Yes, DO freeze blanched green/yellow beans again -- they steam up fine

^^^

Quite the white fuzz over the alfalfa under the leaves

Had a peek under the leaves and found there's quite a lot of white fuzz over the moistened alfalfa that I had put over the soil before laying the leaves over top.  I'm not worried -- hopefully it's all good bio stuff happening there.

Last carrots and beets harvested (have been several heavy frosts)

There have been several heavy frosts in recent weeks, so I harvested the rest of the carrots and beets.

I tried a carrot and can't say it seems any sweeter than the ones harvested through the summer.  Haven't had one of these beets yet.

But anyway, a very decent harvest of carrots and beets, though ~15% of the carrots seem to have had some kind of insect damage, so I'll have those carrots first.

Final leaves collected -- not chopping them

Collected leaves over the past two or three weeks, some from the hill on top of the hill, the rest from the grassy area left of the stairs.  A great method for the closer spot is to bring the garbage can instead of bags -- so much easier/quicker to fill it up.

The first few batches of leaves I had been blending in the garbage can with the big mower.  BUT, when it ran out of reel and I replaced it with a new reel, that new reel was all used up in almost no time at all!!!!!!  Like it blended only maybe one or two garbage bags!!!!  Which means there are a ton of teeny pieces of plastic reel all mixed in with the leaves!

So, for the rest of the leaves, which is a lot of leaves, I'll just leave them whole, and see how that goes.

One or the original bags of mowed leaves is in the basement to be used next year.

Kalanchoe transplanted to front garden

From R&B who grew this on their balcony over the summer.  Note said it's "kalanchoe".  Two of them, to the front right of the front door.  Google suggests they won't come back next year, but that's fine.

Stevia is still going strong despite several frosts!!!

Wow!  I thought it was a really tender plant, but apparently not!  They look perfectly fine, whereas the basil, tomatoes, beans, and begonia are all clearly kaput given the frosts.

First frost was last night

It has been a mild fall until now -- got some cooler nights at the 0 +1 range, but no frost in the yard until last night when it went down to -4.  The tenders are now done.  --> Edited to add that actually the stevias are still looking fine even after several cold nights!!

Ground cherry died quickly over past week

Not sure why, but the main/giant volunteer ground cherry at the south edge of the central bed died over the past week.  Pulled/removed it today.  We haven't had frost yet, but nights have definitely been chilly, so maybe that's why.

SVB finally took down the never-tulled zuke by hydro meter

Wow, I'm impressed the plant lasted this long, never having been tulled.  But this morning it was suddenly wilted -- inspection found at least one SVB.  Got one last zuke off it this morning -- it was a good run.

Wild mini-apples on Cntk!

Wow!  I'm not sure if these would classify as mini-apples or mega-crabapples, but they are adorable and perfect -- no sign of insect issues.  Very edible raw on their own!  

Wild grapes at CMuseum! Yum!

Along the west field tree line.  Enjoyed a few as a snack while passing through.  Juicy and tasty, not bitter at all.

Ground cherry pie! From the backyard volunteers! (Not from the allotment!)

Woo!  Getting a very decent harvest of ground cherries from the backyard volunteers, mainly the huge low sprawling one at the south of the central bed.  Made my ground cherry pie recipe today -- hoping to get enough more to make a second one later on!

(The allotment ground cherries have been useless due to squirrels helping themselves!)

LATE BLIGHT on the tomatoes!!! Jasper (cherry) still look fine

Oh no!  I've been hearing for weeks now of late blight wiping out people's tomato harvests... Looks like it has finally reached my little yard.  There were still quite a few (maybe a dozen) big tomatoes that were green or barely starting to ripen -- most now are showing blight.  So, I pulled those tomatoes.  Left the others there for now.  At least I had a nice harvest up to now, can't complain.

The Jasper cherry tomatoes are still going gangbusters so far.

Finally seeing fewer slugs

What a banner year for slugs!  Easily over 1000 I rehomed, I would say.  The past few nights I've seen only a few each night, compared to the dozen+ I usually see, so maybe the colder nights have sent them away.

Wild grape jelly made!

TLDR:  IT WORKED!!!  It set great!  It's quite sweet, but works well as jam.  I don't really taste much grape though, so next time (ie next year) use a lot less water during the juicing part, so that the juice itself is less diluted.

Day 1:

Harvested 2.5 pounds of grapes from BH.

Put them into sink (stems/twigs and all) where covered them with water.  Swooshed them around.  Bad ones floated to the top.  Put the good ones into the big but low pot, with a bunch of water to almost cover them.  I think I put too much water, as my total at the end was more than it should have been for only 2.5 pounds of grapes (which was ~13 cups grapes with stems setc.)

Heated / simmered them while mashing them with the curvy potato mashes.  The juice quickly came out.  After ~10-12 minutes, stopped.

Let it cool a bit.

Then, used one of the mesh produce bags (with handles) to strain the juice out.  Did a few go's at this to make sure no seeds/twigs in the juice.

Put the juice into mason jars -- ~7 cups total.  Will refrigerate overnight, to see if that deals with the tartrate crystals issue (https://creativecanning.com/wild-grape-jelly and https://practicalselfreliance.com/grape-jelly/).

Day 2

Gently decanted the juice --- didn't really find any crystals I think, unless they were really mini as there was some sediment type of thing at the bottom but it didn't feel crystal-y.

4 cups juice + 4 cups sugar + 1 box Certo powdered pectin

Added 4 cups of juice and 1 box of powdered pectin (used Certo) to my big but short pot -- must use a big pot because it climbs up a lot when it gets boiling!  Stirred to dissolve the pectin and brought the mixture to a boil.

Allowed it to boil hard for one minute.

Then, added 4 cups sugar.

Brought it back to a boil.  Boiled hard for one minute.

Removed from heat and spooned it into jars.

I put some of the jars into the fridge right away, the rest on the counter for a bit.  They all set great!

Wild/riverbank grapes at BHM!!!

How did I never notice these before!  Huge amount of clusters -- one east of the raspberries, one on top of the hill west of that tree.

Tasted a few but didn't do an actual harvest yet.  Planning to try grape jelly and maybe also red wine vinegar substitute!

Bush beans sowed July 23rd/30th now starting to have harvestable beans (fresh not dried)

That's 8.5-9 weeks to harvest.

Allotment: Bush bean's second harvest (from first set of plants) happening now

Very cool!  I had read that bush beans will often produce a second, smaller flowering/harvest after the first, so it's good to leave the plants in place.  Indeed, the second flowering happening a while ago, and the harvest from that is now underway!

Some carrot tops had the carrot weevil, but not many

At least I assume it's the carrot weevil which I had confirmed last year.  The tops of the affected carrots are damaged, but the rest of the carrot is fine.

Otherwise carrot harvesting is going well -- lots are a nice good size.

Wild apple harvest! BH on Nkpi!

I've gotten a few of the neighbourhood apples, which are nice and big and great -- but I found two ginormous apple trees up on Nkpi!

One tree is along the road -- its apples were mostly green.

The other is on the north edge of the school's park -- its apples were redder and stripey.

All of the apples were awesome!!  Not sour at all.  And even though the skins looked questionable, the insides were fabulous!

Delicious apple sauce!

Slugs a'plenty still, after a summer of rehoming them!

I'm out there almost every evening with the cell phone flashlight, dropping dozens into the slug bucket to rehome them outside of the yard, and yet every next night there are still tons more -- big ones no less!  Quite amazing.

Typically find them mostly in the beans and potatoes.  Oh and under tulled chard and kale, from which I haven't been removing them because of the tulle.

Zucchinis still alive, but fruits aren't taking -- maybe not getting pollinated?

Ever since uncovering them a few weeks / a month ago I stopped patrolling and hand-pollinating, but wow in the recent couple of weeks only one or maybe two have taken, the others don't seem to have been pollinated?  So I'll keep an eye open and try hand-pollinating where I can, to assist.

