Tuesday 6 December 2016

Winter is here

Well, I have been quiet for a while.  There were some changes in our life.  Our beloved golden retriever has left us for good after 14 years. 
Now we have adopted new dog, 6 months old puppy and with it busy time.
November was very nice, warm and almost snow free.  We have enjoyed that time and then came December and a change in weather.  As of Monday our high temp. are at -18C level.  In fact that was warm, as next few days it will be high of -21C with pretty significant wind, it feels like -37C.

Sunday 30 October 2016

Fall update

Garden is pretty much shut down for winter.  We still need to plant garlic for the next year but it seems that weather next week is summer like (according to forecast) so we will wait another week or so as it will be too warm.  We also need to put some tulips bulb in flower bed for the spring.  In general, I was planning to continue to mulch  leafs this weekend, but unexpected snowfall on Friday, delayed these plans.  Our two mountain ash trees produce so much of leafs, and so late in the season that this is big challenge to keep up with management.

We lost our Molly and she is dearly missed.  The best dog ever!  

Saturday 15 October 2016

Fall cleanup

After -9 C on Tuesday this week, nothing survived in the tunnels  and garden and officially garden season 2016 is over.  We will still plant garlic for the next year crop, in about two weeks time.  We cleaned garden, our compost is full to the point that nothing more can fit into one of the composting bins and left some space for day use in the other one.  Weather was great today despite forecast calling for rain and cool weather.  At one point my weather station recorded +12C.
Now we are still processing harvest and enjoying fresh produce as well. 
We had pretty sad week as we had to make decision on "putting down" our beloved golden who reached age of fourteen and her conditions deteriorated so rapidly that we decided inevitable.  It was and still is so hard on us as she was such a wonderful dog.  RIP Molly.

Monday 10 October 2016

Winter...?!

IT has been a while since last post, so decide to provide quick update on state of the garden.  It is Canadian Thanksgiving and snowy one here.  It has been snowing everyday for the past two days and the effect left about 4-5 cm on the ground, making my dog so happy. Snow would melt at the end of the day, but today it was snowing again and ground again is covered by wet snow.  It was also be unusually cold and I mean cold as temps are around 0 most of the time and hardly reaching into positive territory.  My large tunnel double wall design proved to be a winner.  I have temperature recording device and it shows me the lowest and highest temps and also current temp, humidity.  Even at days where temp went down at night to -3C it was still positive temp inside and during the day when it was very cloudy and temp. outside was at -2C, we had +6C inside.  So we still have tomato plants growing and producing red tomatoes.  We still have quiet a lot of green tomatoes. I decided to evacuate sprinkler system and thus close water to the garden.  We have covered lettuce but lots of wind moved cover to strawberries that surprisingly, are still producing and I had strawberries last Wednesday straight from the plant.
We have now assumed that small tunnel is done, despite kale still growing in it.  In the next few weeks we will focus our energy on cleaning our garden and prepping it for winter.

Monday 26 September 2016

Harvest time ..

Last weekend we started harvest in the garden.   Here are some pictures from  potato harvesting and carrots.  Some of the potatoes were huge, more than 1 lb in some cases, 2 lbs.  I think we have collected about 150 lbs from plot that was approx. 10 sq ft  garden plot.  This was definitely the best year for potatoes, despite getting bit of frost in the late spring, they still produced above expectations.  Now is the question how long they will last in our "cold room" that really is wine room.  We will observe and see.



Wednesday 21 September 2016

Strawberries

I wanted to focus this post on amazing strawberries in my garden operation.  We have planted strawberries last year and they did o.k., most of them survived winter  and spring frost did some damage but nothing serious.  There was not much fruit in June or July, hardly any, maybe due to wet July.  Now, I cannot believe how many berries are there.  It is amazing crop, berry patch is full of fruits and they are big.  Frost hit us but did not affected strawberries and we are enjoying it a lot and there are still lot of them despite the fact that it is getting colder.  I do not remember having strawberries fruiting so late but that is the fact and they look so healthy now.

quick update, my big pathway rebuilt project come to fruition and below is the final product.

Monday 12 September 2016

Frist ... Brrr

Yeas, that is reality of high altitude gardening, early onset of cool watcher which translates to frost.  In the past two days the the temperature reading on my weather station showed 0 dec C and some effects are now visible int he garden.  Lettuce has shown sign of frost, I have been keeping tunnels closed to protect tomatoes crop and hope that they have not been affected. Also, I have big landscaping project on the go so that keeps me away from blogging.  It seems that this experiment is for my own self fulfillment, and does not look like I have lots of following.  Will try to keep updating for my own records so I will be able to compare events.

