Mid-June Yard and Garden Pictures

I'm not going to take the time to write in detail, it's taken enough time uploading and posting the pictures.  Here's what I said earlier today over on my regular site:

We lost one plant that I really like in a storm, but my wife brought in the flowering stalk and we've had it inside for almost a week now.  Something, either squirrels or rabbits, has been nibbling on some potted plants.  I moved one into the area between the gardens and it is still getting eaten so it must be squirrels there as rabbits can't get in.  And I've missed the full bloom of the lilies as all the petals have now fallen, same for the peonies.  But the day lilies are blooming now and the garden is looking very well. 



















As usual, full picture tour after the break:

Full Spring Yard Tour

The fun part of taking pictures each year (and collecting them in one easy spot) is seeing the growth.  The year to year evolution of our whole yard, of course, but here just week to week or month to month and over the whole season, watching all these plants grow and bloom and provide a little color and happiness in our lives.

The strawberry plants have really taken to the compost-enriched soil of the west garden.  I haven't seen the plants look so robust in some time.  The garlic and herbs are coming along as well.




Shortly before these pictures Kate planted a bunch of seed rows in the east garden.  And the raspberry plants are still there.  The east garden never got much of the compost soil because it was hard to add in between the plants.  Moving the strawberry plants gives us a chance to enrich the cheap soil I started with.  I hope the seeds do well, but they may do better next year.  Also, after uploading pictures we remembered to cover the area where seed rows are planted to help keep them from being dug up so I had to go out again to get an updated picture.  Just two chicken wire covers I slapped together a few years ago that we've used off and on in the garden and they seem to work well.

Now, the tour starts after the break.  This time I thought I'd add a little caption commentary, just for kicks!

The (not quite) End-of-Season Update

Last weekend, Mr. Scoakat retired the tomato plants to the compost bin. I would have done it myself, but the BIGGEST SPIDER ON EARTH was living in a web between the two plants. So, naturally, I couldn’t go anywhere near that side of the garden! Mr. Scoakat says he didn’t see the spider. I say the spider saw Mr. Scoakat and decided it was in his best interest to relocate.

Once I was convinced the spider was gone, I was able to get close enough to plant garlic, harvest the carrots and some thyme, and remove the last basil plant (which provided a few final sprigs before meeting its end).

Between the garlic I purchased and the head I saved for planting from this year’s harvest, I had enough to plant two rows of 15 cloves. As you can see in the picture below, the garlic is covered by one of the awesome garlic/strawberry covers Mr. Scoakat made a few years ago, and so far, it has not been disturbed.

The carrots ended up in beef stew. And the beef stew ended up really tasty! The last time I made beef stew (probably at least 15 years ago) it was not great. The thing is, the beef stew is beef stew. The recipe I used 15 years ago cannot be that different than the recipe I used last weekend. Lesson here – I am a much better cook now than I was 15 years ago! 

Did you notice that small green thing behind right side of the garlic cover? Just in case you didn’t, here it is again.

Yes, that small green thing behind the garlic is a tomato plant that started growing from seed… all on its own. Because when I try to grow tomatoes, I get nothing but trouble (and the BIGGEST SPIDER ON EARTH), and when I’m not even trying, they grow on their own.

I am being mocked by a tomato plant.

Les écureuils sont Bâtards

Squirrels are bastards… but it sounds so much nicer in French. 

In case you missed what the fluffy-tailed suburban rats did to my strawberries last spring, you can see it here. This time they left the strawberries alone and went after the tomatoes. All of the tomatoes. Even the green ones. 

I came home from work one day a couple weeks ago (just a few days after my last post) to find all of the ripe and almost-ripe tomatoes gone, and all of the green tomatoes scattered on the ground around the plants. I didn’t take pictures of the destruction so you’ll just have to imagine it. I’m not growing tomatoes next year.

In happier news, I made a whole bunch of Italian cocktail meatballs last weekend, using garlic and herbs from the garden. I found a recipe several years ago (I’ve tweaked it a bit) that I make every year when it’s time to harvest the herbs. And it was time to harvest the basil several days ago before the overnight temperatures dropped into the 50s. So, it was time to make meatballs!

Of course, meatballs have to simmer in something… so I made marinara sauce too. Not with my own garden-fresh san Marzano tomatoes (les Bâtards!), but with my own garden-fresh thyme, parsley, basil, and garlic.

I know it’s been awhile since my last post. It will probably be awhile before my next post. I’m taking a class this semester at a local community college and that’s going to take up a lot of my time. But there’s still garden work to do this year and I imagine there will be a few more posts before the season is over.

Maybe when it’s time to plant garlic???