Starting to harvest Scarlet Runner beans (dried)

Two pods look maybe-ready, so I harvested one today.  It was brown, felt like paper and was harder to open than KWW, definitely a different feel overall.  But the beans inside seemed pretty dry.  And pretty, ooooh!  I'll leave the other for a while to see if it gets cracky like the KWWs.

No other Scarlets look ready yet -- all are green.

Mystery bird visited yard!

Sparrow-size, mute brown.  Wren maybe?  No idea.  Made a chattering sound, I thought it was a squirrel at first.  Looked with dismay at the millet-filled feeder, then went into the pole bean "bush".

Starting to harvest dried Kentucky Wonder Wax pole beans

And hmmm, after shelling them, it's not looking like a lot of beans!  Will wait to weigh them until all have been harvested.

Setting these out on a kitchen towel to fully dry off.

The scarlet runner beans don't seem anywhere near dried yet.

Bush beans sowed July 23rd/30th now have baby beans (in-ground as well as containers)

Fun!  I imagine these will all get harvested as green (yellow) beans since unlikely to be enough time to dry out.

Goldfinches eating seeds from backyard wild evening primrose!

Yay!

Hollyhocks looked awful, so removed them, will use stems for next year's mulch

They were full of rust and mostly done flowering, and looked awful, so for neighbourhood concerns removed them.  Removed the seed pods and kept the stalks/stems to use for next year's mulch.

Cucumbers almost all dead -- died quickly over the past week

The leaves crisped up, looks like some kind of disease (no wilt, just speckled and dried up / crispy).  It was a good harvest though, no complaints.  A few last cukes are on the vine, then that will be it.

Allotment: Onion bulbs a flop

Yep, the onion sets I planted at the allotment hardly did anything.  Some swelled a bit, maybe doubled or tripled in size, but a long way to from being an actual onion.  Not sure if maybe the site doesn't get enough sun, or if it was some other issue.  Anyway, I'll be able to use these, but probably won't try again next year.

Allotment: Bush beans are starting second flowering

Neat!  It's my first year trying bush beans and I had heard that they often give a second flush.

Lots of blackberries at berry alley; a few last thimbleberries

Lots now, and looks like the harvest will be going on for a few more weeks, though this will probably be my one and only visit this year.

Wild plum tree has zero plums or any sign of plum!!!

Wow, I wonder why!  Last year, when I first found the tree at MF, it was so loaded, so many plums on the ground all over.  This year, absolutely zero sign of anything (flowers or plums, either on the tree or on the ground).  The tree looks puny and the leaves are full of holes.

Maybe just a bad year?  We'll see what next year brings.

All zukes now untulled

^^^

Gradually removing tulles from zukes

As of today, removed the tulle from the two central bed zukes.  I had previously removed the tulle from the one remaining potted zuke.

Just because it's the end of the season soon, so que sera sera with the borer.

Buckwheat sowed in front of fence (removed bleeding heart)

Just scattered the seed on top, gently "raked" it a bit with my fingers and that's it.  Didn't water it, will let that happen when it happens.

Raccoons!!!! x3!!!

I just happened to be up late tonight, and noticed Jasper showing interest at the patio screen door in the kitchen.  I peered out and saw some eyes on the fence.  My first thought was skunk.  But then I realized no -- it was a raccoon!  And another raccoon!  And another raccoon!  3 raccoons!  They look a little small, juveniles perhaps?

Being concerned about the garden is one thing, but far more important is my dogs, including my little 15 pound guy.  No way can I risk a run-in the next time he has to do his business in the middle of the night.

So I went out in the yard to try to scare them away with my voice and motion.  They looked at me from the top of the fence but didn't seem scared at all, though I think there was some hissing.

Fine then -- I went to dig out a water gun.  But then I was like, wait a minute -- I have a much better water gun in the yard...  So yes, I gave them a good spraying with the hose.  They quickly descended the other side of the fence.  A few minutes after, I went out the front door to see if I could hopefully spot them going somewhere else.  Alas, they were still in the bush by the fence and I must have scared them because they then climbed up the fence again.

Jasper got out into the yard and peered at them from the other side of the fence but oddly wasn't as excited as I thought he would be -- he wasn't barking or anything, though he was definitely interested.  I tried to call him back in with "cookie", and he kept coming towards me and then going back to the raccoons.  Finally "supper" worked to get him inside.  But in the meantime, the raccoons didn't seem all that scared of him.

Another spraying and they left again.

I do wonder whether or not this was their first visit to my yard?  If they've been here before I never saw any signs -- no damage at all that I could see.  So, I'm doubtful that they've been here before.  Hopefully the hose + Jasper have worked to convince them not to return.... but we shall see. 

Allotment: Squirrels eating ground cherries!! So I'll pick them a bit unripe

Someone, squirrels likely, is eating the ground cherries at the allotment!  Sigh!  So, today I picked a few that hadn't fallen yet, and will let them finish ripening at home.  Will try to do that for the rest.

The zuke that was un-tulled all season still looks great -- no sign of SVB yet

I mean, I'm positive there must be eggs (haven't been checking for them), and so there must be baby borers happening... but so far so good, and it's looking amazing after a slow start -- so big and bushy and producing nicely.

Un-tulled the other potted zucchini bec it's also not looking great

Not sure what's wrong with this one -- though several of the in-ground zukes are equally sad -- I am definitely thinking because I didn't do a mid-season amendment soon enough (did it only a few days ago after seeing all these sad zuke plants).

So, figured I'd just take off the tulle and que sera, sera.

Allotment: Onions are officially a flop -- hardly grew much despite tops dead

Alas, my 100% failure record at growing an actual onion remains.  Figured it was worth a try at the allotment as I think it gets more sun than my yard.  But the onion sets hardly doubled in size, despite the tops being mostly all gone now.  So, plucked some of them, left a few more for now.

Woolly bear caterpillars in the removed zucchini

Found two cute caterpillars which I think are woolly bears, fell out of the zucchini when I ripped it up.  Left them be.

Oh no! Zucchini plant due to broken stem -- no evidence of SVB

The potted zucchini in the big terra-cotta-coloured container by the a/c, which had been doing really well and producing nicely, slowed down in recent days (as have all the other zukes -- I'm guessing it's generally because I have't done a mid-season amendment) -- and a few days ago I noticed it was all floppy.  At first I was sure it would be due to a SVB making it in under the tulle because I hadn't secured it all that well -- there were definitely gaps.  But -- in looking at the plant more closely, suddenly the main growing part broke right off.  I dissected it and didn't see any trace of SVB.  I think the stem broke either from me / people damaging it, or potentially from the weight of hanging down from the container.

So, removed the whole plant and will use it for the leftover bush beans -- 4 left over still in the little seedling pots from several weeks ago.

Amended the zukes with kelp, mrp, and azomite

Alright alright.  My zucchinis are so pathetic these days that I declare my experiment over and decide that yes I really do need to do a mid-season amendment to keep the zucchini plants happy.  So, today I amended almost all (other than the one dying one) with 2 Tbsps kelp meal, 1 Tbsp mrp, and 1 Tbsp azomite.  Sprinkled it on top of the soil at the root, will let rain/animals bring it down to the roots hopefully.

Bush beans sowed June 8th are coming ready for harvest

The bush beans planted in the northwest corner of the central bed (where the barese was), sowed June 8th, now have some harvestable beans.  (I haven't harvested any of them yet though.)

So, that's about 60 days.

Powdery mildew started a week or two ago; and, zuke production has slowed

So far only on the tulled zukes, not the one untulled zuke yet.

I wonder if the slow-down in zucchini production is related to the mildew, or if it's because I'm not doing a mid-season amendment.

