Summer is almost gone.

Its been cool out these last few days. Which has been welcome. There was even a frost warning last night for northwestern Maine.

The garden did ok this year. Not great but acceptable.  My tomatoes got blighted out, but they were productive enough we ended up with plenty of good ones we were even ablevto share a few.

The kale was , as usual, spectacular.

The butternut winter squash has done well too. I managed to get 8 very niced size squashes. The delicata plant that survived gave me 4.

The cucumbers did ok. I was getting about three every other day, but then the vines just dried up.

I was not able to keep up with the green beans, but i planned on saving the seeds anyway.

The elberberries have done nicely too. I managed to pick a pound and a half and de-stem them over the course of a day.  I plan to make syrup ou
t of them if i can find the time.

The grapes were beset by Japanese
etles so they look pretty sad.  Last year i sprayed them along with the apple tree, but i abandoned my schedule for spraying... no apples this year though we are nibbling grapes off the uneven bunches.

The Carmine Jewel cherry plants are doing well,  leafing out nicely. So are the beach plums and the seaberries.
The goji surprised me and flowered.  I have even picked 6 or 7 berries and there are more yet to ripen.

I would have had lingonberries if my youngest daughter hadn't plucked the green berries off.

The prune plum is growing well despite even more Japanese beetles, the autumn olive is growing like the weed that it is. The Jerusalem artichokes are going like gangbusters despite the powdery mildew they have.

The summer squash were delicious while they lasted, which didn't seem very long.

The big thing this summer has been the Aunt Molly's ground cherries!  They are very sweet and good, tasting like non-acidic pineapple.  My youngest daughter loves them. Every day she picks a bunch and eats them on the spot.

The weeds did get away from me again this year but not as bad as last year!


Well this is my first attempt at posting a full entry from my phone, so we'll see if it posts.

test two

from my phone

A lot going on actually

I just don't know where to start.

The blueberries are almost done,  we've gotten a number of overflowing handfuls of beautiful, flavorful berries this year. That's even with my youngest daughter grabbing the unripe ones before they all started to ripen.

My tomatoes are going strong.  We have many green tomatoes growing and sizing up.  We ran out of tomato cages this Spring so only about a third are caged up,  the others are kinda growing naturally-- which i know is going to turn into a big mess, lol.  I know they can be staked,  but that takes pruning and its way too late for that.   Besides,  after all my reading i still don't get how to stake and prune tomatoes.

Out weeding and my daughter pulled up my Kai Lan Queen kales.  I guess its ok.  We haven't more than snacked from them.  If i grow them again i'll do a whole row,  they don't seem to produce enough tips for a meal all at once if you only plant 3.

Three days ago she picked our first Golden Zebra summer squash.  It was a little small (5 inches or less) but it was crisp and flavorful.  I'll plant it again.  More are on the way.

Funny thing happened to one of my beach plums and one of my cherry plants.  The main stem seems to have died,  all the leaves crumbled and dried,  but both are resprouting at the roots.  They are on opposite ends of the yard and looked like they got hit with Round-up or something.  Butthey are coming back strong anyway.

The green beans are flowering right now, looks like a good potential crop.

The weather has finally cooled down,  we'd been dry and hot for the last 2 weeks the lawn is going brown in places which has my hubby all annoyed. 


Well thats it for now.  I'm still working on getting my phone working for posting,  hopefully i'll get some pics up with it soon!

phone test

Phone thing

Well the phone thing isn't going well. For it to work,  i had to switch from my Yahoo account sign-in to my Google account.  Fair enough.
But on my phone,  Google does not recognise my password which i have reset about 5 times now.  I don't know what is going on,  but it stinks!

After a few weeks

I've been busy,  not so  much in the garden but with fun family stuff.  The garden is doing well,  things are getting huge.  I'd like to post some pictures soon.

I got a new Droid Razor phone the other week.  I've been playing with  it.  I used to have just a basic flip phone which didn't even have a camera,  but this is a really cool phone.  The camera on it is better than my actual camera.  I think there is a way i can take pictures on the phone and upload them to and post on Blogger.  I haven't figured this out yet,  though i did figure out how to get things on Facebook.  So i'll be posting pics that way if i find that it can be done and i figure out how to do it.  If not i'll go back to actual camera and cable.

