jillh's Blog at GardenStew.com

Spring has almost made it to Southern Ontario

jillh — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:01:38 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:01 am (GMT 0)

After a lovely winter with just the right amount of snow and some lovely cold sunny days we've almost made it to spring! I neglected to tell you about my gourd growing last summer and unfortunately lost some of my summer photos of the garden due to the computer crashing and not backing up. Lesson learned...the hard way.
We did grow the bottle neck gourds from seeds given to us from the colonial garden in Virginia and they did very well. The squirrels loved them!! They ate all but 2 of this variety and even chewed through the only one of the original shape (the birdhouse gourd) that grew. I was quite upset by this but happy to have rescued 2 of the gourds before they were eaten. I had 13 in total last year, it was a good crop. This year I'll stick to the more useful birdhouse gourds and it's time to start the seeds indoors. I will do that this week-end.
Here is one of our winter bird visitors:

Carolina Wren on peanut feeder ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

This beautiful little bird showed up in late October and I had to look a few times at the light colored perky tailed visitor to make sure of what I was seeing. I thought it would just migrate through but it stayed all winter and as far as I can tell was alone. It ate a lot of peanuts, coming to this feeder many times a day, just outside of our kitchen window. In mid-March it disappeared and I haven't seen it since. It was well fed and did not look thin or sickly so I hope it just moved on with the better weather. I have never seen this type of wren before and we are the very top end of it's range.
The house wrens were heard this morning so it's time to get the houses back outside in their places, ready for occupancy.
We've also had this visitor:

Sharp shinned hawk ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

I believe that this is the Sharp-shinned hawk rather than the uncommon Cooper's hawk which looks similar. It has been in the yard quite a few times, perching on the gourd trellis, the fence right beside the shrub where the sparrows spend their winter days tweeting (they are silenced immediately when he swoops down!) or the kid's trampoline enclosure.

Here are a few more birds, the photos were taken while walking on a nearby nature trail.

Cardinal on a cold day! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

My favorite, the chickadee ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Another first sighting for me this winter, a red-bellied woodpecker. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The Birdhouses are Almost Ready

jillh — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 23:05:00 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 3:05 am (GMT 0)

The gourds are dried completely and we turned them into a few different things. With this one I cut a birdhouse hole and pulled the seeds and the slightly damp "guts" from the inside. It was loose and shaking around inside.

Seeds! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Next the hole was cut perfectly (well, sort of, I eyeballed it with my Swiss Army Knife) and the house was left to dry out a little more. Seeds and guts from a gourd smell really foul.

The first birdhouse. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

And here are our projects. 2 birdhouses, one water cask with a wooden stopper and the fourth gourd, which is the only one without a shiny coat of polyurethane on it, is going to be a bowl, drum and cup combination. My son is making that one and he's quite creative so it will no doubt be interesting.

Finished products ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

I've planted seeds from these gourds in preparation for this years garden and while we were away in Virginia a few weeks ago (Williamsburg, what a great place) I asked one of the costumed interpreters at the farm if she had any spare seeds for the smaller bottle gourds. She did and happily gave them to me so I now have a bunch of those planted in a little seed starter.

Let the fun continue!

According to my calendar the wren arrived during the last week of April last year and the year before. The house will be out there and ready for him. While in Williamsburg we picked up a "bird bottle" to hang up in the yard as well. Check them out by googling that word and Williamsburg and you'll see some great images.

Scrub a Dub Dub, 4 Gourds in the Tub!

jillh — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:06:20 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:06 am (GMT 0)

The gourds dried out a lot in the last couple of weeks. It has been dry here and I put them in a sheltered spot. It also has warmed up to incredibly unseasonable temps for March so they are well thawed. The seeds move around in a damp clump inside the gourds when you shake them. The seeds and "guts" (think Jack-o-lantern carving) are free from the sides now.
We brought them in the house and scrubbed off the remaining skin and the slight slimyness that became apparent when the gourds were wet.
The shell is amazingly solid and seems to be impermeable to water. After scrubbing them they dried out again in a few minutes sitting on the heat vent.

