July garden, and other stuff.....

July 5, 2022

So far this summer, we've had only a few of those nasty hot, humid days, the rest have been beautiful sunny, warm summer days with low humidity. There has been enough rain that I haven't had to water much at all. Long daylight hours, and warmish nights have the garden really taking off. All the garden pictures except the first one,  were taken on July 4, a showery overcast day, after a night of rain.

There are beets in the foreground of this bed, with 10 broccoli plants, interspersed with dill beyond. A couple of the broccoli plants got chewed badly so I cut the bottom out of some plastic containers and pressed them into the soil to keep the mulch at bay, and planted new seeds inside. They will catch up eventually.

A couple of Scotia, determinate tomato plants, onion sets beyond and rutabaga leaves in the foreground.

There are peppers forming on the Red Carmen sweet peppers,

and tomatoes on the Black Plums, and on most of the other tomato plants.

The greens bed has just gone nuts.

In the field garden, the Brandywine tomatoes are growing by leaps and bounds, the lone Large paste in the foreground has fruit, the zucchini is growing and climbing beans are starting up the bean teepee. 

At the other end, the cucumber plants are getting bigger, but not heading up their fence yet. No buds on the glads so far, first planting of beans is doing well and that weedy blank space at the bottom right, is my chore for tomorrow, clearing it and planting the second bean crop. 

I have to rethink the strawberry bed. It is caged to keep out voles and chipmunks, but I caught a chipmunk in there red-pawed. Somehow, it had found a gap and squeezed itself in. We spent some time reinforcing the sides and top, again. The vermin ate all the wild strawberries, and now mine are going down their gullets. There are a couple of okra plants in the end, and some extra marigolds.

The asparagus has ferned out, with a vengeance, and the horseradish plants are sending up new shoots throughout their bed...and beyond! I am glad we planted them off by themselves.

We got out for a day of fishing on the beautiful Bonnechere River, that comes down from Algonquin Park. It was a nice change of pace, but the fish were not cooperating with us that day.

At the pond, a great blue heron stalked by the Pond Camera.

Papa bluebird called the youngsters out of the nest box on a cool, rainy day late in June. The whole family disappeared for a while, but later reappeared, three small puffy, blue-grey birds with mottled breasts and blue tails, with the adults. The youngsters were sitting up on clothesline poles, fence posts, and solar panels, their parents bringing food to them. The phoebe is sitting on a second batch of eggs, up under the verandah eaves; the chipping sparrows and the robin chicks have all fledged and gone.