What a wet year we've had! Which was good in a sense for I was away from the gardens for a good part of August and never had to worry about watering the outside gardens, Mother Nature took care of that for me.
The Engleman Ivy is Creating a Wall with the Honeysuckle Bush in the Courtyard
Things that loved the moisture flourished like my mints that I wrote about in a previous post here but others like my Aloe Vera rotted off and I nearly lost them (luckily I was gifted with a couple of other plants for I like to include the gel from inside in my morning toner drink!) And just like the rain kept my crops growing it also kept all the weeds growing too and I wasn't around enough to keep on top of it.
The chickweed I had mentioned in my last month's garden journal post here has taken over the the middle garden beds. I had left it as a living mulch in some areas where I never got a chance to spread the mulch which works wonderfully unless you have extremely wet years like this year and you can't keep it under control. It was wonderful in the salads but competed with some of my plants in their smaller stages.
We finally had some warmer weather to get the zuchinnis producing but with all the moisture many of them are rotting in the early sages of growth.
Really it didn't matter for I kind of took on the attitude that I would get what I get done and I'll get what I get and I was okay with that! I find with gardening you have to be flexible and adapt to the changing seasons for each year it is different, bring it's challenges and surprises!
I got most of my broccoli picked before the worms started eating them but they are now moving into my cabbages and cauliflower. The cauliflower doesn't seem to be producing much plus the cabbages that were planted later but I will get a couple of nice cabbages.
Cabbage and Cauliflower Plants
There was quite a difference between my outdoor garden and my covered garden/greenhouse.
This month the cucumbers in the greenhouse are starting to produce well but outdoors where it has been cool and wet I only have one coming.
Cucumbers Growing in the Greenhouse
Cucumber Growing Outdoors
The tomatoes are finally setting fruit but it is rather late in the year and I don't know how many will get to ripen on the vine if we get an early frost. Oh well! They ripen fine in boxes in the root cellar. I keep the tomato plants well pruned, stripping off the lower growth of leaves so all the energy can go into producing the fruits instead of the leaves.
Tomatoes Setting Fruit in Greenhouse
Our Cannabis plants started to get mold on them so they had to be harvested early to salvage what we could. We got some nice oil from them but next year I think we will just grow them indoors in the more controlled environment of the sun room.
JJ Sacked Out in the Garden Bed Where the Cannabis Had Been Growing
Some of the fruit trees are producing well, although my main apple tree that was so full of fruit the other year is taking a break this year with just a little fruit.
Nanking Cherries Ready to Pick
The apple crab and the rescue crab are loaded with fruit!
Apple Crab Loaded with Fruit
Towering Plum Tree Behind the Carmen Jewel Cherries Ready to Pick
That plum tree I got from the University of Saskatchewan Horticulture Department plant sale as a good pollinator for my other plum trees - it grew huge! It is a beautiful tree with some very interesting bark.
Interesting Bark on the Plum Tree
I have a good crop of plums but they are slow to ripen this year and so I might not get much off before the frost.
I got a good picking of saskatoons, raspberries and now the blueberries are coming on so I have had lots of berries plus a local creamery supplies us with that thick whole cream - M-m-m! Berries and cream!
I've got some beautiful flower blossoms in my garden this year.
The Himalayan Inpatients has been taking over a section of garden by the deck and it is just humming with bumble bees - I love it! Funny thing, the honey bees do not come to these plants, it is just the bumble bees. My bee keeper friend said the honey bees have certain preferences for types of plants they visit.
I have a beautiful nasturtium plant that I tried out this year which is a keeper!
Different Colored Nasturtiums Growing With the Caladium
I'm getting some beautiful blooms on my delphiniums which the flowers dry really well to keep for a winter bouquet!
Delphinium Blossoms
There are plenty of wild blooming asters growing in the garden this year adding beautiful fall color for they last late into the season.
JJ with Wild Asters
Aster Blossoms Make a Beautiful Combination with the Johnny-Jump-Ups
I was gone while the lilies were blooming but I caught the last of them in bloom.
Last of the Asiatic Lily Blossoms
The pots on my deck were doing fine except the basil, it was too cold and damp so the leaves were rotting and I tok what was remaining of them indoors to the sunroom to see if I could salvage some of it. I never had to water any pots which was a good thing! I like to grow some herbs - rosemary, lemon thyme, stevia, basil, lemon grass, lemon verbena along with some vegetables - tiny tim tomatoes, peppers, celery, swiss chard, green onions, and kale plus I have my flowers - geraniums, nasturtiums, petunias, dahlias and verbena. My deck was quite full this year!
