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.

Fireweed jelly

Alright, well, the last month kind of got away from me! Despite a lot of rain and cold temperatures, the garden is chugging along, with the cooler-season pants doing well.

The things that need heat (squash, melons, peppers, eggplants) have been suffering and I've lost a fair number of starters. The fruit trees and bushes are loving the moisture, though with evidence of cherries and lots of raspberries this year.

The spinach is bolting and also taking a beating from leaf miners.

In better news, the corns is up and looks to be happier in this sunnier spot.

The brussel sprouts also seem to be doing pretty well and I went and bought a few more plans to fill in elsewhere.

Lots of last year's annuals have also self-seeded and returned.

On the weekend, we foraged some fireweed blossoms to make jelly. A few years ago, I tried some peony jelly and this was on my list of alternatives to try.

The blossoms were beautiful and fragrant.

A quick boil extracted the colour and flavour and it was insanely purple.

I used some pectin and lemon juice and sugar to make a jelly and then canned it.

Very ruby coloured in the end. Tastes floral--not all that different from rose or peony jelly.

 

Now back to the weeding!

New fence and fruit blossoms

May has been a month of pretty unsettled weather, with lots of rain and cloudy days. The water has been a real boon. The plants could use some heat, though.

I've managed to get everything seeded, including the corn yesterday. The garlic has been shooting up in the front yard but no sign of potatoes yet. Lettuce and beets are up; carrots remain MIA.

We spent some time last weekend completing the fence around the back yard (it has always been open on the north side of the house). 

Overall, a pretty successful project that was very expensive because the price of wood is crazy ($140 to do a 5x5' section and I already had the screws).

The fruit trees all survived the winter and are in blossom. I'm keen to see if the cherry and plum yield any fruit this year. The dwarf apple in the back is loaded with flowers, which is a good sign.

I've been aggressively weeding in the wet weather, trying to get at the roots of the crab grass and the creeping bell flower. I've also knocked a bunch of smaller home repair projects off the list. If the lathe holds off, I'll burn the last of the raspberry canes tonight!

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.

2023 wrap-up

The garden is finally put to bed, although the weather continues to be pretty good and there is no snow in sight. I spent most of October processing the harvest and trying out new ideas with the dehydrator.

We had a tonne of tomatoes so I pureed them and then put them on a piece of parchment paper in the dehydrator. The result was very stiff fruit leather (did the same thing with some apple sauce but did not dry it as much). It took about 8 hours of drying time.

I then crumbed it into pieces and ran it through the coffee grinder to make tomato powder, which works as a substitute for tomato paste.

Four plus litres of tomato paste dehydrated to about 175ml of powder!

We also dried a bunch more peppers. 

Seven bell peppers turned into about 1.5 cups of dried peppers.

So far I have jammed four gallons of raspberries. There s one gallon left but I need a break.

We carved the giant pumpkins for Hallowe'en. They were thick! Lots of seeds to roast, though. And I saved a few seeds. Jess and Jenn have also been making pumpkin pie out of the eating pumpkins.

I think the decoration in the middle was supposed to be a pumpkin but it turned out a bit Eye of Sauron.

That pretty much wraps up this year and I'm turning my mind to Christmas baking. The fruitcakes (some doused with whiskey and some with malibu) turned out well.

Pumpkins, peppers, grapes, beans

The frost arrived on October 1 so we had a busy weekend of harvesting! The pumpkin crop was impressive this year and most have been distributed up and down the street.

The bigger ones ranged from 50 to 90 pounds.

Jess had to help me lift this one up so I could carry it!

On the other end of the spectrum, we got one tiny bunch of grapes!

The tomatoes went hard to the end, with insanely thick stems. We gave away flats and flats and still have window sills full. I'm going to sauce a bunch and then try to dehydrate the sauce.

I had to call out the reinforcements for the final push on the scarlet runner beans. I am still shucking and drying them.

We had a good year for peppers in the raised bed. This is about half the crop. I put a bunch on the dehydrator.

We also had a few good sun flowers that the birds have been at.

The next few weeks are about cleaning up the beds and putting things away for the winter. The garlic is in. We still have a few carrots, beets, and potatoes to dig. And the jamming season hasn't started! But whew!