Gardening 2019

[maeve]

We've all been so busy we didn't start a 2019 gardening thread!

I'm picking cherries this week. What are others planting or harvesting?

[meganl]

sadly I don't have a garden now I cant kneel down to tend it so just lawn which the housing association cuts

[maeve]

Yes, I understand, megan! I wish I could build you a raised bed garden. You could sit or stand to tend your veg and strawberries, etc. Something like this one would work well:

Vegtrug 

One can even fit such a bed with wind barriers and trellises!

[maeve]

Yesterday we started thinning the apples and commenced summer pruning on all of the bearing apple trees.  I'll use the healthy thinned apples to make pectin for jams.

Today I've pruned the twenty or so tomato plants to allow light and air into the interior of the plants.

Next, I potted up:

• Thirteen "Concord Seedless" grape rooted cuttings
• Twelve "Frontenac  gris" grape rooted cuttings
  
• One heirloom rose moved here 20 years ago & dug up this spring
• Five clumps of Ostrich fern from a friend (for starting a new fiddlehead patch)

• Four varieties of hosta (funkia) - fifteen 1-gallon pots
  
• Three varieties of daylily (hemerocallis)- two 2-gallon pots, 5 1-gallon pots
  
• Three  5" pots of foxglove (digitalis) volunteer seedlings
  
• Three 2 gallon pots unknown color cymbidium orchid
• Six 3-gallon pots purple cymbidium orchid
• Five 2-gallon pots milky green cymbidium orchid

I've been busy.

 

[ragdall]

Goodness Maeve! You have been very busy! Such a lot of work. You must be exhausted?

I hope that all your hard work will result in very healthy plants and vines. How long does it take before grape vines bear fruit?

I haven't been able to kneel for a few years, either. Before planting my over-wintered geraniums out I weeded with a long handled tool. It didn't do as good as job as I would have done if I could get down to weed properly, but it was better than nothing. My flower beds are overgrown with weeds and whatever will grow with little encouragement. This year they feature Oxeye Daisies and Maltese cross, as well as very persistent invasive weed called Creeping Bell-flower.

The bell flower has long stalk covered in lovely pale purple bells. I've been allowing them to bloom, because the flower beds really need some colour. I'm trying to pull them out and dispose of them before they go to seed, though.

The rain seemed to agree with raspberries. Mine have been taking over a flowerbed I created a couple of years ago after my big trees were removed and the backyard saw daylight again. I've been picking the berries as they ripen. Tonight I made a raspberry cobbler. The batter is made with eggs, sugar, oil and flour, no salt or baking soda/powder, perfect for my husband on his sodium restricted diet.

The Saskatoon berries are ripe too. I still have plenty in my freezer from last year, and don't feel up to climbing the 8 foot ladder to pick more. I called my granddaughter with a message to tell her parents and siblings they are welcome to come and pick all they want. Nobody has showed up yet. I think there will be lots of happy crows and other birds.

Today I started pruning off small branches that are heading in directions that will cause problems if they continue. I had to stop when a thunderstorm came in. If the rain stops long enough I'll try to remove more tomorrow and make a trip to the community compost bins with the cuttings.

[maeve]

How long does it take before grape vines bear fruit?

If I've chosen good cuttings and if they grow well, they might bear a small cluster of grapes next summer, but I'd remove all flowers for at least a year since initially, I am most interested in root and leaf growth for strong plants.

Bellflowers- If they are one of three species of so-called Ladybells (Adenophora), related to the campanula family and originally Asian, they have a fleshy white root like a carrot. That root must be removed to really get rid of each plant.  They are lovely and wildly invasive here, and you are wise to prevent seed formation.

Edited because I wrote way too much the other day. Nobody wants to read all that about gardens they'll never see.

[ragdall]

Hi Maeve,
Thank you for answering about the grapes. Gardening requires a great deal of patience and faith.

Yes that is the kind of main roots the bell flower has. It's very difficult to get all of that thick root out in one piece and I suspect that it takes very little to regenerate. The bell flower also has a mass of tiny fibrous roots that choke off every other plant they are near. I'm sure this is a fight that I will never win. It's far too invasive. I see them everywhere I go around town and also have notices them growing in all the nearby yards.

[maeve]

I have them on the run in most of my gardens by using compost and deep bark mulch- the roots move upward to the looser soil where I can remove the little monsters. Where they are worst is a large sunny garden that's not been dug over for years. That's on the list.

