Gardens at the end of June...

 June 28, 2024

Rain...rain....rain. By the time last weekend was over, we had 5.5 inches of rain. The pond came up and puddles began to form in the yard wherever we usually get snow melt-water puddles in the spring. To cap it off, another half inch fell on Wednesday. I'm standing on this rock step leading down to the pond. It was high and dry before the rain came, and you can see all the submerged vegetation that had started to grow on the banks of the pond as the water subsided.

Loved seeing this guy, a Green frog, who stayed to get his photo taken.

The blackberries that insist on growing along the pond edge are doing really well with all the rain. I should get a good picking off just these few bushes.

Since the rain, temperatures have cooled, over nights dipping into the high single digits (9C 48F), days breezy and relatively cool for late in June.
The young deer that we've shooed off so many times in the day, has changed her strategy, and has been showing up at night. As a consequence, I've been trying to shield stuff with hardware cloth and whatever else might work. The cover over the carrots is a reuse of the shade cloth frame I made a few years ago. I take it off during the day. In the far end is the pepper patch, covered, basil and other herbs are beside the barrel of oregano.

She had a good nibble on my 9 sunflowers, (also baby beets, strawberry leaves, cucumber leaves...) a dwarf variety that I put in the end of this raised bed. There are greens in the far end and 4 tomato plants staggered up the middle. One is my favourite cherry, Rapunzel, the other three are a paste variety.

The row cover is keeping my broccoli safe. The front right is a replanting, as she got that one before the cover went on.

The onion bed, sets in the foreground, seed onions in the far end. It is so nice to be able to go out and pull (and pick!) fresh produce again. There are marigolds planted here and there, and are turning out not to be the small French variety I usually plant. Time will tell what they really are.

The beans are starting to flower, the row of companion dill is forming bud clumps. The double gladiola row is behind that. I had so many glad corms, I gorilla gardened them out along the road along our property wherever there was a sunny spot, and they are coming up, except for a few that chipmunks dug up.

Almost ready! I think we will be having fresh peas sometime over this weekend.

I planted nasturtium seeds in the old cold frame. As the summer progresses, the frame gets a lot less morning sun, but I am hoping the nasturtiums will give me a burst of colour by the fall. Again, an old screen door is affixed to prevent Bambi's nibbling. Deer aren't supposed to like nasturtiums, but they might give it a try to find that out.

The Field Garden slopes slightly downhill toward the north. All the rain ran down the pathways and accumulated across the tomato bed at the end. Thankfully they are planted in a mound, and I'd mulched then with straw, so they did not end up being a muddy mess. (Brandy Wines, Box Car Willies) In the space behind them, are volunteer spuds from last year that I left and will be planting beans around them soon.

The potato plants at the south end are huge and bushy, the reds are blooming, the other varieties starting to show bud clusters.

The various squash varieties down the side are doing well. They really jumped over the hot days. The pumpkins are beating the others to the crawling stage, and today I started steering their runners out of the garden with strategic stakes.
I made a bee waterer for the front perennial bed. This end has yet to be developed much, but I planted some annuals for a bit of colour.

The other end is coming along. Our bird bath has been languishing in the barn since we moved, so I popped it in here for a bit of interest. Liatris spikes are rising, bee balm is budding up and the false sunflower is blooming.

 

No takers for the bath yet. We did see a Veery make a quick trip through the vegetation, Robins and Chipping sparrows forage in it, robins particularly love hopping along the edges.