Harvested all of the beets sown July 18th. They never bulked up -- a lot are quite small, a few are a bit bigger, but no really good nice big ones.
The yard beets never did great this year either other than a few big ones.
The second half of the garlic (some Elephant, some "regular") went in today. Elephant in the north section, Regular in the lower section. Two of the elephant bulbs were MASSIVE (they're the first two from the left in the northmost row here).
And, I added kelp as well as pre-soaked alfalfa to these ones, and scattered that over top of the first half garlic too.
All is covered by a thick layer of leaves.
One of the "regular" garlic bulbs was half-bad/shrivelled -- very disappointing at $25/pound plus tax! But overall I still had enough to fill my ~4x4 foot garlic bed area.
Dang, the backyard lettuce seed heads are full of aphids, so I might just not collect any lettuce seeds this year.
A plump beige/grey caterpillar was at the top of one of the ears of corn I harvested today. The rest of the ear was perfectly fine though, so just removed the damaged part and ate the rest.
Some are smaller, but overall I'm very happy with the size!
One was HUGE but had a sizeable hole drilled into the middle of it by some critter, and it had some rotting with various critters nibbling at it, so obviously tossed that one.
Harvested the cantelope today because both tendrils where the stem joins were completely dried up, and I worried about theft, especially since it was my one and only cantelope.
I think it needed more time on the vine though, because while it's perfectly edible, it's not particularly sweet or flavourful.
Even though the ground cherry plants at the allotment are only inches high, they're delivering a decent harvest! Finally had enough today to make a pie.
Saw a green praying mantis wandering in my garden! I have a feeling s/he must have come from an egg sac that someone bought, but who knows. Cool regardless.
Yeesh, another bit of a measly year for the backyard zukes -- after the initial flush, they just petered out and don't look like they're doing much of anything -- the females are dying before even opening. So, removed the tulle today and will let them live out their days.
So, yay! The sad, pathetic tomato plants (which are very much like a lot of our allotment people's tomatoes) are managing to yield a few tomatoes each. Not going to be tons of batches of tomato sauce, but, enjoying the ones that are coming in!
So far that's ___ pounds from the GA potatoes.
Harvested some onions today. I think they were from the sets, rather than my home seed starts. Not gonnan lie, they're definitely on the small side! But they're onions none the less! I'll use them in upcoming recipes, not likely to be many to put away.
For the first time since seeing a few eggs earlier in the summer, today I saw squash bugs! Nymphs specifically! They were on a SVB-doomed zucchini, so I just pulled the whole plant. Didn't notice any squash bugs anywhere else, but also didn't go looking for them.
Oh my holy heck, cushaws are GINORMOUS!!! My first time growing them (other than last year or a past year when none actually took). There are about 4 huge ones growing at GA at the moment. Each is enough to feed an army or two or ten. They aren't ready yet, as the stems are still very green. We'll see if they "disappear" before I can harvest them...
I picked the blushing ones, because of the dump of rain yesterday, in case they crack.
The GA potatoes have all died! Whereas the ones in the yard are very green and healthy-looking. Not sure if the difference is the variety, the amount of sun, disease or lack thereof, etc.
Anyway, dug up a bit of both GA patches. The SW patch that had the Colorado potato beetles had a bit of a scrawny harvest, whereas the NE patch that was covered from day one and didn't have CPBs had bigger potatoes. But the difference could also be the variety, who knows.
Especially the southern pole of the tripod. I think I planted the beans before I had the condo compost, so maybe they're lacking stuff. Anyway, we'll see what happens.
Uh oh -- some of the leaves in the yard's south potato patch are curling upward and not looking great. I'm just going to "leave" it be and see what happens.
Yikes, tons of small flying insects!! I had noticed one a week or two ago, didn't think anything of it. Came back from camping and now there are so many!
So, moved all three indoor stevia outside permanently.
I wonder if they came in on the stevia that I bought -- that's my theory. (Two of the indoors stevia were mine, one was from the store.)
