The rewards......

 July 26, 2026

There is a big up-tick in the amount of produce coming in from the garden now that we are near the end of July. The beans are from the first sowing in June, zucchini, greens, cherry tomatoes, broccoli side shoots, young root vegetables, and soon cucumbers big enough to pick. Let the pickling begin! 

Cabbages are harvested, and a couple have gone from this,

to sauerkraut.

In their place, the soil has been loosened and a couple of pails of sieved compost added. This is hopefully where the winter supply of carrots will grow, and hopefully they will be the perfect size for root cellar storage much later in the fall when things cool down.

The white strips are a gel of corn starch and water, into which I mix the seeds, then put it into a piping bag. After sitting overnight, the mixture gets piped into rows, then more sieved compost nestles them in. The gel holds moisture and gives the seeds a boost. 

There are more Monarch butterflies around now, although I haven't succeeded in finding any eggs or larvae. They are loving the swamp milkweed I've established around the edge of the pond. Six or more Hummingbirds are visiting the feeders, and the flowers. They absolutely love the red Bee Balm. So does the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

The bird chorus in the bush is much diminished now. The Song Sparrows from the nest in the cedar tree have fledged, as have the Cat birds in the lilac bush. The young Catbirds hung around in the lilacs for quite a while, but have since dispersed. Here is one trying out the branch in front of Bird Cam. The young ones are much less sleek than the adult birds, looking kind of scruffy and unfinished. They also do a lot more "mewing".

The Frog Orchid blooms are opening up quite a bit. They are tiny, but so obviously an orchid. 

There is another orchid coming into bloom now. It occurs quite commonly along our trails wherever more sunlight penetrates, and even comes up in the gravel along the sides of the road. Research has shown that it is a Broadleaf Helleborine, an introduced plant from Europe.

I managed to get a not too bad close-up of a bloom.

The weather gods have blessed us with sufficient moisture so far this season, but if the rain in the forecast does not materialize, I'll be getting out the hoses to give everything a good soak, as it has been about a week since the last good rainfall. Temperatures have moderated to quite pleasant summer days, after the suffocating heat and humidity earlier in July. One can very comfortably leave all the doors and windows open, perfect timing for beginning to process produce for storage. 

Enduring the heat, and preparing for winter...

July 14,  2026

This morning...  

The weird ball in the sky, a smoke obscured sun in a smoke hazed sky. The camera didn't capture how red the sun was.

We are under a heat and smoke warning. 

Every one of these hot mornings, we are up just as the grey dawn breaks, and off to check out the garden, me; and Hubby is off to the bush with chainsaw and trailer in tow. After splitting and piling all the wood we harvested in the winter, there was still a gap in the woodshed. After nine heating seasons of having sufficient stores of wood; last winter, with it's long cool spring, used up more wood than any other year since we've been here. There are some dying beech trees Hubby has scouted out, and this is the latest instalment to the wood yard, the gap they are to fill, once split, is on the right end of the woodshed. 

Giving all my garden plants a good deep soak once a week and a good layer of leaf, grass or straw mulch, has been the recipe for keeping things hydrated and growing in my gardens, even through these hot and humid days. 

Here is the last full head of broccoli from my eleven plants, and the first harvested Caraflex cabbage. The broccoli will continue to supply us with lots of side shoots.

The first cluster of cherry tomatoes are showing some colour!

Zucchinis are producing lovely little fruit. One of my favourite ways to cook them is sauteed just to 'tender-crisp', with garlic butter and a little salt.

The celery bed is doing well, sandwiched between carrots, beets and the pepper patch at the far end. Determinate tomatoes are in the next bed over. 

In the field garden, everyone is happy, squash and pumpkin are starting to crawl and climb, Glads are growing, indeterminate tomatoes are blooming, and so far....no potato bugs!

An early morning look over the 7 raised beds closest to the house. The dill in the foreground are volunteers in the onion bed, I thinned them drastically when they were small, but apparently not enough! They are co-existing with a full 4' X 8' bed of onions, my winter supply of cooking onions, plus some big sweet guys and some green onions.

I am hoping the dill will help to confuse the leek moths, which seem to be a new pest up here on the hill. Some of my garlic got hit, so plans are in the works for how to deal with that new threat next season. 

Presently the Grey catbird is serenading us with his eclectic repertoire from the lilac bush. The heat is increasing, although it has been quite delightful to spend some time out here on the verandah, with a nice morning breeze from the west keeping things bearable. 

 

From basketball to balls of fire...

 August 31, 2025

The inch and 5/8ths of beautiful rain that fell on Thursday, plus the half inch from last Sunday, has resulted in a reprieve from watering the gardens, and reduced the Total Fire Ban that has been in place in this area, to a less restrictive ban. Temperatures have moderated, early mornings are a little chilly, but the days are sunny and comfortably warm, with no humidity. The sun is very noticeably rising later and setting earlier.

We had occasion to travel south to the 'Big Smoke', (Ottawa), mid-week, and decided to meander home along back roads. We visited Almonte, where the Mississippi River, (not that one!) once powered woollen mills, and still produces hydro-electric power. The volume of water cascading down the stepped falls is noticeably diminished, due to the drought.

We came across this fellow, Dr. James Naismith the inventor of basketball, seated on this bench, with a ball and peach basket, in a little parkette along the main street.

The clock tower on top of the old Post Office, seen from the bottom of Mill Street is an impressive sight.

