What have you done today in the Garden?

Not much today. After a busy morning, we popped out to the lottie right after supper. No real work, just took our tea there, cut back some Clematis, removed some reed and removed a chiffchaff from the neighbour man’s apple tree netting.

 

Very busy times here, and gardens are still being fit in when possible. Hopefully things will calm a little after tomorrow. The heat has made it's way , so I'm up at 4:30 to water and garden, then run the irrigation. I'm very grateful for the creek. VERY grateful.

Veggies are starting to ramp up and some to finish up. Five heads of cauliflower left to harvest in the next few days. Twelve are in the freezer. Greek salad from the greenhouse for dinner. ( yum yum) Slug patrol paid off today and I crunched about twenty of them. They've eaten my blossoms on some of the potatoes - not sure how that will work out. And I found two munching on the corn tassles ( also not sure how that will work out. No tassles = no kernals).

 

Weeded some of the polyanthus and pot marigolds, did some watering and ordered the spring bulbs from J Parker's. For 24 hours they are doing free P&P
Tulips
30 Apeldoorn Elite
30 Esmee
10 Queen of the Night
10 hyacinths Gypsy Queen
30 purple crocuses
20 long stemmed tulips free

 

Very, very nice harvest Mel. You have your work cut out for you, don’t you. What a watering system you have! I feel sorry for you that you have to get up so early.
You know Mel, you could take the tassels from different plants and give those munched silks a good dusting to perhaps still get a decent pollenation.

 

Picked some more plums and cutting back some of the currant bushes in the back garden and watered some plants.

 

Today we began the gathering of extra veg for the Food Bank here. It was heartwarming to see how much folks donated … this early in the season. A big, “well done” to my fellow gardeners !

 

Thank you Sjoerd. I apologize for misnaming the corn plant parts that the slug was enjoying....he did in fact eat the silks, not the tassle. ( greedy little goblin). I will try a more direct polination as you suggest. Fingers crossed!

 

Today was the first picking of peas. Every one recieved an extra watering. I harvested a laundry basket full of swiss chard. Today will be blanching and freezing the chard, some baby carrots and cauliflower. Beets are blanched, and I will be freezing some for the first time And also making some pickled beets. Tonight I have to go on a caterpillar hunt as someone is really enjoying my basil leaves in the greenhouse hahaha. A little too much. I don't mind sharing, but one must draw the line somewhere. Basil is my line ;-)

I plant two varieties of cabbage. One is small early heads, and another is a later large cabbage. My dear neighbour is Polish and has all of her grandmother's recipes. Her hands don't work as well as they used to, but she can still bang out an amazing cabbage roll. I plant large cabbage for her, and she gets to pick the biggest one. Having said that....I have never had such large cabbage. The leaves are 26 inches across. The heads about 11 ish inches so far. These guys won't be ready for harvest for a few weeks yet, but are already much larger than a basket ball. She's pretty excited and comes to check them out regularly.

 

@Sjoerd That is wonderful that your community is so organized and generous with the food bank. Really lovely.
In the fall, I take my extras to the First Nations Band Office for the elders. Mostly potatoes, squash, carrots and onions. It is about an hour away. The food bank is a little far away for me but many local farmers/gardeners closer to the community share. It is no where near as organized as yours and they rely on people bringing goods to them at certain hours. Something to be learned there with how yours is organized to recieve such a lovely bounty. That must make the heart feel good.

 

Magnificent foto’s, Mel. All that daylight is really helping you innit.
Great story about your neighbour. Nothing like good neighbour relations— we say, “ a good neighbour is better than a distant friend”.

 

Ta Mel.
Does the First Nations sell your stuff or consume it themselves?
What our club donates is actually only a small portion of what is donated to the Food Bank. There are agreements with supermarkets, bakers agrarians and other types of stores whereby they donate their extra goods. that said the Food Bank wants to offer their clients fresh food, and that is where we come in. I do not think that they were receiving fresh veg and fruit before my Bride and I went to them and asked if they were interested. I am really glad that they accent this good food.

You had such a good harvest. Some great veg. You are such a good gardener, aren’t you.
And, the Swiss chard. I am such a big fan. I always said that you had good taste.

 

So sorry Sjoerd about Mrs.' back I really hope she's better soon,

Hot today, mid 90s on the Fahrenheit scale. I pollinated some squashes and watered. Not a lot more in the garden.

 

@Daniel - what are the very delicate and pretty purple and red flowers? Is the orange one a coneflower?? So so pretty. Lovely job. I really like how they are a "patch" of flowers. Very nice.

 

I snuck out at 8 pm it was still 83’ but took the elec hedgers and trimmed down the rhodies and prickly juniper,
Spruce and the yellow honeysuckle shrub. Laid down a tarp.. chopped away plopped the cuttings on the tarp, then dragged it over to the pasture and dumped the cuttings. Next time I mow the pasture I’ll mulch them .
Now I can see my roses and hydrangeas from the kitchen window.