Scrubbing off the outer skin ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

We drilled a hole in one of the gourds for a birdhouse and shook and pulled the seeds (still a bit damp) out of the small hole. There were lots and lots of seeds which I'd be willing to mail to people as long as I know it's legal, perhaps I could only mail them inside Canada? I'll have to look into this.

Once I find out what to use to shellac or seal the gourd I'll do that and then out it goes, into the lilac bush where the wrens love to build their nests. It's right outside our family room window and shades our dog house (crazy wren) so we get a perfect view of all the activity and the babies growing older.

A little help from my son ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Gourds in Winter

jillh — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:28:35 -0500

Author: jillh
Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:28 am (GMT 0)

Since things have thawed a little bit here in Southern Ontario I have started to think of my garden and the blog again. The gourds continued to dry all winter. First the outer skin turned slimy, brown and black in places, grew some mould too.

Gourds in Early November ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

By mid-winter the gourds were lighter and the skins had started to peel.

Rotting of the Outer Skin ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

I picked them in late February and we brought them in the house to scrub off the skins. They were frozen and once thawed in the sink began to leak brownish liquid from inside. The pulp and seeds were still pretty wet so I put them back outside to dry further. The hard shell is formed now and they are at least 1/4 of their original weight.

Gourds in December ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

They will stay outside drying another 4 weeks or so and then we need to start building bird houses so that when the house wren arrives, around late April, they are ready for occupancy.

Gourds in February ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Maturing Gourds October 09

jillh — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:35:17 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:35 am (GMT 0)

It's been a long time since I've written. The gourds stopped growing in size in late August. It was quite a sight to see them after we had been away for 12 days. 4 were huge and 1 was much smaller. It has now started to rot but the other 4 are quite large and healthy looking. They still weigh a lot (about 10 lbs I'd say) and some have nice darker green patterns on their shells. Now the waiting continues. The leaves are turning brown and withering and the gourds will start to dry up slowly and harden. I'll pick them around Christmas or I might leave them out all winter to dry on the trellis.
We have a September blooming clematis which, had I believed the package instructions, would have been planted in the correct location. I didn't think that the tiny vine I bought 5 years ago could possibly ever by 15 feet long. It is! It goes in both directions along our fence in the middle of the yard and takes over those sections of garden. This week-end we will try to move it to our arbour at the back of the yard which means we also have to move a climbing hydrangea and a climbing rose. Wish me luck!

Large clematis beginning to take over fence. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Larger harvest (note nosy weiner dog) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The gourds are growing

jillh — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:11:04 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:11 am (GMT 0)

It's amazing how fast these things grow. They are kind of like those zucchini that you turn your back on for a few days and poof, you've got a meal for 6.
On the website whose growing guide I have been following we were told that as of the beginning of August not to bother pollinating flowers anymore since they won't mature in time for harvest however I'm banking on the fact that I live 3 blocks from Lake Ontario and we get the lake effect so really, I am in another zone than the gourd farm people....I hope.
By the time they said to stop I only had 3 pollinated gourds. As of tonight we have 10 or 12.
Here's how we pollinated:

Pollination! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

and here is the gourd trellis as of August 8th. I've cut all the ends of new vines so that the plant will stop making vines and will start pumping all the goodness into the gourds.

Trellis August 8th ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The gourds themselves grow rapidly. These 2 were pollinated on the same night, back around July 30th I think.

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The second little gourd to the left of my hand was pollinated just a few days ago. I think they grow about 2 cm in girth and length each day.

The poor veggies have been neglected in this year's blog. They are doing well except our tomatoes (terrible year for rain and not enough heat here in southern Ontario) and the runner beans which are taking up tons of space and not really producing much. I didn't trellis them properly and the vines are all over each other. Maybe they are knocking the beans off by being to jammed in.
We're eating bush beans, zuchs, there are potatoes in the ground but this year I'm being patient and not digging any up. One good way to make your produce look good is to feed it to visiting pet rats (we babysat them, great critters). They each had a 2 cm carrot from the garden and I wish I'd taken a photo. It looked like I grew huge carrots if you used your imagination....