 

Catching Up

In my last post I failed to mention the arugula and micro greens I planted behind the basil. Both have started to sprout, as have the radishes and carrots. There’s still no sign of the lettuce; I think I can safely throw the rest of those seeds in the trash.

A couple days after my last post, we ate the peas I harvested a few weeks ago. There weren’t many, so I sautéed them in butter, added some left-over rice, and mixed in some parsley (also from the garden) at the very end. It was a nice side dish. The peas had that super-fresh taste you only get from your own garden.

I’ve partially solved the mystery of the failing tomatoes – its blossom end rot. But is it due to a natural lack of calcium in the soil or is something preventing the roots from absorbing calcium? My best guess is the latter, caused by inconsistent moisture levels in the soil.

I thinned out the radishes today and the green onions are coming along nicely.

Something small stole the last few ripe strawberries. I’m not sure what (It definitely wasn’t a squirrel, they can’t get under the awesome cover Mr. Scoakat built!) but I suspect a field mouse. I haven’t seen any mice in the area, but the idea of a little mouse munching on a strawberry makes the loss easier to handle! On the bright side, the plants are doing very well. They’re producing so many runners, I might not need to buy more plants to fill the space currently occupied by the purple raspberries (which will be coming out very soon… maybe this weekend).

So that just about covers everything that’s happened in the garden since my last post. I’ll try not to be away for so long again…

Mid-June Update

It's been a week and a half since my last post and a lot has happened in the garden...

Late last week, I harvested just enough cilantro to try a new salsa recipe. I've never made a salsa with canned tomatoes before, but I thought I would give it a try since it looked like a salsa Mr. Scoakat would enjoy (and he did). In addition to the cilantro, I used a garlic clove harvested last fall (dried and hung in the basement over winter, then frozen), and instead of the jalapeno the recipe calls for, I used a lemon pepper harvested last fall (then frozen). The salsa turned out great and we enjoyed some of it with friends who came over Friday night.

In other news, I had planned to plant cucumbers this year but I've decided against it. Last year, the cucumbers and the tomatoes were afflicted with bacterial wilt, which is usually caused by cucumber beetles, though I've never seen one in the garden. After deciding against cucumbers, I was considering planting green beans but on Monday I noticed signs of bacterial wilt on the peas! So, I harvested all the mature peas, pulled out the plants, and removed the trellis.

I think I'll pick up some new lettuce seeds, and plant some carrots and a second crop of radishes in the space between the garlic and the green onions. I'm thinking about getting a couple new basil plants too, since the original plants still haven't recovered from the unusually cold temperatures we had a few days after I planted them in the garden.

On Wednesday, I harvested the rest of the cilantro before it could bolt. There was a lot of it, so I had Mr. Scoakat contact a friend who enjoys cooking to see if he's like some. He said yes so we met him at a local watering hole last night; we had a few beers and gave him some cilantro (and some thyme - also harvested Wednesday).














The tomato plants are still doing well. The plant in the bucket continues to do even better than those in the garden. I pinched suckers off two of the plants again, but I think we're past the point where suckers are a real threat.

We've enjoyed a few more strawberries. And it's looking like we'll enjoy even more next year. The purple raspberries are not doing so good; if they don't improve significantly by the end of summer, I'll take them out and plant more strawberries.

That's it for now. But since it's now officially the weekend, there will be more gardening to do, and more to post soon.

Fat Green Bug

Fat Green Bug, dead center facing away.

Kate did some cleaning up of the garden this morning, what is left of it.  In the west garden (top) we have cucumbers growing and two pepper plants on their right, one is doing better than the other.  Then a couple herbs to the right of those.  In the east garden the squirrels still try to get at the strawberry plant through the chicken wire so mothballs are still a must.  She also trimmed up the parsley, bottom right of pic, and gave the raspberry plants some support.

After, or Part 2 - Cleaned Up

The final product after Kate removed the sad tomato plants and a drooping pepper plant.  Just to note: Computer problems have kept me from posting since before the last post.

 

And here's the garlic that was planted this spring.  The garlic that was planted this fall is still robust and not yet ready to be picked.  I haven't seen how big the cloves may be yet, but fall planting is the way to do garlic, I believe!

West garden.  Go garlic, go cucumbers!  Above those are still two pepper plants, thyme and oregano.



















In the east garden we have, from bottom to top, strawberries, sad raspberry plants, better raspberry plants, and parsley at the very top right.

Before, or Part 1 - Bacteria Wilt?

This is the garden a couple days ago.  Since the last post Kate has harvested carrots, onion, maybe radishes, and thinned out the dead raspberry plants.  The ones in the middle of the near garden (above) are alive, but the ones near the right are doing a bit better.  She has tried to grow it all organically, but we're finding some form of pesticide or fertilizer may be necessary if we want to grow some things.