Dill seeds harvested -- but have aphids

First of many dill seed harvests happened today.  Tons of seeds from just a few umbels (is that the right word?)!  The first set had tons of green aphids in them though, so rather than keeping them I scattered them where the amaranth is, hoping they won't germinate until next spring?  But whatevs.

The second set which I didn't notice until dark had at least two aphids in it, but light was low so I put them in a tupperware, for a closer inspection tomorrow before deciding whether to store or scatter.

Little green caterpillar found ON the kale tulle cover (central bed)

Interesting!  Found a little green caterpillar which I would assume is the cabbage butterfly's doing, on TOP of the double-layer of tulle over the kale in the central bed.  Relocated him/her.

Did a harvest of kale after that and didn't notice any worms inside the tulle..... fingers crossed...  Though I had been a little delinquent in harvesting enough to keep them completely from touching the tulle -- but not badly...

Transplanted bush beans -- how will they fare?

Transplanted into the garden (in-ground and in pots) most of the bush beans that I started in potting mix on July 30th.

This involved also splitting them up from their cell-mates.

So, I'll be curious to see if they do ok, since I think I read that beans don't like to be transplanted.  But, worth an experiment, especially given the issues I have with getting them to germinate in-ground.

Some of the beans went into two of my nice-sized black pots from which I harvested the first two sets of potatoes.  I amended before transplanting with alfalfa, mrp, azomite, and kelp meal.  The north pot has the white bush beans and the south pot has the other bush beans.

The others went into the gaps in the central bed's SW corner.

First two pots of potatoes harvested! Decent yield, much better than last year

Wow!  Much better yield than last year!

Pot 1 (the first one to die off, had blight):  Nice-sized black pot. Had 3 x grocery store white potatoes.  Yield = 2 pounds.

Pot 2 (the second one to die off, had blight:  Nice-sized black pot. Had 3 x grocery store white potatoes.  Yield = 2 pounds, 9 ounces.

Way better than last year, when the same pots were giving like 0.5 to 0.75 pounds per pot.

Some of the potatoes in the bottom third of pot 1 were all mushy / not much left of them -- I tossed those obviously.  I think it may have been from poor drainage.  Pot 2 didn't seem to have that though.

Quite a few more potato plants still to be harvested from other pots and the ground (and the allotment)...

House sparrows eating Japanese beetles I think! (STILL NEAR-ZERO BEETLE ISSUES THIS YEAR)

While there's an occasional Japanese beetle feasting on bean leaves, it's extremely minimal, to the point that all I do is move them over to the wild evening primrose.  I've been noticing the sparrows (house mostly I think) hanging around in the various vegetation.  Well, today I saw a house sparrow chasing a flying big beetle of some sort -- maybe a Japanese Beetle?  Google says it wouldn't be odd.  Very cool if the sparrows are helping out!

Cucumber beetles continue to be a complete non-issue, haven't seen any other than that one several weeks ago.

Stopped harvesting dill, letting it all flower / go to seed

^^^

Not going to do mid-year fertilization this year, to see what happens

Usually I do a mid-year application of alfalfa, mrp, etc. but this year, well, I'm lazy and want to see what happens if I don't.  I figure between all the leaves I added last year and all the good stuff ongoing (grass, etc.), maybe it will be ok.

Spotty appearance of the July 23rd bush beans!!! Started more INSIDE

What the heck, I have the worst success rate with getting beans started!!  ~30% of the July 23rd bush bean sowings have popped up.  What happened to the rest of them?  Your guess is as good as mine.  They were covered with a layer of tulle for protection...

So, today started yet more bush beans (both kinds: brown-speckled and white) -- however, these I started INSIDE in the 9-trays, in pure ProMix (didn't bother doing my home-made mix for this small amount).  Soaked them in water for just a few hours before putting into the ProMix.

Allotment: Big bush bean harvest!

The yellow-bean kind looks very appetizing!

The green-bean kind doesn't!

And the results....... drum roll...

The yellow-bean kind are pretty delicious!

The green-bean kind is okay too but more bean-y.

Potato blight update: Progressing slowly but surely, but slower than last year

At least I'm pretty sure it's a slower progression than last year.  It just seems like by this time last year a lot of the leaves had fallen off.  Granted, this year a new thing is wrong too, which is the curled leaves on a lot of them.

Bush beans and buckwheat sowed where broccoli used to be

The bush beans:  The SW corner is mostly the white bush beans; east of those are the brown-speckled bush beans.  And the top-most line along the section is all the brown-speckled beans.

Buckwheat is just scattered on the top of the soil along the north part of this patch.

Hummingbird eating from wild evening primrose flowers!!

Happened to look out the window at the right time and saw a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower among the wild evening primrose!  Very cool, didn't know they like that.  The yard also has zinnias (which I've seen them eat from in past years) and scarlet runner bean flowers currently, so hopefully lots to attract them back.

Pulled the remaining broccoli -- wasn't doing much

Decided it was time to pull it out.  Did a final harvest of decent leaves and a few flowers.

My hypothesis is that making sure the plant doesn't touch the tulle, by harvesting leaves as well as flowers, worked to prevent cabbage butterfly worms, but the loss of the big leaves had a harmful effect.  As I remember the plants being so much more productive last year, when I allowed them to push up into the tulle by not harvesting any leaves.

So, I'm not sure I'd really do anything differently in future, short of maybe trying to find a way to have a higher / wider tulle enclosure so that I wouldn't have to remove so many big leaves.

Beans: First harvest! -- Kentucky Wonder Wax (pole) and one or two of the bush types

Includes first bean harvest from the allotment (bush).

All were tasty steamed with margarine and salt, though not as delicious as I remember from last year.  Still very enjoyable though.

Tomatoes not looking great -- blighty and stunted

First I noticed one of the Mortgage Lifters looked very determinate.  Ok fine.  But now, many of them look determinate or just have failed to thrive.  Jasper looks good though.

I'm wondering if the Mortgage Lifters may have been mislabelled perhaps.

Oh, and looks like blight is arriving too.

Oh no!! 3 female zukes and nary a male in sight!! Pulled them.

^^^

Bush beans actually runners!?!?

One of the "bush" bean varieties seems to be quite viney!!  Will see how long/tall they grow...

Scarlet runner bean flowers not resulting in beans :-(

A good amount of flowers, but so far not a single bean appearing!  Google says could be any number of causes... too dry, too wet, not enough insects... Oh well, we'll see what happens.

The white beans on the other hand do seem to be appearing.

First cucumber harvest! x2

First two cucumbers (Eureka) harvested!  There have been tons of male and female flowers, but I haven't tried hand-pollinating and apparently the critters haven't been doing much of it either.  But anyway one or two a week is plenty for me.

First SVB seen (but I'm sure they've been around before)

Saw two at once today, from a distance, so didn't notice if they laid any eggs...  Given last year's success with the tulle, I'm not too worried... (fingers crossed).

However, if the potted one next to the central bed gets taken down, it will be no surprise, as multiple times the too-small piece of tulle has had gaps.

I think the tulle buffer is working -- have seen multiple cabbage moths, none landed/laid

Fingers crossed, but so far it seems to be good in terms of success by making sure the target plants aren't touching the tulle.  The moths flutter and flutter, and circle and circle, but haven't been landing (at least, from what I've seen).

I do think that one oddball caterpillar a few weeks ago must have been one who spent the winter there somehow.

 

Planted 2 potatoes where removed 2 low-producing broccolis

The two broccoli in the northwest corner continue to not do much -- has been a piddly harvest from those two.  So, today I chopped them down (left roots intact), and planted the last two "Chieftain" seed potatoes from Ritchie's.

Runner beans flowering

So far mostly the scarlet ones that are flowering.  Pretty!

Ok seriously -- where are all the cucumber beetles and japanese beetles!?!

I only ever saw the one cucumber beetle (relocated) -- nothing since!

Have seen one japanese beetle and a couple that looked like that but not quite.  

They should be going crazy by now...  

