby during the night, so it was already up and running.

I found the email.

I went through it, checked some things, but couldn’t be 100% sure there was an issue. My card information, however, was now associated with it, and I was now 99% sure it was a problem.

It was past 1am by this time, and they don’t have 24 hour customer service.

After trying a few times and realizing I wouldn’t get through to anyone until 7am local time, I used the automated system to report my card as stolen. It was the only option I had.

By the time I got back to bed to finish my devotions, it was about 3am.

I didn’t sleep much, and was wide awake by 6am.

I’d already messaged the family about what happened, to be read whenever they were able to. I also sent a text to the garage to cancel the oil change and diagnostic, since I had wanted to use the card for that.

My daughters were both up, so they took care of things I normally would have.

Meanwhile, I logged onto my account and saw that the last 4 digits they make visible on the website were different. I already had a new card number assigned.

To call in, however, the first thing the automated system asks if for the 16 digit card number, then the PIN, before going into the other options. How would that work now that the number on my card was no longer valid?

I also already got an email confirming the card was reported stolen, with a number to call if I hadn’t actually done that. If the usual number didn’t work, I could resort to that one.

Well, it turns out I didn’t need to.

Once I called and gave the 16 digit number, the process was completely different, and was immediately sent to a customer service rep.

Which was exactly what I wanted!

As soon as I heard the operator’s voice, I could tell she was bracing herself. That number would have been flagged as stolen, so right away I said, I reported my card as stolen during the night.

I then explained that my card was not physically stolen, but the number probably was, then explained about the email. The other thing I wanted to do was confirm the pending purchases I’d made yesterday as being legitimate. She spent some time helping me with all that, then forwarded me to the fraud department for the rest.

The guy I spoke to confirmed, that email was not from them. He made sure to tell me I’d done the right thing by reporting the card as stolen so quickly. With these phishing scams, they tend to rack up the charges very quickly. He was able to look up the old number and confirm that no purchases had been attempted, but if I had waited until I could talk to someone directly, he is positive there would have been fraudulent charges.

He then confirmed that the process to get a new physical card for me was started. The request would get sent to where they stamp the cards should get to that location today or tomorrow, and he figures a new card will be mailed by Friday (today is Wednesday). It takes 7-10 business days for the card to arrive in the mail – and next weekend is Labour Day weekend, so it might take about 2 calendar weeks for it to arrive.

Which is fine. The main thing I wanted to confirm is being able to pay off the card at the end of the month, since it’s possible the new card won’t arrive until well after. He checked my billing cycle, and there is no concern about anything being late. Plus, I had already set the card up as a payee with my bank. If I make a payment before the new card arrives, it will automatically be diverted to the new number. Once the card arrives, I can just edit the payee information.

All of that went much more smoothly and quickly that I feared! So quickly, I had to wait until the garage opened at 8 before I could phone.

When I got through and told him I had to cancel, I mentioned I’d sent a text during the night, and our mechanic was glad I phoned, because he hadn’t had a chance to look at any of the texts that came in during the night.

By the time I was done all that, the girls were still outside, watering the garden. My younger daughter had not been able to sleep last night at all, so once they were back inside, they both soon went to bed. As for myself, I only took the time to grab some food, get some laundry started, then went to bed myself.

Funny. I slept much better this time!

By the afternoon, we already hit our predicted high of 27C/81F. I knew there would at least be tomatoes ready to pick, so went out to do the harvest and found myself picking quite a bit more than expected. Even with the morning watering, everything in the garden was all doopy from the heat and humidity!

I did have another surprise, while picking pole beans in the main garden area.

A car stopped on the road and gave a bit of a honk. Then someone came out and started calling out “hello”.

With the lilac hedge in the way, I wasn’t sure if this was someone calling to me, or thinking there was someone at the property across the road from us. No one lives there, but the owners are there frequently.

So I made my way through the overgrown area that’s too tall to mow, to try and see what was going on.