 

The tomato plants have been limp, my wife thinks it is bacterial wilt.  She looks this stuff up, I don't.  But they - and even the cucumber vines somewhat - go limp.  They live but they just look, well, bad and sad.  These are the before pics from two days ago, next post is after Kate cleaned up the gardens this morning.









In the east garden Kate removed the basil plants that were at the very top of this pic due to slugs, we think.  Only parsley remains at the very top right.  At the bottom we have living strawberry plants.  I don't know what else to say about them.  They are protected with the screen above from squirrels but they aren't thriving.  We did start these late, however.  The first plants were destroyed by the bastards, go back a couple posts and see the video!

Oh. My. Gosh.

Squirrels are bastards - and here's the proof.  Kate planted a dozen strawberry plants yesterday.  They destroyed every one.  I'll wait until Kate gets home, maybe she can salvage something.

Garden 'Lids'

I took the time on Saturday, with a little help from my friend Jerome, to build two 'lids' - for lack of a better term - for the garden.  Just something to cover an area where Kate plants things so the squirrels don't dig it all up.  In this picture is the bottom of the west garden.  There is garlic coming up that was planted last fall and above that, covered by the 'lid', is more garlic that she planted on Saturday.  I thought I may have to screw it down, but the squirrels have not moved it at all.  They can get underneath if they really want to, but so far it seems they don't want to, which is very good.

An Early 2014 Peek

Yesterday afternoon I was out clearing ice off the walks, so I had my boots on anyway; I strolled through the snow to take a rare look at the gardens at this time of year.  Aye, I've passed on trips to the compost bin through the last bitter cold spell.  Everything looks like I suspected it would.

The opposite back corner of the yard has seen some squirrel activity.  It seems they finally figured out that is where I throw all the walnuts when I clear the yard.  Unfortunately for them, the pile got topped off with blocks of frozen leaves when I finally got the gutters cleaned.  Also, it appears either a squirrel was snacking on a walnut while sitting on the fence or else chewing on the fence.  Judging from the whole, I'd say chewing on the fence.

East Garden Update

We did a makeover of the east garden on Tuesday night.  On Wednesday after work we found that the squirrels had a heyday with the strawberry plants, as they have been known to do before, so Kate had to do a lot of replanting.  That made me not wait for the weekend and I stopped off after work today and got a bag of straw.  We use straw to protect the small plants and roots over these cool nights and ultimately winter.  In the spring we remove as much as we can and put it in the path between the gardens to inhibit weed growth.

Anyway, we got home tonight and amazingly the garden was untouched as far as we could tell.  Still, Kate put down some straw to maybe help keep the critters away by hiding the small plant sprouts.  And besides, we're probably not too far away from the first frost.

Picking and Planting

Last night Kate gathered a few veggies for use in salads and also to use in a brine for the juicy, delicious chicken we grilled today.

Edit:  The veggies were used in a jerk marinade for later - previously harvested herbs were used in the brine.

Today Kate planted some more romaine lettuce in the east garden, to use up the seeds that she thought would no longer be any good next year.  (They were barely good this year.)

She also planted more peas in the west garden for similar reasons, plus she says they both may produce yet before winter.












The empty tomato cage is to hold up the netting which we have placed over this side.  This happened a couple days after the last post.

I Hate Ants

Only 8 days later than the last post (9, actually, but I took these pics last night) and you can see how the recent daily rainshowers have helped the peas grow.  I'm still concerned about them attaching to the trellis.  I may have to add some chicken wire to the front so they have something easier to grab.
The garlic that we thought was ready is not, so it will be left in for the time being.  I think the very mild winter and oddly warm March may have messed up their growth pattern a bit.  Oh well, we'll leave them be for the time being and maybe check them again in a few weeks or so.

The strawberry plants are looking well with many flowers and teeny, tiny, going-to-be berries.  Last year we had an anthill in the upper left of this garden and they have been back even stronger this year.  I try and try but getting rid of them has not been easy.  I did get some to move, but only over to the other garden, it seems.  I will need to get something stronger that won't hurt the soil or plants, if possible.  I'm open to any suggestions in the comments!

Early Growth and Squirrels

Here is the left (west) garden box.  The herbs in the top half are still alive except the one in the middle, one of the basils.  Below that, no sign of life from the garlic yet.  Along the bottom you can see two rows of lettuce just starting to grow.









And here is the right (east) garden box, the potential strawberry field.  The dang squirrels like to dig them up so we have to do some replanting now and again, but most are looking healthy yet small.  If you look close, you can see the blanks in the grid where the squirrels killed some.  Hopefully we can replace them soon.  It would be nice to have a lush, growing strawberry patch!