The first shot was just some of the weeds and whatnot in where the area I’ve been slowly getting mowed. The second is of one of the Hopi Black Dye sunflower seed heads. That’s among the largest seed heads, too. This frost seems to have finally done them in.
*sigh*
The coldest part of the night tends to be around 6am, so it was still chilly while I did my rounds. I didn’t uncover the garden beds until the afternoon, when it was finally getting decently warm.
In fact, they’re looking pretty darn good. In the next two photos, you can see some of the developing squash are actually getting bigger, too! I had some concern that the pollination didn’t take and they’d just wither away, but nope; we actually have winter squash trying to mature!
Tonight’s low is expected to be 10C/50F. Since the actual overnight lows have been trending lower than forecast, though, I’m still going to cover the beds again for tonight, and probably the next two nights as well. After that, the overnight lows are expected to stay above 10C/50F, so they should be okay without covers – except for the winter squash, which I will keep covering.
While planning on what we need to do around the yard over the next while, I checked the RM (Rural Municipality) website and found that we are no longer under any fire bans. That means we can use the fire pit, if we want. I’d like clean it out and reset the fire bricks we set up for the Dutch oven to stand on. These are larger fire bricks I found while cleaning up around the yard, not the ones we’ve been slowly stocking up on for when we build our outdoor kitchen. It’s been such a long time since we’ve used the fire pit. We also now have two Dutch ovens. There’s a traditional round one on three legs that we got a while back, and now we have a smaller, square one I got on clearance at Canadian Tire this summer. I’m hoping we can have a family gathering and cookout, probably in October, before things start getting too cold. My husband hasn’t seen his family in a long time because he couldn’t physically handle the trip to and from the city, plus the time for a visit, for the last family dinner we were invited to. Kinda scary to think his father, who is in assisted living, is probably more mobile than my husband is!
We’ll see what we can work out, as we get the place ready for whatever winter throws at us!
While doing my rounds today, I noticed some really huge squash and pumpkin flowers were open. There was even one among the zucchini that I made sure to hand pollinate, since no male flowers were open.
In checking the winter squash, though, I had my first find of potential Baked Potato squash. Two little female flowers were finally forming.
Once those blossoms open, I will be sure to hand pollinate them, just to be on the safe side.
Not that it’s likely we’ll get anything from them. We’re well into the second half of August right now. These are shorter season varieties, but even if these female flowers get properly pollinated and start to grow, it’s unlikely we have enough season left for full maturity.
Once I was done my rounds, I grabbed the wheelbarrow and started bringing wood chips over to cover some garden paths. I forgot to get a “before” picture of the first one I started on, so I instead have a “half way done” picture.
That first picture is after three wheelbarrow loads. Some of the wood chips were also spread around the north ends of the two beds.
The second picture shows that path finished, including the ends of the two beds, with a total of five wheelbarrow loads. I especially wanted to make sure there was a thick, stamped down layer right up against the walls of the raised beds.
The only down side is that, while loading the wheelbarrow from the wood chip pile, I broke up an ant hill. Which means that, along with the wood chips, I also brought over a whole bunch of red ants and their eggs.
I’ll need to pick up some ant traps soon.
Once this was done, I headed inside for breakfast. By the time I came out again, it was just starting to almost, kinda, sorta rain. More of a misting than a rain. I was already soaked with sweat from the humidity, so I figured I may as well keep at it.
For the second path, I remembered to get a proper “before” picture.
For this one, I tried to load the wheelbarrow as much as I could, without losing woodchips along the way. It still took five loads, but I had enough to add to the ends, as well as more to put along the sides of the flower bed. That bed will get walls eventually, and the wood chips are where the walls would go, but that’s okay. As it is now, if I’m not careful while watering, the soil mound the flowers are planted in starts to erode, and the wood chips will reduce that.
The high raised bed already had its own ant colony in one corner, so I just added more ants… 🫤
Those bricks at the end of the flower bed were added because the cats were digging there to use the soil as a littler box.
The Cosmos are getting nice and tall, and looking really healthy! Hopefully, they aren’t shading out the memorial asters too much.
I did finally remove the hoops that were still over that section. I’d left them after removing the netting simply because they weren’t in the way of anything, and it was as good a place to store them as any.
Eventually, this end will have a more developed 4′ wide path, but that will happen after we get rid of those killer trees and build more beds to reclaim the space they’ve taken over. For now, I just need a narrower mulched path to keep the weeds down.
Once this was done, it had gone from misting to raining, so it was time to stop. This area won’t get more wood chips for a while, as I’m adding that after the raised beds on either side of a path are permanently framed with logs.
I did use up a decent chunk of the wood chip pile!
