What have you done today in the Garden?

@Droopy -That was very helpful, thank you Droopy. I do love to cook and will definitely be trying these. I think I'll try some the of early tender baby cabbage in a month or so. I will let you know.

 

In between firewood today will be giving the tomatoes a good watering. I pack hot water down from the house to temper the cold water in the barrel. I also will be starting some more bush beans and some peas to fill in where the mice had their buffet. Green is coming in quickly. I saw my first leaf on a poplar tree yesterday. I miss the sound of leaves, so that is exciting.

 

What a good posting, Mel.

 

Too busy watching the tennis from Roland Garros on Eurosport to do any gardening today.

But I did take some photos of the roses in "The Alley of Shame," the drive next to our house, when I went out to feed the birds.
It's where roses end up that my wife either doesn't like, or I think have performed poorly in past years. They are up against it as it gets little sun. The water is from where I washed out 'arrys feed station base over the drain, a daily task.

 

@Doghouse Riley Your alley of shame looks lovely

 

Finished the peppers raised bed. Added a large container for extras, and setting up another.



Also set up a separate container for Serranos. They grow quite large,

I dug the area for sweetcorn. Will smooth and plant, maybe, tomorrow.

 

What are those onion-looking things growing at the end of your pepper raised bed?
It is all looking so good there.
What are Serranos? Not ham, surely. Chuckle.

 

@Sjoerd during the winter I saved some shallots and winter onions and didn't know what to do with them. So I stuck them in a row at the ends of the bed. They should be ready and harvested before the chilis start bearing. One type might be "Potato Onion" and if they are, I want to multiply them. The originals were from Quebec, according to the packages.

Serranos are similar to Jalapeño peppers but, thinner, hotter, and when allowed to fully ripen, have a fruitier, richer flavor. They make a nice, hot, flavorful Sambal oelek hot sauce. Most important, the grow and produce very well in my garden. So do Jalapeños, but not a lot of other types. The plant is larger and more productive than Jalapeños, but Jalapeños start much earlier for me.

The Serranos are the thin, smooth skin ones here. The ones with cracked skin are Jalapeños, and the wrinkly ones are Korean peppers.



With warmer summers, I think my peppers are doing better. This year I'm also experimenting with Tabasco and Thai peppers, to see how well they do.

 

Daniel, I enjoyed looking at those peppers. Thanks for telling me about Serrano peppers. My knowledge and use of peppers is very limited. I only grow them every few years, dry them and then use them for a few years. Having said that, when it is again time to grow them, I look for new ones to try.

Mate, you are such a balanced and all-round gardener, I for one am well chuffed that you are here to show and tell about your choices and methods. Thanks again.

 

@Daniel W those peppers looks great.

I finished planting up the border with the Snapdragons and trimmed the edge of the grass, hubby was out so i thought that I'd do it without him looking. Also started pulling up the wallflowers now that they've nearly finished.

 

Today I planted sweetcorn. This year I'm trying "Orchard Baby" - described as much smaller growing than most, much smaller ears, but a heirloom sweetcorn flavor and not excessively sweet. Developed in Canada and was once offered by a North Dakota nursery in the 1940s. Supposedly ripens in 65 days.

Packet


We'll see how it does. In a couple of weeks I want to plant another short season variety I like - Early Sunglow Hybrid. I think these will be bertter me than modern supersweet varieties and I don't need or want the higher yields.

I also filled a trench of early potatoes about 3/4 full. I planted three more peppers (Two Banana Pepper plants and another Early Jalapeño), and gave away the rest of my started pepper plants.

 

Daniel, Early Sunglow does very well for us. Hope it does for you, as well!
I tied up tomatoes and cucumbers, did a bit of weeding, petted Timi my garden helper cat, and then came in with a basket of onions to sort and store. The red salad onions did well, the white onions, not so much. But, tomorrow I can clean and bring in the garlic that is hanging in the barn. This year has been difficult for gardening--lack of rain (no matter how much you carry and water, it isn't the same as a good rain soaking), and up and down temperatures.

 

Finished pulling up the wallflowers and cut them up to put in a plastic bag then when there's room i'll put that in the rubbish collection bin. Put a lot in the 3 composting bins but they're full up now and it will take a long time to go down.

 

@Daniel W - I tried Early sunglow last year but I thought I had bad seed as I had poor germination. Eventually they took, and it was a bumper crop in the greenhouse - in the bed the tomatoes couldn't use. Turned out wonderful. I'm growing Trinity Bi Colour this year, and outside last year. Really struggle with the soil temps here, but so far so good for wee cobs.

I really appreciate you sharing your short season seeds of choice. We take note! ( I have a list in my book)

Yesterday and today were busy days. A town day yesterday leant to a busy afternoon. Everyone was watered by hand as the creek is so high. Beans went in, as well as the corn seedlings. I'm trying some direct sown corn seeds cut into the clear plastic on half of the bed this year. We shall see. It's a bit of a crap shoot this year.

I took the beloved red plastic off of the green house tomatoes this week as the soil temp was too huge of a contast to the air, and the tomats weren't handling it well. I can better monitor moisture now also.

Cukes are up, and spinach must come out tomorrow so that the cuke seedlings aren't shaded.

Everyone had some fertilizer, and is loving the warmer night temps of 5 C instead of negative and days of 18C instead of 9 C

The last of the mail order Haskup berries arrived the afternoon of the day that I returned home from town. A neighour picked them up and brought them home for me this afternoon ( an apple sauce cake with orange cream cheese icing handed back in exchange ). These little plugs ventured all of the way from Prince Edward Island and faired the venture not too badly. Out of the box and into the soil. We shall see how they do.

We are building a gas shed so that the gas jugs are not housed in the barn. In between gardens was digging and levelling. Now it is time for zzzzzzzzzz

 

Hi Mel.
What a newsy posting this time. Lots going on there. As the weather changes so do your actions. So interesting to read.

i read it all with interest, but what really caught my eye was the Haskup story. Oh my. What a payback. It made me wish that I had been your neighbour.