Potato Outlook 2011

Despite getting a late start and being nibble on by grasshoppers, our potato plants seem to be doing very well this year.  We’ve had a few plants start to die, from too much moisture we think, but overall they are doing much better than last year.  By the end of August last year most of the plants were dying and had to be pulled because we didn’t want the spuds to rot in the ground or be eaten by the ants.

Last year we battled ants, grubs, and potato scab and our yield was very low.  So far this year we’ve pulled a total of two plants, both Norlands (red), and if our findings are any indication of the rest of the potato patch, we’re gonna been eating a lot of spuds this year.  Each plant we pulled had a yield probably equal to that of 3 plants last year.  We’ll try to leave the potatoes in the ground as long as we can so they can continue to grow; once they are harvested we’ll store them in burlap bags in the cold room.

partial harvest from 1 plant

Our two biggest issues with the potatoes are scab and grubs and unfortunately it is very difficult to do anything about either one.  Neither seems to be much of an issue the year, or at least as far as we can tell, so far…

Potato Issue #1: Common Scab

Potato scab is a bacterial disease that affects the appearance of the potato; it results in tan to dark brown, rough-textured lesions/scabs on the surface.  Scab can be introduced to your garden by planting potato seeds that have scab, or by adding manure or dirt that has the bacteria present.   Because the bacteria that are responsible for scab lives in the dirt once you get it you’re pretty much stuck with it.

That being said, certain potatoes are more resistant to scab than others.  Norland potatoes are one of the most resistance variety and Yukon Gold are one of the most susceptible variety; both of which we planted.   You can also try to control potato scab by adjusted the pH of your soil; the more acidic your soil is the less of an impact scab will have on your potatoes.  Adjusting the pH of your soil is easier said than done though, especially when you have a garden the size of ours!  This fall Steve wants to add lime to the garden in attempt to lower the pH.

Scab on last years Yukon Gold

Thankfully, scab only affects the appearance of the potato and the flesh just under the skin (if severe enough) and does not make your potatoes un-edible.  They only downfall of having potato scab, in my opinion, is you end up having to peel a lot of potatoes.

The Norlands we’ve dug up this year have shown signs of scab but once exposed to the air and cleaned it is extremely difficult to see.  The scab is so small it looks like little pen dots.  We have yet to dig up any Yukon Gold but I’m guessing the scab will be more evident on them, similar to last year.

The tiny white spots are scab on 'tators fresh out the ground.



Small brown dots are scab on 'tators after being cleaned & dried.



Potato Issue #2: Grubs

In previous posts I’ve mentioned grubs but I’ve never really discussed them.

The grubs we have in our garden are the larva of either the June Beetle or Chafer Beetle.  They are white or yellowish and have fleshy, wrinkled, C-shaped bodies with a darker head and six spiny legs close to their head.  They vary in size with the mature grubs being about the size of a quarter.  They are a gross little bug; Steve says they look like aliens.  We hate grubs.

Grubs feed on the roots of plants and are more known for causing severe lawn damage.  They can also cause serve crop damage to home gardeners and farmers.  This year I think it was grubs that were eating the roots of my young beets, spinach and swiss chard.  Last year they only noticeable grub damage was in the potatoes.  Grubs can be devastating to your crops; they don’t just nibble on the potato, they actually eat part of the potato leaving the rest to rot in the ground.

So far this year they don’t seem to be much of a concern in the potatoes.  Out of the two plants we’ve pulled we’ve only see one grub and only one small potato showed damaged.  Hopefully this is an indication of things to come.

Grub damage in last years harvest, see the holes?
(bottom left & top right)

Like every other pest in the garden, grubs are next to impossible to get rid of without using harsh chemicals.   I think like any other bug, they have their cycles and some years will be worse than others.   I’m hoping they didn’t like all the rain at the beginning of the year and either drowned or went deeper into the soil to escape the moisture.