Not only was there a big ant nest in it, but poplar roots were working their way through it, too. It’s been there a few years, now. Where I’m standing to take the picture is how far it extended when the tree company we hired to get rid of the big branch pile for us dumped it there. This area is meant to be kept open, wide enough to drive through, if needed, so it’ll be good to use up that pile. We’ll need to go over with with the landscape rake when we’ve cleared as much as we can, just so we can mow over it without the lawnmower blades doing much crunching and munching, and potentially getting damaged.
The next areas I’ll be adding wood chips to are around the raised beds in the east yard, and around the newest food forest additions.
Which I might actually get some progress on, as it seems to have stopped raining. We’re getting into the hottest part of the day, though, so I might work on another project, instead.
I’m so enjoying finally getting some stuff done out there!
I can appreciate mornings. The cooler temperatures and softer lighting are great. Especially for working in the garden. Unfortunately, my body just can’t handle it. I’ve never been a morning person. The absolute best scheduling I ever had was when I worked the night shift at a gas station. I was alert and motivated all night, slept well all day; physically and mentally, I was at my best!
Unfortunately, I’m not able to do that now, and this time of year, I find myself being awakened earlier and earlier, no matter what time I make it to bed. This morning, I was up at 4 – 4:30 and just could not get back to sleep.
Still, I managed to get some thing done in the garden after doing my morning rounds.
I finally got this bed weeded. I had to wait until things got bigger. I still had to be really careful, and pulled only what I was 100% sure was a weed. In the first photo above, you can easily spot the nasturtiums and Cosmos. In the second photo, there are little sprouts of what I hope are the asters. I’ve never grown asters from seed, and I’m not sure what they are supposed to look like at this stage. I’ve even looking at photos online and am still not 100% sure. There are just too many things that look like this at this stage!
I couldn’t get everything, of course. I’ll be weeding those awful elm seeds all summer, I’m sure.
I had a surprise when I got to the winter squash bed. I’m not sure what these are.
Those are insects of some kind. They were only on the blossoms, and only on the squash. They’re so tiny, I can’t make out any identifying features. I tried asking in a gardening group and did get a response of one possible thing, but on looking them up, they seemed much bigger. Pretty much anything would be bigger! The solution was to spray with soapy water, so later in the day, I tried that. The blossoms were closed by then, though, so I don’t know how much good it did.
They’re smaller this year. When picking them, I tuck the coils over a finger to carry them. Last year, I was putting them around my wrist.
After I was done my rounds, I headed inside for breakfast and planned to go back out to start working on the trellis bed. In the end, I didn’t make it. I was falling asleep in my chair. I finally gave up and went for a nap. Something I’ve found myself having to do fairly regularly.
I get better sleep in those 1-2 hour morning naps than in an entire night! It is a bit disorienting to wake up and it’s still morning, though. 😄
My goal for today was to get started on the remaining vertical supports for the permanent trellis bed.
As good as I felt, this put me outside at the hottest part of the day.
My goals got shifted, and progress was made. Just on something else!
My start to the day was way earlier than intended, even with needing to get up earlier because I was going to my mother’s!
I’ve been keeping my bedroom door closed overnight, with just Butterscotch and Ginger, because they get bothered by other cats so much. When I can, I include Tiny, who also gets bullied by other cats. Unfortunately, that results in cats scratching at my door frequently during the night. This not only wakes me up, it’s damaging the door. In the time it takes me to get up and get to the door with a spray bottle, whatever cat is doing it is long gone.
This morning, when I found myself up at about 4:30 am, I decided to leave my door open as I tried going back to bed. As soon as the other cats came in, though, the fighting, growling, scratching (sometimes even on the scratch pad or tower), hairball horking, and jumping all over the place kicked right in!
I finally gave up and got up well before my alarm was due to go off. I topped up the cat food bowls in the dining room, mostly just making noise to get their attention, since they still had plenty of food, and managed to get most of them distracted from destruction in my room.
I headed outside next to feed the yard cats. I didn’t see Zipper anywhere which, after what happened with Kale, has me concerned, but then I didn’t see some of the other kittens, either. I find myself wondering if Caramel is trying to move her babies to the farm across the road from us. Yesterday, I caught her encouraging one of her kittens to follow hear, while heading in that direction. No one lives there permanently, but there is still the house, barn and many outbuildings. I picked up the kitten and brought it back to the sun room, just to be on the safe side. I will know better when I do the evening feeding, if we are missing some kitties.
Once the furballs were fed, I did the rest of my rounds, including checking the garden beds. They did not need watering this morning, which was good, since I didn’t have time to do it before leaving.
The transplants are still looking really rough, but that’s not stopping them from blooming! Especially the winter squash.