The plants look happy, but no way in heck do I want to risk insects for the winter, so putting a stop to this now.
Wow, right on par with when I started noticing it last year (June 17th 2023). Last year the yellowing took over and killed the plants, but still got a very decent harvest.
So far it's more advanced on the north patch, but it's starting in the south patch too.
(Haven't noticed it at GA yet.)
I will use "tulle" loosely, to refer to any of the various netting I have, which now includes not only tulle but also shear curtains from the thfit store, and Proteknet from William Dam Seeds (the piece I bought was 14' by 25').
Of course, eventually the squash and cucumbers will need to be untulled -- goodness help me when that terrifying day comes!!!
The cool nights (<~12) seem to be over now, so planted out a bunch of things today. Ran out of time, so will do the rest tomorrow.
Tonight these went in:
- Tomatoes (Damsel, Mortgate Lifter, Beefsteak, Big Beef Plus) (~10 plants)
- Ground cherries (~11 plants)
- Peppers (The ones I started at home, and the ones I bought at the store)
- Summer squash part one (more to be done tomorrow)
- Basil
The AC Chaleur seed potatoes in the south part of the central bed had a big gap in the middle where none appear to have come up, and when I dug around a bit with my hand I didn't see anything coming up.
So, I used some hidden sprouted fridge potatoes from last year's harvest to fill in the gaps.
On the other hand, the Kennebec on the north part of the central bed have all or nearly all come up beautifully.
The lettuce, which is all in the three grey rectangular planters, have sprung and are looking great! Took a first harvest today, with falafel.
The chard aren't far behind.
The kale are looking pretty puny still -- the slugs have a clear preference for them over the chard (they share a bed). I think the kale will get there though.
These are the NE potato bed. ~4 varieties -- see notebook for general location.
Put into each hole ~1/2 Tbsp az, ~1/2 Tbsp mrp, 1 Tbsp kelp, and 1 Tbsp alfalfa.
Sowed buckwheat all along the south end of the plot -- so that's 3 feet by roughly 21 feet.
Didn't add any amendments at all. Just loosed the soil, raked it smoothish, scattered the seeds, raked it again, and watered it.
The SE potato bed is planted.
West part is fridge potatoes -- mostly white, some red. (All standard-size.) They had grown inches-long "leaves" in the fridge.
East part is three Kennebec (the rest of the Kennebecs are in the backyard), and all of the Cal Whites.
For each, into its planting hole I put between 1/2 and 1 Tbsp each of azomite, mrp, kelp, and yes alfalfa too.
Alas! Used up the last of the aphid-inspected stevia today. Have been having 1/2 tsp per workday (though used to use only 1/4 tsp) in my tea. I don't think I can stomach using the un-inspected stuff, so will use the store powdered stevia until I get some of my own this year.
A nice harvest with the first pruning of these 18 plants! Had them on noodles with nutritional yeast and onion top trimmings.
Wow, the beets I started inside 6 days ago have now mostly germinated and popped up a cm or two or three, whereas the beets I started outside 6 days ago and are under row cover are mostly nowhere to be seen.
Today I transplanted the indoor beets. The ones that had multiple split apart easily, so I split them up. We'll see how they take.
Topped 4 of the 9 green peppers, 4 of the 9 sweet banana peppers, and the 1 hot pepper. Though the hot pepper was already quite bushy -- but I topped it anyway.
(I already topped all of my home-grown peppers a while ago but it hasn't helped with bushiness for them yet -- they all look so wimpy.)
Wow, this is the absolute worst beet germination situation I've ever had, like, ever, I'm pretty sure. There were MAYBE 3 or 4 max that germinated. No idea why. I had covered them with a light mix of vermiculate and soil, and watered frequently.
So, today I started round 2. I did them a couple of different ways.
Both ways I started by soaking the seeds overnight.
Then, one batch I put directly into the garden, sprinkled around rather than measured/spaced out, and placed a piece of floating row cover over top.