The preferred method of getting rid of grubs organically is to use beneficial nematodes.  Nematodes are small microscopic worms that will seek out grubs and other soil born pests and kill them.  They infect the grubs, using them as a host for their young, eventually killing them.  Unfortunately nematodes are quite temperamental.  They are sensitive to temperature, your soil temp needs to be consistently above 15C, and the soil needs to be damp, the wetter the better.  A dry, cold soil means dead nematodes.  We tried using them last year without much success.  (It was too hot & dry and we didn’t have the water to keep the soil consistently wet.)

Another method is to trap the beetles before they burrow into the dirt to lay their eggs: there are scent traps you can buy to attract and trap the beetle.  We’re not too sure of this because it has the potential to make the issue worse by attracting more beetles.

This year we planted the potatoes in a different part of the garden in attempt to “hide” from last years grub infested soil.  We’re also hoping that if we can get the pH of the soil down the dirt will become less hospitable to them and the will go away. 

One can always hope.

My Jam & Jelly Day

I haven’t been doing much of anything lately as I have been consumed with picking raspberries.  We have so many berries and I hate to see them go to waste so for the past few weeks I have been picking berries almost every other night.  Since the berries have started to ripened Steve figures we have picked close to 5 gallons of them and there is likely still plenty more to come. 

The bulk of the berries have gone into jam and my first attempt at freezer preserves.  Last Saturday I refer to as my “Jam & Jelly Day” as I spent all day making jam, jelly and preserves.

Saturday started with me scalping the rhubarb and picking through the stocks for the cream of the crop: I only wanted the red tender stocks.  Some of the rhubarb went straight in the freezer for baking and some was turned into jam or jelly.  This was my first attempt at making any jam or jelly with rhubarb and I made Blubarb Jam (blueberry and rhubarb) and Rhubarb & Orange Jelly.  I taste tested as I went along and I am quite pleased with the flavor of final products.  I ended up with 8 - 246 ml jars of the jam and 6 – 246 ml jars of the jelly.

I’ve made raspberry jam on numerous occasions and was confident in the outcome.  When making jam I’m always amazed and how much sugar is used.  Unfortunately you can’t cut back on the sugar because if you do your jam won’t set properly.  I’ve tried “reduced” sugar recipes that use a different type of Certo (pectin) and the flavor just isn’t the same so I stick to the regular “full” sugar recipes.  We don’t eat a lot of jam so I’m not overly concerned about the extra sugar being consumed.   Anyway, I cooked up two batches of jam and if I recall correctly I ended up with 20 – 246 ml jars of raspberry jam.  Have I mentioned before jam makes a wonderful Christmas gift for just about anybody??

Raspberry Jam (left), Rhubarb & Orange Jelly (centre), Blubarb Jam (right)

This was also the first time I had attempted freezer preserves.  The process is similar to making jam but without adding any pectin to thicken it.  The flavor was spot on but I think I over stirred it because I was expecting to have more “chunkys.”  Next time I’ll know better!  I ended up with 4 – 16 oz cups in the freezer.

I was also planning on making some freezer jam but thanks to Steve, just before I started, we realized all the lids on the containers I had bought were cracked.  That stopped me dead in my tracks; which was a good thing because it was time to be done with my Jam & Jelly Day. 

My day had start with cutting rhubarb around 11:00 am, and it ended when the last pot was clean at 10:00 pm.  It was a long day but it was nice to get everything over and done with in one day.

I hope all of you that end up with jam or jelly at Christmas appreciate it!

Quick Update - Day 100

August always seems to be a pivotal summer month; it is the summer month I remember the most (because it’s the last) and it’s the month (in most areas) that can make or break a garden.  In my opinion it’s also the month with the nicest weather.  Thankfully Environment Canada was wrong (again) and the month has turned out to be considerably nice with some of the hottest days of the year.

The warmer weather has been a welcome gift for the garden.  It has spurred the growth of everything: the peas and beans are now heavy with vegetables, there are finally too many tomatoes to count with some starting to change color, the dill has matured, the sunflowers are huge and forming buds, the zucchini is now ready to be picked and the squash are starting to develop.  Because of the exceptionally warm days and evenings over the last weekend, all my zucchini plants now each have two or three zucchini that are ready to be picked and the baby squash have grown from the size of a ping-pong ball to that of a small water balloon.

