The first week of June was miserable. Cold, rainy, an unexpected frost that went to at least -2° C. Most of the week was an entire wash. Most of the 47 pepper plants I had put in were killed in the frost. A few are still struggling and might make it. A friend gave me a few of their extras to make up the difference, but I'm not putting anything warm-weather loving in for at least another week.
New plot is still not tilled as the tiller would not drive forward or in reverse when I started it. Tiller portion ran, just no drive. I took it back a few days later and they fixed it, the pins in the wheels weren't in the right place, apparently, although it was supposed to be ready to go when I picked it up.
I did inoculate a few more mushroom logs, but the logs we were given were so large in diameter, (instead of 4-5", we got 7-8") that I hurt my lower back lugging them around. It's just not starting off to be a good year, I'm afraid.
Other damage incurred in the frosts included the blossoms dropping from my fruit trees, which was truly disappointing as it looked like we might actually get a bit of fruit this year. I'm hoping that none of them were damaged enough to be killed. The leaves on the heartnut trees were quite affected. The potatoes that had come up got frost burnt a bit as well, the tips turning black. I'm hoping that won't affect them much, fingers crossed.
There is a tiny bed I built in the front of the house, by the front stoop. I put it there two years ago to house a couple small hostas and several bearded irises that I split and removed from another bed on the side of the house that was here when we bought it. In the 6 years we've been here, only one iris had ever bloomed so I looked up how to take care of them and read about dividing them. When I dug the bed out I retrieved over 30 bulbs from a tiny 2 x 3' area, which explained why none of them were blooming, they were so over-crowded. So, I gave a handful away, planted some more back in the original bed along with the hosta I had split into thirds, and planted the rest in this little half moon shaped bed in front. The last week has been so defeating, I was thrilled this morning when I was on the front stoop and looked down at that little bed and saw 5-6 flower heads coming up off the irises. I cannot wait to see how utterly beautiful they are. The one time it bloomed we were entirely stunned by the flower, it was so lovely.
So now I definitely feel less disheartened. It's hard sometimes when you grow things to remember that every year there are losses and failures. Nothing is ever perfect and you have to revel in the small joys and take the losses with a grain of salt because no matter how hard you try, there are too many uncontrollable variables here. The positives? The garlic looks fantastic this year, which excites me because we love our homegrown garlic. There's just no comparison from store-bought. My lavender all came back, blueberries and haskap have lots of berries on them, strawberries are blossoming and I have a bunch of volunteer dill where it was planted last year, so I'll harvest those seedlings to plant elsewhere and won't have to wait as long for that. My pansies came back and are in full bloom and are absolutely GORGEOUS. They've been that little bit of color that keeps me inspired.
So, there are positives, it's just a matter of focusing on those.
June 11
Today is June 11 and we are usually well under way with planting by now, but the weather and my back not cooperating, we've probably only got about 10% done. My back did feel a bit better today so I went out and did a few light things, including planting two new rhubarb plants in the rhubarb bed. I also went to Canadian Tire to pick up a stirrup hoe. I've never used this type of hoe before, but I've read that they're very useful for weeding and wow, they definitely live up to the hype. In a motion that requires only slightly more effort than sweeping, the blade goes under the weeds and slices them off under the soil, leaving them on top. I did a couple raised beds in minutes, minus the cleanup of the weeds, but I can't imagine that would add too much time to the equation. So, I'm pretty damn happy with that $30 investment.
June 16
My back is finally at about 90% so I've been back at it for a couple of days. Yesterday I planted 1300+ yellow and red onions. Today I've been at it early replacing the peppers I lost in the frost (about 40 of them) and planting the rest out as well.
June 19
It rained yesterday, which the plants definitely needed. On Saturday and Sunday, I worked away most of the day, planting a number of peppers and weeding beds. Still so much to do but it's slowly getting there.
Erin did discover something exciting over the weekend. She's been checking our mushroom logs quite regularly, since they could fruit any day now. Lo and behold, when she checked a couple days ago she found a little mushroom. She promptly forgot and didn't tell me until yesterday, so they were even larger now and it would definitely appear that our oyster mushroom logs, or at least one of them, are starting to fruit.
June 20
Some beautiful shots of my bearded irises that came with the place. I divided them up into new beds a couple years ago and this is the first time they've bloomed since. There are 3-4 large blossoms on each one.
It was a gorgeous, partly cloudy, day today. Just the right temperature and slight wind, so there were few bugs. Planted some flowers to get them off the deck and keep them from dying from drying out. I added a few dahlias, cosmos, echinacea, shizanthus and chamomile to the small flower bed and also added a few marigolds around the main berry bed.
