Status Report: August 2024

Sitting: Inside with all the windows open and the AC off.  While I'm ever thankful for the air conditioning on those sweltering hot summer days, it's sure nice to be able to turn it off and just enjoy the fresh breeze coming in the windows. 

Been busy with: the garden always keeps me busy but my current (ongoing) project is beautifying the cottage space. When I had it built a few years ago the intention was to have it be dual purpose. A garden cottage to store all my garden supplies as well as guest cottage bunkie.  We did have a surprise guest for a week long stay a couple of years ago and I quickly turned it into a bunkie with an inflatable bed, night table, privacy curtains, lamp, fan & charging station. After seeing how cute it looked with a very rushed "hurry, turn that into a bunkie!" job, I'm even more excited to see how it will look once it's all done. There is much work to do from insulation, sheetrock, better lighting, additional shelving, building a small storage loft & probably 10 other things I haven't thought of yet, but it's a project I'm very pleased to be working on. I'm enjoying watching the YT channel Made by Mick while he renovates a storage area off the side of his house, turning it into a small apartment for his daughter. Getting lots of ideas on how to translate some of his techniques to what I'm aiming for in the cottage.  

Re-evaluating: the garden for next year.  Every year I dial it in just a little more.  I've had a lot of fun growing experimental items and I do dedicate a small space every year for that but I've toned that down the last couple of years to spend more time growing what grows well here, and what grows well for me. Also re-evaluating raised bed areas for spots that currently don't have them. For my piece of land, raised beds tend to produce much better results than in-ground planting so I'm planning on adding at least 4 more for next growing season. 

Feeling: Kind of sad that the growing season is coming to an end in a few short weeks. Technically, my growing season is from mid May through mid October, so there's roughly 7 weeks left, before we're looking at the first frost of the year.  Although there really isn't much time to be sad, since fall zips by faster than it should, and between mulching all the falling leaves for free garden bed mulch, there are roughly 32 million things to take care of to put the garden to bed for the winter.  My carrots are doing amazingly well this year and I've decided they'll be the last to harvest, after the first hard frost.  An old time farmer told me they're ten times sweeter if you leave them in the ground until then, so I'm taking that advice as Farmer Gospel. 😊

Looking forward to: The next round of canning!  On the list to finish out the summer will be zucchini bread jam, Cowboy Candy, and my world famous homemade ketchup.  Okay maybe not world famous but my kids & grandkids, in-laws & outlaws all love it, so, that's good enough for me. 

Well, that just about does it for this month's Status Report. 

Thanks for stopping by and checking in! 😊 I hope you have an incredible day. 

Garden 2024 Update #12

Mid August is also mid season for harvesting & canning. I've been busy with a lot of both, from my own garden & the local farmer's market for the freshest possible goodness. 😍 Canned so far this season have been garlic dills, bread & butter pickles, peach sauce, blueberry sauce, fruit syrups, peaches & pickled carrots.

Well then, let's go on a walk through the garden:

I couldn't be more delighted with this year's blackberry yield so far. 

This is year 3 and so far it's produced 1.5 pounds of berries. 

By comparison, last year it produced a handful. Literally 😂 

Looking forward to enough for a lovely, late summer blackberry pie. 

Lemon Balm on the left, was growing in a pot. 

The one one the right, I planted from seed last year, indoor greenhouse overwintered, 

then planted in the raised bed in the spring. If plants could talk? 

The yellowing one on the left would say "I'll have what he's having!" 😀

My Scarlet Runner beans never fruited this year but they did provide this lovely, living decor 

over the arch trellis. Over the last few seasons this trellis has had pumpkins, squash & beans.  

Next year, I'm looking forward to trying something different.  

Some days the harvest looks like this. 

Tomatoes, sweet roasting peppers, jalapenos, pickling dills and some chamomile flowers. 

I counted and tried to be accurate and I *think* there are 46 jalapenos here on these 12 plants. 

I've already harvested a handful so that's a pretty good return. I'm seed saving this year so, 

next year, Lord willing, the entire bed of peppers will be 100% homegrown. 

I finally got my act together (mostly) and tidied up the dining room canning shelf. 

I'm going to add another shelf to divide the section 2nd from the top. 

(More space for jams, jellies and sauces!)