These are just one variety in the picture, but all three varieties in this bed have blossoms. Almost all are male flowers, though I did see one female flower bud. I should probably prune all these flowers off right now, which should send more energy to plant growth rather than flower blooming.
I was also very happy to have my first garlic scape harvest!
Just a few were ready for picking, but we will have more, soon! On the way back to the house, I grabbed a few chive blossoms, too. I included some of each in my breakfast. 😊
I headed back out later and harvested some rhubarb and lettuce to bring to my mother, before changing and heading out. Expecting today to be warmer, I decided to wear my new caftan style summer dress. It’s bright red with bold patterns in green, yellow, white and black. My mother has seen me in it before and laughed at me, saying it looked like I was wearing pajamas (she meant night gown, but I think she forgot the word in English). So I knew I’d get some sort of blowback for wearing it. I also wore my new shoes in matching red, and the sparkly gold hat my daughter bought for me, to add to my sparkly hat collection. I always wear a baseball style hat – I feel naked without one! – when I head outside, and have work hats and going out hats. The sparkly ones are my going out hats.
Before I left, I went over to my daughter as she was making herself breakfast, struck a pose and asked, how do I look? I pretty much never wear such bright colours or patterns, and wear dresses even less often. My daughter loved it, then laughed and said my mother would have things to say!
So, I did know at least some of what was coming.
The plan was to take my mother to the lab for her bloodwork when they opened at 9, or after her morning med assist. I seemed to remember that the morning home care worker came just before 9am, but I wasn’t sure. I had told my mother I would be there between 8:30 and 9. After the lab work, I would do her grocery shopping, then had my own errands to run.
I arrived shortly after 8:30 and delivered the rhubarb and lettuce. My mother was quite happy with that.
Then I settled at the table to get her lock box and remove the bloodwork form for this month. That’s when my mother noticed my bright red shoes.
She somehow managed to compliment me on the shoes, while laughing and insulting me for the dress, at the same time.
Then she started in on the hat, which I’ve already worn to her place, quite a few times. That style, she told me, was for men. Because it had a visor. Men’s hats have visors. I pointed out, it’s gold and sparkly, so it’s hardly a “men’s hat” (not that it couldn’t be, but my mother wouldn’t think so).
She then started to tell me, people dress so strangely these days!
😂😂
I told her, it’s just styles. They change.
All of this is pretty typical of my mother and pretty expected.
Meanwhile, I got the form out and she ordered me to give her her pills. I had already confirmed that the home care aide hadn’t arrived yet, so I told her no, the aid will be here soon. It’s not even 9:00 (it was coming up on 8:45 by then, so I’d been there for less than 10 minutes). She then started going on about the times and eventually mentioned that no one had shown up for Saturday morning, so that meant they weren’t going to come today.
????
This was the first I’d heard of this. I told her, if that happens, call me! If they haven’t shown up by 10, then she needs to call me so I can come in.
By 10? They’re supposed to be here at 8.
???
She was recently given a new 2 week schedule, and it was taped to her wall, so I checked it. The schedule includes both the days and dates, then the scheduled med assist times for each day. As I started looking at it, she berated me for looking at the wrong date, so obviously, she could see the schedule, even with her macular degeneration. I found the right date, then pointed out to her that all the scheduled visits for each day are at the same times. Mornings are from 9-9:10. Afternoons, 6:55-7. I forget the last one, but it was also a 5 minute visit. All the times were the same for the two weeks on the schedule, along with the names of who was supposed to do the visits.
My mother’s response was, they changed it?
She thought they were supposed to come at 8, even though she could see the schedule, taped to the wall right in front of where she sits at her dining table.
She still demanded I give her her medications. I said no. They have forms to fill out. I’m not going to mess with their system.
I was berated for wanting to follow the rules.
Once the lock box was set aside, we settled in to just chat while we waited, and I mentioned how hot and humid it was. She thought I meant outside, and I told her it’s hot and humid outside, too, but I had meant inside. My mother doesn’t feel the heat at all, these days.
She didn’t understand the word humid, though, and thought I meant the smoke. I told her there wasn’t any smoke visible when I came in, but that would just be because of the wind direction. The big fire across the lake was still burning out of control.
That’s when things went downhill, fast.
She started talking about how terrible it was that “they” were starting fires. And by “they”, my mother basically means not-white people. Sometimes she seems to mean Muslims, sometimes First Nations, sometimes just any of the recent imports. When I pointed out that not all of these fires are arson, and many are in isolated regions, where there are no roads and no people, she told me that “they” would still go there! If they can burn churches, they would burn forests, too.