In gardening we do what we can and enjoy what is there.

[ragdall]

I should try piling on compost, then watching for the sneaky roots to rise. I think they know they have found a lazy gardener and have little to fear here.
On the bright side, the Bumblebees who have been struggling with the cool wet summer and virus, seem to enjoy the Bellflowers. My colony died out, but there are still some around from other colonies.

[maeve]

There are worse garden bullies than the sneaky bellflowers! Good news of the bumbles. This morning our bumblebees (a couple of species, one large, one small)are enjoying proper campanula bells, hosta flowers, anise hyssop, spiderwort...all in lovely lavender blue hues.

I've just remembered we once had a bumblebee colony buzzing in and out of a hole in the siding of the old house.

[maeve]

Picking a lovely first harvest of peaches, our single (first harvest) plum, and crabapples today. Pulled cucumber vines and see enough small cukes I can pull off of them to make one more batch of tiny whole pickles. Now picking the rest of the tomatoes, both ripe and green, and pulling the vines. I'll transplant collard greens that volunteered near the bird feeder stump into one of the empty beds. They will grow and flourish until hard frost.  Late plantings of beans and summer squash will have clear plastic film wrapped around corner stakes with a cover over the top at night. Carrots, snap peas and lettuce planted just 3 weeks ago are doing well and won't mind some cool nights. I picked the Dudley Winter apples already (made into pies and applesauce), while Sweet Sixteen, the russets, and Cortland aren't quite ready. 

This week saw me making mustard pickles and another batch of dilly bean pickles, and I dried several pounds of plum tomatoes from the garden (fits into one quart jar, dried!) and a couple of pounds of portabella mushrooms from the market (two quarts so far). As the rest of the plum tomatoes ripen I'll dry them as well.

I miss our little international chats here.

Sending warm regards to everyone!

[maeve]

Today I harvested two kinds of winter squash:  Table Ace acorn and 'Sunshine' ) kabocha  

Also, I dug tatties (potatoes): Bora Valley, Salem, and AmaRosa. The fingerlings aren't ready, so will need to be covered  for tonight's frost.

[maeve]

Yesterday saw our 20+ year old well pump replaced with a new one. It seemed wise to get it done before winter when the work would be much harder, and before the pump failed. We are fortunate we could have it done- the old one was in very poor condition, and sending bits of rust into our beautiful, clean water.

While they worked I canned a seventh batch of fruit jam, then picked two bushels of apples from our Sweet Sixteen apple tree-  first real crop for it. About one bushel seems good enough to wash and store, the rest are perfect for two or three fresh pies, applesauce, dried apples, and preserved pie filling for later in winter.

Maples, birches, and other hardwood tree leaves are changing to autumn's quiet and roaring fires of color. I re-potted all of my little orchids this morning, and bathed the little group of African violets (saintpaulia) as well as repotting a big staghorn fern I had dropped a few days ago in preparing for the plumbers' visit.  I must get the windows and sills washed soon so we can bring in all of winter's houseplants before real cold arrives.

I've a feeling no one will read these for weeks, but at least there will be something to read!

[maeve]

Another garden entry for the echoing walls.

I picked the Cortland apples, Kings Mills crabapples, Seckel pears and our very first nearly two bushels crop of Asian pears yesterday. I also brought in most of the house plants from the back porch, for the lovely little grey tree frogs were contemplating hibernation in the pots, and that would be the death of them. They need to remain in hibernation, not wake up in the warm house in the middle of winter! I also picked the Frontenac Gris grapes. They're taking many hours of patient picking off the clusters and sorting out green and poor grapes before I can turn them into preserved juice and jam for winter. We still have baskets of apples and tomatoes awaiting my attentions.

[ragdall]

Maeve, Congratulations on getting the well pump replaced. Has it been working well?
I marvel at the amount of energy and time that you have been putting in, with all the harvesting and preserving you've done. You are truly amazing!

I've been keeping busy, slowly doing the tasks that need to be done before winter arrives here. Small acorn squash have been forming on the plant that sprang up from discarded seed in last year's compost box. They have no hope of maturing before frost kills them. I haven't been out in the yard yet, to check if the plant was able to survive our first frost Sunday night. It was only a few degrees below freezing.

We had ample warning that a cold front was coming. The 50 geraniums that spend summer in flower beds, have been happily back in pots on basement window ledges for several days.