JJ hanging Out on the Deck
@simplymike has a wonderful initiative - The Steemit Garden Challenge! Where folks from all over the world share about their gardens. I find it fasinating to see the different gardens in the changing seasons. If you want to check it out or join in go here
All pictures were taken with my Canon PowerShot A495
Discord About
Grateful for the curation and support of @tribesteemup
look at all that abundance in your garden, the veg, fruit and flowers. everything looks so healthy and lush and what a beautiful cat JJ is xxx
You've got cherries! I could eat cherries absolutely all day long. I just love them.
My cucumbers did not do so well this year. I only got three. I did get a tonne of tomatoes though!
That's a really nice garden you have going there! Northwoods gardening is always a challenge due to the short growing season.
JJ likes to get into the picture, it appears. I have a question on the tomato plants and how you trim the leaves. Your picture made me wonder if the main purpose of the leaves is to cast shade from the sun on the fruit?
I also wondered about the photo of JJ lying where the cannabis had been growing - doesn't catnip come from some hemp relative? I thought maybe he was attracted to the spot because of it may have had a mild catnip-like appeal.
Your garden is wonderful!
Actually JJ doesn't really like getting his picture took but I like taking pictures of him! He likes to hangout with me in the gardens. Where the canabis plants were was some lovely open space for him to stretch out in. JJ never tried to eat the cannabis but our dog tried to chew on the leaves. Not exactly sure if that is the main purpose of the leaves but i know the plants don't need as many as they produce and once they start flowering if you trim them back to just the top 4 or 5 leaves you get a better fruit productions instead of the energy going into the leaves.
Thanks for the compliment!
Looking good, @porters :0)
Thanks for joining
That bark is so cool! I love seeing all the beautiful plants at your place!
One thing I learned a few years ago is that when there's so much rain (last year we got 60"), the nutrients are quickly leached out of the soil. Not all, but enough to mess up plant health and allow rotting and pest infestations and diseases.
To combat it, one could foliar spray weekly. We did that as much as possible, given the rain. it did help some.
As we raise most of our own food, and invested our precious dollars in that, not getting stuff from the garden or animals would be disastrous.
Yes I had noticed that some of the plants were looking depleted from all the rains. Thanks for that tip on combating that! I do get a little more lax for we're not that dependent on the production of our garden, it's just my preference of what I like to eat although it is good to see the fruits of your labor!
I'm in love with your wild garden. Love that you allow the caterpillars to turn into butterflies. Love the beauty of your flowers ~ and JJ.
I have the same situation with chickweed. Great when it's fresh in salads ~ But boy does it go feral when it starts to seed in amongst everything else. Wouldn't have it any other way though ~ Easy to just lightly pull away without killing all the microbes and adding it to the mulch pile. ♥︎♥︎⚖️♥︎♥︎
Little wild with loads of nutritional eating in between. Flowers look stunning @porters.
Plumb tree with shining bark, I saw similar in Sweden and wondered what the tree could be. I will have to look at the photo again to establish the possibility of it being a similar tree.
Let me know what you find out. I think it might have been a variety developed by the University of Saskatchewan. I don't have a name for it but I was warned that it would grow tall and it sure did!
I love your garden, especially those amazingly colourful flowers!
Your garden is truly gorgeous, @porters. I always love a mix of bright colors, planted items and plants in pots. I didn’t know about the garden challenge. I will have to check that out!
Yes, definitely check out @simplymike 's garden journal challenge! It's great to see the gardens from all around the world!
Really enjoyed the look into your wet and cool world - and JJ. What a cat!! LOL. It's SUCH A JOY to see other people's gardens and how they do things. I like the wild, tangled look of yours and the sense of "it will happen, or not" that is so relaxed.
Want a juicy 80-100% upvote? Read more here: https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/i-just-powered-up-6-000-steem-with-a-total-of-23-000-steem-power-on-my-two-accounts-for-curating-ecotrain
Leading the curation trail for both @ecotrain & @eco-alex.
Together We’re Making This World A Better Place.
Click Here To Join the manually curated trail "@artemislives" to support quality eco-green content.
@ecoTrain
I look at you cabbage in the holes... Caterpillars eat cabbage in our courtyar tood, we are already tired of cleaning them))
You certainly have a wonderful garden my friend.
Producing the goods as they say.
Pity about the rain damage, but this world needs the water.
Blessings!
I'm not to concerned about the rain damage. I've come to accept with gardening, how it is different each year, to be grateful for what you get and not to stress about things that didn't work out to well and remember there is always next year!
Wow! I am so used to placate moaning souls and look at this!
Your thoughts about it exactly matches mine.
I apply this line of thinking to every special shot that I miss and in many other "faulty" instances.
There is always tomorrow.
Blessings!