It turned out to be my husband’s prescription delivery! It was a different driver and he was unfamiliar with the area. When he saw me in the garden, he stopped on the road to see if he was in the right place!

I wasn’t expecting the delivery for several more hours!

He then drove around and I met him at the gate. It was my husband’s insulin, so I had to make sure that got into the fridge before going back to the garden!

So… yeah. Today was not at all as planned! But things worked out in the end, and that’s the important part.

Oh, and before I forget…

I’m happy to say that my sparkly hat that the cats got all stinky, survived going through the washer and drier! It’s not meant to be washed that way. I’m sure using the lingerie bag helped.

I’m quite pleased, as it’s my favourite hate!

Since I wasn’t going out today, I did get some more done on the cat isolation shelter, but that will be for my next post!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: a lovely harvest!

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Today, we were expected to reach a high of 28C/82F, so I wanted to make sure to give the garden a deep watering early in the morning, before things got hot. I’m glad we did, because we seem to have reached 30C/86F, with the humidex closer to 35C/95F!

I’m so glad I remembered to grab ice packs before I headed out today.

Anyhow…

After the garden was watered, I did some harvesting, and this is what I gathered.

There was a single patty pan ready to harvest. I mightily resisted picking the one Magda squash we have right now, but I decided to let it get bigger. There’s one zucchini that looks like it’s going to reach a harvestable size soon, too.

There was a nice handful of the Royal Burgundy bush beans (bottom right corner in the bin, as well as the longer Carminat pole beans. There was a single San Marzano tomato to pick, plus a whole two Chocolate Cherry tomatoes – the first of the season! I went ahead and harvested a few more Uzbek golden carrots as well. I think the next harvest will be the last of them, except for the ones gone to seed.

I always second guess myself when it comes to harvesting corn. I’ve heard it said, you can tell they’re ready when the silks are dried up, but I’ve harvested them at that stage and found immature cobs. It’s also suggested to tear through the husks to actually see the kernels, but if the cob isn’t ready, that leaves it with an opening where moisture and insects can get in.

This morning, I found one corn stalk broken at the cob, as if something tried to pull it down. Raccoons are notorious for cleaning out an entire corn patch at peak ripeness, but I don’t think a raccoon did this. I would expect more damage from a raccoon. Still, since the cob was above the broken stem, I shucked it and it was perfectly ripe.

Yes, I ate it raw, and it was deliscious.

So I went ahead and picked more that I thought might also be ripe. Happily, when I shucked them at the compost pile, I found they were all ripe. I ended up putting them in the oven to roast along with something else, and they were absolutely fantastic!

Yukon Chief is definitely a variety worth growing again!

I have a different short season variety to try next year, so we’ll be able to compare, but with how super short the Yukon Chief’s growing season is, it already has an extra point going for it. Once we decide on a variety we like that grows well here, we will start saving seeds. By then, we should have more space to dedicate to growing corn, too.

It’s nice to finally be having some decent sized harvests this year! I honestly did not thing we would be getting any bush beans at all, so to have both bush and pole beans to harvest is just icing on the cake!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: first garlic, plus winter squash, melon and pumpkin progress

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After I did as much as I could on the cat isolation shelter build, I finally got around to harvesting some of our garlic. In particular, I wanted to get the garlic that was sharing a bed with tomatoes. The tomatoes are getting so huge and bushy, the garlic was barely visible!

The challenge was to find them and dig them out without breaking any tomato plants!

Not all of the garlic planted there in the fall emerged, but I think I found all the ones that did. The soil was surprisingly compacted, and the head buried much deeper than I expected. I could actually hear the wood on the handle of my digging tool making cracking noises if I went to deep, trying to loosen the soil.

Unfortunately, when I got them all out, I discovered they were just crawling with black ants!

After trimming the stems, most of them got strung up and are now hanging in the garage. Normally, I would have hung them under the market tent, but that broke over the winter. Right now, the garage is the only place that’s out of the elements, but still has air circulation. Since I’m using it as a workshop right now, I can at least be sure they won’t be forgotten about!

