How Does My Garden Grow?

Slowly.  Very slowly.  I chalk it up to the fact that it's been cooler than usual this year.

I think this has also caused the germination of seeds planted directly in the garden to be troublesome.  (I'm replanting colored gourd seeds today.)  The blank spots are prevalent.  Once more, it's been the weather.

The good news is that our last two days have been . . . gulp . . . actually quite warm.  The thermometer has hit the high 70s and low 80s.  Even though we're still short on rainfall, these warm days have got to have given the little transplants and sprouting seeds a boost.

Even though I've been talking to the plants and sending encouraging words to planted seeds nearly every evening while watering with the hose, yesterday we decided we needed to hook up the sprinkler and gave the strawberries, asparagus and young dwarf fruit trees (and portions of the raised beds and field garden) a good, long drink.  The soil still looks damp this morning so it was worth it.

I made my first harvest of mint a day or so ago.  Prepped it for the dehydrator and ended up with 2-1/2 cups of dried mint for Papa Pea's daily dose of peppermint tea.

Both the yellow and green beans have not shown great germination.  I've gone back and filled in the bare spots with crossed fingers.  (Hard to plant seeds that way, but it warranted trying.)

One would think the cool weather would have encouraged more growth in the shell peas, but they still seem a bit vertically challenged.  The radishes, which we both love and munch-crunch even with breakfast, gave us a first large harvest over the past weekend. 

This is a peek at a few of the broccoli plants.  Doing okay, but not as vigorous as the cauliflower shown below.

So far, the cauliflower wins the blue ribbon of the whole garden as it seems to be flourishing.

My bed of spinach.  Ugh.  Poor germination with lots of bare spots.  I've since transplanted (well, tried) some of the plants that were too close together to fill in bare spots.

Can't complain (okay, whine) one little bitty-bit about the strawberries this year.  Despite lack of warmth, they've blossomed heavily and early.  We even have loads of green berries forming.

The haskap bushes are loaded with green, green berries the same color as the leaves.  Can you see them?  They will size up and turn a deep, dark blue when ripe.

My struggling blueberry bushes (a pox on that dreaded Witch's Broom fungus) go from hardly a blossom on some to a few loaded with blossoms.  The harvest can't turn out to be anything than smaller than we wish, but at least it looks as though we'll get some.

So that's a look at some of the garden and what's growing.  And what's been challenged this year.  Up here it seems we haven't really started the summer season quite yet (and we're going into the last half of June -- eeep), so if we continue to stay clear of those near freezing temps at night (it's about time, for goodness sake!), there's great hope we'll do okay once we get more good growing weather . . . and some adequate rain.

Quack-Quack, Peep-Peep

Way back a couple of months ago, we had a female duck start setting on a clutch of eggs.  We were concerned it was just too early and too cold but decided to let nature take its course.

Well, unfortunately, because we were having nights down into the 20s, it did turn out to be too cold for her duck eggs to mature and hatch.  Not so with one chicken egg that someone stuck in among her duck eggs when she wasn't looking.

The result was that one lone chick hatched out and has been thriving ever since under the watchful eye of his/her duck mother.

Yesterday I spotted both Mama and Papa Duck taking a little afternoon siesta with their chickie offspring snuggled in next to his/her very good mother.

Oops, I got too close and woke them up.

It's okay, guys.  Close your eyes, go back to your nap and I'll tiptoe away.

Where Is Summer?

There were frost warnings out for last night up here in the north woods.  And also for tonight again.  Our low temp this morning on the thermometer showed 39°.  Well, no frost at least.

Needless to say, I've been covering and uncovering the some of the plants in the garden.  As for the warm weather loving seeds and plants, I haven't even dared to allow them outside residence yet.  What can one do?  It's just a month when June is cold, cold, cold.

We have had a bit of much needed rain, I think about an inch and a half total, so that's a good thing.  Apparently, the trees are loving this weather as I can't remember ever noticing them to be such a lush, beautiful green.  The coloring is just lovely.

How's our wood stacking going?  Good.  Nope, not all six cords of what was delivered is in the wood shed, but we're routinely working on it.  We put an hour or so each day on the project and some days it feels like we are really gaining on it.  On others we wonder if those pieces still on the ground outside the shed are somehow multiplying over night.  I am eternally grateful my better half has insisted on helping me with the job because if I were doing it myself . . . oh, I don't even want to think of it.  Methinks he's smart enough to know that by helping, I'm still able to get good food on the table and he has clean underwear in his drawer.