 August is also the month were I start to spend less time in the garden.  For some reason the weeds become less of an issue and I focus more on harvesting and eating the fresh veggies as opposed to fretting and weeding.  The only thing that needs to keep up with is the watering.

A few nights ago we had beans and swiss chard with dinner, and last night we ate our first zucchini accompanied with dill garden potatoes.  August is also the time of year where you try to eat as many vegetables as possible while they are fresh as can be.  Garden veggies in the winter taste wonderful but nothing is as immediately after it was picked.

I am very thankful for the warmer weather and hope it decides to stick around a little longer.

** I'll post more photos on facebook :)

Wonderfully Overwhelming?

At times having a garden can feel overwhelming.  Previously the weeds and the desire to get rid of them was overwhelming; now having to deal with all the mature vegetables is overwhelming.  When looking at the garden I have a hard time thinking of each vegetable separately; I see one thing that needs to be harvested and feel that everything needs to be harvested and dealt with all at once.

Last weekend I spent Saturday picking and shucking peas.  (I think I ended up with 16 cups of actual peas.)  On Sunday I picked and washed about a third of the swiss chard and blanched it, I blanched the peas too.  And that was my weekend.  When I think of how long it took to do those two things I get stressed because of what is still left to be done.  And then Steve comes to the rescue and brings me back down to reality:  the reality that everything is just fine where it is, growing in the garden, the reality that just because the peas need to be harvested doesn’t mean everything else does too.

I looked back at my photos from last year and discovered this: we pulled the potatoes September 4(because the plants were dying), the zucchini plants were pulled September 5(they had stopped flowering), I harvested and pickled my beets September 11, the tomatoes were brought inside September 14, and the carrots were pulled October 4^th.  And why is it I feel the need to do everything right away?  I have no idea.  The fact of the matter is there is still a lot of growing time left, and if the weather man is correct, some of the warmest weather of the summer!

As the garden has just recently begun to produce mature vegetables we need to take advantage of it; we need to stop being lazy and start eating the fruits of our labor.  This week I implemented a new rule in our house.  That rule being this: we need to eat something out of the garden everyday.  It’s a rule that makes total sense – why have a garden if you aren’t going to eat your produce when it’s at its freshest?  Since the rule’s inception we’ve had fresh carrots in spaghetti sauce, peas & carrots as the nightly veggies, and tonight we had a roasted beet & feta salad.  Tomorrow could be a challenge as its pizza night – how does one get fresh veggies on a pizza?

My new rule also helps “un-overwhelm” me – the more veggies we eat fresh, the less there is to blanche and freeze.  This weekend I think I may have to pick more peas before they get bitter and should probably pick more swiss chard before the grasshoppers do more damage.  I’m also planning a “Jam & Jelly Day” on Saturday, sounds like another busy weekend!

(I’ll post more photos on The Thirsty Dirt Facebook page.)

Damn ‘dem Hoppers

This year we are having trouble with a new sort of pest – grasshoppers.  Areas in the County have seen higher than average numbers of grasshoppers and until recently, this did not affect us.  Just within the last few weeks we have started to notice a number of them in the garden and at this time I would be tempted to call it an infestation.

Depending on the time of day, when you walk through the lawn, or garden, all the grasshoppers try to jump away from you creating a wave as you walk through them.  Once you stop it sounds like heavy rain; that’s the sound of all ‘dem hoppers landing.

