Bees, daffs and garlic

There were some encouraging signs in the yard this week. With some rain and heat, the garlic shot up past four inches and I've now put a bunch of leaf mulch around it to try and suppress the weeds and retain some moisture.

I planted the beets and peas this week (after some bed maintenance) and also a large bed of greens (lettuce, arugula, kale, more lettuce, and some ancient kohlrabi seeds). A bucket of self-seeded lettuce also announced itself.

The daffodils are up and the first bees have taken to sleeping in them.

The rhubarb has also returned after a hard year last year due to drought.

Some shots of the beet and carrots beds out front.

 

I'm also seeing some life in the fruit trees, with the cherries, saskatoons, and plums budding up. Raspberry canes are also sending out new leaves and the haskap (below) are flowering.

This week, I have some more bed maintenance to do and I'm hopeful to snag some city compost (went on Sunday but they were cleaned out) to rejuvenate some beds with a bit of a top dressing. The potatoes are chitting in the windows and will likely go in the ground next week. And the first of the squash seeds has germinated in the window sill!

Pepper flakes and sauerkraut

I spent most of this week doing boring spring chores (e.g., loosening soil, weeding while the ground is moist). I also cleaned out and primed the inside of the garage (painting may need to wait until autumn).

I did do a few interesting things. Last summer, we grew some peppers that I dried. I finally ground these up to make red pepper flakes.

I also cleaned out the canning cupboard and decided to make some sauerkraut out of some cabbage we had left over in the fridge.

 

The tomatoes are getting leggy but otherwise doing well. I planted the second round of seedlings, mostly squashes of various types as well as some cantaloupes. 

The bulbs are getting big enough to have flower heads in the sunny part of the the yard and I am hoping the city announced that compost is ready for pick up this week.

Jam and seeding

Spring continues to roll relentlessly forward and most of the snow and ice is gone. Over in one of the community gardens, some crocuses are up.

Our garden is a bit behind that but daffs and tulips are through the soil everywhere that gets a decent amount of sunlight. 

The fall-planted garlic is also up, which is good news.

I've been spending the days slowly readying the bed for spring planting. I rebuilt the planter below the deck last fall (old one rotted apart after 17 years). I'll be growing some indeterminant tomatoes up the trellis and have put in two rows of carrots in front of it.

The planter against the west wall of the garage will host beans (or maybe peas) on the trellis this year. in front, I planted some spinach in recycled cloches. To the left, I made five identical plants just in dirt as a control group. I'll follow up with a third sowing in another week on the far left.

The melon trellis was getting a bit tatty (the twine was just disintegrating in the sun) so I took it down, stripped off the old and put some new on. I may also make two more trellises for the front beds.

Looks spiffy! This bed waits some compost from the city piles once it is available. Unpictured, I have been working the front beds, mostly just loosening the soil with a fork. I also planted four rows (50 feet?) of carrots out there and I bought seed potato (it can wait a few more weeks before going in). The other half of the front beds will need to wait until my arms feel less tired.

Inside, I'm working my way through the freezer. I thawed the second-last gallon of raspberries and made jam on the weekend. We have a stupid amount of it. 

If I get ambitious this week, I will try to deal with the last of it and also muck out the remaining frozen veggies. There are also quite a lot of dried out fall cuttings that need to be burned (yay sitting down jobs).

Starters and peppers

Alright, well clearly I dropped the ball at the end of last year and just simply forgot to post. Hopefully, I'll do better this year now that I'm retired! In typical Edmonton fashion, we got 12 inches of snow 10 days ago followed by a hard melt!

Outside, the chives and a few tulips are up on the south side of the house. The rest of the yard is still either clear but still frozen or buried in ice. Indoors, we have a few starters up.

I planted six cherry and six mortgage lifter tomatoes. I also did six cells of basil.

A neighbour donated some seeds to me last year. The paper seeds were too old to germinate but the green onions seem to have come up. I'm going to plant some cantaloupe and pumpkins shortly.

I just used the last of the peppers I dehydrated last summer. There was a deal on peppers at the store this week, so I bought six and chopped them.

They shrink down pretty small when dried.

I bet I could get a dozen peppers in this one-litre jar.

Up next: I'll be sowing a few hardy vegetables shortly and also finishing a few tasks from last year (making my own red pepper flakes and the last of the raspberry jamming).

Raspberry season

The raspberry crop this year has been crazy big. I have about seven gallons in the freezer to jam later on.

We haven't been able to keep up with the volume, despite eating a lot and baking tonnes. I decided to try fruit leather. Some was straight raspberries and some was 50-50 raspberries and apple sauce (the latter was better).

The corn is also giving it, finally. I am hopeful we might get some heads this year! I planted some peas at the base in the hope of a fall crop of peas as well.

We've also had a lot of luck with cucumbers this year. I'm not a huge fan but these have been tasty.

I need to harvest the garlic today and get it curing. Jess comes home this week just in time to help with the apples (although a slight fracture in her wrist will slow her down a bit).

Summer fruit

Summer has moved quickly and berry season has begun. I noticed that one of the nanking cherry bushes  was in bloom in a park and helped myself.

Nanking are tasty but a huge amount of work to process.

I decided on a cobbler and hauled out the solar oven since it was ridiculously hot and I didn't want to turn on the oven. Took a few hours but it cooked nicely.

Tasted great with ice cream!

Raspberry season is now in full swing and we're getting a gallon every day with no end in sight. I've had to call in reinforcements so we can get the picking done before it gets too hot each day.

The heat is also helping the squash plants (after a terrible spring) and I'm starting to see cucumbers. Not sure we have enough time left for melons but you never know.

The tomatoes are also looking good. It takes a lot of water to keep them alive and growing in this heat.

Bees are loving the poppies.

The back apple tree is also really giving it this year. 

We have many more sweet cherries this year than last. They need a few more weeks to really sweeten up.

Unpictured is the corn which has finally taken off and is a couple of feet hight. I have had to stake the plants against the wind but I am hopeful we'll get a good crop this year with all of the water and sunlight.

Hasps, eggplant and brussel sprouts

Alright, it is high summer and the garden is presently +35C. I'm going to let it cool down a bit before I water tonight but that gives me a chance to catch up on blogging.

We had our first harvest off of the haskap bushes over the Canada Day long weekend. Not huge haul of berries and they'll just get tossed in with the mixed berry jam, but an encouraging sign that these bushes will produce once they get bigger.

The peas finally took off after a late start. These are now over six feet tall and are about to top the trellis. The peas around the interior of the fence are also starting to put on some height. I'm helpful we'll have a harvest in the next few weeks.

The one crop that has done well has been the lettuce. We have an unlimited supply of lettuce plus more queued up when this crop bolts (which will be soon).

My stunt gardening plans this summer included trying brussel sprouts and egg plant. The first brussel sprout plant has suddenly taken off.

And you can see the little brussels starting to form along the stalk. The slimy look is because it was wet when I took picture. The other six plants are a few weeks behind in their growth.

The peonies really blood while we were away on a short holiday.

The heat wave has also force the daylilies a bit early.

 

I also have some bell peppers finally!

And, after a hard started that decimated the plants, the eggplants have bounced back, are growing and have flowered.

The next few weeks look like a lot of watering since this heat wave looks set to continue. Hopefully, we'll see some raspberries soon. It looks like a good crop this year if we could have just a touch more rain.