We've had tremendous winds the last two or so days.  Gusts almost reaching 50 mph.  It keeps any and all bugs from being bothersome, but we've come to realize that being outside most of the day in those winds tends to take the stuffings right out of a body.  We come in for our 4:30 p.m. second meal of the day, then go back out for a couple/few hours and then when finally being "done" for the day, we settle on the couch for some conversation, reading or handwork and find ourselves yawning and with eyes tearing to the extent that we're usually in bed shortly after nine.  I often find myself saying I simply must go to bed . . . and it's only 8:30 or 8:45.

First thing this morning (even before my latte --gads!), I mixed up and put a Rhubarb Upside Down Cake in the oven.  I thought that might warm up the house a titch.  (If you should be interested in the recipe for the cake, I posted it way back in 2009, and you can find it here.)

I also built a small fire in the kitchen wood stove to cozy things up this morn.  I know summer will actually arrive here one of these days and we'll be bemoaning it's so hot out we're uncomfortable.  Until then we'll continue to put a down vest on under our hooded sweatshirts and go back out into the cool (teeth-chattering) air.

 

"A" is for Asparagus and Apples

Our asparagus continues to come in almost faster than I can harvest it.

I missed one day in cutting it and look what happened.  Stalks two feet tall!

Our apple trees are finally blossoming.  Some in full bloom and some just starting.

This is the third year for this dwarf Chestnut Crab Apple.  Last year it bore heavily and the apples were the best eating apples we had.  (I didn't know crab apples could taste so good.)  They were bigger than the average crab apple, a bit over 2" across, and we each ate one a day, sometimes two. 

Since we were so enamored with the flavor of this crab apple variety, we ordered another one which we planted this spring.  Look at the blossoms on this skinny, little stick of a tree.  Impressive!

We have several Honey Crisp dwarf trees that are in their third year.  With luck, we may get some tasty fruit from them, too.

Late blossoming this year, yes, but at least they didn't do it before one of our many late frosts.  Maybe they knew what they were doing.

Doin' It the Easy Way

I mentioned a post or so ago that Papa Pea has been doing a reorganizing and rearranging of our poultry yard.

For years we've had an apple tree in that area that has been on its last legs.  (Last branches?  Last roots?)  At any rate, we decided it would be best to take it out, get it out of the way.

When D, our good neighbor, brought us a load of fill to even out an area that Papa Pea's been working on, they discussed the tree and D said he could come over with a piece of his equipment and pop it out, roots and all, if we wanted.

You bet!  And that he did.

For an older, smaller tree that was half dead, it had quite the root system and we shuddered to think how long it would have taken us to grub it out.

Up, up and away with the gnarly old thing.

D even took the tree away with him.  Can't beat that kind of help!

Could We Actually Be Getting Wiser?

We made the decision last summer that we were no longer going to take the time to cut and split the firewood that heats our house.  We would order it cut, split and delivered and all we would have to do was stack it in our wood sheds.

We've always used all the wood from trees taken down on our property and, in the past, ordered loggers' cords of wood delivered in 8' lengths.  If we figure the cost of the 8' lengths, the expense of using our chainsaws and fuel, and the time we both put into processing the wood, we came to the conclusion we'd be ahead to pay and order our wood cut and split.

So we did.

This past winter, we used all but this small amount of wood left in our big shed.

Ah, but don't get the idea we have no seasoned wood in reserve because we do.

This smaller wood shed is stuffed full of wood we put up last summer.

As is this make-shift wood crib we cobbled together and filled then also.  Both of these areas together equal more than the big shed holds.

Oh, and we also were gifted these logs by our good neighbor recently.  He has a heavy equipment business and often clears land for construction.  In the past he's given us untold $$$ worth of wood and we're so very grateful for it.

So it's not that our wood working skills will become rusty by now ordering the main part of our wood for heating.

This is the first load of four that was delivered yesterday.  Each load is a cord and a half which means there will be six cords to be stacked in our main wood shed.

Annnnd . . . this is what four loads looks like.

Papa Pea is currently involved in the reconstruction of our poultry yard, fencing and building a new composting system (one heckuva big job) so I told him I'd stack all the wood myself.

Eeeep!  WHAT was I thinking??