Now, as an aside, we do have real problems with this. In past years, the RCMP have uncovered plots from people connected to Islamic terrorist groups that specifically included starting many forest fires. There is also the issue of imports (I will not insult genuine immigrants by calling the imports, immigrants). Canada’s federal government has allowed well over 800,000 imports in just the first 4 months of 2025. That’s roughly equivalent to the population of the city of Winnipeg. This while going on about how they’re going to cut back on how many people they let in because of the housing crisis. These are not people undergoing the requisite checks and balances normally required during the immigration process, and there is a much larger problem if human trafficking involved, but that’s a whole different topic.
There is also the real problem of churches being vandalized and burned. The number is well over 100 now, and this started after the mass graves hoax that our former Prime Dictator, T2, actually condoned, even as he condemned it. He literally did both in the same sentence. Many of these are blatant hate crimes, but they’re not being investigated. What my mother doesn’t understand is that many of these churches that were vandalized and burned because of the mass graves hoax are actually churches on reserves. A lot of Fist Nations people are Christian, and those churches are incredibly important to their communities.
My mother, however, can’t grasp that. In her mind, white people are Christian. Which makes me wonder what she really thinks about the very dark priest from India serving her church right now! Or the Filipino family with their delightful gaggle of children that attends her church.
So that’s a bit of the background on that.
I tried to tell my mother, she’s talking about two different things. Yes, the church burnings are a problem, but that is not connected to the wildfires. It’s fire season. Some fires are started by stupid people throwing their cigarette butts out the window, yes, there is sometimes arson, but mostly these are lightning strikes. There simply aren’t people around to start most of the fires where they are.
She then started to accuse me of “protecting” “them”, saying “I’m not stupid” (meaning, she knows what is REALLY going on, but I don’t) and that I was just like…
At that point she used a word I didn’t understand. It was one of her made up words that she comes up with, like referring to women doctors as “psheepshee”. I had to ask several times, what was she talking about, before she said she meant the home care worker she’d had an incident with before. This home care worker had made a request to not be assigned to my mother anymore because of my mother’s racist comments, so we were all surprised that she was back. My mother had acknowledged she did not behave properly, though I don’t know that she ever apologized directly to this woman. Clearly, based on what my mother was saying now, any apology she might have made was not at all genuine!
So there she was saying I was “protecting” people just like this… whatever the word was… home care worker. (Granted, I would also have a problem with someone who said she supported pro-terrorist protesters, but we don’t know exactly what went down, since they both have told different stories about the incident.) All for pointing out that she was talking about two different things, and not all fires are arson.
Then I guess my mother remembered that my husband is Metis, because she suddenly asked, “is there any white blood left in you?”
…
At that point I told her, flat out, she was being disgusting, and when did she get all this hate in her heart?
She then started crossing herself, and I called her out on that particular behaviour, too. That led to her questioning my faith and making some other inappropriate comments.
Which is when I told her, I was done.
I put the paperwork back in the lock box and left. I was not going to take her for her lab work, nor do her grocery shopping, after that.
While I put the form away, my mother just sat there, silently, with a very familiar smug smile on her face that she puts on when she is utterly convinced of her righteousness.
I was not going to put up with her abuse.
I was there for less than 15 minutes.
At some point, I’ll need to go back and get her to the lab and do her grocery shopping, but not today.
Once in the truck, I updated the family very briefly – both at home and in the group chat with my siblings. I then headed out to do what was supposed to be my afternoon errands, and went to the nearest Walmart.
I just got interrupted by a cat altercation that brings me to one of the things I found at Walmart to try. A “calm & content”, “liquid vet” solution. Chicken flavoured. It’s meant to be fed to a stressed out cat during meal time, with doses based on weight. We have several cats that seriously need to be de-stressed! It has a 100% money back guarantee, so we’ll see how it works. I also picked up a couple of sprayers for the hose; I only need one right now, but with how quickly they seem to break down, I got an extra. I did get what I hope are higher quality ones.
The shopping done and the truck loaded, I just started to leave the parking lot when my phone rang.
It was home care.
I shuddered to think they needed me to do the morning med assist. It well past 10 by then. It turned out that my mother had called them because no one had showed up for her morning med assist. The scheduler had checked and confirmed that the home care aid was running behind, and that she would be going to my mother’s next. I briefly let her know I’d been there earlier and had to leave because of my mother’s behaviour. Fair warning that she might not be at her best when the home care aid arrived. The scheduler appreciated the warning.
I was just glad I wasn’t going to have to go back to my mother’s today.
I could finally head home, which was an uneventful drive except…
Why was my oil pressure gauge on the low side like that?
It hasn’t been that long ago that a leaking gasket was discovered, and that’s why we had been losing oil. Because of where it was leaking, we never saw any oil under the truck, nor have we been seeing any lately. We had also still had issues with the MAF sensor, so we had that replaced, the engine cleaned and an oil change done, all at once. It’s been running fine, ever since.