A while ago I read an article in the newspaper talking about all the grasshoppers this year: they said the grasshoppers weren’t doing any damage. Ya right, they need to come look at my garden.  Just about every plant has been nibbled on, some more so than others.  The plants with the most damage are the potatoes, swiss chard and spinach.  What little spinach growth there is has almost completely been eaten, the swiss chard is full of holes and the edges are trimmed back and most potato leaves, especially the plants along the edge of the garden, have leaves trimmed back as well.  I just hope they stay out of my tomato plants; they’ve had a rough enough year as it is.  And disgusting as it sounds, there’s a lot of visible grasshopper poop around too.  Oh, and they are enjoying the sunflower leaves as well.  In the evening when it starts to cool off the grasshoppers congregate on the sunflowers and bask in the evening sun. 

Little buggers!

So how does one get rid of grasshoppers?  Apparently the best way to get rid of grasshoppers in your garden is chickens or ducks followed by guinea pigs.  Did you know guinea pigs eat grasshoppers?  Does anybody have any chickens I can borrow?

Apparently another good method is to dust your plants with all purpose flour; I guess it gums up the grasshopper’s mouth and then they can’t eat and die.  For some reason you can only leave the flour on your plants for two days and then you have to wash off it off and wait a week before reapplying.  I think I’ll pass on this option because I don’t feel like washing flour off my plants as I think it could be a real chore – I’d rather chase every single one with a fly swatter.  And of course there is my ever so faithful DE.  Apparently dusting plants with DE can also help control grasshoppers.  I’ve started to do this and the numbers seem to be decreasing; I’m not sure if it’s the DE or other environmental influences.

My boss has a garden and we discuss our gardens almost daily.  He suggested I catch them and start making chocolate covered grasshoppers – any buyers?

Photos of Some Damage:



Bean leaves trimmed back and with holes



Swiss Chard trimmed back and with holes

Trimmed back... ok... eaten potato leaves

Baby Spinach Remains

The Weather is “Berry” Nice

All the rain we’ve received this summer has turned out to be a blessing for the raspberries.  The moisture paired with the warmer weather we’ve been experiencing, in my mind, has created perfect growing conditions for our raspberries.

Every day when we get home from work, even before going inside, it’s our tradition to go check on the garden.  Now that the raspberries are finally ready, chowing down some fresh berries when checking the garden is a must!  It’s astonishing to see how many berries there actually is.

We have so many berries it’s difficult to know what to do with them yet we feel obligated to pick them and not allow them to go to waste.  Our berries have such a wonderful flavor; they are sweet with a slight yet not over powering tartness.  We love the taste of a ripe raspberry that was picked a few seconds before popping in your mouth; quite often we just pick and eat as we go – why dirty a bowl?

Last Sunday I picked some berries for the first time; I ended up with about 8 cups.  Yesterday (Wednesday) I picked some more; this time I got about 12 cups.  I try to pick only the ripe berries and leave everything else until they are completely ripe.  I find that there is usually a new batch of fresh berries every 3-4 days.  There are so many berries we try to only pick the “perfect” berries and leave the deformed and underdeveloped berries for the birds and bugs.  Are raspberry bushes are also thorn less, making picking quite painless.

As much as we would like to be like bears and live off raspberries, I don’t think our tummies would appreciate it.  So what to do with all these berries?

(1)     Jam – As my supply is running low, it’s time to make some more raspberry jam.  I normally make cooked jam with pectin and store it in sealed jars.  This year I think I’m also going to make some freezer jam/preserves.  The two types are basically the same but one uses pectin and gets stored in sealed glass jars, and the other has no pectin and is stored in the freezer.  (FYI: the traditional sealed jar jam makes wonderful Christmas presents.)

(2)    Raspberry Sorbet – last winter I used a bucket of frozen berries to make Raspberry Sorbet in my ice cream maker.  It was unbelievable!  It makes a wonderful cold treat and preserves the taste and tartness of the berries perfectly.  It’s also a good way to use lots of berries.

(3)    Raspberry Lemonade – This is something I haven’t tried yet but I think I will love.  Basically all you do is make a pitcher of lemonade, crush and strain some berries, and add the berry juice to flavor your lemonade.  And now that I think of it, I could just as easily make Raspberry Ice Tea.