Yard project ..

.. has taken over my time last weekend and finally is done.  It has been very hard on my body, lol, doing "honest man" work, that is digging with shovel.  The pathway is now looking like it supposed to.  Weather was not pleasant rest of the weekend, Saturday though was very n ice (too  nice to work  digging unfortunately), Sunday, it was late fall winter like.  Mountains about 40 min. away got  snow on them, we had lots of cold rain and wind.    Nothing was done on Sunday, even walking with dog was hard due to rain and wind gust directly into the face.  Rest of the week looks actually good, so we will have to start working on harvesting fruit of our labor in the garden.  Talking about fruits, strawberries are producing like crazy, best and biggest strawberries  the whole year.  There are so many of berries strangely at this time of the year. It looks like they have awaken from some dormant state and decided to propagate by producing fruit.  maybe cold winter is coming?  We will have to wait and see.

Tuesday 30 August 2016

Stormy night

I manage to capture lightening during last night storm.  It was pretty close and spectacular.  It is not the best as I did it through the window.

Monday 29 August 2016

Brief update

I have been in vacation mode so no frequent posts as either was away or busy with other activity.  This does not mean that we ignored our garden, quiet opposite, been busy enjoying fruit of our labor.  For starters, we have been eating sweet peas, cauliflower, carrots and potatoes.  Tomatoes are now ripening and we hare having pretty good crop.  One disappointment after last year crop is zucchinis. They had a slow start, although, now we had quiet few but nothing comparable to last year.  Must be due to wet summer.  One surprising thing, strawberries are at record levels after disappointing spring, now we have bumper corp, lots of strawberries but lots of green fruits.  Hope the weather will hold but we have started to experience +5 deg. C at night.  Last weekend it felt like fall has arrived as it was windy and cold.  First yellow leaves became visible on poplars.  We also harvested garlic and oh my, these were huge.  I took some risk and seeded lettuce and red beats to see how they will do, so far they germinated and are growing.  Apples are coming down with the onset of strong winds last week, so we may actually pick them from the tree to prevent bruising.  Another busy time of pre-harvesting in the garden.

Monday 15 August 2016

Finishing Carpentry Work

This week, rather than spending it working in the garden, I undertook difficult task of fixing issue with one of the windows.  The window as in great shape but part on the bottom that holds slider (casement window) was rotten.  I inquired with company that does custom fixing and they quoted me huge amount of money for entire window replacement that would result in significant damage to stucco around the window.   To be truthful, they did state if I know finishing carpenter, he might be able to fix it.  Well, I decided to undertake this task.  After intense research into methodology, I purchased a peace of hemlock that would be used to build the replacement part.  The big risk was that was not sure of the extend of the damage and if I could not fix it, I would have to go with entire window replacement.  It took me two and a half hours to remove window, clean rotten peace of wood, build new part so it would fir perfectly and provide the same function.  Once I done this, I had to ensure that vapor barrier would be fix as well and new part would fit snugly into opening and perform the same way.   It was a successful project and it took so long as I approached  with philosophy " measure 3, no 4 times and cut it".  I actually had to pre-test before each cut, to make sure that the effect would be desired.  I settled part and with help of the glue, ensure that it is not moving and will serve as new support for existing window for long time.
This was very rewarding, specifically, knowing how much money I saved.  I have wasting resources and not trying to fix before replacing anything.  I am happy with the outcome and very satisfied with resolving the problem.

Quick update on the garden, weather is still crazy, so far there was only one day without storm in August.  Humidity is so high here, especially that we are not used to it.  This supposed to be dry climate and it feels the same  as in Maritimes.

Wednesday 10 August 2016

Quick garden update

I did not have a time or would not bring phone while in garden so few pictures to provide quick status on my garden.  Lettuce is amazing, cabbage is huge, tomatoes are turning red (slowly).  We have been eating our potatoes and beans.  With the rain, it is like a jungle out there.

