Dahlias from Barb at the meditation center. Shasta daisies transplanted from the front garden. Poppies from seed purchased at the Good Life Center. Sunflower from ? Maybe from last year’s saved seed. Healing vibes.
Author: Catherine
Strawberry story
The strawberries have a leaf blight. It’s their second year, they were planted in April 2018. The variety is Albion, from Fedco, an ever bearing variety.
It’s been a wet spring this year, a lot of rain, which may have encouraged the fungus.
Sam put down alfalfa pellets, thinking the extra nitrogen might help them.
Today, I weeded the whole bed. Then I decided to pick off most of the leaves including some of the dead ones on the ground, I didn’t eliminate the blight by any means, but we’ll see if the plants can recover on their own with new growth. They’ll need drip irrigation.
Harvesting
Escarole is bolting. I harvested two large bags.
Harvested one good-sized beet and a few turnips.
Also jarred up some sauerkraut (not grown by us).
Soon we’ll need to eat a couple of the artichokes.
Other news: More lettuce than we know what to do with. A few peas, a few baby cucumbers, squash blossoms, a few handfuls of blueberries, a few tart cherries. Harvested some fingerling potatoes due to potato beetle infestation.
Garden scan
Row by row scan:
July blooming wildflowers
Observed in the yard.
Corner trellis report
I spent a humid hour and a half in the garden this morning. Plants are growing and need a little help. Okay, a lot of help in some cases.
Mostly I weeded under and around the corner A-frame trellis. And laid out more hay mulch in that area.
The scarlet runner beans are just starting to bloom. Two hummingbirds perched on the tomato trellis in anticipation.
I dug out a huge mass of white clover which was overtaking the front doorway of the A-frame. The oak leaf and Encore mix lettuces needed only a light weeding. They look great. The Ovation mix is overgrown and mostly bolted. Hard to pick it.
The arugula quadrant has not done well at all. Mostly weeds. I tried first Sylvetta with no luck, then I planted Bellezia. A few feeble sprouts. I don’t get it.
I also started to train my 8 cucumber plants to climb the trellis. Some are too short to reach it, others are just disinclined to climb.
Bianka’s white runner beans are doing nicely at the four corners of the trellis.
There are a few little green tomatoes.
The fingerling potatoes have a nasty case of aphids.
Happily, cosmos and poppy seeds have germinated in flower pots – a late experiment.
Good Life poppies
Always a special day when the poppies first bloom. They seem so extravagant in their color and their delicacy. These were drenched in a sudden thunderstorm.
Seeds originated from the Good Life Center in Harborside, Maine, the farm of Helen and Scott Nearing. I first grew them last summer and saved them over the winter.
Weed log
I need to learn more about the weeds in the garden. A starter list:
- Purslane
- Wood sorrel (oxalis)
- Lambs quarters
- Clover (several kinds)
- Dandelion
- common quickweed
- shaggy soldier
- Horse weed?
- Vetch
- Grass
- Hawkweed
July 10 in the garden
A beautiful day, sunny and warm with a cool breeze. The garden is looking great, healthy and almost pest free- discovered our first potato beetles today and dropped them into a bucket of soapy water.
Some standouts:
July 2 in the garden
First strawberries for breakfast
The spotted salamander or yellow-spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) is a mole salamander common in the eastern United States and Canada. (Wikipedia)