(I haven't kaolined anything at all this year.)

Even flea beetles were a non-issue this year.

Not that I'm complaining though!

First cherry tomato harvest of season (Jasper)

2 cute lil' tomatoes!

FOY Japanese Beetle (on lemon balm patch)

^^^

Potato blight gradually spreading -- I haven't been fighting it

Que sera, sera... The plants overall still look good but I know it's just a matter of time.

Both container zukes having an "ouf" moment after harvesting

Hmmm, both of the container zukes are looking pretty exhausted after I harvested one or two from each of them.  One of them is starting to look promising again; hopefully the other will soon too.

In-ground ones have done this too in the past, so not necessarily due to being in containers...?

Used up the last carrots from last year's harvest -- as good as new!

Used them in carrot-dill soup.  Had the whole soup in one sitting.  Oops!  But so good.

The carrots were in fantastic shape.  A little bit of leaves growing but hardly any.  The carrots had been in the fridge in a twist-tied bag, mostly in the lower right drawer but then for the last month or two in the unlidded green cripser bin thing on the lower shelf.

Basil started rotting in the fridge after only a day or two!?!?

So weird.  A couple of days ago I harvested some basil; didn't wash it, just put it into a plastic container in the fridge.  Then today when I went to use it, several leaves had turned black / rot-y.  Most of it was fine, so I tossed the bad ones (and won't return them to the yard).  Not sure why this happened -- the plants in the garden look fine.

Pea harvest in full swing

And they are nice and sweet after all (despite my earlier post).

Slug bucket to the rescue

Wow, so many slugs these last few days, especially now with some much needed rain after such a dry spring and early summer.  Relocating them to the plants in front of the fence.

Garden plants they've been enjoying:

- beans

- dill

- kale

- broccoli

- stevia (in-ground only)

- basil

First cucumber beetle of the year! Seen on cukes (haven't tulled or kaolined them)

Wasn't able to catch him/her.  I'm sure it won't be long before I see their friends!

First-ever CONTAINER ZUCCHINI harvested! And more on the way!

Woo!  So exciting!  If the container thing is really successful this year, I could see converting more zukes to containers in future years -- it's just more space-efficient and flexible.

Daikon radishes were a full flop -- all went to seed (too hot -- I should have planted them sooner)

Pulled them all, though in retrospect should have left some go to seed for the flowers and to see what the pods are like.

First zucchini harvested! A ronde.

And so it begins!

Cabbage moth fluttered around but I didn't see her land on any of the tulled host plants

... though I didn't see her full visit.  But still, what I did see she showed no interested in the tulled plants -- I've been harvesting leaves etc. to ensure the host plants aren't touching the tulle.

First peas and carrot harvested -- not the best-tasting

The peas weren't very sweet -- pretty bland actually...

The carrot was a test pull -- a decent size (but will let the others keep growing for a while yet) -- but again not sweet -- edible for sure, but not the best.

Allotment: Sowed carrots (all "Tendersweet")

Not pre-soaked, not geled etc.  (I accidentally let the soaking ones dry out on the counter.)

Straight out of the package, not covered other than by a bit of soil.  Forecast shows good chance of showers several days this week.

Leafy green harvesting galore: kale, chard, broccoli leaves

(The broccoli leaves are from pruning to avoid them touching the tulle, to hopefully avoid cabbage moth egg-laying.)

Alternating with a salad one day, and sauteed the next.  And OMG adding nutritional yeast to the sauteed version takes it to major NEXT LEVEL.

Allotment: Sowed yet more beans (last round's June 7th white beans had piddly germination)

Wow, from the sowing on June 7th, the white bush beans had only 1 appear, whereas the speckled brown beans had a bunch appear.  So, today sowed non-pre-soaked beans, of only the speckled variety.

Stevia harvest a-plenty; grow it only in containers in future bec avoids slug damage; wee green insects

The stevias in containers not only look overall happier than the in-ground ones, they're also free from slug damage which the in-ground ones are suffering from a little bit.

Also, there are itty bitty green insects on some of the leaves.  I'm not worried about the plants, but of course don't want to eat them, so am inspecting the leaves closely when harvesting.

Allotment: [UPDATE: NO, DIDN'T DO THIS] Will use corn starch gel method to start some carrots since peppers not doing much

