BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

 Holy cow! I haven't posted since June 17th. I've had my knees to the ground, weeding and that's nothing new. I think I'm growing stubby roots on my feet.  No, actually those are my toes. Seriously, the time has flown by so fast for me. It seems that I was just planting and we have been eating from the garden for several weeks or more already.

Thank goodness for my son helping to cut my lawn with the big lawnmower but there are places that he cannot go with the big lawnmower and I haven't used the small lawnmower to mow those areas so my lawn is not looking the best but it's green this year. Because I didn't have time, I didn't plant as many flowers this year and concentrated more on vegetables.  The deers are being a nuisance as they have chewed all the top of my beans again this year in the big garden at the farm. 

 I have weeded most of my flowerbeds but the weeds grew back wherever there was no mulch. I can't be in two places at the same time. I've spent a lot of time weeding at the farm and there are many rows and the rows are long, unlike my small garden at the house, and my back is giving out on me. A little rest from weeding has been very welcome. 

I've had two sets of visitors this week and it was wonderful. Needless to say, it was hot and muggy and it felt good not to have to weed. A young man who used to work on the farm stopped in with his wife and 4 very polite little kids on their way to PEI. Then on Monday, my daughter Christine and her two very polite boys that I hadn't seen since way before the pandemic arrived and left yesterday. It's been like having a blood transfusion. It really brought life to this house and removed the stigma of not having visitors for so long. 

Christine and her boys working on a  fun puzzle.

I pulled very few loops on my rug although it's on the frame, waiting for attention. I'm afraid, it will just have to wait longer. The garden is bursting with all sorts of veggies ready to pick. 

We've been eating red potatoes, peas, onions, dill weed, cucumbers, beets, cabbage, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, kale, Chinese cabbage,  spinach, and green onions and I picked beans this evening. I have banana peppers that are ready and also Jalapenos peppers. The corn is higher than the electric fence now but no cobs yet. It's been so hot this week but you all know that. Potted plants dry up quickly so I've had to carry buckets of water for my potted plants around the Gazebo and the steps. 

 I love these for making pickled beets. One beet goes a long way and takes less room in the garden.

The peas are now finished, only very few left on the vines.

Jalapenos  peppers for making Salsa

Again this year, my Norland red potatoes are big. These were picked several weeks ago. They are getting even bigger now. 

Chinese cabbage I use in stirfry

I didn't take photos of all my harvest but you get the idea. 

Why go through all this work?  I know where my food comes from and it's farm fresh, and I enjoy the magic of seeing things grow from the dirt and from a tiny seed.  It's a good workout, and I enjoy the bounty and beauty of it all, even when things are not  Martha Stewart perfect. lol... I'm learning all the time and life isn't supposed to be perfect anyway.  Every year, I do things differently.  Do you suppose I could learn to clone myself so I wouldn't need to work so hard? lol...

I thought that I would show you one of the gardens at the farm. I'll show some of the others next time maybe. 

We used some old chopped-up hay to mulch after the weeding was done. This is the first time we use old hay to mulch. It's a lot more pleasant to walk in the garden with no mud on our boots.

In the next section, lots of tomatoes, and some peppers and I can't remember what's at the end. 

And in this next section, broad beans, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflowers, and assorted cabbages.

These photos were taken last week so things have grown even more since then. 

In the next post, I will show some flowers. Hopefully, I won't wait so long to post. 

Thanks for your patience Kimm, I'll try to post as I go from now on. No promise though. 

Thanks, everyone, for visiting and leaving your comments.

Julia

I LOVE GARDENING BUT IT CAN BE A CHORE

Again, since it has been so long between posts, I have difficulty knowing where to start so I'll show you what I've been up to from the photos on my phone.

Yes, that's little old me in a weedy neglected vegetable garden.  It was all going to seed and had to be rescued. One year of seeding makes 7 years of weeding so the saying goes... My son took this picture of me before my husband weeded this patch.  Now this garden is all weeded and planted. 

