Here's what's been going on since last post.
May 16, 2018
This Weather
Totally Amazing! It can’t be
beat. We love it. It’s fantastic.
We are getting so much done, inside and outside –
wow!
Four of us loaded up fourteen 50’ raised rows with
compost in one of the new gardens Saturday morning. This will be
the Tomato Garden of 2018 when we get those plants in during
the last week of May and first week of June.
Dean started building the new greenhouse for
the hot peppers today. I am hoping with all hopes it’s ready soon to
get those eager plants in before they begin making peppers. We’re
still snapping the first flowers from them.
The eldest kale in the greenhouse
was starting to bolt so we transplanted the younger and baby kales to their
outside garden today. We’ve been sowing more salad greens
and lettuces. While I was away last Monday, Jennie sowed carrots and
they are already up! Onions we planted many days ago are
showing their tops above the soil so we’ll mulch them this week. The
other day we put floating row cover over the rapini and broccoli to
keep those pretty little cabbage moths from laying eggs. Today we
prepped the Edible Flower Bed and will arrange the plants
tomorrow.
We set up the first of many irrigation
systems today. It’s quite a time saver when we can turn on
the tap and get another project done while the hoses do the watering for
us.
After picking greens tomorrow we’ll transplant
lettuces etc. to their outside gardens to make room in the Greenhouse for
the cucumbers. It’s been a few years since growing them
inside and I hope the cucumber beetles and squash bugs are long gone and have
forgotten about us here. The long English cucumbers do so much
better in the Greenhouse.
We’ll be planting beans and more
beets in the next several days. The leeks will
go in the ground next week.
If you wondered about your spinach order
last week, there are a few kinds in the bag: bloomsdale, wild,
strawberry and orach. I love the mix and the red really adds
colour. Edible arugula flowers were also in
your arugula bag. This week I’m pleased to have the opportunity of
adding a few flowers like violets, cress flowers and pansies to your
Salad Greens. I expect lilacs and honeysuckle will
be next.
Robins are laying their beautiful blue eggs in
nests in various locations, orioles must have babies since I hear them calling
to them, flickers are having a great time eating from our backyard lawn and we
hear killdeer calling all day. I saw some cardinal parents with
their babies at the feeder and the hummingbirds are back. What a
wonderful spring we’re having.
May 23 2018
Flowers and Food
When I pass by the blooming lilac bush I can hear the little
hummingbirds chitchattering away. I
assume their nest is in there. I found a
killdeer nest in the row where we planted potatoes. The first day there were two eggs looking
like oval shaped rocks, then three the next day and four eggs last time I
looked. The mom and dad work pretty hard
to steer us away.
A chipmunk that wouldn’t get out from under the hood of the van (and
believe me we tried) came to Kanata, Bells Corners, back to Kanata and then to
Kemptville and home with us last weekend.
It was pretty freaked when we arrived home, but apparently Tom saw one
going back under the hood again.
So many flowers bloom at once it’s hard to keep up. Every corner I turn I see a new flower and
think to myself “Hmm, is that one edible?
If so, into this week’s salad it goes.” Maybe we’ll have lettuce with flowers instead of salad with flowers soon😊
The plant sale is going
well. It’s always a pleasure meeting
fellow gardeners and discussing what’s going where and how long everyone has
been at this, some only recently and some much longer. If you’re looking for more plants than are posted in my blog I probably
have them in the gardens and can dig
some up for you. I’m open to any
suggestions that I may not even think of as I’ve been here 27 years and there’s
a good variety of perennials and self-seeding annuals here.
We’re selling our old tractor
if you know of anyone interested. It’s a
1952 Massey Harris Pony. We’ve put quite a bit of money into upgrading
and some other parts that I don’t need to know the names of but someone else
might. We have all the receipts for work
done and replacement parts like tires etc.
The green peas and snow peas
we planted what seems like eons ago are about 5” tall now and hundreds of leeks have been transplanted. Yesterday we sowed parsnip, radishes and all the beans
and transplanted more broccoli. We sowed more lettuces for salads today, as well as chard, pak choi, green onions
and arugula and transplanted celery
we started a couple of months ago. I’m
itching to get the cucumbers
transplanted outside and keep watching the night temperatures. Potatoes
are up. Dean is almost done the
greenhouse and I’m hoping we can get the tiller in there this weekend (the
grass is growing furiously while he’s building) so we can transplant ALL the hot peppers. Once the peppers are out of the greenhouse we
can get some of those LongFellow and
English Telegraph Cucumbers growing in there. It’s funny how we wait and wait and wait for
spring, then it arrives and everything needs to be done right away. We’re also waiting for that Last Frost Date
which I’m afraid these last few years has been as late as the end of May, then
we can transplant the tomatoes,
eggplants, sweet peppers and those other warm weather foods we love so much.
Thanks again for all the yogurt containers. I’m still cutting up labels and may well have
a good start on next year’s at this point.
May 30, 2018
Sunny Sunny Sunny Days
What a week, the new Hot Pepper
Palace (aka greenhouse) is done . . . mostly. We took the entire day
Saturday to till and hill prepping the soil for those hot peppers to be
transplanted. So bring on the heat, we are ready.
We
have now transplanted every hot pepper that can fit into the
greenhouse. The rest and the sweet peppers will need to wait until
we can re-till the outside garden this weekend. We moved on to the
new prepped Tomato Garden yesterday and have planted several of the many
varieties. The irrigation system is only set up in one small garden
now so we’re hand-held hose-watering for hours each morning and evening.
Suppers
around here are a little lame these days. We eat good food, just
nothing too exciting and really late, around 9ish and then do the
fall-asleep-before-your-head-hits-the-pillow thing.
We
still have plants for sale. See the Prices section for details.
The
lettuces are growing so nicely right now. The arugula, cilantro and
spinach have bolted in the heat. No worries – we keep planting more
all the time. There are only a few jars of tomato sauce left, but
soon we’ll be eating other fresh foods like beans, peas, garlic scapes, beets,
green onions and dreaming of tomatoes and cukes and zukes to come.
For
your tables this week, we have the following to offer:
APPLES, organic, dehydrated $2 bag
Edible
FLOWERS $3 / bag
HERBS, fresh: Chives, Citrus Thyme, Lemon Balm, Marjoram, Mint,
Nettle, Oregano, Sorrel, Tarragon $3 / bunch
KALE $4 bag
Red ORACH $4 / bag
PLANTS yes you can order plants for delivery too – see Prices section for plant list
SALAD GREENS, washed and table-ready $6 /
bag
SPROUTS $3 / bag
Broccoli Brassica
Blend (broccoli, broccoli raab,
radish, mustard & arugula)
Sandwich
Booster (clover, alfalfa, radish
& mustard)
Spring Salad
Mix (broccoli, radish, red clover
& alfalfa)
TOMATO SAUCE $6 /500mL
jar sealed
Tomatoes,
frozen whole (Gardener's Delight - ping pong ball size) $2 / pound
I look forward to receiving Your
Special Order. Call or email me with amounts you’d like and any
questions.
Thanks.
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| We have two roosters now - Zinnie and Bill |
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| The flowering crabapple tree is so pretty in the spring. |
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| A sea of white violets |
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| You can almost smell these lilacs |
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| Arugula gone to seed |
Until next post, have a great every day.
Jo
613-258-7970
joanne.daybrighteners@gmail.com
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