Home grown & home canned food is not only better for you, it's also really pretty sitting there on 

your pandemic era lockdown project #436 "canned food shelves" mostly with lumber you had on hand. 😁 

My new Hibiscus Mars Madness bloomed today. 

Flowers will be used for tea blends. 

Concord grapes and sweet potatoes are both doing really well this year. The grapes will be 

generously pruned this fall and the grow bags for the sweet potatoes were just a test. 

I may be replacing them with a permanent raised bed this fall or next spring. 

First time Elderberry grower. I have 2 plants, and they're both doing amazing.

Terracotta Yarrow early blooms. So adorable. 💗

Thanks for stopping by and going on a pictorial trip through the garden. I hope it encourages you to use whatever space you have to grow what you love! 

Garden 2024 Update #11

With the end of July this brings us into mid-season for my growing area here in 6a. All of August, September and roughly half of October are left until our last frost date. It almost seems hard to believe we're already at the mid-season point but so far the garden has been mostly successful.  

Here's how things are shaping mid-season:

A common sight first thing in the morning. 

As I always say, it was really nice of me to buy an inflatable hot tub for my cats. 😂

Some of this year's potato harvest went toward one of my favorite freeze dried items: instant potatoes. Such a great way to put up food for long term or even short term.  

I make my mashed potatoes (skins on) with just milk, then freeze dry.  

These three small trays were just over 6 pounds and it all fits into a quart jar. Wild, eh? 😄 

To make mashed potatoes, I add 1/2 cup boiling water to just 3 tablespoons of mashed potato powder, a little butter & salt and pepper.   Mix well and let sit for 2-3 minutes to fully redydrate.

Last week's Mutant Tomato (has been seriously upstaged)

My single surviving cucumber vine is still producing incredibly well.  

This is part 1 of a 2 part experiment.  The old wives tales tell us you cannot clip off strawberry runners and plant them, you have to leave them attached to the mother plant and allow them to root naturally where they are.  Well, that's part 2 down below.  I clipped all of these off about 2 weeks ago and they're doing just fine so far.

My landscaping staples were far too long for this, so I improvised and used the handle ends of clothes pins to pin the runners into place inside the little pots. 

My sweet potatoes had really been stuggling until about 2 weeks ago when they finally starting taking off. I can only guess that it has something to do with the heat & humidity, which we've had in abundance over the last few weeks.  So far they're doing better than sweet potatoes have ever done in my garden so I'm happy with these results so far. 

Last year this Honey Crisp had 2 apples.  This year it has 10! 

In this area of the garden there are elderberries, rhubarb, hazelnuts, blackberries, lilacs, dill, cilantro, basil, lemon balm, butternut squash, potatoes, carrots, raspberries and hibiscus.  My goal in turning my wee piece of property into a thriving Food Forest means using every available space for growing something edible, medicinal, herbal, or all of the above.  

This Musk Mallow grows wile alongside the garage in full shade all day. 

It's not only beautiful, it attracts loads of bees and it's beneficial for a variety of medicinal uses.  

My first ripe Pink Ponderosa tomato this year.  

I thought last week's Mutant Tomato was wild, but it's got nuthin' on this week's specimen.

My raised bed runneth over. With carrots that surround the peppers. 💖

Ed says, he approves.  😁

Thanks for stopping by and taking a stroll through the garden with me. I hope this encourages you to get out there and grow your own as well!

Garden 2024 Update #10

Other than a sad loss of cucumbers this year from constant rain and flooding, the garden is pretty much right on track.  I'm also including some fun pics of my walk at the river, because there's always something cool to get pics of.

This is my volunteer tomato plant looks to be a slicer!  Growing in the same pot is a strawberry plant, and some purslane that I posted a pic of last update.

Doubled in size since last week. Each time I've googled this plant, from any angle, it tells me it's a Black Mulberry. If you're a mulberry grower, I'd love to hear from you to confirm!

Sometimes, harvests look like this. My wee basket of cherry tomatoes and spearmint for the tea jar.

Spotted this dude on the blackberries.  Google tells me he's a Snipe Fly, or a Rhagio. 

I'm going with Rhagio, as it sounds like a cool name you might find in a Tolkien story. 

On the way to the walking path at the river, I spotted this lovely creature.  It didn't appear afraid of me at all, and let me get about 4 feet away, taking pics.  I'm more or less a Disney Princess now. 😂

Cool structure spotted in the woods, that wasn't there last week.  Lots of kids play in these woods so I suspect one of them or a group of them decided to build this. Very impressive!