(4)    Freeze ‘em – Because the picked berries don’t last long in the fridge, unless you are going to eat them within the day I would recommend freezing them.  If I am going to use the berries in jam, sorbet or for juice, I wash them quickly, put them in a bucket and in the freezer they go.  If I want to be able to use the whole berries at a later date, I meticulously pick through them looking for the best of the best, placing them on a cookie sheet and then freezing.

      Once frozen, I take them off the cookie tray, package them in containers and of course store in

      the freezer.  If you do this your berries won’t get smooshed and when they thaw you’ll have nice

      whole berries.  The whole berries are wonderful on ice cream, cheese cake, angel food cake,

      custard, etc.  I love warm custard in the winter with raspberries.

The bugs may be bothersome when picking berries, but when I think of the things I can do with them and how much money I’m saving by not having to buy them, it’s worth every bite I get!

Garden Update #4 - 81 Days

The past week has been a wonderful weather week.  It has been quite warm, 25C, for close to 4 – 5 days and the garden is loving it!  It’s quite amazing to see what some warmth after a lot of moisture can do for your garden.

The zucchini and squash plants are filling in and finally starting to produce.  We should be able to eat some zucchini within the week, I can already taste it!  The baby squash are growing slowly but at the moment I’m just glad they are growing.

Thankfully the tomato plants are finally starting to bare some fruit.  Every time I walk by them I see more tomatoes and some of them are getting to be a decent size already – we might end up with some vine ripened tomatoes after all.

My garlic is still yellow as can be, but it’s not dead so hopefully we’ll still get some bulbs out of the deal.  Until this year I had never plants onions from bulbs and the bulbs I did plant are huge onions now; so huge they might need to be thinned again.  The green onions are doing fine and I think it might be time to thin the shallots again – at least now I can keep what I pull and we will have mini shallots to use.

All the root veg seem to be growing exceptionally well.  Although the carrot and beet plants vary in size, they are all developing wonderful surprises that are hiding in the dirt and will taste fabulous.  So far we’ve had carrots out of the garden a few times.  This year I planted a different type of carrot, they aren’t very sweet but have a real earthy taste; next year I might have to try another type as we would like a bit more sweetness.  We haven’t had any beets yet, I try to leave them for canning, but I’m tempted to pull some of the golden beets for a roasted beet & feta salad… yummm.

Last year 99% of my turnips were full of little white worms.  I was able to savage some of them by slicing and dicing and only keeping the good parts.  This year I keep the plants dusted with DE in attempt to keep them bug free.  This works, hopefully, by preventing the survival of the eggs that are laid on the turnip leaves (that hatch into the worms/larva) from flies and little white butterflies/moths.  I’ve been very diligent in keeping the plants dusted as I am just starting to see the little white beasts, I mean moths, flying around.

As for the Swiss Chard, it’s time to harvest it.  It is a rich dark green color and has developed into large, crinkly leaves.  If it’s not harvested soon I fear the grasshoppers will eat it all. (I won’t get side tracked here, I’ll post separately about our grasshopper problem.)  Because the Swiss Chard will continue to grow after I pick it, I’m hoping that we might get a second growth out of it if I pick it now, and hopefully the grasshoppers won’t devour the new, tender growth.

Hmmm… what else…  BEANS & PEAS!  The peas are still growing like mad and we will have to pick some this weekend.  The plants are full of pea pods at various stages of development and there are still flowers blooming so there is more on the way!!  The beans are also making excellent progress; there are many, both green and yellow, that are close to being ready to pick.  In fact, I think there is probably enough green beans for a meal.  The beans like to hide and fool you; all you see is plants but when you go looking under the leaves there are hundreds of beans.  I love fresh beans.  We normally blanche and freeze what we can’t eat fresh but this year I might try to pickle a few.

As far as the potatoes go, we are undecided as to their progress.  We have yet to see any flowers and a few plants are starting to die.  I think they may have had too much moisture.  This weekend I’m going to get Steve to dig up the plants that are dying to see what is happening.  Oh, and the grasshoppers love potato leaves so I’ve taken to dusting the potatoes with DE too.