 This is the first red tomato from the garden.  It tasted .. like a real tomato, can't wait for the next one (almost ready)

Tuesday 2 August 2016

Back to regular routine

Well, I was on holidays for past two weeks and left my garden in care of my in-laws.  It has been crazy month here.  It has rain for 21 days in July and total tally for precipitation in month of July (unofficial reading from my weather station) was at 215 mm (~8.5 ").  So lots of rain and add to it hot temperatures during the day, garden looked like jungle one we came back.  Since we had so many thunderstorms with hail, i have noticed that my apples are all bruised and some of them started to rot unfortunately.  That is hard, as we were so delighted to see fruit on new apple trees.  The big tree fairs a bit better due to canopy protection but apples show bruising, but at least at lower scale.
Tomato started to show some sign of color, have one red pepper (hot), we already have eaten potatoes, and those were soo good.  We have great crop on peas but beans are not as great and beats are in poor shape due to hail damage.
Once I have a moment , will post photo update.

Monday 11 July 2016

Hail damage

It is summer, summer in Alberta and probability of summer thunderstorm is pretty high, but is is possibility that one of these "severe" storms" will bring hail with it.  That was the reality on Saturday for us.
Dark clouds came with roars of thunder and lightening, next came rain, getting heavier and changing into hail.  Hail went on for at least 2-3 minutes, it was not big in size ( perhaps due to efforts of hail suppression program -info below) but big enough and duration that resulted in some damage to veggies in our garden (see pictures below).  Here in Alberta we have a hail suppression program that is financed by insurance industry and its mandate is to reduce hail damage.  We had some significant hail in the past that resulted in very high damage and insurance companies decided to run  suppression program.  The program works as follows.  When a significant storm clouds are detested and their intended direction pints toward more densely populated areas (cities), plain(s) are dispatched and they spread some form of silver iodide (or similar compound) that inhibits formation of rain and potentially of hail, but much smaller in size and softer.  In fact, one can observe reading from their Doppler radar and activity of both storm and cloud seeding aircrafts (here is link for curios http://www.wmiradar.com/alberta/latest_loop.gif).  It is animated picture loop but provides pretty good information.
One of my friend ask me why I keep tunnels covered during summer, well, this is the reason to protect some of the crops from hail damage.

Garden photo update (after the storm)


 Rhubarb suffered a bit of damage as well.


 Potato leaves were almost decimated (at least showed a lot of damage due to density)

 On the positive note, I am getting pretty good size tomatoes.

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Too much of rain?

No, not really, I rather have rain after such a dry spell in June, then no rain.  The only complaint I have (no one will actually listen or do anything about) is the amount of rain per time.  It looks like yesterday, we got 21 mm of rain in 5 minutes (for those who operate in imperial that is 3/4" ).  It was a lot in short period of time, bit of hail but small and soft.  It just too quick.  I rather stick to slow drizzle, but take any moisture.  My grass has shown sign of recovery and looking much better, still in some places, not 100%.  My little apple tress is full of apples (as shown i picture) and now will need support as branches are bending under wight of apples and this will get worst, as the apple fruit gets bigger.
Weather is very unsettle overall. In the past four days I think we had tornado warning in three of those days.  Some parts of the city got pretty nasty storms that included hail, Lucky, so far we just got a lot of rain at once.  I do not have to water garden and that is a bonus.

Sunday 3 July 2016

Photoupdate

Finally had a few moments and phone in my pocket so took some pictures in the garden. 
Things are growing well and with warm weather growing fast.  Seeds that I placed in the ground in place of frosted seedlings are germinated and growing nicely.  Big rain and subsequent little rain, provided enough moisture to stimulate rapid growth.
Potatoes started to flower and are huge


Cabbage in the tunnel
 As mentioned before, cucumber
 Tomato plants
 Beans full of flowers
 First tomato fruit inside the large tunnel
 I could not forget about rhubarb
 This is lettuce patch inside small tunnel

Tuesday 28 June 2016

Success ...

Finally, we were able to grow cucumbers in our tunnel, I mean actual cucumbers that one can eat.  I will post picture shortly.  I checked this weekend and noticed full size cucumbers tucked under the plant and was amazed by the size, I mean, was amazed as I tried before and got only small size and not even close to decent size.  This year I think, we will heave pretty good cucumber crop.  Despite late frost, they are producing and producing well.  I am pretty excited about this as this is first time I managed to get to this point.
Almost forgot, after rain, things started to show and there is a bit of optimism related to garden and yard.  Spend some time on Sunday aerating lawn in anticipation of more rain, though, rain did not materialize.  We might have  thunderstorm today and hopefully this will help.  Grass looks not too bad but still showing sign of distress (yellow patches).  Bad news, couple of plum trees might not survive as late frost weakened them and they look pretty dead.  I will give them chance and keep them till at least next spring, but little hope they will survive.
That is the nature of growing things at high elevation and possibility of killer frost in June.