The other batch, I sowed inside, in my homemade potting mix, using the tray that has .... 36? little compartments (that I use for lettuce for example_). These I'll wait until they pop up and have grown a wee bit, then will transplant them the typical way. I put 2 seeds per compartment.
Well, next year I'll for sure use the burlap or cardboard method. But the problem is this year, though germination was spotty, there are a decent amount growing -- so I don't want to throw all that away. So, how to fill in the gaps?
I'm trying out the method in this video:
- Sprinkle soil (I used soil from the garden) over a plate (I used my real plates, not paper plates).
- Moisten the soil.
- Sprinkle carrot seeds generously over top.
- Don't cover the seeds -- just press them firmly down.
- I then misted the seeds to make sure they're moist (but the video doesn't do that).
- Place the plate of seeds into a large ziplog bag, and seal the bag.
- The video says to then put the plate in the freezer for 24 hours. EXPERIMENT: I did two plates -- one went into the freezer, the other didn't.
- After 24 hours, remove from the freezer.
- Place bagged plate in indirect sunlight (either inside or outside).
- Monitor until they germinate.
- Once they're popping up, sprinkle the soil with the seeds into the garden. She doesn't "transplant" them one by one or anything like that -- she just brushes them around the area.
- Done.
So, today I got round 2 carrots started using the above method, with the experiment noted above (one plate went into the freezer, the other didn't).
I was late starting the butternut squash (Waltham) because I didn't have any seeds left. Bought some today, started 5 seeds.
Sowed buckwheat in the east half of the central bed. All I did was rake up the top layer of soil (didn't do any digging), then scatter the seed, then rake around a bit, then water it. Didn't protect it with anything to keep it safe from critters -- so we'll see how it does.
Wow! There were tons, tons, tons of worms, including baby worms, in the pile of soil where I had dumped the container soil last fall and where there were lots of leaves and on which I had piled the hollyhock stalks etc. I was in that pile today to put some of the soil into containers and wow, soooooo many worms! Way more than in other part of the garden where I was digging today.
I've never had to deal with squash bugs yet, but am quite sure it will be a thing at gaga. So, was doing a bit of research to steel myself. Here's a great page with a lot of tips/tricks:
https://tendingmygarden.com/squash-bugs-tactics-for-winning-the-war/
I am thinking I might actually try keeping tulle on some of the allotment squashes even after they start flowering, and drive over every morning or every other morning before work to hand-pollinate... I'm not sure, we shall see.
In the yard I'll grow these varieties:
- Kennebec
- AC Chaleur
I chose those randomly from among the many potato varieties I bought at Ritchie's last week.
A few of those two kinds are still left over so will go to gaga.
I cut most of them in half, placed on cardboard, cut side up, will let them scab over before planting later this week.
The carrots sowed a few weeks ago started appearing a few days ago.
The beets on the other hand are very few and very far between!
The beds look so compacted.
I hadn't covered with anything -- no cardboard, no burlap, no plastic, etc.
Next year I realllllllly need to use an alternate approach and cover them with something. I think the multi-times-a-day of watering them really compacts the soil. And, if I miss out and they dry out, wah-wah.
Today I transplanted these into the yard:
- broccoli x 3 (all piracababa) -- with double-layer of tulle
- kale (all dwarf vates) x 9 in north bed and x ~3 or 4 in with the broccolis -- with double-layer of tulle
- chard (all fordhook) x 9 in north bed -- with double-layer of tulle
- green onions x ~5 in with the broccolis -- with double-layer of tulle
- lettuce (Ruby and romaine) -- all the long grey rectangular containers
Left over of the above plants, that can go into gaga later on:
- broccoli x 2 or 3
- kale
- chard
- onions
Wow! Seems so early in the season. The one I saw was on the ground at first, walking/futzing around -- I wonder if s/he was newly emerged from inside the backyard! Flew away eventually.
