Plums, squash, tomatoes and melons

As we head into fall, the garden is hitting its stride. The sunflower patch is blooming, much to the delight of the bees. I'm hoping the cosmos will also put on a show out by the back gate.

I harvested the last of our plum crop, which was tasty but is mostly encouraging for the future.

We have a couple of squash on the go, including this on giant pumpkin that is presently beachball sized.

We are starting to see signs of a modest tomato harvest (not really hot enough, early enough for a good harvest).

Last week, I had written off the melon crop due to lack of heat. This week, I find seven small cantaloupes  on the vines. I dunno. Fingers cross the frost stays away until October.

I did some carrot thinning and froze a few bags of chopped carrots for use in the winter along with a few more green beans.

The apples are demanding attention and we have been making crisps and such.

I had to call out the reinforcements on the weekend when I made and canned five litres of apple pie filling.

I've also begun digging rough potatoes to eat. Most of the crop can stay in the ground for now.

Now back to apple picking.

Apples and potatoes

We've moved into apple season, with the early tree ready to harvest. We've been making crisps while I gird myself to make sauce and apple pie filling (it is too hot to can this week).

I've also pulled some herbs to dry in the garage.

For the first tie our plum trees have fruit. There are only four of the small yellow plums and one of the red one (which was delicious). But bigger harvests await.

I also dug the first two potato plants up this week to get some for dinner. Wow, fresh potatoes are amazing!

I don't think I have much time to do much this week beyond water as we have a short trip planned.

Sunflowers, tomatoes, beans

We're in a slow patch in the garden season. The sunflowers are out, finally, however, which is cheery.

Also some of the carrots we missed last year are flowering as we harvest the first of this year's crop.

Jenn and I took a trip to the Devonian Botanical garden and saw some amazing southern globe thistles.

Although we've been eating the beans, we did have enough for me to blanch and freeze some, maybe for Xmas dinner since we didn't have enough of a pea crop to do that this year.

The cherry tomatoes are also starting to ripen.

I picked a few to eat and they were amazingly sweet and tart.

I am coming to terms with the fact that we'll probably only get one lone squash this year (I think this is a giant pumpkin) and maybe no melons. Just not enough heat in July to get the plants flowering fast enough. Oh well!

This week I'm mostly doings one dead heading and watching the apples get bigger and redder. We may need to deal with some of them next week. I also have some dried fruit soaking in hooch to make Christmas cake.

Water, carrots, and beans

We spent much of this past week out of town paddling so this post will be brief. And the headline is all of the rain we've had. The picture below is of what came down overnight one evening!

The rain, coupled with the lack of heat, has meant a lot of growth in greenery but not much in terms of fruit. So no tomatoes yet and I fear the squash will not have enough time to mature even though the vines are really doing well.

There are a lot of flowers, though, including this wild onion.

And I have dill plants as tall as I am, which the bees are loving.

I did get a decent first harvest off the green beans and I need to plant more of these next year.

I also pulled some early carrots and we had a lovely meal with some potatoes and the last of the peas.

The garlic is mostly done curing, I trimmed it up and set aside next year's seed for planting this fall. The rest has gone into storage in the basement.

This week will entail getting back on top of the weeds, maybe thinning the carrots one last time, and giving some thoughts to reworking the raised beds in the back come autumn.

Raspberry ice cream, syrup, and other garden things

Well, we're ass-deep in raspberry season (still) and I picked three gallons yesterday. We've been giving berries away, eating them as fast as we can, and freezing the rest. The freezer is looking full enough that I may need to break out the canner and sweat out a couple of gallons of jam in the summer heat.

Jenn has been trying to incorporate them into new recipes, including making raspberry ice cream (berries, condensed milk, maybe a touch of vanilla, and whipping cream; mix and freeze).

This was super good, especially with more berries on top. She's promised another batch for when the kid gets home on some days off.

The robins and I have managed to pick our saskatoon bush clean, running into lots of bee friends along the way.

I saw someone make saskatoon-raspberry syrup for pancakes online so I followed their recipe with at test batch.

A quick heat to soften, then through the food mill to get the skins and most of the seeds out.

Then some sugar and lemon juice and a quick boil to incorporate. Since this was a small test-batch, I didn't both to water bath it--it just went into the fridge.

It was a little too gooey for syrup (loose jelly texture) so we decided to use it as an ice cream topping. It has a lovely rich flavour from the saskatoons.

The rest of the garden goes in fits and starts. I picked the last of the peas. They did poorly this year (no idea why, maybe too much water?).

Some of the peppers have fruited. Others are struggling with the cooler weather and rain.

The grapes, though are really liking the water and I think we'll have enough for a small batch of jelly.

There is finally good leaf growth on the various squash plants and a few fruit are setting. I think, with two months left, we should get something useful. I'm thinking about rejigging the back gardens this fall so I might plant them elsewhere next year.

The rain is also plumping up the apples nicely.

This coming week, I need to finish curing the garlic and get it ready for storage. I'm also hopeful we'll start to see some green beans from the plants. I should also get the dehydrator out and do another round of herbs.

June update: Peonies, squash and apple

Alright, several weeks of travelling (followed by frantic weeding) have kept me away from the blog but things feel more in hand now.

Peony season is just ending and it was amazing this year. Lovely blooms and one plant that was struggling last year seems to have recovered (I suspect all of the rain got in June helped).

The carrots are up and look so much better than this photo suggests. The beets have also germinated after a second sowing along with green beans. I pulled the radishes and, after an unsupervised trip to the green house, replanted the areas with a mix of pepper plants and some flowers.

The rain has also helped the squash, which are starting to look viable! The basil has been less happy with the water and could use a week or two of heat.

The potatoes in the raised boxes are about to set flowers. The potatoes in the ground are a few weeks behind (which is fine).

The cucumbers and squash I have planted to trellis up struggle, for reasons I do not really understand. The soil has been amended over and over. They may just need some time. Everything seems a bit set back by the cooler June. Or, possible, I have been cursed.

The daisies are running wild in the yard and may require action.

The water has been good for the apple trees, which have fruit and it is starting to get big. Both trees got a sharp pruning last year so I'm not sure what that will mean for the overall harvest.

The community garden, where I do not have a plot, has also busted out with the rain.

Today is garlic scape harvest day so that is probably the plan for the weekend. The saskatoons and raspberries will be the next crops--likely in two weeks.