Scarlet Runner Beans showing off in the middle of the garden 💖

First batch of garlic dills this year.  Half were mine, the other half I had to pick up at the farmer's market.  Cucumber Lane will be getting an overhaul this fall after the season is over, and I'll be building two new raised beds there instead of planting directly in the ground. 

Just being a Disney Princess again as these two doves let me walk right up to them. 💖

Thanks for stopping by and taking the garden stroll with me 😊

Garden 2024 Update #9

The garden is in full swing this first week of July, and with that also comes loads and loads of mosquitoes, and a spot or two of powdery mildew on my cucumbers and bee balm.  I use the baking soda, dish soap & water recipe to keep it at bay, and it seems to work rather well.  Here's some pics I've snapped over the last couple of weeks in and around the garden.

I transplanted my raspberries this year and they're not producing nearly as well as I'd hoped, so this lovely batch of raspberry jam comes from berries I picked up at the local farmer's market.

This delightful jar of magic potion is a Wild Young Country Cherry wine. This is a new adventure for me, and if you'd like to try it as well, the recipe is here:  Wild Fermented Young Country Wine

A wee harvest of Yukon Gold potatoes, garlic, chocolate mint, holy basil & pickling cucumbers. All of my garlic gets dehydrated then turned into garlic powder for my own seasoning blends (eliminating the need to ever buy it at the store, for the last several years).

Some lovely Sugarbaby Cherry tomatoes

I picked up a couple of Elderberry bushes from the local greenhouse.  This one is called a York Elderberry, and the other one is called a Scotia Elderberry. I've never grown elderberry before so I'm doing a lot of homework on these beautiful berry bushes, and very much looking forward to some homemade elderberry syrup and maybe even an elderberry pie.

Last year I had 9 berry clusters on my one year old Chester Thornless blackberry bushes. This year I have more than 50 clusters!  I'm really looking forward to them ripening next month and a big, beautiful blackberry harvest.

Beefsteak tomatoes doing well

Small batch of Heal All for drying.  If you have this growing in your back yard (and odds are, you do) don't waste it, use it up! Here's a great article on how to ID it, process it and use it: Foraging and Using Self Heal 

While this is not my back garden, it is just a 5 minute walk away, and where I try to get at least several walks in a week, in my ongoing effort to stay as active as I can.  It's a beautiful path along the Thames River here in southern Ontario, lined with lush foliage that includes numerous cherry trees and wild raspberries. 

Whoever said plants can't talk, never met these 3 amigos. 😁 

My raspberry bush on the left, peony in the center, and hibiscus on the right are all desperately leaning into the eastern side of the yard where the sun is unobstructed by the giant maple tree canopy.  What these plants are saying is basically, transplant me, or get that Maple tree trimmed back.  Both will be happening at the end of the season. The peonies will be moved and the maple tree is getting a long overdue trimming to pull the shade canopy back & allow more sun into the garden.

The Scarlet Runner beans all the way to the top of the 7.5 foot trellis

I've had several volunteers show up this year, and this Purslane in the spring onion pot is just the latest.  It joins the volunteer tomato also in the same pot 😊 Most people consider this a weed but did you know it's actually a food?  Here's a good article on the health benefits of Purslane, or what Chinese folklore calls "the vegetable for long life". 

In my ongoing attempt this season to beautify my space, I've addeed these window boxes and these pretty solar lanterns on both the north and south sides of the cottage.  The cut out pattern on the metal lanterns casts a most lovely light along the wall of the cottage at night.  The window boxes contain Mojito Mint I picked up for half price since they were mostly dead.  I've been able to thankfully bring them back to life! (The next beautifying my space project will be to build a wee front porch deck for the cottage, and get rid of those paver stones.)

My volunteer tomato plant. It's always a fun surprise to see volunteers show up.  Last year, I had so many volunteer beets growing in the compost, I harvest them all & canned a batch of pickled beets.  Free food! 😁

Another volunteer this year.  Google lens tells me this is a Black Mulberry.  Funny thing is, I almost bought a Black Mulberry bush earlier this season, then changed my mind and thought I'd pick one up later.  When I went back, they were sold out.  A week later, this showed up in the raised bed where my butternut squash are planted. 

Thanks for stopping by and going on this fun stroll through the garden with me. 😊