I spent the rest of the afternoon mowing the lawn. Not at all what I needed to get done, but it was getting long and for the sake of keeping ticks and the grasshoppers to a minimum, it was the chore du jour. It did give me the chance to check out the orchard though, the two pecan trees I planted have taken and are putting out leaves. I also have a few cherries on my Montmorency cherry tree and a couple plums on one tree as well.
June 21
Another gorgeous day today, less windy and cloudy than yesterday. Went out and finished planting brassicas, did a little weeding and set the boundaries for the new in-ground garden. I planned 23' x 28', but it's a bit bigger as I was measuring alone and was in a hurry to get it done. I did the first once over with the tiller but it's going to need many more passes in both directions before it's ready to plant.
June 22
The whole family was at it today. Erin had the day off so she weeded one and a half of the in-ground beds, no easy chore as they're really over-grown. Jody came over and dug a hole for one of the Asian pear trees. I noticed I have aphids in the orchard, so I'll have to address that soon. I did some weeding, planted flowers and more brassicas, and did a lot of watering since it had been a few days without rain.
June 27
Blogging and gardening is hard. I'm so busy this year that I'm having a hard time keeping up with writing down all the goings on. Still plugging away, even though it's almost July and the garden is only about half in. The weeds have taken over the in-ground garden, but I did get the two beds that had been weeded tilled up and raked. I was pretty thrilled with the tilther mode on the tiller. You can set the depth of the tines so that it only tills up the top couple inches, which is perfect for what I want. To do a full, deep tilling yearly just serves to mess up the soil structure and the micro-organisms within. With those beds prepped, I planted 18 zucchini plants, a couple fennel and 10 celery plants. Jody came over and dug another hole for another tree. Today I went out and planted another 14 summer squash. I also cleaned out one bed that cucumbers are going in. I had dill in that bed last year and I spilled a lot when harvesting the seeds. Happy accident that was and now I'll do it every year. The seedlings were about 4-6" high, a much better start than planting them from seed purposely. I pulled probably 20 nice ones out, I only used 10 and then potted up a couple cups of them for friends.
June 28
Rain day. I tried to get out before it started to plant a bed of tomatoes but didn't make it in time. We had a good, long, steady rain though and it was badly needed. Plus, my leaky hose finally burst yesterday, so I'm extra grateful for the help today. Now I need to find where I put the replacement hose and quickly. The forecast shows thunderstorms tomorrow, but a week long heat wave will follow.
June 29
It was still raining when I woke up this morning, but the sun was out and shining by the time I finished breakfast and coffee. I headed out to sort the tomatoes, which are beyond leggy at this point, some of them are 2' long or more, so they need to go in the ground ASAP. At this point, I'm a month behind, in an area where we barely have 120 frost-free days for a growing season. This fact is definitely enough to completely make me give up hope, however I'm going to keep plugging away and putting it in. Maybe our first frost will be a couple weeks late this year. Maybe the weather or the mycorizzhae will kick things up enough notches that this extra month or more of planting won't matter. Who knows, but I'll only find out by trying.
Headed out to plant tomatoes but had to plant an Asian pear tree first as Jody had already dug the hole for me. Wasn't quite deep enough so I had to dig deeper and the clay was pretty compacted so I added half a bag of worm compost to help break it up a little. Put the tree in, watered it. By the time I was done that the humidity had just about done me in. I went inside to change into shorts and cool off a bit. After a quick snack and a glass of water I headed out to get the tomatoes done. I planted one bed of the Opalka variety and another with 5 Orange Roussoulini, 2 Amana Orange and 1 Black Sea Man. I finished just in time to make it in before the thunderstorm, so they're all watered in nicely as well. I planted each seedling on its side, in a long trench as they were quite leggy. The buried stem will grow roots and make for a very strong plant. as deep as I could. I also added a mix of bone meal/epsom salts and some mycorrizhae to the trench before putting in each seedling. Overall a much more productive day than I've been having lately, so I'll take it.
June 30
It was supposed to rain most the day, so I took the opportunity to head to Rogersville (a small town about 40 minutes away) to the Mr. Tomato main store, since we had yet to visit this year and try to make it there at least once every summer. Once we were there I grabbed more beet seeds, as well as several rosemary plants, a lemon balm, a curry plant and some flowers to fill our hanging pot with. Sadly when I arrived home I realized the hanging pot broke in the winter cold and ice and I'll have to pick up a new one once the holiday weekend is over.
