Watching and Waiting

Posted on September 5, 2011 by candace

Slowly but surely, tomatoes are ripening. Picked my first Ailsa Craig today.

I also picked from the tomato plant I bought at Superstore garden center. Other than that, it’s still cherry tomatoes and a couple of grape tomatoes.

They’re coming though.

And the Silvery Fir hanging plant has green tomatoes.

These photos are from the day after Tropical Storm Irene last weekend. I meant to post them last week but didn’t get to it. The predator fence out front was down again.

And one hanging plant and two tomato containers were knocked over.

All easily fixed, fortunately.

We had a quiet Labour Day Weekend. I was pretty tired by the end of last week, so I was glad to take it easy. Saturday we did grocery shopping and went out to dinner at Suwanna, but for the rest of the weekend we just hung out at home. Honestly, it was pretty great.

We like a quiet weekend around here. 🙂

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Potatoes, Onions & Garlic Scapes

Posted on August 28, 2011 by candace

This week was a bit of a blur, as most work weeks are. My impression though, is that our weather was a bit of a mixed bag. Some damp, dreary weather but also some sun. Thursday was definitely sunny and I did manage to get out and take a peek at the garden. It was pretty hot out even.

Pretty much right away I noticed Garlic Scapes.

Garlic Scapes

I have noticed them before, it just seemed like suddenly there were a lot of them.

I also picked a handful of Orange Cherry Tomatoes – some ready to eat, some not quite ripe.

Thursday's Tomatoes

I also noticed that some of my container plants were looking a little on the wilty side and meant to go in and check the weather, to see if I needed to come back out and water, but somehow that never happened.

Yesterday (Saturday) was a pretty nice day. We went out and did some grocery shopping earlier in the day, but I headed out to the garden late-afternoon-ish to empty my potato tubs. The plants were looking kind of raggedy, so I decided it was time.

One thing I do remember from the past week, any time I’ve been outside the mosquitoes have been vicious. It was windy yesterday, so I thought I’d be okay. No such luck. I ended up going back for my Mosquito Lantern. With the wind, I had a hard time getting it lit. I used 9 matches. I wasn’t sure if the wind would keep it from being effective, but it definitely made a difference. As long as I didn’t get to far from the lantern, I didn’t get bitten (and you feel these suckers when they bite you; vicious I say). I don’t want to know what kind of nasty chemicals are in these things to make them work. Please don’t tell me. I just want to not be eaten by mosquitoes.

Mosquito Lantern

Last year I dug up my potatoes one tub at a time. This year I just decided to do it all at once. It’s a bit of a messy job to do, since I can’t just dump them them out onto the lawn. I have to dig out the dirt and dump it into another container, which I then have to drag all the way around the house to dispose of. I got my exercise for the day. 🙂

Potatoes

I thought to myself that it didn’t seem like quite as many potatoes as we got from the potato tubs last year. But I wasn’t sure. I took them in to scrub them and Cory said he thought it wasn’t as many as last year. But it hasn’t been the best summer either, so I’m quite happy we got as many as we did.

I picked some more tomatoes – including some not quite ripe ones that I was worried would fall off the plants, since we have a storm coming (Tropical Storm Irene). I also cut some garlic scapes – I have no idea if there is a best time to cut them, I’m not sure how long these ones have been there, but I figured why  not give it a try. And I pulled a few green onions, which we used for supper. I keep buying green onions, forgetting I have them growing out in the garden, but this time I actually remembered.

Onions, Tomatoes, Garlic Scapes

And, while I was out there, I dug up a bit more garlic. I keep saying I’m going to go out and dig it all up, but so far I haven’t had a chance. A bit at a time is better than not getting it done.

Garlic

A couple of the garlic scapes are starting to open up – this one is the closest. So interesting to see these things in different stages of the growing season.

Garlic Scape Blossoming

I was happy to see that my Lemon Mint is starting to blossom as well.

