End of May (*Cough, Cough*) Garden Post

 

Hello! It's time, more or less, for an end-of-the month look at how things have gone in the garden this May. 

 

I spent the winter watching the constant freezing and thawing with dismay. Indeed, a number of the biennials I hoped would over-winter and produce seed have not. Just to confirm it's not just that they were too tender and I was wildly optomistic about their survival, it has become clear we will have no blackberries this year, for the first time since they were planted. All the second-year canes - the ones that have the fruit - were killed over the winter. So, in the photo above, Mr. Ferdzy is removing them. 

On the other hand, my quince is flowering for the first time since it was planted. I thought it wasn't going to, but it seems it's just later to flower than apple blossoms. It would be exciting to have some quinces this  year! But we'll see how that turns out.

One of the kiwi vines if finally looking really robust and like it will be covered with blossoms in late June into July. Unfortunately, kiwi are dioicous, so until one of the much less sturdy male plants decides to do its' thing, we will continue to be kiwiless. We live in the hope. They're not dead yet.

But after all those noes and maybes on the fruit front, the main fruit beds look like they should be loaded with fruit this spring and early summer. Haskaps - excellent. Strawberries - first ones already taking on colour with masses to come. Blueberries - flowering non-stop. We are really looking forward to all of these, especially Mr. Ferdzy who is a fiend for fruit.

We have also been picking wild amounts of asparagus; up to 3 pounds a day. It is slowing down, but we probably have another week of picking. Fresh - really fresh - asparagus is the best thing ever. 

Mr. Ferdzy has been picking asparagus beetles like crazy too. Because of the odd, occasional heat-wave day that we have been having in the midst of otherwise cooler weather, the asparagus beetles have been up and active almost before the asparagus. This has concentrated them onto smaller, less mature plants than usual making them easier to spot and pick off than usual. I'm hoping we can reduce the numbers by a lot this year, by getting most of them.

Once the asparagus is gone we will have to eat salad for a couple of days and then the peas should get going. Pods are already forming and I should really be starting to check for snow peas very soon. 

The garlic, in the foreground, is having a very good year so far. It looks healthy, tall, and really magnificent.

 

If you look closely, you can see the tomato plants in the two central beds of this section. Much more obvious right now are the things we've left here to go to seed: leeks, onions, parsley, rutabaga, and turnips. There's also some mache and miner's lettuce here and there that we are leaving to their own devices. Brussels sprouts, alas, overwintered in very small numbers. We have one very healthy flowering plant; the rest are either not flowering with it or are in the process of dying. Not looking good for Brussels sprouts seeds this year. We'll have to try again next year.

 

The ladder in the background is for putting up bird netting over the blueberries, strawberries, and haskaps. This photo is now out of date; the netting is up (although I have a few small mends to make) and we are ready for fruit, any time now. It's a nuisance not being able to use the front gate to get into the garden but it is not a nuisance to not have birds eating most of the berries. 

 

And we'll finish with a look at the perennial/herb bed. That's caucasian spinach in the upper right. It got away from me before I could pick any to try, and it looks like it's going to flower so probably not this year. The rest of the bed is full of self-seeded dill, cilantro, and summer savory, with bits of lettuce and wild strawberry between them. There's also sorrel and lovage, and weeds - lots of weeds. This bed is going to require quite a lot of weeding and  thinning.

 

Fortunately, almost everything is planted. There are some re-plants - we are doing all the brassicas again, in pots this time. The pests are just too relentless on the seedlings. They come up, look good for a couple of days, then disappear. Also I planted melons and watermelons too early and only a very few came up. I'll need to reseed some beans, ditto, and Lima beans have yet to go in. Sweet potatoes are in, though; although we are covering them at night as it is still pretty cool. In short, this is probably the middle of the busiest part of the entire year, and we are busy. 

 

We are actually out for all of today as Mom is finally having her second cataract operation. In Toronto this time, by a more specialist surgeon given what a fiasco her first cataract operation was. Wish us (her) luck... it's a scary moment for all of us and the results, one way or another, will have a considerable impact on the rest of our lives.