... is coming along nicely. De laundry, not so much :)
I am in the process of a crop rotation. The brassica bed is bolting in this heat, I simply can't keep up with the kale and chard and broccoli it is producing. The spinach and lettuce that were in there have long since gone to seed. Likewise with the peas - we simply planted too many in too small a space, and we can't get to them all, they can't be properly staked, and the few bush beans are being crowded out.
So, the brassicas are being cleared to make way for a few successions of fall carrots and beets (maybe onions and radishes a little later). Some peas have been pulled for now (but not all) to make room for the better-staked varieties and for the beans (pink and edamame), as well as to clear room for fall brassicas (more cabbage and broccoli, as well as cauliflower and maybe Brussels sprouts).
The fall peas may need to wait awhile, as I'd like to put them in the bed that is currently home to cosmos, zinnias, dahlias, asters, nasturtiums and sunflower seedlings, all planted in hopes of mid-September blooms to grace my wedding reception tables. I will start some peas in pots and transplant them into that bed when the flowers have been harvested.
The tomatoes are sort-of doing something. Despite an early start, they weren't doing too well in the bed they were transplanted into. The soil wasn't up to snuff. So we ripped them out, improved the soil, and started again with the other seedlings that hadn't made it into the garden due to space limitations. So we currently have small plants with very few flowers, and even fewer tiny green tomatoes. We are planning to build a 1"x1" frame around them and wrap them in poly for the fall in hopes of getting vine-ripened tomatoes. Usually, we get only green tomatoes, which we ripen on newspaper in the basement.
The squashes, in the new beds, dug out of a shady area of our lawn by an over-zealous house guest, are beginning to take off - they've started to climb in search of sun. First they twined up a dwarf Alberta spruce right beside the bed, and then a ladder left leaning up against the shed beside the spruce. Okay, my sissy actually wound them around the ladder - she likes the way it looks :) We got our first zucchini yesterday - better later than never!
P.S. I think I will add some photos, but a little later, when sissy and her super-cool camera are around - mine takes sucky pictures in comparison.
So, most of this didn't happen. Ah, perchance to dream, there's the rub! to misquote Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteNothing got planted, except for some lettuces and a few varieties of brassicas that I purchased in fiber packs at a local (expensive!) nursery. They were super root bound, and they didn't make it into the ground until the first week of September. They're doing alright, but I wish they were bigger. Alas, next year - I'm not getting married next year, I'll have tons of time, right?
The tomatoes got blight, which really supervised me, for two reasons. First, our place is really windy! It is at the top of the hill, and our garden backs on to our neighbour's driveway, and then their sub-division street for about two blocks. Second, the hybrid varieties got it before the heirloom varieties - what?! I guess the soil is still crappy. We filled the bed with compost from the city dump - it is comprised of whatever people put in their curbside bins, so I'm guessing mostly grass clippings and chipped up prunings - too much nitrogen locked up in decomposing stuff? Next year, we'll add a second tractor scoop of 'veggie mix' from the bulk soil place - it is the most amazing soil I've ever seen available as a commercial mix; it makes stuff grows like stink.
Yes, I'm dreaming that next year will be better, next year I'll have more time! Actually, I anticipate I will, because I plan to apply to my university's Indigenous Studies certificate instead of the regular summer semester courses. This is an intensive, 12 credit program, occurring over the summer intercession rather than the full semester. Thus, I'd be done at the end of June, and I could take all of July and August off with the boys - how fun!! (unless I hate it, then how terrible for me!!)