Lemon Mint

The catnip plant is also flowering, and when I took a close up photo I realized that while they are smaller and white instead of purple, they are the same shape as the catmint flowers. Not a shock I guess, since I think they are the same family of plant, but I don’t remember ever noticing before.

After playing with the camera, it was time to see what I could do for the tomato plants on the deck. This week I noticed that the plants were all falling over to the side. It almost looked like something had landed in the plant and knocked it over.

So, I staked a bunch of the stalks to hopefully stay up.

And I gave it a little bit of water, but not a lot since there’s supposed to be a whole lotta rain coming our way. It actually is looking better today, after the rain we’ve had so far.

So far today we’ve had rain, thunder and lightning. Nothing too extreme. Hoping that’s the extent of the storm.

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Third Week of August

Posted on August 21, 2011 by candace

Not much going on in the garden this week. We had a little sun, also some rain and this weekend was mostly foggy and overcast.

I picked – and ate – a few more handfuls of cherry tomatoes. Lots of green ones out there though, just need some sun!

The surviving Silvery Fir Tomato in the hanging planter is looking good and has blossoms.

The usual feline shenanigans.

Frank

Zappa

This poor hosta out front has been mown down by the deer at least three times, but it’s trying really hard.

Inside the house, I broke into the new coffee that Stephanie brought when she came home last month.

Not only do I love the label (“Live long and savour” – how awesome is that?), it’s really good coffee. Thanks Stef!

And, since I managed to break a big chip out of our blender jar we bought a new blender.

And that’s about it for this week. Waiting for sun and tomatoes. 🙂

Posted in Garden 2011, Kitchen, Tomatoes | 2 Comments

Three Days of Summer

Posted on August 14, 2011 by candace

Finally, after almost 2 weeks of rain, we got some sun. And even had time to enjoy it. 🙂

It was actually sunny last Saturday, but we had to take Frank to the vet in the morning, then we went to a BBQ at Karl & Trisha’s that night so it was a busy day. That Sunday started out Sunny, but by afternoon it  started raining again. It’s been pretty dreary.

Friday was finally a beautiful sunny day. Cory & I both worked from home, and  while the weather was not the reason for that, I was certainly glad I was home to enjoy it rather than freezing in the  air conditioned office all day.

After I finished working I  went out to the garden for the first time in almost two weeks. I did some tidying up around the yard Friday evening. Yesterday Cory and I went out to brunch and actually were able to sit out on the patio at Britt’s Pub. After brunch we did grocery shopping and then I did some things around the house in the afternoon. Today I spent mostly in the garden.

I took a ton of pictures, but I’m feeling pretty tired (may have had a bit too much sun) so I will try to keep this short.

First thing I saw on Friday when I went out? My first ripe tomatoes of the season!

Orange Cherry Tomatoes

They got picked pretty much right away.

All of my ‘intentional’ tomato plants, except for the last two hanging tomatoes, have green tomatoes on them now. And the ‘unintentional’ ones that grew from cuttings or broken pieces of the two downed hanging tomatoes all have blossoms.

Speaking of which, this is the planter that I put the broken stems from the hanging tomatoes that didn’t make it.

Very determined plants.

My poor little pepper plants are also determined, doing their best to produce peppers.

And I will have a least a few carrots – not as many as I’ve had the past couple of years I think, but we will at least have some.

Today when I went out there was another handful of ripe tomatoes to be picked.

I did a bunch of weeding, starting from the other end of the garden where most of my herbs are growing. While I was weeding I could smell garlic and mint. It was very pleasant. While I was at it, it decided I should dig up a bunch of garlic to check on it as well.

Last week I returned the set of Solar lights that had broken and got a new set. Finally installed them this morning.

A lot of my flowers are done now, though I do have some still to come, but the heather I planted back in May has flowers now.

So pretty!

Somehow I never got around to eating the first batch of tomatoes that I picked on Friday, which is pretty surprising; normally the first few handfuls of tomatoes get gobbled up right away. What can I  say? It’s been a busy weekend, I feel like I’ve hardly stopped.