UPDATE:  NO, DIDN'T DO THIS, because they dried out on the counter when I forgot to rinse them!

~~~

First germinate seeds using typical jar sprouting method (soak overnight, then drain; then rinse/drain several times per day until germination.

2 Tbsps corn starch to every 1 cup water; stir until it comes to a boil; it was clear up; remove from heat; cool; once cool, add the seeds.  Place gel mix in large bag, cut corner, and sow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZo4GpjswhU

So, today started with the jar.

Bush bean bust: Almost none of the June 8th sowings appeared! Sowed more.

So weird!  These were the bush beans I sowed in the central bed's NW corner, under the tulle with the kale.  One wimpy one appeared and is being eaten by insects; then when I dug around a little today I found a second one that has sprouted and will hopefully come up soon.

So, today I sowed replacement beans there.  (Speckled brown in the north half, white in the south half.)  Didn't pre-soak these at all.

Daikon radishes are bolting; Avignon radishes finished up harvesting more or less

The Avignon were a decent harvest, and were very mild so I was able to have them in salads and even ate one on its own.  I'd grow them again.

The Daikon are almost all bolting.  Pulled one of them and the root was spindly.  The others I've left in place, but pinched the flowering bit to see what happens.  One of the daikon hasn't bolted yet, so maybe that one will produce.

Sowed 1 replacement zucchini (Golden Glory)

In the central bed, to eventually replace the ronde that's yellow and runty.

First female zucchini flower opened!!!

Have been tons of males, and this morning the first female opened!!  I planted 3 rondes, 2 of which are looking awful (yellowy/runty) -- this female is from the 1 ronde that's doing well.

Quite sure tomorrow morning one of the potted Golden Glories will have an open female!

Oh no! Potato leaves are starting to turn yellow -- is it early blight like last year?

Noticed just a few leaves so far.............. definitely reminds me of how they looked last year, sigh.  But, even last year wasn't a total bust, so, hopefully there will still be a good harvest.

I'll remove the yellow leaves until they start being the whole plants...

Pulled one pepper, replaced it with potato

One of the 6-pack of peppers is doing zero growth even though I topped it, so out it came today.  Put a "Chieftain" potato in its place.  (South edge of west bed.)

The other peppers aren't looking great either but at least seem to be doing something.

Celery: In-ground is harvestable! Potted is behind but getting there. Some potted yellowing, so added alfalfa.

^^^

Basil looking a little sad -- transplant shock? Cool weather?

Nothing too drastic, just looking a bit yellow and not thriving.  They spent a long time in the pots.  Hopefully they'll rebound.

Peas and tomatoes appearing!

^^^

Allotment: Planted 2 replacement potatoes ("Chieftain") and 1 more bush bean (speckled)

Two of the potatoes had completely rotted, so put two more -- this time "Chieftain", whereas all the others so far have been "Superior".

Bébé slugs galore -- in kale, beans. No big deal, relocating by hand

A bunch of babies, and one big momma.

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!!!! BIG GREEN CATERPILLAR ON THE NORTH KALE (IN BROC BED)!!!!

S/he must surely be the cabbage moth caterpillar!

HOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW?!?!?!?!?!?

I tulled the bed on April 28th, and added a second layer of tulle on May 22nd, and none of the kale/broc in this bed were anywhere near touching the tulle.  

Could it be that maybe...

- I tulled too late?  Moth came along while hardening off?

- This one emerged from the soil this year from last year's life cycle type of thing???

- An egg was laid on top of the tulle, and fell down onto the plant???

OMG

Now I'm going to have a realllllly close look at all my kales/brocs............  

DO I TEAR THEM ALL OUT AND PUT POTATOES!?!?!?!

TBD...

Basil transplanted; nights hovering around 11 to 13, so will cover basil when sub-12

I just felt like it was time to get them out of the little pots and into the ground.

Stevia: Putting away the commercial stuff; will see how long backyard supply will last

The stevia I pruned/harvested ~3 to 4 weeks ago is totally dry now, so ground it up.

Bye-bye barese (all were bolting and bitter); replaced with bush beans

Won't grow barese chard again.  Oh well, it was worth a try.

The bush beans I put in their place:  The northmost ones are the speckled brown beans; the ones in the south section are the white beans. 

Pruned dill -- the plants are looking great

The legginess from inside seems to have sorted itself out.  They're all looking great.

Flea beetles a non-issue so far for the tomatoes -- TBD for the newly transplanted ground cherries

The flea beetles are there, I've seen some, but not seeing much damage on the tomato plants.

I suspect the ground cherries may take a harder hit, being so small (much younger) -- I haven't brought out the kaolin yet, will see how it goes.

Sowed grass in front of front-of-house bed; this time will keep it watered

^^^

Who's eating the beans!? & Kentucky Wonder Wax round ?? sowed

Hmmm, while some of the pole beans are looking healthy and undisturbed, several have been nibbled and even beheaded all together.  Could it be birds?  Not seeing any squirrels around.

So, today sowed some Kentucky Wonder Wax to fill in some gaps.  Pre-soaked for a day.

Transplanted ground cherry x3

These are the late starts from when I learned I'd get an allotment.  So, they're itty bitty still, but in they go.

Allotment: Potatoes appearing! Hallelujah! And transplanted 2 ground cherries

The ground cherries are itty bitty, just a few true leaves, but will get them settled in so they can give it a go.

Allotment: Batch 2 of round 2 bush beans sowed (after pre-soaking for a day)

^^^

More barese chards are flowering -- won't grow this variety again; dwarf kale looking great though.

Barese chard:  Oh well, it was good as an experiment.  I'll likely pull these soon and replace with bush beans.  In future years I'll just stick with good ol' fordhook, which as usual is doing just dandy.

Vates Blue Curled kale:  Looking good!  Nice dwarf size so far but good harvestable size and no sign of flowering or whatnot.

Success with going away for a few days by bottom-wondering the basil under lights

It worked!  I put the basil that I haven't yet transplanted due to cool nights, in the black litter box bin under the lights (after pruning), with about 0.5" water at the bottom of the bin.  Got back 2.5 days later and the water had all been absorbed and the soil was damp.  So, should have been fine for another day or two.

Volunteer buckwheat started flowering a few days ago

^^^

Broccoli harvest! First real one of the year

Not a ton, and mostly from the 4 in the central bed, but a nice amount for having with hummus.

Avignon radish harvest started

First two harvested today.  (Only planted one square.)  Had with hummus -- glad to see these are nice and mild, no detectable spice.

Allotment: Topped the west 3 peppers; left the east 1 pepper

As an experiment, to see if any big difference.

Going down to +7 tonight (covering peppers only); this week will be +10 to +11 at night, so not transplanting basil yet

Put pots over the yard peppers (not the allotment peppers) but not doing anything else.

Freezer still has a lot of last year's harvest! Will it get wasted?

Re-organized the freezers to be ready for this year's stuff.  My, there is quite a bit of last year's harvest left still!  Several jars of pesto and bolognese, and a few of various other dishes.  Not to mention the two big bags of whole tomatoes that will surely end up in the compost.

Not sure how it will go especially with this year's harvest starting with greens, lots of salads to be had.

Sowed pole beans round 2 to fill in gaps -- only Scarlet

Spotty germination continues for the pole beans.  So I presoaked some round 2 beans consisting all of Scarlet (because out of the wonder wax) for a few hours, then poked them in.  Not covering with plastic or anything this time.

Great greens harvest: Chard (fordhook and barese), kale, lettuce

 ^^^

Some barese chard are bolting! Similar to when I used to try bok choy

^^^

Great basil harvest -- and won't transplant until end of next week due to nights +8 to +11

I have several jars of pesto still left from last year!  So about to lap last year's harvest!

Will keep bringing them in at night when it gets below 13.

Topped (/pruned) some of the peppers

Haven't topped any of the allotment ones yet (will do that soon), but topped several of the ones in the yard -- specifically most (all?) of the sweet banana peppers, and the jalapeno.  Haven't topped the hot banana pepper yet and probably won't given it's producing already (expecting a first harvest within a week or so) and I can't tell where to do the cut on this one.

Allotment: Transplanted one basil

Just to see how it does.  On the south side, next to the stevia.  Cold nights coming up with Sat night +8 then the next several nights +10 to +11, so we'll see how it does.

Allotment: Sowed round 2 part a bush beans

2 squares today:  1 square each of the two bush bean types (bigger brown beans on north side, smaller white beans on south side).  I didn't pre-soak these, and obviously not covering with plastic.

In a day or two will do part two, which will be pre-soaked, to see if any difference.

Beans appearing, so removed plastic