I did confirm that, based on the mileage on the sticker, we are due for an oil change, though the onboard computer says we’re still good to go.
Once at home and the truck unloaded, I grabbed some paper towel and checked the oil level. Which is incredibly frustrating. I honestly can’t tell where the oil level is. It either looks all wet, or not at all. I do wish the dip stick could be a light colour, rather than basically the same colour as the oil! I eventually concluded it was a bit low and added my last half liter of oil that I had in the truck and checked again. I found it even harder to see the oil level at that point.
*sigh*
So I called the garage and told them what I was seeing. They couldn’t fit me in today, but I now have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. They’ll do an oil change and check for a leak.
Meanwhile I had a message from my daughter. The autobody place called about our insurance claim while I was gone, so I called them back.
The insurance company has agreed to the off-market box cover that would fit our truck, that the shop had managed to find. We would be paying the 30% “betterment” cost, on top of our deductible. The guy at the repair department needed to look over the truck, though. I now have an appointment for Thursday afternoon. He’ll look over the damage, including the broken tail light, so he knows exactly what parts he will need to order. The insurance company says they won’t cover the tail light because they don’t think it was caused by the box cover being ripped off the truck and twisting the frame in the process, and I have no way to prove otherwise. The autobody place might be able to find a cheaper off-market one for us, though. Otherwise, we could go to the garage and ask if they can find one from a scrap yard, instead. These things are pretty expensive, new.
Once the guy has the information he needs, they’ll be able to look it all up and give an exact cost to us, including the deductible. We can then decide whether to go ahead with the repair and replacement or not. Budget is very tight right now, but my older daughter has said she can help out.
All of this, and it was just past noon by the end of the call with the autobody place.
I decided to plant the all the remaining winter squash into one bed. With these ones, I’m not looking to save seed, so it doesn’t matter if they cross pollinate. The bed I decided to put them in has been solarizing for quite a long time now.
The first thing to do, though, was get in with the weed trimmer and clear around the bed.
There were clouds and clouds of dandelion seeds!
The plastic did a great job of protecting the soil from that, though.
Once the weed trimming was done, I removed the boards and bricks holding the plastic down. One of the boards had been used to roll the plastic up for storage, and I used that again.
It’s amazing what can survive under the heat of that plastic – and the lack of any moisture!
So my first job was to break up the compacted soil and so what weeding needed to be done.
I was finding elm tree roots at the end furthers from the elms.
It was while I was working on this that we got company. My brother came over today. He had some stuff he needed to get done, so I just went over to say hello before getting back to my own work.
The first thing he did was comment on how I needed to not die on him! Apparently, I was extremely red and flushed from the heat! I did make sure to sit in the shade and hydrate, often, but after his comment, I made a point of going inside and sitting in the air conditioned living room for a while before getting back at it.
As I was working, I thought about how to bed protect the bed. Seeing how, even with logs added to the sides, the peas and carrots bed was eroding on one side, I wanted to prevent that right from the start.
So, once the soil was weeded and fluffified, I decided to make use of the boards that had weighed down the plastic, and make temporary walls.
I first raked the soil in from the edges. In going through my supplies in the garden shed, I brought out a bundle of metal stakes that were salvaged from the Walmart market tent we had a tree fall on, several years ago. I’d used these to mark out where to shift the garden beds last year, and this particular bundle all had pinwheels – or the remains of pinwheels – taped to them. A pair of them still had twine wrapped around them, so I put those two at opposite ends of one side. I then used the last of some small bamboo stakes I had to fill in the gaps a bit, to support the boards, as they are all different lengths and some are pretty rotted out and broken on their ends. Once the boards were in place, I raked some of the soil against them to hold them in place and create a shallow trench in the middle.
The soil was insanely dry. Once the boards were in place, I gave the trench a thorough watering. The water just disappeared! Eventually, I got it to the point that the water would actually sit for a little while before getting sucked away.
I used the plastic collars to work out the spacing, setting them into the soil just deep enough to not blow away, but not so deep that they would restrict root growth. Then, each collar got a handful of manure mixed into it. The soil around each collar got shallow trenches made around them, too. Then everything got another thorough watering.
The metal stakes handily divided the bed into three sections, and there were three varieties of squash to transplant. There were six Mashed Potato squash, and I decided those would go on the end closest to the elm trees. I figured, if the elm roots started crowding into the bed, it would be better to have the variety with the most plants at that end, in case we lost one or two. There were five Baked potato squash, which went in the other end, and four Sunshine squash were planted in the middle section.
After being planted into the collars, everything got another watering. Then I grabbed the wagon and went into the outer yard, where sections have been mowed, and raked up dried grass clippings to use as mulch.
