Gardening stuff, and a few critters.....

June 18, 2023

The calendar says it is still spring, and we seem to have settled into a regular pattern of low teen C degree (50 to 59 F) overnights, and high teen degree, edging into the 20's in the days. (60 to 71F) The solstice is just a few days away, and daylight stays with us well on toward 10PM. After a few days of brutal heat in May, the weather reverted back to quite cool nights and days, making a morning fire feel very welcome.

After the fast snow melt, which formed puddles and ponds everywhere and had barely dried up, we had a deluge of rain that brought them all back, the pond topped out again, flooding out at the north end. After that, there was no precipitation for a couple of weeks, making one wonder if it was worth planting seeds at that time, as there was no rain in the forecast. It dried up enough to til the field garden at that point, so I finally I got some spuds, my glads, beans and sunflowers planted, the latest I've planted the field garden since we made it.

In the foreground is a row of perennials, a nursery bed for a future project, and garlic at the other end is starting to send up scapes.

Then we got the smoke inundation from all the forest fires burning to the north of us in Quebec, and also some closer around us in Ontario. There were a few days when the windows were kept closed and a few nights when we ran an air purifier in the bedroom overnight. Thankfully it wasn't too hot, but hot enough out in the yard with bug suit and an N-95 mask on, trying to get a few things done. It is very claustrophobic when you cannot get a breath of fresh air. Yesterday, after a trip south to Bancroft, the smoke seemed to come swamping in as I was driving north, obscuring the hills in a blue haze, and around 6 PM, I felt it necessary to turn on my headlights to be visible to traffic, even though the sun was still high in the sky, a blurry orange blob. We have taken to checking the “Smoke forecast” (yes, that is a thing) daily to be prepared to close windows and doors, as the smoke can come wafting in quite quickly, depending on wind direction. 

Last week, we got a few days of rain, accumulating just under an inch, then Monday was a full day of rain adding up to 3 inches, so just about 4 inches over the span of a week, giving a good boost to all my seeds and seedlings. Squash and pumpkins are finally poking up.

The raised beds dried a lot quicker than the in-ground field garden, and they were pretty much all planted earlier, but weren't doing much, even with me watering the seed beds, which I had started doing through the dry period.

Beets are up and ready for thinning, volunteer dill that I moved to where I want it, is doing well, the transplants are all in and mulched, carrots are showing feathery rows and we are harvesting radishes and a few lettuce leaves from the early sowing in the cold frame. The greens in the raised bed are just showing now. 

So, it is a late start, but a gardener is ever optimistic!

My perennial beds are a delight. 

Love, love, love my red poppies!

Buds are rising on several different lilies, the liatrus, and the peony is starting to open today.

The Barred Owl insists on sitting on the trail camera overlooking the pond. Butt Shot.

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A turtle wandered across the driveway early in June.

Haskaps are colouring up, and yes, the robins have found them.

I finally succeeded in overwintering lavender, and the few plants that survived are bravely sending up flower stalks.

The hardware cloth is protecting seed beds, as there has been a bit of random digging here and there....I think it is the current fox family, as I see paw prints.