Therefore, I ran inside and quickly netted all of the relevant hardies (they're still in their small pots).
Song sparrow(s) returned a few weeks ago; noticed chipping sparrow(s) yesterday. And course the house sparrows. Fun!
Wow, this vermiculite method for starting the peas sans peat pots, sans indoor mix seems to be great! Except when I wait too long to check on them and transplant them! The roots of this vermiculite batch were SEVERAL inches long in many cases -- some up to maybe up to 4" -- or certainly 3". So anyway, transplanted them today. These are the ones on the northmost vertical structure, immediately south of the first batch that was next to the north wall.
Between the first and second batches just about the entire north vertical structure is now occupied. So I'll start just a few more seeds in the coming days, to add a few more on another easternmost row, and to fill in some gaps.
Here's what I've done so far this year with the peas, using a new approach to thwart the birds/critters (i.e. not using the indoor peat pot method this year)...
- Soaked the pea seeds for 24 hours.
- Then, placed in vermiculite -- multiple layers, treasure hunt style.
- Within a few days, most had nice inch-long roots; so then (today) I planted them outside, directly into the soil. Didn't cover with anything other than soil. Will re-use the same vermiculite with the next batch, if this works.
So, now to see if they come up, or if the birds/critters still have a taste for sprouted pea seeds.
Based on the results, I'll start the next batch.
Beets:
- The home-collected seeds from a few years ago.
- Presoaked in a bowl for ~24 hours.
- Covered with a mix of vermiculite and garden soil.
Carrots:
- Bolero.
- Straight into the ground as dry seeds, with 2 or more per "hole".
- Covered with a mix of vermiculite and garden soil.
All into the ground, none in containers.
Tomato:
- Damsel -- new to me this year
- Tofusteak
- Big Tofu Plus
- Mortgage Lifter
Ground cherry:
- Collected from a past plant that self-sowed and grew amazingly in very poor conditions
Basil:
- Prospera
Zinnias:
- Short yellow, short orange
- Tall variety
- Tall Lemon
Putting them out in the shade for a few hours in the warmer part of the day, then back under lights. (Only on days that are ~+5 or warmer.)
OMG! This happened way sooner than I had anticipated! Getting a plot this year!!! It will be a temporary plot, then next year it's expected I'll get my own actual plot.
What in HOLY HECK am I going to do with 1000 square feet!!! I foresee many donations to the local food bank if all goes/grows well!
It comes at the perfect time though, with my backyard about to be torn up this year for foundation work. Even the untouched parts of the backyard garden will likely be decimated by the groundhogs when the fence comes down for the foundation stuff.
So, yay!
But equally, eek!!!
:-)
This year I'm trimming the onion tops to see if that helps them bulb up at all. So, once they get two leaves, trimming occasionally.
Finally got around to purging the seed collection by giving a bunch away to the local buy nothing group.
These were given away:
Because a relatively high proportion of them seem to be flopping once put into the mix.
Started more bec I didn't start enough in round 1. Still all from the same commercial packet I bought recently.
Prepared the soilless mix yesterday -- with ZERO of the leftover promix.
So, it contains only:
- peat moss
- vermiculite
- perlite
- kelp meal
- azomite
- mrp
- alfalfa pellets
- lime
- myke (actually not yet added, bought some today and will add it in before using)
And, since my kelp meal is starting to run low, bought some more from Ritchie's. The guy at the counter said either I can buy Gaia and pay over $200 for 20 kg, or I can buy a different brand that's marketed for horse feed, and pay $95 for 25 kg. !!!! So I went for the horse feed -- made by Acadian Seaplants Limited. I emailed them tonight just to confirm whether it's kelp or some other type of seaweed, so, we'll see.
Bought these seeds from Ritchie's, "Frontier", a hybrid said to be good for short seasons and a bulb that's good for storage -- at least, based on the packet.
Will only do this type of onion this year, none of my pre-existing seeds, just to keep things simple.