More Wrens and Excitement in the Gourd Patch

jillh — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:06:36 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:06 am (GMT 0)

Well, it's official. I'm addicted to my gourd patch. I come home from work and the first thing I do (after feeding the weiner dog who is doing a lovely dance at my feet and nipping my ankles) is check on the gourds.
Here are the amazing springs that are holding my plants really solidly to the trellis and will hopefully be supporting some heavy gourds very soon.

Springs! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Tonight we had some excitement. I think this female flower actually opened yesterday but I missed it (even with all that checking) so I pollinated it today by folding back the petals on the male flower and touching it a few times to the female stamens (is this the right name?). We could see some pollen that moved over so I'm going to hope that the little gourd that is already there will grow huge!

Flowers (female, petal-less, in front, male in back) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

There are quite a few vines growing now that are secondaries and from those are a few tiny female buds.

Female bud ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

There have been 4 zucchinis picked from the garden and 2 large bowls of snap and snow peas. The weather has gotten a bit warmer this week and we had 1 dry day after 5 or 6 wet ones so maybe things will grow and not rot as much. The raspberries weren't too good, rotted on the vine and some zuchs blooms fell off. The tomatoes are not producing too many fruits but it's still July.

The wrens have returned and are now occupying the house that the male stuffed full of twigs back in the spring. I didn't even realize that she was on eggs (she is very stealth) until I heard babies yesterday and saw her bring food in. The male is helping out again this time which is nice.
Here he is with a neat looking bug and below he is passing the bug to the female who is inside the house!

Mmmmm dinner ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here comes mom out of the house:

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

And mom returning with a really good looking caterpillar:

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Our weiner dog, Willy, had a rather surprising and stressful day. Usually he sleeps and eats and goes for walks. Today he discovered a skunk over the back fence and promptly got sprayed on the face. While he plowed (all dog owners will understand this term) to get the offending ick off of his face I went to the house for some cleaner. 4 cups H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide, 3%) to 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 tsp dish soap did the job really well of removing most of the smell and oil. During his cleanup I was checking out his ears, where he got a good douse of spray, and tried to smudge off a brown blob. Willy winced and I looked closer. It turned out to be a tick which I didn't even think we had around here. We live in a suburban neighbourhood with lots of bushes and trees but it certainly isn't the woods. It was not engorged, in fact I think it had just attached itself today. With tweezers and a steady hand I pinched it on the head and pulled (had to pull hard) to get it out. It came out clean and is still (8 hours later) swimming in a water and H2O2 solution in a bowl....amazing critters! The poor dog hasn't gone near the back fence all day and still smells a bit. His ear is also still rather sore.
Talk about an exciting day!

July 21st First Gourd Flower!

jillh — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:36:23 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:36 am (GMT 0)

I now understand how someone can become obsessed over a plant and turn it into a livelihood! I just found a website today of a gourd farm where they produce 375,000 gourds per year. It's in California so they certainly a growing season advantage over me however...I have a flower! It's a male flower so I still have to wait for the females to be produced before I can work my paintbrush magic at dusk.

The trellis on July 20th ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Male gourd flower July 21st ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The veggie garden is very green and bushy now. My tomatoes exploded in size, I just have to get out there to trim out the suckers. The runner beans are in full beautiful bloom. We've been eating snap and snow peas for a week now and since it's been really cool here the lettuce and spinach has lasted and not wilted or bolted. Next week I suspect we'll have 20 zucchini (neighbours, look out!) and a couple of raspberries ripened the other day. Summer eating is here!