Saturday 25 June 2016

Rain

What can I say, prayer were heard, it is raining and ground is wet. Nothing to add, very happyalongwith my grass that started to show a bit of green out of that happiness.

Tuesday 21 June 2016

Euro Soccer (football)

I forgot to mention, due to recent tournament, I might re-focus on soccer(football) for a little while.  Great soccer games, unfortunately mostly played early so I do record and watch them in the evening.  Yesterday highlights, Russia is out, Welsh players have eliminated Russians and are moving up.  So far, not too many surprises (perhaps should mention Albania great showing, big surprise here), Lame Portugal, really Ronaldo was , lets say boring and useless.  It looks like most of the star players don not shine during early stages of the games.  All I can say, game are pretty decent, good level and great entertainment.

Monday 20 June 2016

Weekend work

So this weekend I have decided to tend to my tomato plants inside of the large tunnel.  Rather than leaving them with limited support cages, I installed strings for supporting growth of the plants upwards.  Got a hint from my sister who is rather accomplished gardener in Europe.  In fact I visited her last week and was amazed at her garden, but she has it easy given the elevation of +- 250m above see level.  She is about month ahead of my garden, as her tomatoes outside have already fruit the size of small apples.
Anyway, we did remove some "suckers" and  bottom branches on plans that have flowers and hopefully this will spur faster growth and fruit development.
Yard is in terrible shape due to lack of moisture. We had rainfall Saturday night and in all only got 2.09 mm according to my weather station gauges. That is nothing.  It was also exceptionally windy whole weekend and that result is further loss of moisture.  Grass look terrible and desperately waiting for any type of rain, forecast call for 60% chance tomorrow, hope this will materialize.  All we can do is hope now.  This year el Nino deprived  our location of rain and usually, June is the wettest month here.
Will keep my fingers crossed for rain.
My Already distressed plum trees were infested with aphids, so had to spray them with insecticide soap hoping that this will remove that infestation.  Will have to repeat this treatment few time over next few day to ensure success.  They do not look well, these trees partially due to lack of moisture, as they are unfortunately outside of sprinkler reach so I need to start manually watering them.
So it was busy weekend in the garden but also, due to father's day, busy doing things with my kids, including them working on garden chores.

Friday 17 June 2016

Unwanted visitor

I discovered trespasser on the property in form of Northern Pocket Gopher.  I started to burrow  around some tree and brushes, I since I planted some apple trees last year and this year, I did not wanted to take chances that they may die as a result of the activity.  I decided to place special trap to try to get it.  First attempt did not work as it continue to dig more mounds and many holes appeared around the trees.  I could not determine which corridor was primary one and after investigating (flattening all the mounds) I discovered one that was rebuilt next morning.  I set the trap and nothing was cut in it.  It was time for the next step, flooding.  Got my garden hose and my trusty German shepherd to assist me in case it will come out suddenly, we embarked on eviction via flood.  I stuck the garden hose into the corridor that looked fresh and about 4' of hose went into it (I did attempt into multiple holes before that) around the water for about 20 minutes and ... finally give up  and walked away, but not before setting trap on that corridor.
This morning wanted to check if there was any activity in the area, so went to check and it seem like nothing has happened, until I looked at the trap and yes, in it was culprit.  Sad but unfortunately, that is what happens to trespassers (unwanted).  I am happy as the new tress were in real danger due to proximity to burrows.  I hope this was the only one (in general they are solitary like moles), but will monitor the situation.  Last year my neighbor has real infestation and he trapped eight of these creatures.

Thursday 16 June 2016

Photo update

As promised, I took time yesterday to get some photos to show progress.  In the mean time, yesterday morning we had a frost!, yes frost -1 deg C!!!!  Unfortunately, some of the potatoes and zucchini were affected, not in a dramatic way but zucchini a bit more.  I think couple of my outdoor tomato plants got significant frost bite.
Anyway, nature is unforgiving, in addition to frost is so dry that I spend few hours trying to save our lawn from completely turning brown.  Need desperately rain and nothing in the forecast, I would be happy even is thunderstorm materialized.
In the tunnels, different story, all growing fast and need to do some tomato "suckers" pruning and run line for support it.
Lettuce in the lower tunnel is healthy and ready ...
Cabbage just about to start forming heads..

Small tunnel view...

My rhubarb as you can see is about 4' tall


Potatoes , some showing frost burn
Another cabbage ...