Well so far summer has gone nicely.

There are a ton of grape clusters,  we've gotten some nice handfulls of blueberries and they taste wonderful.  The York and Nova elderberries are in full bloom.

The temps have been  wonderful, mid and upper 70's.  We got a lot of rain about 3 weeks ago, but its been pleasantly dry since.

Well,  i'll go play with my phone and do some weeding this evening.

Photo post

Grape patch

Autumn Olive,  growing like the weed that it is.

The healthier of the two Carmine Jewel cherry plants

Blueberries and Lingonberries

Lingonberry flowers

Blueberries in fruit

Side bed all filled up

The less impressive Carmine Jewel cherry,  i hope it survives winter

The Yard

Wild kitty in my garden,  digging in the bean row

Other end of the Yard

Autumn Olive a few weeks later-- even bigger than before

Goldbeere Elderberry

York (left) and Nova (right) Elderberries

Caerulea Blue elderberry

Grape row

Full garden shot

Photo shortly after getting most everything planted in.

I've enjoyed things so far this year.  I have managed to keep up with the weeds at this point- using my scuffle hoe.  Keeping my 3-year-old and feral kitties out of the garden has been the main challenge.  I lost a cucumber plant the other day to one of the two. At this point, its too late to do anything about it.

Next year i definitely have to get an earlier start with seeds,  i held myself too tight this time and then ran out of time.  The older my little one gets,  the easier it should be,  i'll be able to direct her away from things more easily. 

Its been a cool couple of weeks,  its been in the 60's during the day,  40-50's overnight.  We are expecting 90 degree weather in the next few days,  the cool air does not seem to have damaged anything,  but things like the beans are growing slowly.  The tomatoes are about to bloom though and the grapes are in full flush right now.  The cukes and squashes have just kind of sat there.

We'll see what a few days in the 90's can do to get things going.

Finished planting

I weeded everything with my old garden weasel, then dug the last two rows.  Then i planted the squashes and cucumbers and the three Job's tears seedlings.  I also planted a third row of green beans.  The ones i planted a week ago still haven't come up,  its been a bit cool out so hopefully its just that.

I've had not-so-good germination this year.

  None of the 3 Beit Alpha seeds sprouted,  only one of the 3 Delicata squash sprouted,  out of 4 Spacemaster cukes, only 2 came up.  The Banana Legs tomatoes sprouted 2 out of four.  Happiness came from the Golden Zebra summer squash.  Every seed came up,  i actually had to thin them.

I managed to get everything done just before some thunderstorms blew up,  so everything is being watered in naturally.

Its  supposed to be sunny and warm through next week once the storms clear out tonight.

Cats in the garden.

Not my cat,  hes a 100% indoor gentleman.  Its the neighborhood cats that get me.  They like my garden as a litter box and they scamper across the rows.  They also use it as their own fighting arena.  One night a tomato plant got broken due to a squabble.  I mounded the soil up around the broken part of the stem,  it has recovered  nicely,  but it still was annoying.

Its still better than woodchucks (which i haven't seen yet).  There's a rumor of a fisher in the area. So i think its likely that it may have been hunting them.  They also go after cats, so though the cats bother me, i hope they won't be killed like that.

Drenched

We got some good rain this weekend,  its been a steady downpour since Saturday evening.

My hubby wanted me to try those Jobe's fertilizer spikes for tomatoes since our soil is so sandy we suspect much of the fertilizers get washed away rather quickly.  I poked them in the other day,  i expect them to make a difference.

My squash and cuke seeds and seedlings are still in the flat,  they are going slow and some are not germinating at all.  I'll be lucky if i get one Delicata plant.  The butternut are large though and almost ready to go in.

I really started them too late,  but the germination  percent is quite disappointing. I planted two seeds in each pot.