So, all together, here is my first tiny harvest of the summer:

I found 3 tiny pea pods,  which I ate. The cherry tomatoes did indeed get polished off after this picture was taken. I think Cory had two. I ate the rest. 🙂

My garlic is not as impressive looking as Dad’s but it smells really good!

I have a whole bunch more that I need to get dug up, and I think I need to dig out my potato tubs too. Plus more weeding.

So far the forecast for the coming week looks like a mix of sun and rain. Hopefully we will get at least one sunny day next weekend. Lots to do out in the garden!

Posted in First Harvest, Garden 2011, Tomatoes | Leave a comment

Frank vs. Fox

Posted on August 6, 2011 by candace

I kinda think Frank won…

Weather-wise, this has not been a good week. As sad as I was on Tuesday that our vacation was over, I’m glad that this was not our vacation week. It’s been rainy, grey and gloomy. It has cleared off enough in the evenings for me to take Frank out for a walk, which is good because he pretty much demands it.

I say “take Frank for a walk” but it’s more of a sit these days. He used to want to wander all over, now he likes to pick a spot and sit there. Things have flipped a bit actually. We can put Zappa out  the deck in his harness attached to a leash and he’ll stay there; Frank will wiggle out of his harness as soon as you turn your back. But now I can walk Frank out front, let him find his spot, and he’ll stay put for a while – sans leash (though I still keep an eye on him). Zappa doesn’t want to stay in the yard though, he wants to go explore.

Tonight I took Frank out to his favourite spot, then took Zappa out on an extra long leash and he was actually pretty content. I took a lawn chair and my camera out and played with my 55-250 mm zoom lens for a while, then just sat and enjoyed the evening.

Frank hiding in the grass

Really, he's in there!

Zappa

Zoom!

Look up....

Way up...

And I’ll call Rusty the Fox…

Around quarter to nine I started to get chilly and decided it was time to go in. I folded up my chair and toted it, along with my camera bag, into the house. I dropped chair and camera bag inside the door then turned around to see both cats facing off against a fox.

Split second of indecision – grab camera or go for cats? I grabbed the camera but you better believe I was ready to run for the cats. Next thing I know, Frank is chasing the fox into the next driveway.

Sorry...Blurry...Critters running! Rushing to get shot!

I called for Frank and he did stop and turn around. I have no idea if it was in response to me or if he’d just decided that his job was done.

How smug is Frank?

How confused is Rusty?

Looking for clues

What just happened here?

The fox recovered enough to get curious and start walking back our way so I decided it was time to put the camera down and go get the cats.

As I walked over, the fox slowly made it’s way up the hill, but it was still looking back, like it was confused. It wasn’t the only one. There were two young boys at the bottom of the lane watching all this and they asked “are those cats?” I would think that’s pretty obvious, but I guess I can’t blame them after seeing Frank all puffed up and staring down a fox.

The fearless defender is now napping on the end of the bed, secure in the knowledge that he has done his duty. Looks pretty dangerous doesn’t he?

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New Brunswick Day 2011

Posted on August 1, 2011 by candace

Happy August 1st! I just had a look at my post from NB Day Weekend 2010 and things are so far behind this year! This time last year we started putting our wood in the garage – we don’t even have any yet this year (we’re hoping it’s coming). My lemon mint was blooming, the tomatoes and sunflowers were so much farther along. Hopefully I will still get blooms and ripe tomatoes this year!

Yesterday was hot and sunny, and today started out to be the same, so I thought I’d better go out  and see if the garden needed watering. It must have rained during the night though, because everything was pretty wet. I did fill up my self watering tomato planters, and then started pulling a few weeds. And discovered some surprise tomato plants.

Actually I noticed one last Sunday evening when I was out watering the garden. When I started my tomato plants from seed, I planted two seeds in each little peat pot. When I transplanted them, I cut one plant off and just dropped it in the garden. I always feel sort of bad doing that, but I don’t want to crowd my plants in my tiny garden.

