Garlic, melons, more pesto

So we're in the middle of a very hot (+29 C consistently) and dry August (again) so much of my gardening time has been spent watering.

I pulled the garlic over the August long weekend as it was looking ready. It has been curing in the garage and is likely good to be cleaned up for storage. I threw down some lettuce and radish seeds in that bed, mostly as a green manure.

The rest of the yard is looking pretty green. The peas along the fence are nearly done and the basil is really kicking ass.

I've frozen over two gallons of raspberries for jamming when the weather cools off. I get about half a gallon every other day and we've been eating about half of the harvest. The new raspberry patch on the south fece is growing in well but suffering a bit in the heat. We should get a good harvest next year there.

The tomato show lots of growth but not many fruit yet. Lots of flowering in the heat so, if the frost stays away, we should still get a decent crop

The bees seem to have found the sunflowers and the scarlett runner beans.

The pumpkin patch out front is slowly starting to fill in (very cold and wet the spring and that set things back). We have six or seven pumpkins that might make it before frost. The one above has doubled in size since I took this picture a week ago. Keeping them wet enough is the challenge.

More exciting is a have a bunch of viable cantaloupes this year. They are a small, single-serving fruit and these are right now about the volume of two golf balls. But this is further than I have gotten with melons ever before! The heat on the south wall of the garage and the raised bed seem to make a big difference.

I also had to crop a third off of the basil. We don't have quite as much as last year (which was a stupid amount) but enough that making another batch of basil (alas no garlic scapes this time) to freeze as no problem.

It looks like the early apple tree is getting ready to ripen (a few red ones but still bit tart) so maybe sauce ad pies in the next few weeks. 

Cucumbers, pesto, and carrots

With most of our summer travelling done, I have been spending more time in the yard. I found three cucumbers where I started investigating why the plants weren't climbing the trellis. Having liberated them from making cucumbers, they have started climbing.

The raspberry bushes have really come into their own in the last few days, with two big picks done and down in the freezer. The newer bushes are growing well on the south side but we'll have to wait until next year to get a good crop off of them.

This heirloom poppy has returned in a couple of different places in the yard.

We've also had two good picks of peas that we have eaten fresh.

Last week, I topped the garlic and turned the scapes and the first flush of basil into pesto.

These twelve frozen pucks will feature on pizzas and pasta this winter.

I also thinned one of the four rows of carrots and washed them up for eating.

The tomatoes seem to have recovered from the rough start this spring and are looking like they will be good producers. Could use a bit more heat, I think.

The squash plants out front have finally started to vine and flower so I'm hopeful for a good harvest of pumpkins and butternut this fall.

Peony jelly

One of my gardening experiments this year was peony jelly. I don't think I have ever made a floral jelly before and we have lovely peonies.

I picked flowers from three different plants (light pink, magenta and dark red) and washed them up.

I then stripped the petals, cover them with four cups of boiling water, and soaked them in in the fridge for 24 hours. I then strained the liquid out and topped it up with water to four cups, added a box of pectin and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and brought it to a boil.

Then I added four cups of sugar, boiled for another few minutes, and then jarred. I decided not to water bath and just store them in the fridge. Tastes like crab apple jelly with a slight floral tone. The colour is amazing.

We were away for a week in Saskatchewan and came home to huge garden growth. I had to cut down the first crop of arugula and use it as a green manure. But the peppers seems to be growing well and starting to produce fruit.

The first few cucumbers are also visible. The melons seems to be growing but no fruit yet.

We have started to harvest the peas and eat them. We are also eating lettuce from the yard.

After a rough start, the tomatoes are also fruiting.

I need to cut the scapes and the basil and make pesto next week. We are also starting to see the pumpkins start to grow with the rain and the heat. They may need some fertilizer. If I get ambitious, I'ma also going to crop some nettle and cook it up.

Asparagus, rhubarb, peas and irises

I've been a bit negligent with the updates but I have been busy in the yard with weeding and such. Here is a quick round up!

I planed about 50 feet of peas and they are slowly growing. These plants are a ways behind the peas in sunnier spots but I think they will do okay. In front of them I planted a bunch of lettuce (various types to get rid of old seed packs). I expect we'll have a huge harvest in late July.

The potatoes are also up and some are flowering early. Looks like a good showing so far--could use some heat to warm the soil a bit.

The strawberry plants is starting to really get going and I am hopeful we'll have a good harvest. If it works out, I will make a couple more next year.

I bought one asparagus at the farmers market. I blanche dit and froze it for winter pizza. I think desiccated the stalks in the dehydrator and powdered them to add to soups.

The rhubarb is having a good year! I took a bug early cutting and front maybe four litres of chopped rhubarb. This might go into pie filling or maybe into muffins,

The cucumbers in the sunny raised bed seem to be settling in and there are even a first few flowers. A bit more heat would help here. We've had lost of water in June (rain barrels are overflowing).

Around front, the squash is just getting started but the perennial flowers are starting too put on a show. The irises are out. As are the daisies. The dallies should be a long shortly.

The raspberries really seem to be thriving with all of the water they have had so I expect a bumper crop this year with the extra 70-odd feet of canes producing. If I get some time this weekend, I will do some minor household repairs. I feel really on top of the weeds so far this year.

Asparagus, apple blossoms, and raspberries

The weather has warmed the past week and seeds are germinating (including beans and squash). In the asparagus bed, it looks like only one crown survived the winter (arrrgh). I may give up on asparagus and just put this bed into regular rotation.

In better news, the fruit trees are blossoming and the neighbourhood smells great. Cinnamon from the apples, fruit from the cherries, grape from the Maydays, and the lilacs are just opening.

I'm hopeful our apples will have good season given the large number of blossoms. I've been pretty diligent with the weeding this spring and have made serious inroads against the crab grass and the bellflower.

The raspberries we put in along the south side of the fence seem to have all come back this year and are putting up new canes. The potatoes we interplanted also seem to be doing okay. In the back yard, the carrots have finally germinated and the garlic and onions are doing great.

It is hard to convey how showy the apple blossoms are.

If the weather cooperates this week I'm going to transplant some raspberry suckers into an empty spot on the north fence line. I also have a plan get my hand tools off of the deck this year.

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.