Garden Update June 2016

Although spring seemed to arrive early, my cukes and squashes did not take well to being transplanted outside so early. I lost all of them, so I direct-seeded a new batch. I still kept the same types as before though, just a couple of each. My mother also gave me 1 spaghetti squash and 1 butternut squash plant, which are already flowering. The rest are about a couple inches high but doing well.

A couple hills didn't sprout though, so my husband has offered to put some heirloom pole beans in their spot. I'm fine with that. He also cleared another area of garden and planted roughly 44 feet of 'Green Arrow' peas. I know we're planting rather late (June 25th), but supposedly these peas do fine even in heat. That's why I chose them over the Homesteader peas. We're also going to plant some cilantro in the empty end-row by his potatoes, simply because that's his national herb.

He's become quite the avid gardener, and offered to build me bean/pea trellises. He enjoyed the project and shows off his gorgeous potatoes and onions to anyone who will listen.

The whole family chipped in to weed the garden thoroughly a few days ago, and despite having a very dry winter, we are having a summer filled with thunderstorms. I have only had to water my garden twice this year. Bring it on!

2015 Total Harvest

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz... and I just realized I never posted my total harvest count for last year! So here are the numbers. My husband took a more active role in gardening, which you can see evidence of in our potatoes. That's all he wanted, so we ended up planting nearly 90 hills of potatoes. We planted half our garden in corn, but it didn't seem to germinate, so we re-planted, and then it ALL came up! However corn never yields very good here, combined with the overcrowding and it was not impressive. So that's the third and last attempt at corn.

We have his sister living with us this year, so we'll have extra garden labour, however I'm working part-time and also pregnant, so that will be a hindrance to weeding and harvesting. Our oldest daughter is 5 now, so she will have her own little plot. She's decided on spinach, lettuce and carrots, plus there are already a couple strawberry plants in her bed so I'm sure she'll have fun tending it.

I planted several bulbs of garlic in the fall, so we'll see if they sprout. I already have one gentleman from the community who has said he'll take as many as i want to get rid of. There is also a couple that said they'd like to try some of the tapped maple syrup, which should be starting in the next couple days.