What have you done today in the Garden?

We will do the first pick-up of veg of this season for the Food Bank today.
But first, a cuppa.

 

We are getting lots of zucchinis and summer squash. They are a productive favorite. Each day, I play "matchmaker" and hand pollinate. So far the Buttercup and Dakota Dessert squashes have "secure" pollination fruits set, for collecting seeds, and lots of nonsecure ones just for eating. Galeux pumpkin is still all male flowers, but I see a female on one starting to grow.

I dug more potatoes today. Early variety from Maine, Envol.


Unlike @Dirtmechanic , we don't have tomatoes yet. The are forming, green on the plant. OK, there were 2 sungold and one Early Girl, but not enough to write home about.

Everything is watered for the hot day planned for tomorrow. Plus there is drip irrigation.

On quiet days I just putter and ponder the plants and trees and flowers. A lot of the early seed started plants are blooming - gallardias, rudbeckias, ratibida, asclepius, sweetpea. So are daylilies and roses and crocosmia. It makes for a nice thing to ponder over.

 

Today, I watered everything, early morning. Went out to pull some weeds, but it is so hot out there. 107 is my heat index. I did get to pick some tomatoes. As with every day, I do walk my yard several times, just looking and admiring the flowers and plants.

 

Lovely spuds, Daniel.
I hope you can stay cool there. I also hope that your plants can deal with the weather.

 

Don't overheat out there!
I grew up near the Mississippi across from MO. At the time, we didn't have a/c. We often cooked outdoors to avoid heating the house even more. Sometimes we slept outside. Until the mosquitoes carried off my little brother.

OK, that last line wasn't true. The rest was.

 

Interesting! It's more informal here, no collars. Do they keep bugs away, or blanch the scallions?

 

Our yellow squashes are growing nicely. Tamaters will be a while. I envy you the okra. I grew it a few years ago. I think it's usually hotter here now that it was then, so maybe it will do better than five pods per plant like it did then . I would need a more compact growing one with the earliest possible yield. Time to check catalogs for next year

 

Fresh okra seed is as important as anything. I had a bottomless bag of seed that lasted for years and they got weirder and weirder as seasons went by, but then the weather is so up and down here it is hard to really tell. I bought some Burpee summer squash seed, the yellow pic and pic hybrid one, and it put me in a doctors office. I think they crossed it with zucchini. It has barbs on the leaves and they give me a rash, so naturally I had to go out with contacts instead of my bigoggles and managed to get poked in the eye while picking squash. It was like a shellfish allergy, but at first I thought I just scratched my eye with those contact lenses somehow. Then I looked like I was turning into a giant goldfish. Gardening adventures eh? I have such a mess of weeds out there but it is producing but not overrunning us. I gave away hundreds of starts but do not want to have too much since we are loaded with canning from last year.

 

Staying hydrated, and keeping the body cool..I play in the hose water! We do the same, BBQ is essential in this weather. The mosquitos would carry me off as well, I must have sweet blood.LOL

 

Just a couple of hours as it looks like rain.

I got into the wisterias as the unwanted growth was rampant.

There was also some "bunching" at the left hand end.
I had to tackle it with the ladder from the front, up between the cross beams and from over the fence between the house and the garage at the left hand end.





Job done!



Same problem here.


I've left some of the branches at the front in the hope they'll drop more like the others since I've tied them down. If not I'll prune them off in the winter. Doesn't look much different but there was a lot that needed pruning at the top.

Between the two pergolas I half filled the green bin.




Pruned some of the roses, then gave both patios and the path a good sweep and a vaccing.

 

Potted on some more wallflowers and a bit of watering.

 

Today I mowed the grass paths. Lifted a row of spuds. Picked beans and courgettes.

The spud patch begins to empty.


Harvest:


The other jobs were fine, but then …. The stinky one— we fed the plants inside the greenhouse and out that required extra nutrition.


It was time to make a new batch, so after emptying this smelly comfrey tea, the used leaves were dumped onto the compost.

When we were doing this job, I was astounded at how many flies suddenly appeared. They were there immediately and seemingly out of nowhere. Of course that isn’t possible.

Riley, I see you have a few wisteria blooms.

 

I started writing down a list of tasks. I carry it with me, and add tasks that I notice are needed. I don't start those other things until the planned list is done. If I have the energy and ambition, I do more. If not, there is tomorrow.

I dug more garlic. This is the Italian softneck "Lorz". They were in wine half barrels. I should have turned off their drip, two or three weeks ago, but didn't. I hope the papery covers will dry and keep them.





Lorz is a new variety for me. It was rewarding to see those jumbo size bulbs and big cloves. Very easy to peel. I used two cloves in our taco supper tonight. Nicely aromatic.

I cut off the tops of the hardneck garlic, harvested last week. There should be about eighty bulbs, a year supply for us.



I planted a bush bean experiment, where I dug
potatoes the past few days. I THINK there is enough time for the short season "Contender". I used up that packed, then finished the row with "Roma" beans.



Hot weather is predicted. To keep them moist until germination, I covered with cardboard.



The soil was dry at least 18 inches down, which was how deep I dug for the potatoes. I pre-watered when I filled in the trench again. If nothing else, this soil has been deeply cultivated.

I also constructed a make-shift trellis for morning glories, which I've been neglecting. I hope they forgive me.

I transplanted the Thunbergera seedlings into larger containers. They are growing now, and have a few tiny flower buds.

More pollinating squashes, covering some flower buds for planned pollinating tomorrow, and harvesting a few summer squashes. More potato digging. Voles had feasted on one potato, so I discarded what remained. That's only one out of many.

I worked some organic fertilizer into the soil for the new bean plantings.

I cut some flowers.


Tomorrow's list will start with watering sweetcorn, tending to squashes, and pulling a few Canada thistles. If I have energy & ambition, I will dig the final three Envol potatoes. Then in a couple of weeks I will start digging the midseason varieties, Kennebec and Sorya. It will be hot, but I have a recipe for zucchini (courgette or marrow) cookies that I want to try, to bake in the outdoor oven tomorrow.

 

It is enjoyable to see your progress and techniques on this posting.
That was a good garlic harvest. Well done.
The list of jobs to do is continuous, isn’t it.

I hope those bush beans will have time to reach adulthood for you. The cardboard idea ought to work perfectly.
You are such a good gardener, I find myself wondering what next good posting you will come out with.

 

Weeded a part of the front garden where there's 3 roses that are struggling. So i watered them and put a lot of mulch around them.
Later water the baskets.
Sjeord and Daniel you both got a great harvest there.