July 13th, 09

jillh — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:17:20 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:17 am (GMT 0)

Lot's of things are happening now that we've had some sun and regular rain. The male wren is still out there singing up a storm and I think I saw the female and little ones in one of our shrubs the other day.
The garden is producing lots of snap and snow peas and the scarlet runner beans have hundreds (maybe more) of beautiful flowers. The tomatoes have flowers too finally. They are a little bit late I think. I need to thin my carrots and have learned that the place i put my beets this year is the wrong spot. Not enough sun at all but once the peas are finished I'll yank them out and give the beets more direct sunshine.
The gourds are my shining glory. I am loving watching them grow 2-3 inches per day. We were keeping our eye on the biggest vine which was creeping up the chain link fence so it was easy to tell how much it had grown each day. It is now growing side vines and in another week I'll cut the main vine and encourage more female flowers from the side vines. I am looking forward to being the fertilizer fairy with a paintbrush when there are both male and female flowers out there. So far there are just male buds on tiny stems.

Potatoes, Zuchs and Herbs ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Main garden ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Sweet Pea Vine ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The biggest gourd vine, making the bend. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Smaller gourds, catching up. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

June 24th, The wrens have fledged!

jillh — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:09:36 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:09 am (GMT 0)

This morning at 6:15 there was quite a bit of action out at the wren house. I had to leave for work so I couldn't watch for too long but the babies were sticking their heads out to get food from the mom and there was a lot of noise. At dinner they were still in the house but by 8 pm they were out and in a tall spruce tree making "chk" noises while their mom had a fit squaking at them (and me).
Here she is on Monday afternoon after a trip into the house with some food:

Mom Wren ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

And here is one of the babies (you can see a beak easily but not much else):

Baby! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The gourds are growing now that we've had some heat. I put some ashes from our fireplace on them as suggested on one gourd growing website. They are supposed to have a high nitrogen food for the first month to get the root system strong and grow lots of leaves. I promise not to take another photo of boring leaves! The next picture will be a blossom...cross your fingers for me.

Gourds coming along slowly ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here are the potatoes which have grown exponentially and need to be mounded. The zucchinis have also grown a lot in a week. I think we'll have far too many zucchinis....

Taters ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

We ate some lettuce from the garden this week. The spinach has no flavour when it's in salad with a dressing and it got some strange disease or bug. It has beige dead patches on most of the leaves in a small section. Could it be water damage? The short variety of snap peas has produced some pods that are eating size. The 6 foot tall vines are massive with huge thick stems and lots of flowers.

Snap peas ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Mmmm, look at all that lettuce (up front) and the peas. I can't wait until they are ready!

The main garden ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Garden Update Mid-June

jillh — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:20:00 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:20 am (GMT 0)

The garden is growing! It's finally warmer here so things are doubling in size. Below are the cukes (tiny things in front left), potatoes just showing out of the ground, rhubarb behind, zuchs to the right and raspberries behind.

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here is the main garden. Lot's of stuff in here now.

Garden on June 16 ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

This is our main flower bed and it's just about to burst with poppies and peonies. I have to move a bunch of things because the Japanese maple and magnolia have doubled in size in the last 5 years.

Flower Bed ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Peony ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Mom Wren (not happy with me) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here is the wren just coming out of her house to fetch another caterpillar (hopefully out of my lettuce). I went up close to the house to see if I could see any babies but it was too dark inside. The mom was scolding me terribly!

Tree of Life

jillh — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:29:16 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 1:29 am (GMT 0)