 Tomatoes showing flowers


 Garlic plants

Well, my apple tree bearing fruit, hope it will  survive as they look great

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Update

I was away for few days and hence no new posts.  I am back in town and bit disappointed that despite forecast, we received almost no rain and as a result my grass is pretty much dying.  Yesterday there was threatening cloud but went wrong way. Garden is doing good, but some of my potatoes are showing strange sign of burned black leaves.  Not sure what that might be and how to treat it.  Will research as up to this point, my potato crop was incredible.
Once I have a moment I will post updates and photo from my garden.

Monday 6 June 2016

Heat ...

A typical situation for Calgary, now we are facing heat wave and temperature above 30 deg C.  Weekend was busy doing yard chores, mowing grass and planting bushes etc.  Since last bit of rain was over 1.5 weeks ago, it is getting dry and had to water few spots to preserve healthy lawn. Garden is doing very well, potatoes are looking very good this year. Looks like we had some frost damage and will have to re-seed some stuff, but in general everything is germinating.  With warm weather, especially at night, we are experiencing big grow in the tunnels and outside.  Had to place fences around beds to protect from rabbits that roam around despite my dog efforts.
It is nice to see most of the bushes alive and well, but still have some that have no leafs.  I think this has to do with very dry spring.  Still have hope that they will come around.
One of the plum trees that we have planted last year is coming from "dead" and produced some leafs and more expected.  Wife started giving up on it but I never lost faith that it will come back to life after rain.
Due to hot weather, forecast calls for storms so we may get some moisture, I hope it will not include hail.

Thursday 2 June 2016

New month

I got busy doing some work to the point that I had no time to write any updates in the past few days on my garden process. Well, it is doing pretty good, had only few placed outside that I had to reseed (maybe a bit impatient) but it looks like past frost did kill early germinated seeds.
My tunnel is doing even better.  Tomato plants are growing wonderfully and I will provide photo update soon.  My sister advised me to sprinkle a bit of dolomite around and it definitely had some positive impact or perhaps, this is my imagination that it did, as it may be natural progression and growth (maturing) of the plants.
On the other hand, here is a view of cauliflower plants updfate .












Monday 30 May 2016

Spring update

Yes, I call it Spring as it was typical Spring weekend.  Bit of rain, bit od sun and lots of work in the yard as grass is growing very well.  Spend most of Saturday with exception of the morning, that was dedicated to quick round of nine hole, on doing yard work.  We had to cut the grass, make it presentable and tend to dandelions again.  Did some mechanical extraction and  some treated with vinegar.  The last method does leave bit of spots as vinegar also kills grass around  weed, but at least no long lasting effects and it s not bad for environment. Chatting with my neighbor, I have learned   that spruce trees, especially (or all) young ones might have pest eating them from the top so wend and inspected and found couple affected. The cure is to cut the "crown" a bit below affected area and it should eliminate this problem.
Garden update.  Noticed some early seeded  veggies not germinating yet as frost might have killed them.  I did some re-seeding and now are focused  on protecting new growth from rabbits, so fences will go up this week.
Potatoes are doing great, in the tunnels things looking wonderful, especially lettuce.  I think we will start spreading the "wealth" this week as heads are big enough to be used for wide consumption.
My rhubarb is approaching 4' in height,  and already had couple of pies made of and I loved it (see below).

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Yard update

We had rain, we had snow, and now grass is looking great.  I decided to continue working or aerating my grass as we expect to get more rain (showers) and I hope this process will strengthen grass.  Young apple trees that we have planted this spring have produced flowers and now small apples.  We might have fruit from them, can't really believe it.  The ones that we have planted last year, only one has flowers and potentially might deliver fruit.  From my experience, in this climate one must wait at least coupe of years before getting fruit.  My plum tree looks grim (planted last year) but I have hopes that with so much moisture, it may spur to life.
One of the flowering apple trees....


Tuesday 24 May 2016

Green ...

.. grass is greener on the other side of the fence, I am happy to announce that no longer the issue LOL.  After lots of rain and snow fall (reported) the total precipitation over 35 mm, grass is so nice right now that I cannot complaint that my neighbor has nicer looking lawns.  Actually, I do not care as  much for looks but rather for health.  Moisture helped everything tremendously, grass tress and garden.  Once temperature move into twenties, all the vegetation will show sign of growth.  Update on the tunnel:  tomatoes are growing big, cucumbers are flowering and cauliflower is growing fast.
We have been enjoying lettuce, so far one kind, now butter lettuce is getting ready.  In a weak or so we will be sending lettuce to family and neighbors as we will have bit overproduction.

