Mid-July Update

I know it seems like I went dark again on this blog, but I didn’t! Just been busily toiling away after the mad rush of getting everything in the garden (and building a new shady garden along the side of the house that will house perennials).

I like it when we go into maintenance mode. It’s fun to do the mad rush of planting in the spring, but after those crazy days I’m really into a relaxing quick check and weeding every day rather than hours under the sun.

I’m still anxiously awaiting my first tomato, which will be ‘Hardin’s Miniature’. I see ripening happening and it’s absolutely loaded with fruit.

All the other tomatoes are in various states of fruiting, with ‘Sherkhan’ being most notably the last to set fruit. ‘Platillo’ and ‘Guido’ are also having some fruit set problems with moderate blooms but lots of flowers falling off. They did start really flowering right when we got a summer’s worth of rain in a weekend, and I think that may have contributed to it, although they still seem to be struggling a bit.

My ‘Orange Tree’ also bit the dust, but fortunately my very lovely neighbours, to whom I gifted my extra plants, gave me one back so I have a plant growing again in my garden.

My ‘Slocan’ Snow Peas are going along great with loads of fruit. It’s tough not to eat them all and to let some actually come to maturity so I can replenish the seed stock.

My ‘Simonet’ corn started tasselling well before any silks emerged. I now have a few plants with silks, but I’m worried the pollination will be really poor and my harvest will be very minimal. I’m not sure if it was the hot weather or what that caused the weird growth, but I may go to a more traditional (but still OP) corn next year. The stalks are still quite small – they are supposed to top out at 5 ft, but they’re only about half that.

And my poor broccoli, one plant is doing okay, but the rest with the hot hot temperature and then deluge of rain are all basically dead. I’ll likely pull them and plant lettuce where they are instead. I had plans to do a sowing of cauliflower, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort with how hot it’s been. I still have a bit of time to think about it before I’d have to start them indoors for planting out in August.

Both my ‘Warba’ and ‘Chieftan’ potato varieties are flowering, and potatoes can’t be far behind. They are early this year even for early varieties (not that I’m complaining).

We’re also inches away from zuchinni season, which I am extremely excited about this year. I grow ‘Fordhook’ pretty much every year now because it is such an amazing variety for me. There are baby zucchinis growing, and I’m so excited for my new favourite zucchini relish that we’ve been out of for a month now.

Lastly, I planted much yarrow this year, because I love it and it’s a native flower. I’m looking forward to future years where the plants are bigger and I have vases everywhere filled to the brim with yarrow flowers.

My goal is for another update in early August, I should have much in the way of veggie harvests to share then!