While working on this, I could hear various noises and saw my brother driving around in the zero-turn lawn mower, using it as transportation. One of the things he did today was add a ball hitch, so he could use it to tow a small trailer.
Then he came to get me. He even set up a stump of a log I had in the shade of the trees, on the trailer as a seat for me! A seat is why that log was set up in the shade in the first place, so that was rather funny.
I did need his help to steady myself to get onto the trailer, though. 😄
One of the many things he got done today was replace the long screw eye we’ve been using as a pin on the slide bar for the gate. He got two different possible replacements for it and wanted me to choose one of them. After we got that figured out, he gave me a ride back to the garden.
That was really fun!
Meanwhile, the wind has been picking up through the day – and the elm trees are dropping their dried out seeds.
There were times when it was like a snow storm of seeds. Our lawn is thick with them and, in mere minutes, the soil in the garden bed I’d spent so much time clearing out was getting filled with seeds!
Mulching around the squash was as needed to keep those frickin’ seeds off as much as anything else! I even tucked a light mulch of grass clippings inside the collars, carefully setting it around the stems.
Once the bed was mulched, I brought over the rolling seat and settled down for one last watering. The grass clippings are bone dry, and it needed to be soaked all the way through. This way, the damp grass clippings will keep the soil both damp and cool, and is more likely to allow water through. When it’s completely dry, the grass can act as a thatch, and prevent moisture from reaching the soil, instead. So I took my time and made sure the mulch was completely soaked.
By that point, it was time for supper, and I was done for the day! It was 34C/93F and holding. I didn’t catch what the humidex was, but it sure felt hotter.
At the moment, the high forecast for tomorrow is “only” 20C/68F, which is going to feel blessedly cool after the past couple of days! We might even get a bit of rain at around 7am.
Hopefully, I’ll get there rest of the transplants in tomorrow. I have both tomatoes and melons blooming right now! So those have priority.
I’m going to be pretty much living on painkillers for the next few days, but it needs to be done!
Once the garden is in, I want to just sleep for a week.
Which won’t happen, but I can still fantasize about it! 😄
I’ll be paying for it tonight and tomorrow, but I’m very happy with how much I was able to get done in the garden today. Those winter squash could have been planted a couple of weeks ago, at the size they’re at! I noticed some even had flower buds already on them.
I really look forward to those bulbs I ordered to arrive. I’ve received a shipping notice, and they are on their way. I really need more light for the seedlings in the basement!
Here is how the winter squash was looking, this morning.
In the first image, you can see the Baked Potato and Mashed Potato squash are coming up nicely. Still no sigh of the Sunshine squash.
Normally, once seedlings are emerged like this, the tray would be taken off the heat mat. With the basement temperature being so low, I don’t want to take away the one consistent heat source. What I’ve done instead is add a cooling rack – I picked up several at the dollar store to use with my seedlings – on the heat mat, then put the tray on that. This puts a bit of space between the tray and the heat mat, so there is no direct contact, but there will still be at least some warmth from below.
The second image is of the two Arikara squash that are pushing their way through. After taking the photo, I added more water to the tray below (with the heat mat, it dries up pretty fast), I brushed aside some of the vermiculate to get a bitter look. Those seeds leaves are a LOT larger than what can be seen in the photo. They’re also still mostly encased in the seed shells. I’ve left the light on for the day and will check on them later. Hopefully, they’ll be able to shed their shells once the leaves start reaching for the light. Sometimes, they need a bit of help to get the shells off, so the leaves and unfurl.
Still no sign of the eggplant or peppers, but it hasn’t been long enough, yet. I believe both take a week to ten days to germinate in soil, and with the seed starter mix being cooler, even with the heat mat, I would expect them to be closer to the ten days than the seven.
Looking at the long range forecasts, it seems we’ll start having overnight temperatures above freezing consistently, by the last couple of weeks of April. By the end of May, we typically have overnight temperatures consistently at or above 6C/43F At that point, we can start direct sowing cold hardy, frost tolerant seeds.
Once the snow clears away from the garden beds, we’ll be able to start prepping the ones that have not been winter sown. I’m kinda hoping that I can get at the raised bed cover on the high raised bed and bring it around to the front of the house. I want to cover it with plastic, then set it over the winter sown bed in the old kitchen garden. The trick is going to be getting it covered securely enough that the cats can’t push through. The plastic cover will need to be temporary, too. I might need to replace it with netting, to keep the cats out later on. I think we still have some mosquito netting we can use, if we need to keep voracious insects out, too. Most of the mosquito netting we have is attached to the chain link fence over the garden bed, there, rolled up at the tops. They will be stretched out over the beds later, to keep the Chinese Elm seeds from burying and suffocating the seedlings. They can also serve to deter deer. The main problem I found last year is that, no matter how thoroughly I pinned down the bottom edge of the netting, the wind blows it loose, and it ended up fluttering like a sail. The mesh on the mosquito netting is great for keeping bugs out, but the weave is tight enough that the wind can’t blow through very well. The mesh on the other netting we have would work with the wind, but is too open to prevent insect damage.
