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.

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).

Spring 2024

I got a late start to blogging but gardening is well underway! April was a mixed bag, weather-wise, but I had lots of time to do a general clean up. The beds all got a thorough weeding and shaping. I also thinned and burned most of the dead raspberry canes.

Some early seeds went in the second week, including 110 feet of peas, 25 feet of spinach (below) and 20 potatoes. The spinach is up. No sign of the peas yet.

In early May, I put in two beds of carrots, spendings one time loosening the soil below the rows in the hope of giving the carrots and easier time of things.

I also put out the tomatoes we've grown (some black Russians and some blush). The threat of first has passed and they were getting awfully leggy in the house.

The perennials are doing well. The haskap berries are flowering and the raspberries are putting out leaves. I was also hay to see the cherry and both pears survive the winter, along with the apple trees.

The rhubarb are also up. I still have a bunch of squash on the window sill. Some are getting quite viney and need to go in the ground, maybe tomorrow if the rain stops. The eggplants I grew have been a bit of a dud (I imagine I did something wrong).

I also spent some time reworking the drainage of the house and garage to put the water into the garden in anticipation of a mother dry summer. My hope this year is to blog every two weeks at least.

Asparagus, apples and corn

Most of this past week has been filled with weeding, watering, and planting out a few more things. The biggest surprise was the appearance of some asparagus, which I had written off for dead. So far, only one of the four or five crowns has shot up but I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The tulips we put in last fall out front have come up and are blooming. This is a very nice shot of colour while the rest of the flower border starts to come in.

The hot weather has put all of the flowering plants into bloom a bit early. The apple trees are showing blossoms and I'm hopeful there are bees around to help them set fruit

Out front, I decided to plant the corn in the north bed. It is a bit early but the soil is warm. I ut in some ornamental gem-coloured corn in two the beds. I'll need to get some new seed for eating corn in the third.

Most of the plants we started inside have survived the transplant. I just need to find a few cantaloupe starts somewhere and some flowers.

Early planting

We've had a very warm start to May (two days over 30 degrees in the first week) and there is no real risk of frost in the forecast. The garden has reacted to the heat by jumping up. The garlic was just barely up last week and is now four or more inches high. The onions and spinach have also emerged.

Jess headed off to Banff on Saturday so we decided to plant out the tomatoes before she left. They were just on the cusp of being leggy. We put in 30 plants keeping a few back (more for lack of space)

I need to get a few more tomatoes cages before the rest (and the peppers) go into the ground. I filed in behind most of the tomatoes with scarlet runner beans that can climb the trellis.

Spring has been so sudden that the bulbs are just starting to flower. Looking forward to seeing the tulips we planted out front.

I went out tonight and put in some peanuts, cilantro, lettuce, and beet seeds. I' going to wait a few ore days before putting out the melons and squash. We also bought a few flowers at a garden shop.

The cherry tree is full of buds ready to make flowers It is probably a bit early to expect a crop, but I wouldn't say no. The peas are also up.

I think this week I''ll start the corn germinating. Should be ready to plant out in late May. I also need to start working my way through the freezer to clean out what is left from last summer.

Rhubarb and tomatoes

It was a busy week in the garden but I don't have much to show for it, picture-wise. The big news was that the rhubarb returned after dying back very early during the extended heat wave and drought we had last summer. 

We continued working with transplants, moving some melons, squash and cucumbers from the heated tray to an interim home as they germinated. I expect to move the rest this weekend and then get the corn in to germinate. I also thinned the tomatoes and tied them to their stakes as they have gotten a bit leggy.

Out in the yard, I weeded a lot (while the soil is moist and loose) and put in the carrot seeds. I also added a few errant strawberry plants to the strawberry tower. As I was walking out this morning, I noticed the first of the garlic has just come up.

Bedding plants and potatoes

The first round of seeds survive their transplant and the tomatoes are happily sunning themselves in the window sills.

This week, we transferred the second set of seeds from the tiny greenhouse Jess has to their interim homes. The butternut squash came on hard!

The basil also looks good. This will fill in nicely in the raised beds in the back.

We then planted a bunch of melons, pumpkin, and cucumber seeds as a third round of starts. Once these are germinated, we'll then start some corn. We did put a few seeds in. Jess did the onions while I put in some spinach.

Meanwhile, the potatoes were all "TAKE ME TO THE SUN!" so we dug up one of the front beds and dropped them in. These are most blue caribe and a few sangre that I saved from last year. All told, we have about 60 potatoes in the ground.

I also got ambitious out front and moved some raspberry suckers that were invading a bed and then cut down two thorny gooseberry bushes, burning the clippings. After several years of trying to like them, I found I just don't care for gooseberries and the thorns are a huge pain to garden around.

I have one more weekend of Jessica's labour before she's off to the mountains to work for the summer so I'll need to figure out what I can use her for. Maybe some work under the deck? Or possibly doing some late trimming of the top of the apple tree.

Finished planting and fixed fence

We finished the spring planting over the weekend, with a few flowers. The move from cold spring to hot summer is always so sudden Edmonton (two days this year).

The potatoes we put in a few weeks back are just up. We also put in two haskap plants and a cherry tree and they seem to be doing well.

This tiny tulip (maybe the diameter of a toonie) has a tiny mason bee inside.

Last night we put out the tomatoes and basil Jess had grown. In the foreground are the peppers. This is the hottest part of the garden with the bounce off the garage so I'm hopeful for a good crop this year.

We spent most of the previous weekend disassembling two sections of fence the has pulled apart when a post rotted out. Then we put in a new post, rebuilt the panels (salvaging a much wood as we could) and installed them. They aren't perfect but there are good enough for the fence on the north side of the garage.

We now turn to watering, weeding, and waiting for stuff to germinate. Onions are garlic are well up. Peas are a mixed bag. Beans, pumpkins, squash, and carrots are still waiting.

Planting

April was cold, with winter hanging until the middle of the month. I spent some time thinning out the preserves cupboard and working my way through pie filling and apple sauce. 

The violets were up in one of the raised beds. these got transplanted to make room for onions.

We finally saw signs of life the last week of April with the garlic poking through.

I put Jess to work before she heads off to a join Banff for the summer. Here she's planting onion.

We also put in 50 feet of peas along the edge of the fence (plastic trellis is invisible).

We built a strawberry tower. Not sure the strawberries we bought are going to make it.

This week it was potato day. We had about 50 spuds left over from last year so they all went in the ground.

I dug and she raked.

We also moved a water barrel and some composter around to make room for some hasp bushes and a cheery tree. I'm currently doing battle withs some crab grass in the back yard while the soil is moist and loose.

The next big project is to fix the north fence. It looks like we might still have some below freezing temperatures so the tomato and basil plants remain in the house.