I had one tomato cage sitting in the yard that I hadn’t used, so last Sunday when I noticed the first stray tomato plant I thought: What the heck! And I placed the cage over the plant. Today I had to  go off to the garage and rummage around for a couple more tomato supports. While I was doing that, I found some dollar store garden ornaments that hadn’t made it out to the garden. So I took those out to the garden too.

I liked these because they are colourful, though they don’t show up as well in  the photos. It was bright and sunny out so it was a little hard to see how the  photos were turning out.

This one is my favourite though:

This is sitting right by the tomato plant I discovered at the edge of the garden last Sunday.

The other two are along the back edge – one being a Silver Fir, which I was happy to see.

And  I have no idea what this one is – maybe I will be able to tell  if it actually manages to produce any tomatoes.

I picked away at weeding until it got too hot out, then I decided I’d better get in out of the sun. But here is the state of the  garden at the moment.

A jungle of tomato plants in containers.

Most of my tomato plants have green tomatoes on them at this point, though  still pretty small.

My poor pepper plants are pretty small, but they are trying.

Views of the vegetable bed, from each end.

One of my solar lights broke, so I took the set down. Not sure if I can return them or not. The Astilbe is looking pretty right now though.

And that is that state of the  garden as of August 1st. I went out this evening – when it was lovely and cool outside – and planted peas & beans again; my last try for this year. I can see carrots coming up, just starting. But if nothing else, I should have tomatoes. Which is my favourite thing to harvest from the garden anyway. 🙂

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Last Week of July

Posted on July 31, 2011 by candace

We returned home from our weekend in Nova Scotia on Sunday, with a week of vacation still ahead of us. Ah, vacation.

Looking forward to a sleep in our air conditioned bedroom, we pulled into the driveway to see that sometime during the weekend  our predator fence was breached.

Intruder Alert!

There were casualties, including, but not limited to this poor tree.

Critical Condition

The hostas, which had started to make a comeback after the fence went up were also back on the  critical list. Apparently this a really tasty garden.

After the hot, sunny and dry weekend we’d had, the garden was in need of watering – the first time I’ve really had to do it this summer. So after unloading the car and feeding the cats, I went out and got to work. The first thing I noticed when I got out there is that both of my Echinacea plants are in bloom.

Pretty! So happy I planted these. Possibly I should have planted them closer together, they are pretty much at opposite ends of the garden, but I am hoping the  plants will bush out eventually?

As I was watering my tomato containers, I also saw  that I have a few pea pods starting. I thought I had planted peas in at least two of the  tomato containers, but I’m only seeing them in the one. I guess maybe I intended to do more, but there was a lot that I planned or intended this year that didn’t happen.

Of course I had company while watering and checking things out in  the garden.

After watering, I  picked strawberries from our deck planters. I bought these because they had such pretty flowers, but they have been producing tasty berries as well.

Monday we went out to buy groceries, and when we returned we saw that the predator fence out front had been repaired. We’ll have to wait and see how long it lasts this time.

Monday evening I went out for a walk and a few minutes down the road saw some deer grazing. I decided to run back for my camera, since I wasn’t far away. Returned with my camera, only to realize that I had removed the card to copy over photos from the weekend  and not put it back. So I ran back to the house for the card, and then back down the street again. Amazingly enough, the deer were still there and I had some fun taking photos.

I got some of one deer walking right toward me; he looked curious but not particularly concerned. Eventually he continued on across the road.

You looking at me?

There were a couple others farther in and I like this photo of two heads peeking out of the greenery.

It's like playing Where's Waldo

While out shopping on Monday, we went to Costco and I picked up two more sets of solar lights. Tuesday morning I went out to install them in the garden and enjoyed some general puttering around. And, of course, some photography. 🙂

New Solar lights

Close up of Solar Cattail lights

Day lilies still going strong


Potato Blossom

We are down to two hanging tomato plants

Frank, he’s my baby and I love him but he is one confusing cat sometimes. He whines and complains about wanting outside the cat fence, yet when I take him out for a walk lately he is completely fascinated with walking around inside the predator fence.