Garden production has slowed a little, giving some breathing room. The first planting of carrots was unearthed and layered away on moistened sawdust in milk crates in the root cellar.

Although a little gnarly, the roots have no blemishes on them, so this year will be the first time for storing carrots in the root cellar. We'll see how that goes.

A morning wander around the garden beds yields a variety of produce, ingredients for a 'garden medley' stir fry, and a salad.

 This fall 'greens' bed is really liking the cooler temperatures. Nibbling deer have begun to be more prevalent, hence the screen of hardware cloth.

Aji Charapita peppers, apparently one of the most expensive peppers in the world to buy....why grow them? Because I can...! Three plants, loaded with fruit. 

Their Scoville rating is 30,000 to 50,000, compared to 2,500 to 8,000 for the humble Jalapeno pepper. 

Two shots from the trail camera over the apple pile behind the barn. A couple of critters eyeing each other,

and a bruin passing through.

The sun beautifully high-lit this spider web along the trail, from this morning's walk.

 

Still here, still hot, still no rain......

August 12, 2025

Garden produce is roaring in, requiring attention. This heat makes it more cumbersome to process produce, seeing as it has to be done outside in the 'verandah kitchen' to keep the heat out of the house. Seems I'm constantly going in and out with needed paraphernalia, but it's getting done...so say the growing ranks of jars in the storage room. 

We were up and out by 4:30 this morning, to get some stuff done before the sun and the heat. We are getting a little tired of this endless string of hot, humid, full sun days. A little variety would be nice, Mother Nature.

I was doing my weekly soaking of the gardens this morning, watering by the light of Venus and the waning full moon, feeling around under the herbage for the bases of the plants in the dark, to place the hose. As I was uncoiling the hose from the water barrel down to the raised beds, a little moving shadow came trotting over to about 6 feet away.... one of the resident fox's kits, so curious about what was going on. Later, as the daylight grew stronger, a deer was happily snacking on the lower branches of one of our old apple trees, reaching up and pulling off mouthfuls, oblivious to me manning the hose over by the garden beds. 

I've emptied the big water tote by the Field Garden, and Hubby hooked up the pump and hoses and refilled it yesterday.

Last year we hardly had to use it at all. The hose and water intake to the pump has been laying up on the muddy bank of the pond since the initial filling this spring, becoming exposed as the water level receded. Hubby lashed the intake onto the end of a long board and put it out as far as he could, to reach deeper water.

Onions have been pulled, 

and hung in bunches to cure up in the end of the barn.

I pulled the four rutabagas out of the end of the brassica patch.,

They cleaned up real good!
 

First leek pulled and some random veg picked one morning.

A growing watermelon.

Beans, beans and more beans, 9+ pounds in the freezer, plus what we ate fresh, and the second crop is loaded with blooms and bees.

Peppers. 

Tomatoes, coming in in dribs and drabs, but soon we'll be inundated.

All are thriving and loving this heat.

Happily, we are seeing a few more of these now, 

and some of these here and there, if you look hard.

And now we are off to a Mennonite farm for some corn and peaches, as I really need more to do! 

Busy times, reaping what I've sown......

 August 3, 2025

The smokey sun cresting the treetops to the east this morning. 

In the latter part of last week, we had a cool down, with overnight temperatures just barely above single C digits, and day temperatures just cresting 20C (68F), and an easterly flow of air that cleared the skies to a beautiful blue. We are now back into air from the west, bringing with it, smokey, dull, dirty, off-white coloured skies, and an air quality warning. The cool down was a shock after the extreme heat and humidity. Temperatures that would have been 'coffee on the porch' temperatures in spring, were 'throw on a sweater and put the blanket back on the bed' temperatures. The booming growth in the garden has slowed a bit, noticeable in the cucumber patch, but the heat is on its way back.

 Harvesting:

 First cabbage.

Garlic. 64 fat cloves.

 

  

Wild raspberries growing around the edges of the pond and our clearing were enough for several desserts, but now they are drying out from the ongoing dearth of rainfall. We haven't had rain since the July 18th inch. It is turning into a dry summer. The big water cube is down to half. Over the past two growing seasons, it was barely used, and had to be drained in the fall. If the forecast holds as is for the next two weeks, we'll be doing a refill from the diminishing pond.

The new pump handle Hubby made is getting a workout this year, and the 'water wagon' is back in service for places the hoses don't reach. The water barrels by the well get emptied and immediately re-filled, so the cold water can warm in the sun ready for the next watering session.

 

Cucs are taking off. Slicers are being eaten, picklers are being collected and soon there will be enough for the first batch of pickles.

Several pounds of beans have been picked and processed from the still producing first planting, and the second planting is budding up.  

Soon:

Big, beautiful onion bulbs for winter storage.

 

 

Eggies are getting bigger! There are 4 about this size so far.

 

 Lots of pumpkins and squash are growing in the jungle.

 

There is no shortage of peppers, particularly in the red department.

 

 

Both the slicers and paste tomatoes are loaded. Only a couple of slicers have reddened so far. They have been picked and are in a paper bag on the counter, as I don't want to share them with the  raccoons. 

 

Preparing:

 

16'X1'X2"

 

Chainsaw milled cedar planks to replace rotting out raised bed frames.

  Observing: 

Finally there are a few Monarchs around and they are enjoying the Swamp Milkweed.
 

 An Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar. Found on an Heliopsis.

 

 

 

 These beauties are up to my chin in height.

The only truly red Zinnia. 

 

Aliens wandering the bush!!