Several of the (backyard pole) beans have appeared from under the plastic, so I removed it.  Spotty so far, so hopefully a bunch more will appear soon.  (I didn't dig around to see.)

Compared to the allotment's bush beans that appear to have totally roasted under the plastic.  I imagine because the allotment gets a lot more sun than my yard.

Allotment beans a total flop! Roasted under plastic?

Alas, when I removed the plastic from the allotment beans today and saw nothing, I started digging around to see if anything was about to pop out of the ground.  Well, the answer was a definite NO!  In fact, I could hardly even find any of the beans -- the ones I did find were rotting or hadn't done a thing.  I did find two that looked like they were doing something, so I put them in the NW corner of the bean section.

So, I'll need to re-start the allotment beans, will do that in a few days.

Broccolis appearing!!

The central bed broccolis are looking really nice and healthy with a relatively nice but still small main head.  The north bed ones look bolt-y.  (All are piracicaba.)  We shall see...

... We shall also see how in heck I'll manage to keep the leaves etc. from touching the tulle...  but so far so good.

Cukes, zukes, and zinnias transplanted -- including 2 zukes in pots

For the cukes (all Eureka, 6 of them, consisting of 4 from round 1 and 2 from round 2 for staggering the harvest),  and zukes (7 in ground (3 8 Ball and 6 Golden Glory) and 2 in big pots*), amended with lots of mrp, semi-lots of azomite, and some kelp.  Oh and for a few of the zukes I did add some alfalfa but not a lot.  Also put some of the freezer rabbit poop in with most of the zukes, but not the pair... oh which pair.... I think not the SW-most pair.  Or was it not the pair in the central bed.... Ah well.

Didn't amend the zinnias with anything.

* 2 of the zukes (both Golden Glory) are in big pots.  The soil in these consisted of a mix of garden bed soil and a mix of my potting mix (peat, ProMix, lime, kelp, mrp, azomite, and a small amount of alfalfa).  I've never had success with potted zucchinis before -- the plants have always been wimpy and never produced anything -- so I'm curious for this year, now that I have bigger pots and lots of mrp and azomite in there.

Mulched most of the things with the last of last fall's basement mulched leaves.

Undecided which of the zukes I won't tulle.  For sure I'll tulle at least 6 of the 7 in ground.  I may also try tulling the potted ones and the hydro bed one while they're relatively small at least.

Beans soaked yesterday, then sowed today -- pole and bush

...

Mulch: Wins from last year! Overwintered chopped leaves in basement garbage bag; overwintered hollyhock and zinnia

The garbage bag of chopped leaves that I put in the basement last fall to use this spring is great!!  Looks like it has started to mold (but no bad smell)!  Used half of it to mulch various things; saving the rest to mulch the other things that will be transplanted soon.

And, the hollyhock stems and zinnias that I had overwintered in the yard for the birds -- were mostly a fail birdwise (saw birds eating their seeds only a couple of times) -- but are coming in very handy as a woody mulch for established plants.

I'm also using cut grass from the yard, letting it dry out before applying it as a mulch.

Big planting day!! Only remaining are the zukes, cukes, zinnias, and basil

The 14 day weather forecast looks good, with nights no colder than 10 (fingers crossed) and days in the 20s.  So, planted a bunch of stuff that was finished hardening:  tomatoes (several Mortgage Lifter (which were my best-looking seedlings, nice and sturdy), Big Tofu Plus (leggy seedlings), and one Jasper (leggy seedling)), stevia (in-ground and in pots), store-bought peppers (jalapeno in a pot; hot banana pepper in-ground; and several sweet banana peppers in-ground and in pots) callaloo, and coreopsis.

And, sowed pre-soaked pole bean seeds:  Scarlet Emperor (beautiful big beans) northmost (south of the peas); Kentucky Wonder Wax (brown seeds) southmost.  Covered with clear plastic after watering.

Now I have to finish hardening the zukes and cukes; and wait for more zinnias to flower so I know which colours they are; and I need to start hardening the basil, no rush there since nights are still too cool for them.

Allotment: Planted most things!

Here's what I did/planted today at the allotment, roughly from the north end to the south:

- 5 zinnias (tall) along the north end)

- 4 peppers (yellow sweet banana, from Ritchie's)

- 4 squares of bush beans with 9 per square (Taylor Horticultural in the north two squares (brown spotted beans), Carson in the south two squares (white beans)) -- pre-soaked seeds, and placed clear plastic on top after watering, to keep in water while germinating and hopefully keep out squirrels

- 2.5ish squares of yellow onion (sets, from Ritchie's)

- 16ish potatoes (Superior, from Ritchie's), nicely spaced out so I'm excited to see what kind of harvest might result.

- 1 stevia in SW corner (my seedling)

Amended with kelp, mrp, and azomite (won't use alfalfa here).

Still have 4 squares remaining.  Planning to put a ground cherry, though my veryyyy late-start seedlings are itty bitty, still at home under the lights to get a good start.

Grass in backyard sprouting (was sowed May 16th)

Wow, seems like overnight it sprung up from nothing to a couple of cms!

Up-potted tomatoes bec were looking sickly in small pots

Yikes, I really should have uppotted them sooner, but was lazy and hoped they could hold off... Then the forecast showed some really cool nights in early June so I thought I may need to delay transplanting until then -- though now the forecast is changed back to ok, so I'll likely go ahead and transplant everything this weekend.  But anyway transplanted, with a boost of kelp, azomite, and mrp (and scant alfafa).

Tulled the potted green onions

Not sure if it's too late, but today decided to tulle the one pot of green onions.  Used the red plastic support and clipped tulle around it.

Added second layer of tulle to both broccoli beds and the dwarf kale-chard bed

I just couldn't bear the thought of using floating row cover as a second layer and not being able to peer inside without pulling it aside...  So I'll use this as a trial year, to see if my dual strategy of never letting the brassica plants touch the tulle, plus using a double layer of tulle, might work.

Fingers crossed!

Moved potted potatoes into sun instead of full shade along fence

I figured why give all that prime sun to grass, when those poor potted potatoes were sitting in full shade.  A handy way of expanding the prime sunny area without doing any digging.

Last of last year's beets eaten (great shape); carrots still in fridge

The beets lasted super well in the fridge.  Had the last two today.

There's still a big bag of carrots in the fridge.  They've been slowly starting to sprout, so I'll need to eat them soon.

Started hardening the zukes, cukes, and begonia

Today was cloudy with showers, so I left them out for the whole daytime in the shade.

After these, the only thing left to harden will be the basil but I'll wait a smidge longer for that.

Begonia is back!

Looking good!  It woke up a while ago, and is a nice size now.

-2 last night and everything is fine without covering -- even the volunteer buckwheat

.

White cabbage moth seen!!

FOY.  I havenèt yet added a second layer é row cover to buffer the tulle, but the plants are still small so good margin, so hopefully the mothès visit was fruitless... 

Plot: Bought yellow onion bulbs, Superior potatoes, pepper seedlings, and bush bean seeds

 ...

Sowed bulbs: Multiplier onions and yellow onions

Picked up some onion bulbs from Ritchies, mostly for the plot, but figured would try some here too.  For here was two giant multiplier onion bulbs, and a few small yellow onion bulbs.

Sprinkled some mrp and azomite in with the onions.

Tulled beets

Used the tall garden fencing as the supports.

Sowed grass

In the bare and topped-up spots.  Used leftover grass seed from past years.

Started ground cherries in PT

For the CG!  Kind of a late start, but will give it a try.

Community garden plot!

Oooo!  Didnt think Ièd get a spot this year, but surprise surprise, one opened up!  So I took it.  Itès a small bed, 8x3 or 8x4, and squirrels will be an issue, but Ièm excited to give it a try!

Hardening off tomatoes (many are very leggy, too tall for lights) and stevias

Weather forecast is very nice -- warm daytimes, lots of sun.  So, today started hardening the tomatoes and stevias.

Whatever imbalance in my homemade potting mix that affected the dill (leggy with poor roots) seems to be affecting several of the tomatoes too.  Not sure what their roots look like yet, but several are so leggy.  I'm assuming too much nitrogen, not enough of the other stuff.

The leggy tomatoes have outgrown the space under the lights, so I'm grateful for the warm weather to start getting them outside.

Dill direct sowed

Just in case the wimpy indoor-started dills don't pan out, direct-seeded some dill of the new seed pack ("Bouquet") in the north bed, along the north edge of the carrots.  Amended with mrp, az, and kelp (no alfalfa).

Carrots (Tendersweet) sowed in northwest corner of north bed

To use up the south edge of the broccoli tulle area.  For these I simply loosed the soil, amended with kelp/az/mrp (no alfalfa), sprinkled seeds randomly -- and did NOT cover with any soil.  I figured watering them in will probably bury them enough.

Potatoes (3 kinds) planted