Crazy cat.

Wednesday we went to Barley, Malt& Vine to bottle our second batch of wine. We tasted it when we bottled it, and opened a bottle on Friday night. We’re both very happy with this one – dry, but light and fruity.

All in all, we had a really great week. Mostly good weather, with a little bit of rain. I actually feel rested – such an unfamiliar feeling! One more day off – New Brunswick Day – then back  to work. All good things must come to an end, right?

Posted in Deer, Garden 2011, Wine Making | Leave a comment

A Different Garden

Posted on July 27, 2011 by candace

Cory and I are fortunate in the lot that we have in the city; our yard borders on undeveloped property so we look out and see trees. Still, I can’t help missing the yard I grew up in. Can you blame me when this is what my back yard looked like?

Home sweet Nova Scotia home

I think summer is the best time to get home for a visit, to enjoy how beautiful everything is (though autumn in the valley is certainly beautiful as well). I go there and I just want to soak it all up. The green. The wind through the maple trees. The birds making their bird sounds. The air smells of green growing things.

It came to me this trip that it’s even better to be there when there are children around. How likely am I to run through the fields, just for the joy of it?

Who wants to play hide and seek in the hay field?

Okay, so maybe I wasn’t exactly running this time either. But the joy was hard to miss.

Ready...

Set...

Go!

We managed to arrive just in time for the hottest days of the summer so far. I thought I might melt away into a little puddle on the ground. We hardly got any sleep. But it was a great trip.

I was thrilled to see my baby brother looking so good, merely a week after having surgery.

I was able to enjoy an unexpected visit with my baby sister.

And just have an all-around wonderful visit with family and friends.

Thanks Dad & Mom for taking such good care of all of us!

Thanks to my friends for making the trip from Halifax. I’m sure it’s not easy with four kids but it made for an extra special weekend!

What do you say we all do it again next year?

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And A Week Later…

Posted on July 19, 2011 by candace

One thing about this summer, I haven’t had to water the garden. That’s looking on the bright side, right?

This week has actually been pretty nice. We have had some rain showers, but no full on rainy days. The showers were more like downpours, mind you, they just didn’t last that long. Which is okay by me. It has turned really warm as well.

My hanging tomato plants are not looking good. As I feared, the stems were damaged. Not sure how well you can see it here, but the top part of the plants (or bottom, since they are upside down) are dying.

Tomato Plants One Week Post Crash

This one has a pretty healthy looking section before the break, but I don’t know if it’s enough to produce anything.

Close Up View

Two of these were a variety called Silvery Fir. I only started two of each variety, since I have limited space. I thought to myself that I should not put more than one of any variety in the hanging baskets just in case…but then I ignored my common sense because these had such lovely, fern-like leaves and I thought they would look pretty. Note to self: Trust your instincts. Oh well, there is always next year, right?

The tomatoes in my other containers look beautiful.

Container Tomatoes

Still watching those little green cherry tomatoes…

Orange Cherry Tomato

The tomatoes in the ground are not quite so bushy. They were later going in, but I also think the soil is not as good. I did add fertilizer, but I’m not sure it’s enough to make a difference.

In Ground Garden

My Potatoes are also looking good.

Potato Tubs

This time last year I was starting to get peas. I was so late getting things in this year, because of all the rain. I did plant some peas & beans but most of them are not even up yet.

I was thinking that things look pretty much the same in the garden – it’s only been a week after all – but the Day Lilies and Asiatic Lilies are in full bloom. The garden is full of color.

Lilies

Out front, this yellow sedum (I think?) is blooming as well. I always wonder why I keep this stuff until it blooms.

Yellow!

I took these photos on Sunday. It was hot-hot-hot out. It finally feels like summer.