These are my two long rows of potatoes, approximately 180 feet long each row. Not a very good picture.  I did an experiment this year by planting some potatoes in 4-inch pots before it was time to plant outside. They all did well and I got my son Vaughan to plant them in 8-inch deep trenches. They have been hoed twice and are much taller than those I planted directly in the soil on the same date. 

As you can see they are being attacked by Colorado potato beetles who lay their eggs on the undersides of the leaves and as they grow they can decimate a plant in no time if left unattended they will soon get out of control.

This is what the eggs look like. They are easy to crush with your thumb. I prefer to use vinyl gloves. Checking for eggs and beetles is a time-consuming job since I don't like to use poison unless it was out of control.

My red Norland potatoes are blooming.

I harvested my spinach from a small raised bed in the backyard. I got 2 pounds  4 oz.

A before picture of weeds in my flowerbed where I had annuals growing last year.  It's been raining so often that in no time the bed is overrun by weeds. I've always mixed annuals in my perianal beds but I find it produces lots of weeds.

I had to remove many pails of soil next to the brick border so the straw would stay in place This is what it looks like after weeding and mulching with premium straw. 

I had such a hard time this spring with my onions as they were out of the soil and I had to replant them every morning.  I covered them with a black fine mesh fabric weighed down with bricks as I thought the birds were pulling them out but the next day they were pulled out of the ground and the mesh was undisturbed.  I  looked it up online only to find that night crawler earthworms were pushing them out of the soil. After years of mystery, I finally know who the culprits are. 

So I decided to try an experiment with rooting onion sets before planting them. 

I use styrofoam containers and use a small kitchen tool with serrated edges that I use to cut the core of tomatoes to poke little circles in the styrofoam and place them in a glass pan and add water until it touches the under  top of the plate and in two days, the onions are rooted enough to plant. A few take longer. I forgot to mention that I cut the tops of the onion as in the picture.

These onions were the same ones that the earthworms were pushing out of the ground. They finally rooted but it was very frustrating.

Another experiment I tried this year to speed up the sprouting of carrots is to fill a Chinet paper plate with potting soil and sprinkle the carrot seeds on top I placed the plate in a large used Ziplock and I put them in the freezer for 24 hours and then I put them in bright light but out of the sun as it would get too hot.  I check them every day and in no time they start to sprout.  When most of them are sprouted, I gently pick up a handful and sprinkle them on fluffy soil and then sprinkle some soil on top and that's it. I water them well and make sure they don't dry up. It can take from 14  to 21 days to sprout when direct-seeded but with this method, I think it took about 5 days to sprout.  The ones on the left were sprouted in the Ziplock bag and the ones on the right were direct-seeded. I took the picture in the evening sun so they look yellow. 

My beets are doing well. This picture was taken earlier in the week. The 8-inch brick is to give a bit of perspective.

I planted two trays of sweet corn that were given to us by Scott's Nursery.  I have some that I direct planted, that are also growing, but not shown here.

Now, time to share some flowers. This is a weigela bush.

If I remember well, this iris is called Rare Edition.

This one is called Supreme Sultan

Sugar Candy Clematis

This one is called Royal Velvet and was having difficulty but has made a comeback.

One of my many Peonies is starting to bloom

This tall bearded iris is called Cherub Smile

My Alliums are having to compete with the Lady Kim lilac that has grown so large and they are leaning to get some sun. The tips got frostbit early this spring.

Remember the deers ate my Hostas right down to the ground this spring and I worried for nothing.

Look at them now, you can't even tell that there was damage.  Did you know that the young shoots of Hosta are edible for humans and are reportedly delicious when cooked as a vegetable?

I think I better stop here as my blog is getting to be photo heavy. I hope you enjoyed my gardening experiments. I have still so much weeding to do, probably until harvest time. lol.

Thanks for coming for a visit, I really enjoy seeing that you visited and your comments are much appreciated.