The rain has overflowed the flats so i'll need to drain them...again.  So much rain,  its been steady for almost 3 days now.  I expect my green bean seeds have been well watered by now, lol

Stanley will have to be staked again,  the water on his leaves has him bending down  alarmingly once more.  I'm still not understanding this pruning thing,  i simply don't know what needs to be cut.  I let my grapes go this year,  it warmed up way too fast for me to get in and winter prune,  so i'm letting them go just to see what it "looks like" when they grow on their own.  I think i have enough of a handle on how to prune grapes that i can make repairs next spring.

I need also to make name plates for my plants.  I'm not sure how i'll do this.  They are outgrowing their nursery tags and they'll have to be removed .....  and i'm forgetful. I want to know who is who.  I am very disorganised at the same time i like to be precise.  I'll spend hours charting and graphing,  but in the end i just wing it.   Like this year.   I mapped and plotted with my Grow Veg subscription,  but when it got  down to it,  i didn't print it off,  i just dug in and planted.  This year i didn't even label varieties,  some of the tomatoes i recognise by sight this year (pruden's purple, san marzanos and aunt molly's ground cherries) and the kales (red russian and kai lan queen),  i know where the beans are.  The squashes i'll know by the time they grow and the cukes will sort themselves out.  Once the rain stops and i can start digging again,  i'll plant them out.

I did find my camera cable (yay!)   but no pics because of the rain.  I plan to do a picture post soon. Maybe i'll do one of those "Wordless Wednesday" posts i see other bloggers doing.

Beans

I planted two rows of Provider bush beans today. Time will tell if i have set myself up for inundation or not.  But then i usually plant double the seeds in the same area of row, so this may actually be the right    way to go.

Oh,  i found the first firefly on my hubby's shoulder  this evening,  i was pretty cool.  We were out having a cigar  and there it was. Brilliant!

Thunder and rain

It would have been nice to know we were going to get heavy rain overnight and today.  I would have planted bean seeds.  Last night the forecast called for 0.08 inches of rain.  My guess is about 3.0 inches of rain.  It was nice, however,  to be woken up a few times last night by flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder.  I find it relaxing.

If i had known,  i would have finished mounding and digging the rows and planted those green bean seeds,  i don't like to manually water if i can help it.  It would have been perfect.

But the tomatoes are enjoying it and the kales and ground cherries. It has been on the dry side since i planted and the rain was really needed.

Still,  it would have been nice to know! lol

Ginger Beer

I haven't tried making it yet,  but soon...oh, soon!

From "Not Dabbling in Normal"  is a great tute on homemade ginger beer:

http://notdabblinginnormal.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/make-your-own-ginger-beer/

Kale

Got all the kales planted Sunday. At least the ones that came up...   i  know,  in reverse.  Kale should have gone in before the tomatoes.  But that's how i roll. lol

One of the Job's Tears finally sprouted.  That will be popped in when its finally recognisable so it won"t be mistaken for regular grass.

The Delicata squash are no-shows so far.  The only cukes up right now are the Specialty White and Boston Pickling.

Tomatoes Planted

Got all the tomatoes planted today.  What a relief to get that  done on time. 

Seasonal notes

Found the first Junebug of the year last  night. I'll have to watch the Seabuckthorn because i  guess the only things that bother them  are Junebugs.

Grapes are getting flower clusters already,  i counted quite a few.


My Hoya Shepherdi is blooming again.   Yummy scent!

The cucumbers are finally starting to  sprout.  Specialty White and Boston Pickling are the firsts....  oy vey, was i late starting them!

We've been getting that  humid,  rain\sun weather that can be so annoying.


I'm hoping to plant this Sunday and i wish i chanced it a few weeks ago,  it would have been a winning bet this year.  We haven' t had a frost in weeks.  The days have been about 70, so the soil has been warm. 

Squash and cukes, finally...!

Saturday,  i actually found time to plant the cuke and squash seeds.  I seeded three of each:

Delicata- bush,  winter squash
Butternut- bush, winter squash
Yellow Zebra, summer squash

Cukes:

Beit Alpha
Boston pickling
Spacemaster
Specialty White

I'm still not sure if i'm going to try starting my broccoli late as it is or buy seedlings this year.  I think i'll have to buy at this point.