Zappa

Frank

I get this explosion of colour in the garden this time of year, then a few weeks later it seems like everything is finished blooming. This year I planted some Echinacea flowers which should bloom later in the summer. Two I ordered from Vesey’s, and since they are part shade tolerant, I planted them against the wall of the house. One I can’t see because it’s in behind the catmint & honeysuckle at the moment, but the other is showing promise.

Echinacea

I played around with some close ups. Because it’s fun. 🙂

Asiatic Lily - Peach (the purple are Cat Mint)

Asiatic Lilies - Red (and Cat Mint)Seriously. That Cat Mint gets bigger every year. I keep thinking that must be the limit and then it gets bigger. But the flowers are pretty.

Day Lily

Honeysuckle

The colour on that Honeysuckle is amazing, it doesn’t show up as well in a smaller view, but trust me. So vibrant!

Should also take a quick trip outside to the other side of the house – we now have a predator fence around our garden out there and the baby trees are fighting back. Here’s hoping they can make a comeback!

Baby Oak

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Tomato Disaster 2011

Posted on July 13, 2011 by candace

I hung my tomato planters on the same plant hangers that I had strawberry plants on last year. From the beginning I  was concerned that they might not be up to the job. Every day, as we arrive home from work, I peek into the garden and think: Oh good! They’re still standing.

As previously mentioned, we had some serious rain Friday night and Saturday. Somehow, coming home on Saturday afternoon, I failed to do my usual peek into the yard. I can only suggest the lingering effects of food coma from our brunch at Lily’s Cafe. And maybe the rain. I certainly felt like I was ready for a nap by the time we got home.

Around dinner time, the sun actually came out though, and after dinner Frank decided it was time for a walk. He may not speak English, but he has no problem communicating. He has this way of following me around – or preceding me, if I’m walking in the right direction – then sitting there and looking at me, like he is patiently waiting. Trust me when I say, this particular look communicates volumes.

Seeing the sun after a rainy day, I was not unwilling. So we put on his leash and off we went. And as we walked out the driveway and up the hill, I saw it. My Tomato Disaster. I still had to give Frank his walk, but when we got back to the house I knew I had to go out and check on things.

I confess, I was not eager. I asked Cory to come out to the garden with me to check on the downed tomato plants, if only for moral support. My darling husband declined, offering the oh so helpful suggestion that I would have to find somewhere else to hang them. Gee thanks, my love, everything is all better now.

All by my lonesome, I headed out to assess the damage.

Tomato Plants Down!

Ouch! That hurts. Let’s look over here.

Look at the pretty flowers...

A second look.

*Wince* Still bad. I would definitely rather look over this way.

Zappa didn’t look all that concerned, so I tried not to panic as I untangled my poor plants.

Aside: how do you like my Kelly Moore Camera Bag (there on the table)?  I think it’s pretty awesome.

One plant hanger was obviously bent out of shape and useless. The other looked like maybe it was still okay. I hung one plant on it and it stayed straight. I hung a second plant and it immediately started bending. So one plant it is.

Frank was hiding out inside, apparently he couldn’t take the excitement.

I tried to find other things to look at.

Like little green tomatoes growing on my orange cherry tomato plant. So exciting!

And my neat little veggie patch. Things are definitely behind schedule, but so far everything is looking green and healthy.

I got a new little garden ornament at Dollarama.

There were two shelves full of them, in three different poses. Seeing them all lined up on the shelves made me think of the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, which kind of creeped me out a bit, but this one was cute.

The garden  out front – finally got a new hanging basket.

Sunday we went out and got three new plant hangers. Two worked fine, the third started bending over as soon as I hung a plant on it. Also, I had thought the tomato plants seemed to be undamaged, but once I got them hanging again and had a closer look, I can see some damage to the main stem of the plants. So the hanging planters may already be done for this year. We will have to think about sturdier supports for next year. Dad – any ideas?

Posted in Garden 2011, Tomatoes, Uncategorized | Leave a comment