Doesn't look as though our blueberry bushes will give us a great crop this year, but we'll be appreciative of what we do get. The bushes did get a severe (and much needed) pruning this spring so that may account for the smaller crop.
The haskap berries should be picked any day now. We've been taste-testing them, and they've definitely gotten sweeter (okay, less sour) than when we first tried them a week or so ago. Good thing they make a wonderful jam.
The pretty green crinkly stuff on the right is Wasabina Mustard Greens and the reddish row on the left is Scarlet Frill. They're both salad "greens" and really add zing to our salads plus a whole bunch of minerals and vitamins.
And then there are my two pathetic rows (under the strings) of dill which have both been planted (replanted) a couple of times. Oh, if I could just get enough fresh dill for making my dill pickles. Is that too much to ask?
My little patch of Swiss chard is looking good.
Beets came up very spotty. You probably can't tell that because of the leaves covering the bare spots now. I planted more in another bed but they're currently only about 2" tall.
The storage onions are looking hale and hardy.
What the heck happened to my carrots? They took so long to sprout that I almost replanted them. Probably should have by the looks of what's growing. Last year I had such a good crop that I'm just now using the very last of them. This year I'm pretty sure I'll be purchasing carrots for most of the year.
I like to grow colored gourds to use for decorating in the fall. Our weather has been so cool that these guys haven't done much yet. (The Blue Salvia in the lower left hand corner of the picture have yet to bloom.)
Same with the pie pumpkins. They'll have to put on a growth spurt soon or they won't have a chance of maturing.
I think the lack of warm weather has hindered the growth of my bush beans. These are the green ones and don't have much of a "bushy" look thus far. The yellow ones are a bit farther along.
This is my first lily to bloom. I should really say "our" first lily because my daughter loves lilies. I've never been crazy about them, but she's trying to convert me.
I do have to admit that I'm eager to see what this particular lily will look like when it blooms. It has twelve buds on it!
14 comments:
I have to agree with you. The weather this year, both spring and summer, has been making my usual plants screwball. I’m not having luck with my squash of any kind. Tomatoes are chugging along but no red ones yet. The one thing that is flourishing is weeds!
-Katie C.
Katie C. - I'm just very thankful we haven't been getting any of that EXTREMELY HOT weather that some parts of our country are. We did get an inch of rainfall overnight that should help our still rather dry conditions so far this growing season. Glad to hear that at least your tomatoes are doing okay. :o)
What are haskap berries? They look interesting.
It's odd weather here, some things doing better than expected, others not
Looking good! Curious about the lush greenery behind the beans in the third up from the bottom pic?? Just thinned carrot patch #1 this AM. Re dill: I have much better luck with it when I nurture the volunteers from the previous year. I usually transplant them where I want them. What beautiful, fat lily buds. Do you know the colour of the one in the last picture?
I really wish I could transport dill to you. I always let some seed out and the volunteers mean I never have to plant the next year. Only problem is sometimes too much wants to crowd out the bed. Even when I don't plan on using it, I like it for the monarch caterpillars.
Lettuce is my failure this year. Much too hot and it all went bitter then bolted. Potato plants look promising though.
My dill did absolutely nothing too. I wanted some for fermented pickles. One year I kept sowing because nothing appeared and then it all came at once and buried me. So this year I had faith and only planted once and got nothing.
gz - Haskap Berries or Honeyberries originated in Siberia (if one can believe that!) and then were first grown experimentally in Canada. Hence, they grow very well in cooler climates. The berry is much like an elongated blueberry but softer. The flavor of varieties that now been developed varies but all of them are on the "tart" side. Ours are one of the first varieties and, I must admit, are so sour I don't like to eat them by themselves. But they make wonderful jam without adding great amounts of sugar. I just follow my blueberry jam recipe (which I've already reduced the amount of sugar in) and we love it. Haskaps are said to have many times the antioxidants that blueberries have so they must be good for us!
Rosalea - That's our bed of comfrey. It has medicinal purposes along with being good for human and livestock consumption. We use it primarily as poultry feed. Hubby dries it to feed the chickens during the winter and they gobble it up.
tpals - I wish you could share your dill with me, too! Mine was a complete failure last year and I couldn't find a source for fresh dill anywhere around here so I made my pickles using only dill seed. They turned out okay, but I really want those lovely heads of dill in the bottom and top of my canning jars!
SmartAlex - Well, my dill is on it's second (for one row) planting and third (for the other row) and I think all I see now is all I'm possibly gonna get. What's with it these past couple of years?
Rosalea - Oops, forgot to tell you the color of that lily with the vigorous buds is a pale peach. I'll have to post a picture of the blossoms if they turn out to be as good as I think they will.
Looking forward to that pic! Curious about the comfrey. We have something growing all around the edges here, and it keeps popping up here and there, very hardy, and invasive if given a chance. I think it is maybe comfrey. I have asked neighbours and studied books and on-line pics. It is blooming now and the bees and bugs love it. May I send some pics of it to you?
Rosalea - Absolutely! I'm sure we can identify if it is, indeed, comfrey!
Yes crazy weather. We planted late, but things moving along. I've never been able to grow dill, not sure why. Hang jn there!
Nancy - Glad to hear your garden is coming along. Ours is, too, but it's just slower than usual. Late planting here also. One can never count on how gardening will be from year to year, that's for sure!
Sign me up for the 'How to grow Dill' class, too. I plant it, and it snorts at me. The next year volunteer plants pop up and I use those. Never enough, never on time with my cukes. And so it goes. We persist, us gardeners, we persist! Fortunately for me, I have a neighbor who brings me paper grocery sacks full of it so I can make pickles.
Cheers
Tim - I need to make friends with your neighbor with the grocery sacks of dill! ;o)
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