Sunday 22 May 2016

May long weekend and .. snow

It supposed to be start of gardening season here in Calgary and around, time when all gardeners would spend days planting and seeding, unless of course, they went camping.   Mother nature had  a different plan, started as a drizzle a bit of rain, and we needed it.  There was talk about rain and snow mix during the night from Saturday to Sunday and nothing.  Then came morning and what do we see, pretty heavy snow coming down and covering everything with white blanket.  Had to venture and try to shake the snow from branches to prevent them from breaking.
See for yourself ... first two are from the start, later two 30 minutes later, and after I shook snow from the trees (at least most of it).
Those who went camping, let's say, there is always a bit more snow in the mountains, so hope they took shovels with them.





Wednesday 18 May 2016

Spring in Photos

Decided to add some color to the blog, especially, since spring weather resulted in flowers and trees flowering.  Some of the observations below...










Monday 16 May 2016

Working Weeekend

It was warm (not too hot) this weekend and we had to wait till Sunday, as frost was still present on Saturday morning. Saturday, I have focused on "fighting" dandelions with vinegar.  Used at least 3 gallons to reduce spread of this plant.  I do not have anything against and lots of for, but to appease neighbors, I try to keep control of it.  Like I said, only use natural product.  Missed the early spring corn meal time due to dry weather so now spraying with vinegar.
Sunday, we have focused on transplanting the rest of tomatoes to outside garden and transplanted some of the pepper starters as well, but those into tunnel.  It is official now, no longer buying lettuce as we have now supply (two kinds of our won lettuce) .   I did some pruning and re-planting of the lettuce as it was pretty dense.  Will see if this worked (will check today).  The big thing this weekend, we have planted two apple trees that we have bought few days ago.  Given that frost treat has diminished and looks like overnight temperatures for Calgary are in 7-10 deg C range, even with 3 degree differential, we should be safe and hence decision for transplanting.  Long weekend looks like will be rainy so grass will grow after.  Overall, it was very busy weekend and productive one as well.  Now we just need to watch things grow (o maybe add some water) no more hard labor, just easy weeding.

Friday 13 May 2016

Snow ... frost.. typical May

Yesterday I woke up to snow covering my lawn, not too much but about 2 cm. This morning ~-4 dec C temperature, and it was cold.  Wend and inspected tunnels, after my wife indicated that doors are frozen in "big' tunnel.  Kicked the latch and opened, all seems to be fine, everything  looked ok.   Happy with this.  Bit worry about apple tree in full blossom and frost may cause some flower to be wasted, but I am optimistic that -4 was not cold enough to cause damage.

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Brrr ......

... it was cold this morning, very frosty, -4 dec C on my weather station monitor.  I noticed yesterday that my potatoes showed sign of frost yesterday so decided to cover those, also, lit candles in the tunnels overnight.  In the tunnels all looked good no visible sign of frost.  In the yard different story, we planted couple of lilac bushes and definitely a bit distressing sign.  I know they will survive as these are hardy plants, but still my wife was very upset, as she made decision to plant.  Well, it looks like we will have to deal with frost over next few nights, possibly snow flurries tonight. We will have to work on protecting things in the tunnels and outside, that is the life of gardener at high elevation ;-).

Tuesday 10 May 2016

Watching things grow ...

Yeas, that is what I do now.  All seeds are in the ground, all I have to do is, to wait.  Well, still have some starters to transplant outside (some tomatoes, cabbage) and plant peppers in the tunnel.  Will do that next week as this week seems pretty iffy in terms of low temperatures.  Those are hovering around freezing mark in the morning, the entire week.  I had to put thick handle last night in the large tunnel just in case.  Forgot to mention, Saturday night, northern light display were amazing.
I am hoping that radishes in the small tunnel will be big and ready for consumption by the next weekend.
So I am watching grass grow, garden becoming greener, my wife talking of getting some new ornamental bushes.  Almost forgot, the apple trees planted 1.5 year ago are blossoming wonderfully, maybe some apples,... no holding my breath as it takes at least couple of years min. to get apples.

Saturday 7 May 2016

Hot Weekend Update

Another hot weekend, my station recorded 30 deg C, so it was warm.  Worked in the garden in the morning and afterwards enjoyed staying in the shade.  Here are some pictures from my garden.
This is first cucumber flower (one growing in the new tunnel (transplant)).
Update on rhubarb- as you can see it is pretty much ready, but it will grow a lot more.

 
As I mentioned, my lettuce is ready and we ate it first time this weekend.
Another news, potatoes that we have planted on April 18 are now breaking through.