It stinks because my goal all along has been to  grow my own stuff all from seed,  and eventually start saving my seeds so i don't even have to buy any.
I'm taking  some steps back this year because i just have been too busy or mentally 'off'.  I mentioned in the comments section of a favorite blog this morning, that last year's weed war was such a disaster that i'm almost afraid to garden again this year. It was so depressing. I've lost a lot of enthusiasm for gardening over the weeds.  When i was gardening in tiny plots and longing for a big garden like i grew up with,  the weeds were well within control,  but with my little daughter,  mental/physical issues and other stuff,  the big garden is more than a challenge.
But i won't give up.  I just have to figure it out.

The grapes are leafing out well,  the bloom on the apple tree has blown,  the lilacs are in full flower all the way to the tips of the clusters.   Usually they aren't like that until Memorial Day.  We're  about 2 weeks ahead this year.  Yesterday it was 80 and night temps were in the 50's.
My tomato seedlings are in full sun now and stay out at night.  My kales are growing well,  though they are small because i planted so darn late.

Well,  i guess that is it for now.  i have other not as fun stuff to do! ;o)

Last plant

My male Seabuckthorn came in this morning (Friday),  so that is the last of my plants.

Did i mention that my dad delivered me 3/4 of a yard of black mulch on Monday?  I expect it to be almost more than enough to mulch all the beds fairly deep.  I'll be working on that over the next few days or weeks if the rain stays away  ...after i get Mr Seabuckthorn planted.  He's acclimating right now.

Marechal Foch (grape) is the first to open leaves this year,  such a vigorous plant.

Some of the blossoms are dropping off of the blueberry plants.  I really hope something pollinated them.

It looks like i can gauge the timing of my grapes leafing out  when the apple tree is in full bloom.

My tomato seedlings look good,  i just put them out in the shade today (Saturday),  the night time temps look steady in the high 40's to mid 50's,  so i think its ok.   They have reached the maximum height of my lights,  so its time to get them some real light.  It will be time to sow more things in the next couple days.

All in.

Thanks to my hot, husky hubby all my plants (except for the male Seabuckthorn) are in the ground.  This includes the cherries which required the removal of 3 non-fruiting ornamentals which are waiting for my parents to pick up tomorrow. A few bulbs came up with them, daffodils and a pink hyacinth.

He helped me dig a couple holes before he wandered off to mow the lawn after the plants were dug.  I did the rest which wasn't too hard.

I am so relieved that its all done,  there's nothing worse for me than worrying over plants that are waiting to be planted.  I'm always afraid i'll never get to it and by the time i do,  it may be too late-- bare roots moldering in plastic or getting pot-bound or dried out in nursery pots.

But its all done and i survived the anxiety!


On another note,  the apple has opened a few blossoms,  the blueberries are almost in full bloom.  The Jerusalem Arties are annoyingly migrating to the more fertile edge of the garden....  hopefully, by making a walking path in the area and stepping on them will quell their enthusiasm. I plan to do a thorough (as much as possible) harvest of them this fall.
The kale are coming up now,  so i'm happy all in all.

Incoming Orders

Gawsh, i wish i had my camera cable!

My Raintree order came in and things are looking good.  The only thing that didn't come in was my male Seabuckthorn,  but its on backorder and will be shipped around the end of next week.

My order from Pinetree came in as well.

So looks like i am all ready but for the seed starting and digging.

I dug up the seemingly dead elderberry today,  it came up easily enough to do it totally by hand (no shovels or trowels etc.) which was interesting.

My Goldbeere elderberry is a beautiful creature.  It came as a 1 gallon potted,  it already has a flower cluster on it.  The other came as a bare root, so its not as impressive but it has some shoots on it.  Even the cheap Beach Plums (less than $5 each) are larger than expected.  The Goji are nice as well. The Titan Seabuckthorn looks healthy and sturdy too.  I am happy.

I'm also glad that i got the Golden Zebra summer squash this year too.

I am all enthused :o)