And finally the sunflowers.  They are also being attacked by the grasshoppers but have grown leaps and bounds in the past week.  They have really benefited from the heat and at this rate we might still end up with a row of blooming sunflowers this fall.

And last of all there are the raspberries.  I think maybe we should open a U-Pick this year; yes, we have that many berries!  (I’ll talk more about our raspberries later.)

So there you have it, my 81 Day Update.

If You Grow It, They Will Come – Part 2

We haven’t seen too many deer around this year.  But just because we haven’t seen many doesn’t mean they are not around.  Steve thinks we don’t see them as often as last year because of the abundance of food for them.  I agree with him but also think that we don’t see them because in the evening the bugs are so bad they can’t stand still for too long.

By Mid July last year the deer had managed to get into our garden at least twice: feasting on the beets and swiss chard.  As far as we can tell we’ve succeeded in keeping them out of the garden this year.  We’ve even had the opportunity to watch the fence at work.

On at least three occasions we’ve seen deer near the garden this summer.  They all seem to be caught off guard by the fence.  They see the plants in the garden, walk up to the fence and as soon as their nose touches the fence they stop dead in their tracks.  Because of the fine mesh I don’t think they can see it and something touching them that they can’t see startles them.  They usually stand still for a minute or so, moving their head using their nose to test the fence (or seeing if it’s still there) and then walk away.

On all three occasions the deer’s ears were twitching like mad from the bugs and their little tails (they are Mulies) were flapping so fast I thought they were in danger of taking off.  One evening we watched a pair of young bucks in the field feeding on the clover.  The bugs were so bad that night they couldn’t stand still and eat.  Steve says they were eating like caribou; eating and walking at the same time.

Last week we had a bit of deer entertainment.  One night we spotted a deer near our garden, she was feeding on some clover a few feet away.  Once she had her fill of clover she walked over to our garden looking for dessert.  As soon as she got close to the fence, she stopped and bobbed her head a few times looking startled.  After realizing something was preventing her from walking into our garden, she turned around and went to our neighbor’s garden.  She knew exactly where she was going too.

Checking Out the Fence

Walking Over to the Neighbor's Garden

 Once at the neighbor’s garden (they have no fence), she began to gorge herself on their peas and whatever else suited her.  We watched her walk up and down the rows munching on a little of this and a little of that.  She really enjoyed their peas; she would pull the plants out root and all and just num them right up!  It was pretty funny to watch – especially since it wasn’t our garden.

Enjoying a Snack of the Neighbor's Peas

Once she was done there, she thought she would try our garden again.  She walked over, got all weird when she got to the fence, and then turned around and bounced back into the bush.

I guess the fence works… what do you think?

Gardening Essentials

It’s funny how a person changes with age.  All those things we once swore we’d never become, well, it happens.  Ten years ago (ok, maybe 15) if I were to garden I would probably have done so in the heat of the day, covered in sun tan oil, with as little clothes as possible. And of course I would have been too stubborn to wear a hat.

Now I try to avoid the heat of the day, cover myself in sunscreen, wear a sunhat and gloves, and make sure I have a water bottle handy to keep myself hydrated.  I always seem to wear my “garden pants” or capris; I never wear shorts because I can’t stand getting my knees caked with dirt or kneeling on the hard ground.  I keep telling myself this has nothing to do with age; I’m just smarter now then I was before.  (And it definitely has nothing to do with the fact that I can’t handle the heat like I used to.)

Anyway, getting back on topic...

Every time I head out to the garden I grab what I consider my essentials: spray on “Cooling Mist” sun screen, sun hat, gardening gloves, water bottle and my I-pod Shuffle.  Once in the garden my tools consist of a little hand held spade and a 15 gallon weed bucket.  At that’s it.  (This year I’ve had to add mosquito repellent to my list.)