With the pre-sown bed, we have the sunflowers and a few Montana Morado corn planted. If those survived the winter, they will grow much taller than the fence, to the netting won’t be useable – at least not how it’s set up now – once they get tall enough. We’ll have to find some other way to protect the bed from the deer.
All things to keep in mind over the next few weeks, as we wait for the snow to melt away, and we can finally get started on the garden beds again! One of my priorities will be to set up the trellis posts on the one low raised bed that’s ready for them. I want to be able to use them to trellis pole beans or peas in that bed this year. The other half of that bed is already planted with red and yellow seed onions. There should be space between the onions and the pole beans or peas available for something else, but I haven’t decided what, yet.
We’ll have lots of work to do, and not a lot of time do it. Thankfully the winter sowing – if it worked – will have given us a head start and give us time to work on other things, instead.
I am so itching to get out there and work, but there’s still snow on the ground!!!
With the pre-germinated seeds potted up and the tray on top of a heat mat, I have been eager to see how long it would take for the seed leaves to break through.
Not long at all! It’s been only a week since the seeds were set up to pre-germinate, and here we are…
The Baked Potato squash have the most leaves emerged. There are some Mashed Potato squash pushing their way, or just visible, though the vermiculite. Even the Arikara squash is just visible through the vermiculate. Nothing visible on the Sunshine squash, yet. Nothing visible in the luffa, eggplant or peppers in the other tray, either.
Oh, and I checked the last luffa seed still in the pre-germination container. I gave it a squeeze, and it was hollow; just the shell left. So it’s 3 out of 4 seeds that successfully pre-germinated.
After taking the above picture, I pulled the winter squash tray out and rotated it on the heat mat, in case there were some warm and cold spots. The silver insulating material I put under it seems to be working; I could feel more warmth than when it was just the cardboard.
I have more of this insulating stuff left and was thinking of putting it around the drain pipe I was trying to clean out yesterday, in the general area where I think the gunk might be freezing. I know the bottleneck starts at about 6′ from the access point.
The problem is, for most of that area, access to the drain pipe is blocked by a heat duct and the frame built around the window on the inside, with a platform to hold a fan. It could be done, but I would definitely need someone else to give me a hand.
I’d also want to clean away the many years of dust, dirt and cobwebs first, too!
Though, now that I’ve looked at it, I am now doubting that ice could be the issue. There is that heat duct in the way. I would think any heat lost through the metal of the duct would be enough to keep things from freezing.
It wouldn’t hurt to have the pipe insulated in that section, though. I haven’t unrolled it, but there’s at least 6 feet of the insulating material left.
This stuff is turning out to be handy for all sorts of things, but insulating pipes is what the dimensions of this particular size of roll was designed for.
It seems to be doing well for keeping seed trays warm in a cold basement, too!
Well, I went and did it. I potted up the very enthusiastically growing winter squash. I even did the luffa. Of all the seeds I started only 1 luffa hasn’t germinated yet, and it still might.
I’ve decided I will go the Costco shopping tomorrow and, while in the city, try and find a second heat mat to put under the winter squash tray. If they’re out of stock… well… we’ll see how it goes!
Also, she seems to now be more expecting and accepting of her wet cat food delivery. She didn’t growl at me this morning, as I used the food delivery back scratcher to drop it as close to her face as I could. She didn’t even bother leaving the cat cave while I was doing the kibble this morning, and simply waited, nursing her babies. Once the food was delivered, she didn’t hesitate to start eating, too.
This afternoon, she did leave her babies briefly after I came out with the second feeding of the day, but went back before I was done refilling water bowls. She didn’t growl at me until I stopped to try and get photos and video of her.
My younger daughter has been having a rough time getting sleep (with both cats and high pain levels to blame), so she ended up awake all night. This morning, she was a sweetheart and shoveled the plow ridge away, and cleared the end of the driveway before going to bed for the day. We haven’t bothered to try and clear the rest of the driveway, or the turn around space in the yard to back up to the house. Though our high of the day was just below freezing, it was bright and sunny, and things are melting all over. I considered doing the Costco run today, but decided against it.
