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.

Getting ready for spring

Spring is in the air and the snow pack is almost melted down enough we can see grass. It is too soon to garden, but I'm starting the annual freezer clean out. I found four litres of raspberries from last year (marginal crop due to heat and drought) so I made some jam and we ate the rest on cereal.

I also managed to shovel out enough of the fire pit to spend a lovely afternoon burning paper and reading a book by the fire.

Jess dug through my pile of old seed packs back in late February and picked out a bunch of tomato seeds and some basil to grow from seed. We finally got around to transplanting them last weekend.

All of the transplants seem to be doing well but she did not label any of the tomatoes so I've no idea what type of tomatoes we'll be harvesting this summer!

On one of my rides out to St. Albert last fall, I picked two wild plums and brought them home. I let them rot down on the counter then froze them over the winter to try and start them this spring. 

The internet suggested dropping them into a raw egg (for nutrients) and then covering them with dirt. We'll see how that plays out... smelly, would be my initial impression.

I have amassed a long list of outdoor stuff to do, including replacing a rotten fence post and fixing the fence on either side of it. I also picked up some extra trellis to us along the north side of the new fence for peas (the areas gets a lot of sun and bounce of the garage, despite being on the north side).

Late harvest

We finished up most of the harvesting last weekend, bringing in another 150lbs of potatoes.

The potatoes were plentiful.

They were also huge!

I had to call in reinforcements to finish the rest of the root vegetables in the back yard.

We still have carrots out front to pull this weekend.

The garlic also got planted in the back beds and leaves raked over everything.

Inside, Jenn baked a pie from scratch.

Our plan is to finish up with the carrots this weekend and put everything away for the year. No snow is forecast for awhile but the highs are only in the low teens. I also have a bit of bed prep to do--some more manure and bonemeal out front.

Mid-harvest

We've been busy harvesting and processing the results. We started with the last the basil. There was a ridiculous amount (below is one of the 12 plants we harvested, after a summer of heavy cutting) so we gave it away and Jess made soup and we had it fresh. The cupboard is already full of dried, pesto, and oils.

We also pulled in half the potatoes. We got five five gallon pails. Some are in the basement for storage and seed for next year. About half we've given away. Crazy potato harvest the year.

The potatoes were huge this year (likely the heat) and plentiful. One plant yielded 17 baseball- to softball- sized potatoes.

We also culled the peas for next year's seed.

I harvested about 10 feet of kidney beans (bush variety) and have been letting them dry (was a risk of frost so hauled them in). I think we have about four cups of beans.

The larger, later apple tree also got picked. We've made a tonne of apple rings in the dehydrator. The rest we've been eating fresh or baking with.

After some fiddling with the soil and nagging, Jess put in 40+ garlic cloves for next year. This year, I even marked out where we put them!

We've also started digging carrots (nantes and yellow stone).

This coming weekend, we'll likely pull in the rest of the potatoes an half of the carrots as snow is predicted for Thanksgiving Monday.