My number one item is my Shuffle; I would be lost without it.  It’s usually turned on before I leave the house and it normally doesn’t get shut off until I’m back inside.  It’s nice to block out the traffic and lawn mower noise and just be in my own little garden world.  One added bonus of my Shuffle is that it saves my sanity by blocking the buzzing of mosquitoes and therefore reduces the need for mosquito spray.  I am lucky to still have my Shuffle – it’s gone through the washing machine once and thankfully still works!  Ten years ago I never would have listened to anything while outside; I would have been on high alert for any noise thinking every little thing I heard was a bear because I had/have a severe fear of bears.  Thanks to our deer fence and garden gate, I don’t have to worry (too much) about bears sneaking up on me and as long as I stay facing the gate nothing can sneak up and scare me.

When it comes to gardening there are tons of gadgets, widgets and hoojaas that a person could use.  I get tempted with everything and try not to get sucked in.  Over time I have learnt that all the nifty, trendy garden gadgets only end up costing me money, don’t usually work or just make things more difficult.  I figure people have been growing gardens and working in them since almost the beginning of time and they didn’t have access to the things we do now: and they probably had better gardens then we have today.

There are some tools that are a must for gardening. ie: rakes, shovels, hoe, hose, watering cans, etc.  One piece of advice I have to pass along when it comes to buying these items is this: don’t cheap out.   On occasion we have tried to be cheap or bought something because it seemed like a deal.  History has proven that when we make these purchases, 99% of the time the item gets returned because it’s a piece of crap or it breaks within the first few uses. 

To repeat myself: don’t cheap out, buy the good stuff the first time and save yourself a lot time and headache.

The Unsuspected Culprit

Quit often when I’m blogging my thoughts wander and I want to stray off topic.  If I allowed myself to do this I think there would be some very lengthy posts.  When this happens I try to remember the thought that would have lead me off topic and post it as a separate topic – which is where this post comes from.

We all have pests that threaten our gardens by damaging and eating the crops before harvesting.   Some pests we anticipate and others we don’t.  The ones we don’t anticipate can vary in height, weight and overall appearance.  These pests (or pesters) can be referred to as children, husbands (or wives), or even family pets and can all have an effect on your garden without you even realizing they are cause!

Some examples are as follows:

(1)    When my brother was little he loved broccoli; he referred to them as “trees.”  Back in the day when my mom had a garden and he was little, he would sneak into the garden and pick and eat the small broccoli.  I remember my mom wondering what was eating all her broccoli – a little pester named Ben, that’s who!

(2)    My family used to have a chocolate lab named Jessie.  Jessie would eat anything, once she even ate a bar of soap. (maybe that was Elsa…)  She was a smart dog and she knew she wasn’t allowed in the garden.  Jessie also loved carrots.  She would watch us pull carrots in the garden and once in a while we would give her one.  And then one day we watched her belly crawl into the garden (so she wouldn’t be seen) pull out a mouth full of carrots, crawl out and go hide under a tree to eat her pickings. 

Jessie also loved raspberries.  She would lay in the shade of the raspberry plants, pretending to sleep, and eat any berry she could reach. (This might have been our other lab Elsa, or possibly both!)

As I type this I can hear my Mom saying that it’s our fault the dog ate the carrots and raspberries because we would feed them to her.   And maybe it was our fault but she did some picking and eating on her own too.

(3)    Every time we venture into the garden Steve ends up eating some pea pods that are not fully mature. I know it’s hard to not sample everything (I admit I am guilty of this), but if you let things grow to maturity you’ll end up with so much more!  Steve’s hunting buddy even picked a hand full of pea pods one time he was out for visit.  It was funny to see him hide them as I gave Steve heck for picking the peas.

So if one day you discover things missing in your garden don’t be too quick to blame it on the bugs or deer, the real culprit might be standing right beside you!

Garden Update #3 – Week 10

This weekend marks a handful of events in our lives: two years ago Steve and I moved onto acreage, ten years ago we had our first date, and 10 weeks ago we planted this year’s garden. 