It's one smallish, perhaps 8 year old, 13 foot high red maple that the wren house is hanging in and wouldn't you know, out of all the trees and shrubs in our yard (hundreds) a robin chose the same tree and has a nest 5 feet above the wren house! I discovered her on Saturday when I noticed that robins were chasing each other around the yard and quite often starting or finishing their chase in this tree. It think that must have been some mating and now she's happily sitting on the nest and feeding from my bug supply.
I hope they both continue to eat well from the vegetable garden which is just a few feet away because there are a lot of caterpillars this year and some have already made holes in my lettuce!!
Photos to come of the robin after I figure out how to get a decent shot. The zoom lens has trouble focusing on one little thing in the middle of the lens.
The baby wrens (number unknown) can be heard clearly from the house which is 15 feet away so they are obviously growing well. The male is feeding them this year which is something that we didn't see last year. They are getting a bug every 2-3 minutes whereas last year it was every 5.
The garden is looking great. Potatoes showing some green above ground now. Lettuce in full swing, spinach too. Salad for dinner tomorrow night, our first big meal from the garden this year. The peas are almost at top height and some have flowers. Runner beans are starting to climb up the trellis. Gourds have 4 leaves now...it just got warm here. The tomatoe plants I bought are a good size, those I started from seed are a bit small. Beets, carrots, 2 inches up, Bush beans had to be planted again because only 2 grew. Zuchini are at 4 leaves and cucumber is really slow for some reason.

Baby birds!

jillh — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:59:26 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:59 am (GMT 0)

They finally hatched! The mother wren has been flying in and out every so often over the last 3 weeks and finally there are the quietest peeps coming from the house (I pressed my ear to the back of it to hear them). So far it sounds like 2 babies. It's really cold out tonight so I guess mom is in there covering them up. The real action in the yard will start now with her picking all the inchworms and caterpillars, moths etc from my gardens to feed the fast growing babies. It only took about 2 1/2 weeks, maybe 3 max, for them to fledge and then leave the nest. I'll get photos when I can. They are such amazing little creatures.

The Gourd Trellis

jillh — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:29:05 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:29 am (GMT 0)

We have a neighbour who trimmed out a bunch of dead cedar hedge so I asked if I could have the wood for a trellis. They were happy to give it away!
After doing some reading and looking at photos I realized that I was going to need something more substantial than a small section of the chain link fence. Some of these vines exceed 10 feet in length and I put 5 plants in the ground....hmmmm.
I plan on being out there in the evening with my paintbrush pollinating (I'll wear a black and yellow jersey to trick the plants!) so that I can maximize my yield. A few years ago I tried a birdhouse gourd plant and got only one gourd. I wasn't sure why the flowers kept on falling off but now I know. They weren't pollinated and I also didn't know the males from the females. I've got it down pat now. There are some great websites out there now.
So here is the trellis and a close up of the little plants which just went into the ground last week.
Wish them (us) luck! The wren will have more houses to stuff next year if I'm successful!

Gourd seedlings ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The Gourd Trellis ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

June 5, Garden Update

jillh — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:09:26 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:09 am (GMT 0)

The seeds have been in the garden for a few weeks now and some things are bolting (the peas!) and some are slow (the tomatoes). We need some heat and sunshine I think.
I'm not sure what to do with our spinach. It is normal size spinach so should I leave the leaves that are there and wait until they are a bit bigger or can I pick some of the smaller ones to use early. Will more leaves grow if I pick some of the first leaves away?

Lettuce, spinach, beans and snap peas ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

My cucumbers have sprouted but are not growing too quickly at all. I hope they'll pick up. The zucchini are doing well as are the beans (all these are from seed). The snap and snow peas are 3 feet tall at least and I see flowers on a few plants.

The trellis is being built tomorrow. I now have enough cedar to build a fairly large structure. There are 4 gourd plants, 2 planted on each side of where the trellis will go. I had to dig up some grass for the garden spot and our soil is naturally sandy (we live about 500 meters from Lake Ontario) so I added a wheelbarrow full of our compost to it.

The house wren is still singing non stop around the little house, trying to woo his sweetheart even though I think she's already sitting on HIS eggs! She chose house # 2 that he stuffed full of uncomfortable twigs. I'm still waiting for the day when she is coming in and out every 5 minutes to bring food to the babies.