Three kinds this year.  The cuts I did a few days ago have definitely all sealed over.  In all cases I amended with a sprinkling of mrp, azomite, and kelp (no alfalfa).

- Banana fingerlings:  Exclusively the harvest from last year that sprouted in the fridge this winter.  Locations:  Main patch is north of the a/c; some runts in a clump in NE corner of north bed.  Also poked a few along the north edge of the north bed within the grass, just for fun -- these ones I didn't amend at all..

- Superior (bought from Ritchie's a few weeks ago):  Three pots against the fence (two pots with three each, one pot with one), and a row in the middle of the central bed between the broccoli and kale/chard.

- Grocery store white (from grocery potatoes that sprouted in the fridge recently):  Three pots against the fence (two pots with three each, one pot with one), and a row in the middle of the central bed between the broccoli and kale/chard.

Basils looking great so far! Drought conditions seem to be working. First pruning.

I've been diligently avoiding over-watering the basils in the hopes of avoiding the issues I had with basil the last two years.  I water them probably less than half as often as the other plants.  And so far, so good.  

Did the first pruning of the most advanced plants.

Killed almost all short yellow zinnias due to not watering enough!!!

OOPS

Lesson learned:  Don't put other plants on the same shelf as the drought-loving basils, unless those other plants are in front and not tucked behind out of sight.

There's only one short zinnia that's alive, and it looks very puny with not much root system, but we shall see.

Up-potted stevias and other small-potted plants

^^^

Chitting worked great -- really got the eyes growing for the big kinds of potatoes

Great growth happening from many of the eyes, just from having taken them out of the fridge and somewhere warm!

The banana fingerlings, however, don't seem to be doing much since being taking out of the fridge.   Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

Zucchini and cucumbers started in PT

Zucchini will once again be Golden Glory and Eight Ball.

Cucumbers will once again be Eureka.  I'll do a round 2 of the cukes a bit later, to try to avoid having too many cukes ready all at once.

Hardly any beets sprouted!!! Sowed round 2 beets. Carrots more sprouted but sowed round 2 carrots too.

What the heck!  Why such low germination, especially for the beets?!?  My only guess is they cooked under the plastic on the hot sunny days a while ago.  Both kinds of sowed beets were equally low germination.  So, poked in some round 2 beets today, mishmash of the two kinds.

For filling in the carrots (in the bed, not the container that I sowed more recently), I had no patience to carefully poke so many new holes, so I just scattered the rest of the bolero seed package over top.

Watered them all in.

Chitted the potatoes

Placed all of the potatoes out onto cardboard in the seed-starting room (since it's the warmest room), and for the bigger potatoes I cut them in half with multiple eyes each.  Didn't cut any of the fingerlings, will just plant those whole.

Buckwheat self-sprouting up all over -- yay!

From last year's plantings!  Neat.

2 broccoli moved to north bed

Lesson learned:  I don't have big enough pieces of tulle/cover for 4x2 of broccoli.  So, I moved 2 broccolis to the NW corner of the north bed.  Amended with some of the wild rabbit poop, plus all of the usual other things (alfalfa, kelp, mrp, azomite). Not sure how they'll grow so close to the roof overhang, or how much wear and tear the rain will cause on the tulle/cover.

Forget-me-nots transplanted

In front beds.  Didn't amend with anything.

Dill transplanted -- hopefully real soil will remove their terrible wimpy/leggyness

Amended the soil with mrp, azomite, kelp, and myke.  (No alfalfa.)

"Tendersweet" carrots sowed in grey containers

Both containers have the Tendersweet carrots, a new-to-me variety.  The container with the orange clip is a richer soil with leaf matter (though I didn't anything fresh at all -- zero amendments added to either container); the other container I removed the richer soil and used a more basic-looking soil from other parts of the garden.

Carrots and beets appearing, but hoping a lot more appear soon because gappy

Will wait another week or so before filling in the gaps with more seeds.

Tulled all transplanted broccoli, kale, and chard

I'll still need to add a second layer of floating row cover for at attempt at full protection against the moth, but for now at least there's a barrier in place.

I gave what seems now while the plants are small a generous buffer from the tulle/cover, but we shall see.  Inside the broccoli enclosures I put some green onions and some barese chards that I'll keep very small / remove if they get too big re: touching the tulle.  Adding those in makes me feel a lot less annoyed at how much space I need to give the broccoli/kale/chard in order for them to not touch the tulle.

Radishes sown: Avignon and Daikon

Avignon is supposed to be a milder one, so I'll give it a try.

Daikon out of curiosity re: the amendment aspect.

Dills starting to be hardened off (need to free up space under the lights)

Will do the "inside at night while cold, outside during day when +~3 degrees" dance with the dills.  Need to get them out to free up room under the lights.

Up-potted tomatoes -- wimpy root systems! Dills also looking similarly lanky and somewhat floppy

With the tomatoes' lanky upper growth and wimpy root systems, my best guess is too much nitrogen and enough of whatever the thing that roots want.  Anyway, repotted them today nice and deep, so hopefully the stems will grow lot of roots.

I think the similar thing is happening with the dills... hopefully they'll be ok though.

Tomatoes are all really lanky and floppy! So weird

So weird because I don't remember this ever happening in past years... Maybe something off in my home-made potting mix?  Well, I'll just repot them sooner than later to get them in deepers.

Broccoli, chard, kale, celery, parsley, lettuce transplanted (some still left in pots for now)

The broccoli's soil was amended with the following into each plant's hole:  1 tbsp kelp, 1/2 tbsp mrp, 1/2 tbsp az, and a generous sprinkling of alfalfa.  Forgot to add myc.

All the others were amended with a bit of each and some myc.

Haven't installed the tulle/cover yet.

Beets uncovered from plastic because they're appearing; carrots not appearing yet so still under plastic

^^^

Peas transplanted, with some amendments but no alfalfa

Planted the pea peat pots.

Sprinkled a tablespoon each of kelp meal, mrp, and azomite under each tray essentially.  No alfalfa pellets added since I heard peas like to take care of their own nitrogen, thank you very much.

Also scraped/tore at the pots to give more room for the roots to come out.  

Everything brought inside for tonight (0 degress) and tomorrow night (-5)

Will just keep them inside tomorrow during the day and put them back out on Thursday.

Bought "Superior" seed potatoes

$1.49 a pound, in the bulk section at Ritchie's.  Bought 2 pounds.  Wayyyyy cheaper than the "gourmet" packages.  

So, this year will plant the sprouted left overs from last year's harvest (Banana fingerling), plus these.

All cold-hardies have been outside 24/7 as of a few days ago

(Still in pots)

-3 forecasted for Wednesday night, so holding off transplanting most things

Only translated one pot of green onions so far.  The rest I'll wait until after Wednesday night.

Transplanted some green onions into pot -- the only transplants so far

I put quite a few of them into one pot.  The only thing I added was some alfalfa pellets, which of course I forgot until after I had transplanted them, so the alfalfa were added as an afterthought tucked in here and there.

That's the only thing I've transplanted so far.  I'm holding off from most things until Wednesday night's potential -3.

Up-potted the broccoli instead of transplanting; it doesn't look great but I think will survive

There are 9 broccoli, all piracicaba.  About half of them are decent sizes, the others look pretty wimpy.  All of them I think I hardened off too quickly -- looks like leaf burn / leaves shrivelling up.  But the newer leaves look good, and my guess is that all of them will make it.

But given Wednesday night might go down to -3, I decided to hold off from transplanting until after that.

Beets started in ground (after soaking overnight)

Westmost foot is exclusively my home-collected cylindrical seeds; the eastmost foot is a mix of package detroit dart red seeds and my home-collected cylindrical seeds.

Method I followed this year:

Method followed this year:

- Lightly-ish loosed soil, mostly without fully flipping.

- Sprinkled in enough kelp meal, MRP, azomite, and myccorhizae to cover the area.  (i.e. completely unscientific amounts)  Didn't add any alfalfa.  Swooshed it all around with my hands to mix it in to the top layer.

- Marked/poked holes.

- Put vermiculite.

- Wetted vermiculite.

- Placed seeds:  Two per hole.

- Put vermulite over the holes.

- Watered it all.

- Put clear plastic sheet, anchored with rocks allllll along the border to help keep out any critters.

No rain in the forecast, so hopefully the plastic sheet will keep things nice and moist.

Carrots started in ground

All bolero, all the time!

Method followed this year:

- lightly-ish loosed soil, mostly without fully flipping.

- Marked/poked holes.

- Wetted soil.

- Put vermiculite.

- Wetted vermiculite.