I filled another bed of beets and continued weeding for the remainder of the day.
July 1
It was Canada Day, but the wife had plans so I had lots of time in the garden. I cleaned two more beds and planted the remainder of the tomatoes, which included 4 more Black Sea Man, a new variety I'm trying this year, along with a new cherry tomato variety called Sweetie. The second bed I filled with two of my favorite cherry tomatoes, Gardeners' Delight, a large cherry that is prolific and tasty, and my favorite tasting cherry tomato, Black Cherry.
Once the tomato beds were complete, I cleaned, raked and planted the last bed of peppers. Finally, before bed I took the tiller and worked on the new garden a bit. The soil is hard packed clay, so it's going to take awhile to soften it up. I need to wait for another rain now before I can make much more progress on it. The good news is that everything that is going in that bed, is already planted and doing very well in small pots, the only thing going in that garden from seed is the beans, and those only take about 60 days to mature, so we have some wiggle room there.
July 3
Yesterday was a scorcher, so I didn't get a whole lot done. A bit of weeding here and there and lots of water breaks was about all I could manage in the heat.
July 4
Up early today as the wife was leaving for a trip. Hooked up the new hose we picked up yesterday and watered everything before the midday heat gets here. It's supposed to be hot for a couple more days and then drop to something a bit more temperate, thankfully.
I weeded the next in-ground bed to prep for the beans. Planting very late, but beans don't take a lot of time, so that just means we'll have beans later than usual. The in-ground garden was left last year, weeds and all, due to illness and just not being able to get out and do proper clean-up. Lesson learned for this year and I plan to clean up well after harvest this time. I also plan to tarp the in-ground garden and also the new plot I tilled up, with silage tarps over the winter so the weeds won't pop up and I can just pull the tarps off in the spring and go.
After that bed was cleaned and prepped, I planted sweet potatoes in a raised bed. I didn't plant them all because I still have a few fruit tree/bushes heeled in there, but about 3/4 of them were planted. The rest will go in as soon as I get those fruit bushes in the ground. Very impressed with how growing my own slips turned out. You can see from the picture the nice, healthy root system that developed.
I took a long break to make supper, eat, have a nap, and so on during the hottest part of the day. Back out around 5 and I planted the bed that I wed that morning with green and yellow beans. Watered the cucumber bed because it looked dreadful. Lost a few plants I think. The soil was very hot and not very deep there, I watered it very well and most the plants perked up. Still lots of plants in the bed so I wasn't worried about losing a couple.
July 5
Another hot one today, but a nice breeze at least to make the heat a little more bearable. I had to mow and run errands today, so not a lot accomplished. I did pick up a load of mulch and my son unloaded it for me and lugged it back to the raised beds and orchard so it would be ready to spread out.
July 7
It rained yesterday, so I didn't get a whole lot accomplished. It's an absolutely gorgeous day today though, so looking forward to being outside all day as the temps are mild and there's a nice breeze as well. Planting a couple more raised beds with potatoes today. I was going to put them in the new garden, but have to wait for more rain as the clay soil is like a rock and very tough to till. I also broke a shear pin on the tiller that I need to replace. Before I start that though, I'm off to mow the paths in between the beds that aren't wide enough for the ride on. Most are mulched, so it won't take long.
Mowing completed, I prepped two raised beds and planted more potatoes in each.
July 31
No updates as we had an illness and death in the family. I was still working most days, but too distracted to post any updates. All the raised beds are now planted. Most the new garden is planted. Last two rows will house beans for drying and the leftover potato seed. Pretty late to plant potatoes, but it should serve to lengthen our harvest for them. At the very least, we'll have lots of yummy new potatoes in the fall. The new garden measures 23' x 28' and has seven 30" wide beds with foot-wide paths in between. This year I planted mostly squashes and melons in it, but next year it will be the market garden.
The in-ground garden has 3 out of 8 beds prepared. The weeds in it are insane, so it's taking the longest. The only things left to plant are lettuces, radish, peas...all things that grow pretty quickly so we should still have a nice fall harvest within the 9 weeks of growing season we have left.
We harvested the garlic scapes a couple of weeks ago, a bit late, but they were still very tasty.
Today I harvested 11 lbs of Roko potatoes. They weren't quite ready, but the tops were showing signs of blight so I pulled them out before they affected the other potatoes, or worse, the tomatoes.
Things should be picking up next month as the harvest starts to roll in. I'll be sure to get out there and take lots of photographs for next update!