We’ve had a crappy summer this year: our temperatures have been slightly below normal, we’ve had an absurd about of rain, and it always seems to be windy.  At times I’ve wondered if we’d ever get any vegetables out of the garden. 

Until a close examination yesterday I assumed that everything was about two weeks behind where it was last year in the end of July; thankfully I was wrong.  Everything seems to be growing at varied rates: some plants are small and growing at a slow rate, some are on par, and other flourishing.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the beets, turnips and carrots have grow since thinning them.  All the root vegetables seem to be growing very well and I think the carrots are large enough that we can start to eat them.  This is exciting as we eat a lot of raw carrots and the fresher they are the better they taste!

Over the past few weeks the beans have been full of flowers.  Last week we strung them up for support placing a string on either side of the plants.  It might just be me but since then they seem to have really grown.  The flowers are also starting to turn to miniature beans.  Weather depending, it’ll probably be a few weeks before we have beans to eat.  Last year our plants were heavy with beans already.

The potato plants are big and bushy and most look quite healthy.  There are a few plants that have leaves with black or rust spots, I think it might be a type of potato blight from all the moisture; hopefully the spuds in the ground fair well.  We haven’t seen any flowers, an indication of spuds in the ground, but when the plants were hilled last week a few were dug up so we know they are there.  We’re thinking that maybe the wind blew them off before we could see any.  And when Steve hilled the potato very few grubs were dug up, hopefully this means there aren’t too many around this year.

The peas are giants.  They are supposed to grow to a height of 28” and on average they are about 42” with some as high as 60”; I think they really like the rain.  If the seed didn’t come out of the same bag as last year’s peas, one would think they were “Jack and the Pea Stock” peas.  The funny thing about peas is their status can change fast; one day they are thin pods and the next they are ready to be picked.



Hmmm…. What else?  The dill has been really slow this year.  It has just recently started to grow well and is probably only about a foot tall; last year it was probably close to three feet tall already.  I was starting to think that I might not be able to use our dill when I do my pickles – thankfully it’s starting to depend flowers so hopefully it will continue to grow well and I will be able to use my own dill.

So far we’re a little disappointed with the zucchini and tomatoes. 

We have had female zucchini flowers for a few weeks but there have been no male flowers until recently.  There are a few zucchinis that seem to be developing so hopefully we are into a cycle with both sexes of flowers and an abundant amount of vegetables.  Last year we had our first zucchini in early August but the seeds were planted in the end of June, not the end of May.  I hadn’t had any luck with the Spaghetti Squash either, I finally noticed one male flower and hopefully the other buds will start to bloom soon.

And the tomatoes.  Our poor tomatoes.  We have close to 2 dozen tomato plants and only a handful of small green tomatoes.  Every time I check the tomato plants I seem to find a small tomato hiding in the bushy plant, hopefully I continue to find more.  I think the plants are victims of blossom drop this year.  Blossom drop is when the flowers drop off the plant before they develop into a tomato; this can be caused by several things including heavy rain.   Last year in the end of July we had tons of green tomatoes with some ripening already.  At this rate we’ll be lucky to get any ripened on the vine.  It’s definitely been a disappointing tomato year.  All one can do is wait and see.

OH! One more thing!  I forgot about the raspberries.  The raspberries are very far behind.  Normally they are ready mid July and they are just starting to ripen.  We had a small feast of them last night for dessert.  Every time we look at the bushes there seems to be more and more ready.  How exciting!  (And now I know where I can find Steve if he disappears.)

Last week on the radio I heard Environment Canada is forecasting a cooler than average August for our area.  As they always seem to be wrong I’m hoping for a warm August and guess what?  It looks like some warmer temperatures are on the way.  We have forecasted highs of 25C and 27C later this week and I’m looking forward to it.  After all the rain some heat would really do the garden some good.  I’ve got my fingers crossed that they don’t change the forecast and hope we are in store for some warm weather.

For those of you interested, I've posted more photos on the Thristy Dirt Facebook Page.  Enjoy.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.175971769138899.47272.150263811709695