I did make a quick trip into town and stopped at the hardware store to pick up a heat mat. Unfortunately, they were all out. I did stop at the grocery store for a few things, but I will do the Costco run tomorrow. There is a Canadian Tire across the street from the Costco I go to, and I’m hoping they will have a heat mat…
… because our pre-germinated seeds need to be potted up!
The first image has the 4 Sunshine squash and the 6 Mashed potato squash. As you can see, their seed leaves are emerging from the shells.
In the second image, with the 2 Arikara squash and the 5 Baked Potato squash, are just going wild with their roots, as well as the seed leave emerging!
In the last image, the luffa now has 3 out of 4 seeds showing radicals.
I have everything ready to pot these up, except a second heat mat. The eggplant and peppers won’t start showing for a while, yet, and those need to be on the heat mat. The luffa will go into peat pots, so they can fit into the tray with them and be warm, but the rest of the squash will be going into the large celled tray. I might have to just hang out in the basement with the heater on and warm things up. I can also use hot water in the tray to help warm up the seed starter mix, too. The basement, however, was at only 10C/50F when I went down this afternoon. That would be really warm, if I were outside in the sun, but in the basement, it feels cold!
Those germinated seeds need to be put into the seed starting mix, though.
I think I’m going to take the chance and just do that today, then go hunting for a second heat mat for them, tomorrow.
Well, it has stopped snowing – for now. We’re supposed to get a brief snowfall again later this evening.
I am so glad we got our first stock up shopping trip done yesterday. I got a call from home care saying there wasn’t anyone to do my mother’s med assist in the evening, due to unsafe road conditions. !!! The problem is, if the road conditions are too unsafe for the home care worker to drive to my mother’s town, it would be equally unsafe for me or my siblings to do it. After explaining the situation to the shift supervisor that called me, she said she would look into things can call me back. Thankfully, they were able to find a home care worker that didn’t have to drive into my mother’s town, and could juggle schedules so she could do my mother’s two evening med assists.
While waiting for her to call me back, I checked the road conditions, just to be sure. Our provincial government website for road conditions is notorious for not being up to date, so when I saw it listing our highway was “partially snow packed”, I checked a local highways group on FB. Some people had made the drive on the highway I’d be taking and things were certainly not very safe. Our gravel roads, of course, have not been plowed yet, but I did see cars driving past our place. The danger isn’t so much the snow, but that it’s snow on top of ice from our recent warm weather melting things all over.
So I was very, very happy and thankful when I got the call back saying they’d found a way to get my mother’s med assist done!
What better way to spend my time when it’s too snowy to do anything outside, besides shovel?
Work on garden stuff, of course.
With the basement being as cold as it is, I headed down to get the heater going and seeing what I could do to prepare for potting up the pre-germinated seeds. Premoistening the seed starter mix works great, but it has resulted in the mix being far colder than if it were dry. I set things up so that the heater was blowing right over my giant metal mixing bowl to help warm it up, along with the rest of the room. Then I checked on the seeds.
They are looking great! We have a near 100% germination rate!
In the first photo, we have the Sunshine squash. It’s hard to see on a couple of them, but yes, all four of them have radicals emerging. The other, with six seeds, are the Mashed Potato squash. It’s hard to see with some of them, but they have all germinated.
In the second photo, you can see that all three Arikara squash have germinated. The five seeds are the Baked Potato squash, also all germinated.
Next are the luffa, and so far, two of four have germinated. I would not be surprised if the last two also germinated by tomorrow.
In the last photo, I have a large-celled tray prepared and set up in front of the heater to pot all but the luffa into. That will leave three empty cells.
I might have to invest in another heat mat, though. That little heater can only do so much in such a big room! We don’t have any bigger heaters. The basements are not heated. The old basement is where the furnace is and it actually does get warmer. I considered setting up in there, but it doesn’t have enough outlets available to plug in a heat mat or grow lights.
For now, in the tray I’m using to hold the seed starts now, I made sure to add warm water to the base for the eggplants and peppers in peat cells. With the heat mat, the peat was drying out, which would draw moisture out of the seed starter mix, so I have to made sure those stay damp. The heat mat would also keep the water in the tray warm, which helps. The luffa will be potted up into individual peat pots, since they will be transplanted into large pots in the little portable greenhouse we got, while the winter squash will go into various garden beds. The luffa pots can go back to the tray the eggplant and peppers are in and will stay warm, but the second tray with the winter squash is going to need to be warmed up as well.
I should be able to get a second heat mat in town, but there’s no going anywhere today. Possibly tomorrow, if road conditions are improved. Otherwise, Sunday would be the earliest.
The seeds should be okay in their damp paper towels for now. Even if the first leaves start to emerge, they can be potted up. I just don’t want them to pot them up, only to get killed off by cold!
Well, we’ll see how it works out over the next couple of days.
The Re-Farmer 