- Placed seeds:  One per actual hole (or more where I accidentally dropped more than one), but also as spares I put some in the aisles, as backups.  (I used up all bolero seeds doing this... had I had more I might have put two in each hole.)

- Put vermulite over all, including the aisles.

- Watered it all.

- Put clear plastic sheet, anchored with rocks allllll along the border to help keep out any critters.

No rain in the forecast, so hopefully the plastic sheet will keep things nice and moist.

Lesson learned: Start/grow all kale and chard inside -- WS not needed

The WS ones are wayyyyyyyyyy smaller than the indoor-raised ones, and all were started in PT the same day.  As long as I don't start the seeds too early, the kale can spend days outside on warmer days and come in at night.

And start kale and chard earlier -- curious to see if the Vates kale can tolerate the warm indoors.

Organic alfalfa pellets bought

From Kinburn Farm Supply.  $34 total (there's no tax) for 55 pounds.  So, I'll use up the last few cups of my non-organic alfalfa pellets, then will be happy to shift to these.  Should last a good long while!

Dill round 2 started in PT -- so far only 2 of first round have germinated

... and one of those two was on the edge of the PT and dried up.  So, only one dill potted up so far.  Though I'm still hopeful, as for one thing apparently dill can take a while to germinate, and also I hadn't realized they need light.

Left-over potatoes (Banana fingerling) harvested last year have eyes -- will use them for seed potatoes

Too bad I didn't get to eat them, but on the bright side I might not need to buy any seed potatoes this year!

All snow now gone from yard

The last teency patches of snow melted away and the yard is now officially now-free.

First lettuce harvest -- from indoor-sown/raised on March 12th! Kale slow and didn't start enough?

Wow!!  Less than one month from sowing to first harvest!  I'll definitely do indoor-started/raised lettuce in future, instead of just the outdoor sowings.

Good thing this lettuce is on the go, as the kale might be a semi-bust this year... The only indoor-raised kale is looking a bit slow and wimpy (Barese)... and the WS kales are all only barely starting to show hints of their first true leaves.

First day of direct sun for hardening-off plants

40 minutes today.  (In the shade for the rest of the day, and in at night because nights still going below zero.)

Started in PT (bowl for peas): Peas, zinnias, callaloo(/amaranth), basil, tomatox3

Peas:  Sugar Snap

Zinnias:  My usual mix -- this time all from 2018-collected seeds (to start using up the older seeds)

Basil:  Prospera (same as last year)

Tomato:  Mortgage Lifter (my first time growing this -- from La Ferme de l'Aube), Big Tofu Plus, and Jasper

Callaloo(/amaranth):  From the person at work.

Dill started in PT (later will start some outside too)

^^^

Barese round 2 in PT (because didn't start enough first round)

And because the outdoor WS ones are so far behind, might as well start an indoor round 2.

Wow! Outdoor WS sproutlings still alive despite cold nights near -10!

Very neat -- the paper-towel-germinated kale and chards that I then put outdoor in WS jugs, which popped above ground a week or two ago, are somehow still alive despite staying outside overnight, uncovered, during several cold nights nearing minus 10.

First stevia harvest! (a few leaves, for pruning)

Delicious!

Hardening off of onions, parsley, broccoli, and celery started today

Hardening will be a bit sporadic because the weather forecast is so-so.

But today started with 1 or 2 hours in the afternoon shade, around 2 or 3 degrees.

Song sparrow, FOY in the backyard!

Sitting in the tray feeder.

Welcome!

Lots of white fuzz growth on the newest potted-ups! I'm not worried though, will "leave" it be.

The previous seedings had some white fuzz but not much at all; but the ones I potted up the other day, holy moly lots of white fuzz on top now!  Given this is my home-made mix I'm not worried, will let it be.

Wow -- the March 12th seeds are all a-popping! Potted up, including WS some kales and chards

So yeah, for the WS-style, I potted up some of the kales and chards into the outdoor WS containers and taped them up.  I'll put them outside when it's not much colder than around zero, and will either bring them in or put them under a blanket when it's colder than zero.

Kale, chard, lettuce, forget-me-not, and coreopsis started in PT

Started lots of seeds today, all in PT.  For the kale, once sprouted it will be mostly-all outside (inside at night) because kale never grows well inside for me for some reason.

Kale:

- Vates Blue Curled (a new-to-me variety this year in the hopes that it will be a shorter variety, so easier to keep under tulle without touching the tulle re: white cabbage moth)

- White Russian

Chard:

- Barese (a new-to-me variety this year in the hopes that it will be a shorter variety, so easier to keep under tulle without touching the tulle re: white cabbage moth)

- Fordhood (old faithful)

Coreopsis (new-to-me plant; seeds from veganic Ferme de l'Aube)

Lettuce (I rarely used to start lettuce indoors, but it's so slow to grow outside in cool spring weather so will try giving it a head start this year):

- Romaine (Paris)

- Ruby Leaf

- Black Seeded Simpson

The rabbit disappeared a month+ ago -- no more droppings

^^^

Stevia round 4 started in PT -- first batch of new seeds

West Coast, 2023 year.  Packet says only 68% germination rate!  

Stevia round 3 started in PT bec others not growing well

Oh my, the stevias aren't doing well so far this year... after germinating they're either crisping up, or seemingly alive but not growing...  so, started more seeds today...

Stevia round 2 started in PT (3 seeds) -- Various sprouts (not only stevia) have fizzled/dried out?? before taking off

I don't remember this happening in past years, so I wonder if it could have something to do with my mix?   Or maybe I'm not watering carefully enough.  But this year I've lost several PT-sprouted seeds after transplanting, where they make an appearance but then dried up / die before fully emerging.  But anyway, it hasn't been too bad, just a few here and there.

Seeds to buy for 2024 season (notes during 2023 season)

Stevia (because only ~3 seeds left)

Stevia started in PTs -- 5 seeds (maybe a bit early?)

^^^

Zinnia seeds being eaten! (probably the house sparrows since those are the only birds this winter)

^^^

Several broccolis disappeared -- can't find the seeds! Buried too deep? Round 2 started in PT.

^^^

All 10 piracibaba broccoli germinated! Potted up.

^^^

Onions round 2 started in PT (to fill in gaps in the original round)

^^^

Parsley, celery, and broccoli started in paper towels

Forest Green parsley,

Piracicaba broccoli (not doing any of the other types this year),

Tall Utah Improved celery (from the foil package seed selection from several years ago).

Wild rabbit droppings

Ok, maybe not veganic, but came across some droppings of the local neighbourhood wild rabbits; collected it and tossed it on one of the vegetable beds.  Will keep my eyes open for more!

Decided not to buy soybean meal (for fertilizer) unless can find organic

Saw this blog post recently.

A google search for "Aminopyralids" and "soy" shows they can be used for soy.  So, I won't risk buying non-organic soybean meal for now.  Haven't been able to find an organic source yet, so, will just keep doing without soybean meal.

The article says it's not used for alfalfa, so that's good.  (Besides, the next bag of alfalfa pellets I'll be buying will be organic.)

Tuberous begonia potted up

Wakey wakey!

In my home-mixed mix.

Home-blended seed starting mix -- First attempt

Mixed up a fairly small batch, which will be used for the onions, begonia, and whatever else things whose starting time is coming soon.

Here's the recipe I used:

20 cups peat moss

10 cups ProMix Premium Potting Mix*

3/4 cup perlite

3/4 cup vermiculite

1/2 cup kelp meal

1/2 cup alfalfa pellets **

zero cup soybean meal because I don't have any yet, but when I do I'll use 1/2 cup

1/4 cup rock phosphate

1/8 cup dolomite lime

1/8 cup myccorhizae

1/8 cup azomite

* It's supposed to be 10 cups of compost, but I don't have my own and haven't found a vegan source yet, so for now using potting mix to replace it.  ProMix told me (when I inquired by email) that their Premium Potting Mix has no animal-based ingredients; its fertilizer is chemical-based.  I wonder if I even need to use ProMix at all, given the other nutrient aspects of this mix...

** This time I just put in the pellets as-is, but for next time and for adding to this batch -- for better / more even distribution I'll pre-soak the pellets to get them to disintegrate, then spread them out to dry.  This will integrate into the mix much better.

I'm wondering about adding some of the shredded leaves stored in my basement... haven't done it yet as I'm not sure if it could introduce disease etc...

Onions started in PT (the original seeds from the 2016 collection)

Here we go!  First seeds started.  Decided to try only the oldest onion seeds, which are now 7 years old and see how germination goes. 

Bought most seed-starting materials today

Most of the stuff is from Ritchie's.  So here's what I'll be using, based on JV's recipe:

sphagnum peat moss

perlite

vermiculite

dolomite lime (pelletized)

Promix Premium Potting Mix (since I don't have compost) (the company says it has no animal inputs -- though it isn't organic)

alfalfa meal

soybean meal (TBD -- they're sold out currently)

kelp meal

rock phosphate

mycorrhizae

Looking forward to getting started soon!