Male wren "wooing" ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Female wren on her way to the house ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Female wren at house ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

The Vegetable Garden May 2009

jillh — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:24:13 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 1:24 am (GMT 0)

That wonderful time that we have all looked forward to during the winter is finally here. The seeds were purchased back in April and the peas, lettuce and spinach went in 3-4 weeks ago. This year I bought some vine snap peas since the short ones I had last year didn't produce too much. The snow peas were terrific, they were 6 foot vines so I found some 6 foot tall snap pea vine seeds.
We also decided to save some more space and chose some scarlet runner beans this year as well. The lettuce is now up in the first row and the spinach has made it's first baby leaves.
At the Canada Blooms garden show in March I bought some $3.89 birdhouse gourd seeds (12 in the packet!) and started those indoors as well as some heritage yellow pear "cherry" tomatoes. I sowed oh, about 18 tomato seeds and I'll never ever be able to grow (or eat) them all. We have limited space! I've given a few seedlings away already. 5 of the gourd seeds have sprouted and now after reading one post by a gardenstew writer who only planted 1 seed and had a vine cover her entire chicken coup!!! I think my 5 seeds will be plenty for my small alloted space for the gourds in our yard.
Next task: make a trellis to support the vines and keep them off the lawn. I need some creative advice now. Ready? I have 4 48" tall old cedar hedge trunks which are quite strong. I have a couple of 36" long thin cedar hedge branches and one 6 foot long trunk that is skinny. Hmmmm, how to put these all together beside our chain link fence so that the trellis that is built is supported also by the fence and the gourds can grow down through the "roof" of the trellis. I can get some heavy gauge wire mesh (really heave chicken fence) from my husband for the roof. I think I'll make it 2 feet wide and about 6 feet long. The 48" poles can be the posts at each corner and the other branches can support at the sides. Any other crafty ideas???
We have wrens who have nested in our wooden houses each year for the past 3 now and I'd love to give them some more homes.

( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Bringing twigs to the nest ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Here comes the next twig ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

Harvest, glorious harvest!

jillh — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:48:27 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 4:48 pm (GMT 0)

This has been so much fun. I am completely addicted to my garden and like many of you I'm sure, am already planning next years rows.
Over the last 2 weeks we have picked more beets, another handful of beans (I pulled all the plants out except one) 6 brussells sprouts! 6 lbs of tomatoes, many of which were dented and bruised from the hail in August. These tomatoes were skinned, bad bits removed and frozen in ziploc bags for soups. We've eaten another 2 meals of pan roasted cherry tomatoes and I've picked 4 good sized zucchini. There are still more to come! We also picked a bunch of our carrots which were rather stubby and wide at the top. The longest was about 4 inches, maybe 5 but a good 1 1/2 inches across the top. Our soil was so airy and soft this year that I thought we'd have long skinny carrots. Any ideas?

In our effort to eat locally I bought 3 baskets of Ontario peaches which were excellent and large this year and processed those into large jars for winter. I think I will do pears this week-end since the peaches look so good. When the kids saw what I was doing they both said "oh you're making those kind of peaches, we love those!". It will be nice to compliment the apples we'll be eating all winter.

I may take our Arctically challenged contributor's advice and bring the root veggies in to keep in sand over the next couple of months. We don't have any potatoes to store (they were put into a Shepherd's Pie by accident when Hubby was cooking) but we'll have lots of beets and carrots.

Here is a mid-Sept dinnertime harvest. Note the Weiner dog trying to steal a tomato.....

It's finally drying up in Southwestern Ontario

jillh — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:51:08 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:51 am (GMT 0)

I am back after being away for 9 days and am pleased to say that the garden looks great. The zucchini plants have grown new leaves and are acting as if nothing happened at all. If zucchini had water glasses they would always be half full!

I had a friend pick some things while I was away and she brought in 2 nice sized zucchinis. She also picked a half full 4 quart basket of cherry and grape tomatoes so we had those for dinner as follows:

From the Barefoot Contessa at home cookbook by Ina Garten (great name huh?)