Before I headed in for the evening, I finally went out and took progress photos of the winter squash, melons, pumpkins and gourds. It’s been quite a while. The last time I normally would have done it, I did our garden tour video, instead.

If you want to see how they looked earlier, you can visit these links.

July 28
July 30
August 1
August 3
August 5
August 8

It’s now the 14th, so there is quite a lot of difference since I last posted photos. We lost a few things, and some look like they will also be losses, but I also found more melons, including a couple I found just this evening, while taking the photos!

With that in mind, I will start with the melon beds. First, the east bed. There were so many, I had to divide the photos between two Instagram slideshows.

This Summer of Melons mix is really prolific – though with where we are in the growing season, it’s likely we’ll only be able to harvest the earliest varieties, whatever they are. The mid and late varieties are unlikely to have enough time left to fully mature.

Then there is the west bed of melons, which also had to be split up between two slideshows.

If you notice some blood on my finger in the last photo, I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes while trying to take these photos!

In the above slideshow, you can see the only two Cream of Saskatchewan watermelons we’ve got right now, and the older one is dying off. The plant has more female flower buds and is blooming like crazy, but it’s probably way too late. While I was giving my sister a tour of the garden, she was telling me things are late in her garden, too. She’s not growing melons or squash this year, but she says her tomatoes are way behind. She barely even has tomatoes forming right now! That wet, wet spring we had has really affected so many people’s gardens, all over the province.

Next, we have the pumpkins.

We now have one completely orange pumpkin, and two that are starting to change colour! I’m really impressed by how well the pumpkins are doing.

And look!

We even have a drum gourd that’s getting bigger!

There are other drum gourds on the vines, but it’s still too early to tell if they were well pollinated. There are lots of male flowers, but I haven’t been seeing the female flowers when they first bloom, so I haven’t been able to do any hand pollinating.

Next is the east winter squash bed. This one has the most squash developing on it.

It does look like we’ll be losing several of them, though. Those big yellow ones that are now turning orange are looking awesome!

The west bed has only a few squash left.

One of them looks like it’s going to die off, too. It’s getting more yellow instead of more green.

Last of all, I did remember to get pictures of the Crespo squash!

It looks like we’ve got two surviving squash developing. I’m seeing at least one more female flower bud, but it’s too early to know if it’ll be a survivor. Again, we’ll see if they have enough growing season left. These are supposed to get very large.

I’m kinda regretting not watering this morning, even though the forecast is now more sure about us getting rain overnight. Looking at the weather radar, the trajectory of the weather system has changed, so it no longer looks like it’s going to go right past us. Instead, it’s heading towards us – and looks like it’s going to split in half and maybe miss us on two sides, instead of one! Still, we’re supposed to be getting right starting tonight, and continuing through to mid afternoon tomorrow. We shall see what actually happens!

Anyhow… that’s the status of things right now. I’m quite happy with things so far. In all honestly, considering how many winter squash we planted, I would have expected more – I don’t think there are any hiding under the leaves anywhere that I haven’t spotted. It does seem like some plants have more than one squash developing, while others have none at all. In the future, when we have our permanent trellises built – trellises strong enough to hold winter squash like these! – it’ll be easier to see, one way or the other. The squash in this Wild Bunch Mix really want to climb, too!

I’m quite impressed by how many melons we’ve got developing! They have a trellis to climb in one bed, but seem to prefer to sprawl on the ground, instead.

As late as things are, I’m happy with the Crespo squash, too. Last year, we had four struggling plants that ended up being baked in the sun in there location, and only one small, immature squash to harvest. It still made good pie!

They are definitely doing better in the new bed I made for them this year.

Lots to keep in mind for when we plant any of these again, in the future! Every year is a learning experience, and I don’t expect that to ever stop. That’s part of what makes gardening so fun!

The Re-Farmer