Do me a Fava

Well summer is here and its Canada Day Long weekend. With the heat here, it was time to do a little more focus on summer crops.  As my neighbour said, things are starting to fill in. The red plant in front isorach, which I cant say I have eaten more than 2 leaves.

30 June

Good things happen

2 days after heat hit

Well 3-4 days in the 30's and good things suddenly start happening. I actually have growth in my eggplant and peppers and squash have nearly doubled in size.

Lets start with Strawberries. My patch this year has given me 3-6 strawberries a day for last 2 weeks. 2 days of heat and this was my day's pickings. It seems there was a lot of latent potential, just waiting for a few warm days. They where rinsed and eaten by me and 3 neighbours. Home grown strawberries do taste better.

HOT HOT HOT

Elderberry Starting to bloom

Well yesterday we suddenly jumped from in the 20's to  36.5c and a "feels like 41". I had a small 4 foot bed I wanted to dig over, and drenched myself in swat in seconds. By 3pm, some of my plants looked a little wilted - shock I am sure. I gave up, found some shade and read.

But here is how things look (picture heavy) . Since Friday was Midsummer's night, Litha,summer solace or first day of summer. Elderberry is usually at its peak blooms and I am sure part of why the world over, it was associated with protecting and enhancing spirit relations. This year, I was have the first couple flowers open, no-where near full bloom.

Rain again

This spring will be the spring of rain and has offered some unique gardening experience. According to http://toronto.weatherstats.ca/charts/precipitation-3months.html we have had 53% more rain in the last 3 months than we did last year. A whopping 268mm.  I woke up again this morning to often heavy rainfall.

With the cooler temperatures and all this rain, some plants are loving it, but others are suffering. My peppers and squash look a little nitrogen deficient and rather small, yellow tinged leaves. The lettuce on the other hand is taking over the world and my shallots look great.  My first year growing cauliflower and its seems a bit loose, unless I mixed it up with something else (Lost tags issues). I still need to source more fish for my pond. wait a second, whats that slouching away? Stop thief!

The "Pond"

Well much of what permiculture and other ideas are around trying to find balance between nature again. providing all the aspects you would in the wild. Although I have a river 1km away from my house, I really dont know of any closer natural water (not a pool) that is permanently there. So I wanted a very small pond. Deep enough to always have water, but small enough to not have huge maintenance. So I bought a large rubber planter, sunk it into the ground and added a solar pump. Then added a few feeder fish to eat any mosquitoes. Well the midnight monsters of mayhem (MMM for short) ate the fish and removed everything they could. So after a bit of research, I put a cinder block in the pond, giving fish a place to hide and set it to the right height so that birds could stand on it, in the water. Then added a few dinner plates to cascade a bit.

The "Pond"

The alligator purchased at Dollarama was supposed to "spit" the water into the plates, but on trying to drill a hole for the tube, it started disintegrating and I think I will need a hardier item. The lime green thorny shrub to protect birds and hopefully keep MMM away. Now all I need is more fish.

Clematis

The number of Birds in my garden has increased dramatically. So much so that the neighbors commented about it. While out there, they seem to be willing to stop off for a quick drink along with a furry tailed rat or 2. Funny how the furry tailed rats lie prone to lap water. While looking from the house window, there is some major bathing going on. I am not sure on the insects I was hoping to attract as of yet. Its funny how with water, you get both the desirable's and undesirables, and one hopes only that it finds some point of balance.

Another project on balance was my desire to keep blooming flowers in the garden at all times to ensure a food source for beneficial insects. Something I did not try for last year. So far, I have been able to keep at least a few blooms flowers or shrubs at all times. Peony's and Clematis though are more for show. My purple chives are really showing as well

Peony