What have you done today in the Garden?

I needed to,..the Ducks did enjoy it

 

Picked more strawbs and gave water. Pruned and suckered the toms.

 

put down ground cover between the tomatoes.

 

The past couple of weeks it has been a continuous period of harvesting and weeding. The climbing French beans have begun. The kapucijners and broad beans are completely finished and are spooning cosily in the freezer. There have been waves of Swiss chard harvested.


It is a great pleasure to be able to harvest such large amounts of veg for freezing-in and also to eat fresh.

The slugs have been atrocious and merciless this season and everyone on our complex is suffering . I have some five heads of lettuce trying to make it to a harvestable size before being consumed by those great, red slugs. What a battle this year.

The 9th of this july the spuds will have been in the ground for 90 days. As soon as the ground dries out a bit, I am going on a mole-conocance. I shall carefully dig a bit under the plants and see what the size of the piepers are...and who knows, perhaps I will take a couple of spuds for a meal...just as a check, mind you. One must monitor one´s spuds for size, number and quality of flavour. You understand, right?

I have been working in the bees again. Checking on their health, swarm cell formation and colony size. Only one colony is drawing swarm cells at the moment and so I must watch them carefully and check them after ten days exactly.
I had one small colony that I was starting. They had destroyed their queen and so I cut a piece of comb that had eggs and very young larvae from another hive and placed this in the young, queenless colony. They made themselves a new queen from this bit of comb and after about 10 days, she had emerged and fought off the other aspirant queens. I listened every night from off the 8th day, but did not hear the young queens piping.

Normally when I hear them I open up the hive and break open the queen cells and destroy the cells that only had larvae in them. One does this as the sun is setting so that none will fly away, taking a portion of the colony with them. They fight it out over night and in the morning, there is but one queen...and the colony can then proceed to build.

Well, when I saw the young queen, I closed the hive up and would not look back in fopr about three weeks, giving her time to make the bridal flight and begin laying. Yesterday, I looked in and saw that she had been laying--there were three-and-a-half frames full of brood in all stages. I was a happy father. Rusk with pink and white-dipped anise seeds all round. Some of you guys may give out cigars. I was really over the moon with this development.

The flower garden is filling out nicely and the veggie plots are doing splendidly. What you see here are spuds, strawbs, broad beans and runner beans.


I saw these two mating insects on a broadie leaf, and wondered if you recognized what type they are.


We have also been pruning the toms and tying them in. There are slugs in the greenhouse as well. Goodness knows how they get in there. The toms are still green but growing rapidly. They get a comfrey feeding a couple times a week now. I saw some blooms on our paprika´s...but the slugs have found them, so it is touch-and-go with them.

The cues have also needed some tying in and one actually isn´t looking so happy. Hummm.

Today it is rainy, and so it´s a rest day. I like this.
Day before yesterday it was also rainy and so we went to see a film---Money Monster. It was entertaining. Here in the cinema, half way through the film there is an intermission. and one can get a petit four with a cup of tea or coffee gratis. It´s a nice touch. The thing is that the matinee´s have so few people attending. There were only six persons in our theatre. How they can keep the cinema open with such few goers, is a mystery to me. Perhaps more come at night.

Right then, that´s about it for the moment. Busier days are on the way...and I am ready.

 

The bugs remind me of the dreaded squash vine borer.... but I think it is a moth. of the clearwing class?

 

Today I planted a 4x4 treated post. in ready mix concrete and I mulched it with a lil of the dirt from the hole. Hope fully it will set. Once it does I'll plant another....... more later

 

CJC--I hope you reap the harvest you hope for.

 

After successfully planting one 4x4 post( it is well set in concrete at a strange angle) I went out to plant another but the heat was so styfiling hot I was drenched in sweat in no time and decided to finish planting it later in the evening.

 

We picked a bowl of figs and what may have been the last of our cucs for the season still have peppers and our first long horn okra to pick tomorrow and it took almost all day but I finally got another post planted the heat and humidity are horrid.

 

Oh my...it does sound tough Cajuncap. Our temps are in the low 80's & my daughter & I were drenched working in the garden. It has been hot and dry here for the month of June. We are still lugging & lugging water at the community garden. My pump arm is getting strong! Surprisingly, all plants are doing well & we have been having dinners from our harvest. So satisfying.