Garlic and Herb Tomatoes

3 T olive oil
2 t minced garlic
2 pints cherry tomatoes
2 T chopped fresh basil
2 T chopped fresh flat leafed parsley
2 t chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Heat the oil in a saute pan large enough to hold all the tomatoes in one layer. Add the garlic to the oil and cook over medium heat for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, basil, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5-7 minutes, tossing occasionally, until the tomatoes begin to lose their firm round shape. Sprinkle with a little fresh chopped basil and parsley and serve hot or at room temp.

I actually added zucchini to the pan after I scooped out the tomatoes and that was delicious too.

There have been 7 or 8 full size tomatoes ripened up over the last week and they are delicious. Most of the ones with the hail damage rotted on the vine except a few which I'll cut up into something.

Check out the bean below, it was left on the bushes and I just found it today. It's about 9 inches long! My kids split it in half and ate it...a little fibrous???
The snow peas are still producing even though the vines are drying up.

I dug up my 3 potato plants that were in the garden today and this is my harvest. We had some for dinner and the flavour was so much better than the ones I grew in the 2 black pots.

I had a pleasant surprise today as well as seeing the good harvest, my raspberries are starting to ripen. I bought some canes from a nursery a few years back and have moved them at least twice trying to find a spot that I like for them. This year they grew very large and they seem to be a really late variety. They ripen in Sept. I live near Toronto and that is about 6 weeks later than the usual raspberries around here. I'm not sure what variety I bought, I'm just happy that they are going to make fruit!

Shredded!

jillh — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:03:39 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:03 am (GMT 0)

Well, it seems that things were pretty badly hit. I didn't take any photos today (our first day back after the week-end away) since the garden hasnt' really perked up the way I thought it might after that storm. A lot of the veggies have holes in them (green peppers) and the zucchini and tomatoes have dents that have made blemishes. The underground veggies have their green tops half flattened. I think they will still be fine. The bean leaves look like they have been through a mulcher and the snow peas suddenly look tired and are browning. My potatoes look miserable! I think I'll go digging tomorrow and may just dig them all up now. It's been since June 7th or so that they have been in the ground, does that sound like long enough to do what they should? They have flowered (about 3 or 4 weeks ago) and one of them has those little buds on top that I thought I read meant that the spuds should be picked asap.
I'm not giving up! There are lots of tomatoes on the vine still. We ate a huge red one tonight in a simple salad with feta, chopped fresh basil and some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was excellent. The zucchini look like they still have plenty of new flowers along the vines.
It was sunny and beautiful here on the week-end and as soon as we arrived home today it started to thunder and rained a few drops, now it is rumbling again. I actually yelled out loud that it had rained enough already and to quit it. I had a glass of wine after that.....

HAIL (not Caesar, but the cold damaging kind)

jillh — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:39:17 -0400

Author: jillh
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 1:39 am (GMT 0)

We have had crazy weather this year but today's hail storm seems to have taken first prize. It came down once, small gravel sized balls, not too bad, for about 3 or 4 minutes. Then it let up a bit, started again and lasted 20 minutes. It was so forceful that the lawn looked like it was making popcorn. The deck and places where the eaves come to a corner and are chutes for rain had piles of hail on them. It got really windy at one point (a little scary for the kids and us too) and the hail was being blown through the trees shredding them with their force so there was leaf matter flying all around the yard for about 5 minutes. It was a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz!
Here are some photos of the aftermath. Thank goodness it did not turn into anything serious.

The leaves:

My poor zucchini!

The snow peas in the big garden:

The beets, carrots and brussells sprouts whose leaves just snapped right off. Argh!

The hail did this to the tomato stems which were exposed and running horizontally:

Look at all the cherry and grape tomatoes it knocked off! There were 2 full size ones on the ground too.

Yesterday's harvest, before all this crazy hail hit!

I'm hoping that over the next few days it will dry up and the leaves will stand upright again. It is supposed to be dry here for 3 days in a row. That's a first for the last 2 weeks! We've had daily storms.