 

Cayuga--Congrats. Isn't it great to be eating your own veg! You have to be pretty pleased with yourself. I feel so happy for you.
All that pumping and hauling of water...It must be getting you into good shape, even better that you were already. Too bad you got wet the other day, I hope that it dampened only the soil and not your determination.
How are things going at the Community Garden there? I mean your garden as well as generally. Do you have a good group there with serious gardeners?

Raja and Rote Emma spuds were harvested and taste-tested for quality. They were eaten with fresh fresh French climbers and Runner beans. I have two words---Oh my!

The Rote Emma was a sort of gourmet potato and tasted normally; however, the Raja was very tasty. It had a creamy flavour and was minimally crummy. The colour coming out of the ground was sort of orange-ish but when cooked, it was the normal colour. Cor--that is a delish spud!

We have been processing been sorts as well as beetroot and Swiss Chard. It is really difficult to do this when the veg is so fresh--it seems that I just can't eat enough and find myself feeling as if I am grudgingly processing those fresh things.

The courgettes are starting to come in now and my bride came up with a new courgette salad for the Summer BBQ which took place at our gardening complex. It was a big hit with the fellow members, but an even bigger hit with me.

 

I did some weeding of the strawberry garden. They aren't doing too bad. They are all new sets that I grew from seed. This is the first year for them so there won't be any strawberries from them. As far as the vegetable garden, well, that's pretty sad this year. We have had very little rain in June. Seeds dry rotted in the ground I think. A few came up here in there.We don't have a good well to service the house and the garden. We will have some veggies for immediate use but not for canning and freezing. On the up side the potatoes are looking good and so are the tomatoes. We have about 500 potato plants. I cut way back on the tomatoes with 20 this year. Now I am hoping that we don't get a lot of humid days which can devastate the potatoes and tomatoes!

 

Sounds great Sjoerd! I know what you mean about it seeming such a shame to process fresh (super fresh) vegetables for later eating. You will be glad though come winter, yes?

I did not grow potatoes this year...you make them sounds so delicious! My daughter threw some in my 'holding tank' last summer. It looks like we never harvested them because we have potatoes growing there now. Do potato tubers keep in the ground through very cold winters? These seem to have. Maybe I should hill them up & see what happens.

We are enjoying our community garden immensely. I am gradually getting to know the other gardeners. They are a good bunch, and some are true characters. I say that in a positive way. I get & give gardening tips routinely. I hope to have a potluck at my home at the end of the summer for the gardeners.

So what was the courgette salad that was such a big hit?

BTW, my newly planted asparagus patch continues to grow. The roots are still sending up new shoots! I am hopeful for a (very limited) harvest next spring.

Chrisle: so you have been having a drought too? I am in New England...looks like it has been dry on the Eastern seaboard this June. I am amazed how many potatoes you grow & have grown. Perhaps you would know the answer to my question above, about them wintering over?
I hope you get rain but not the humidity that is hard on tomatoes & potatoes.

 

CM I have had the odd potato come up the next year that we missed when harvesting. They never had a chance to grow as they were just tilled in when preparing ground for that spring's planting. We tossed some in the woods where we dumped our dead stocks. We were surprised to find potatoes growing the next year. They were beautiful white potatoes. No fertilizer but the ground was very fertile. So, in answer to your question. In my experience potatoes tubers can survive our harsh winters.

 

Hiya Cayuga--It is most certainly possible. In fact I wrote a posting on here about how to make a clamp. The thread that I wrote was for saving beetroots over the winter here. Have a look:

http://www.gardenstew.com/threads/making-a-clamp.12230/

Yes, I will absolutely be glad for the frozen veg in the winter. It is the main goal of the season.
I'll bet that you have lots of good tips for your gardening mates at the Comm. Gardens. It is one of the big pluses of gardening on a community -- that exchanging of info.

I imagine that you ought to have more success with your asparagus next year and even better the year thereafter.

The recipe for the courgette salad.
2 courgettes (sliced in a large Julienne size)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon or lime juice
1Tbsp clear honey
Handful of finely cut mint leaves
Salt and pepper
Optional is some cayenne pepper flakes (I find this a necessary option cos, I like it hot)

Mix thoroughly, and Bob's yer uncle.