A Trip to the Raspberry Patch

After doing u-pick strawberry this year and then making strawberry jelly, I decided to do the same thing with raspberries. Having never picked raspberries before I found out in a hurry that it is a little tedious, it took 1.5 hours to pick 4 litres(4 quarts.) The plants did not have many thorns so that was a good thing and the weather was nice so it was rather enjoyable to be out in the field. I did manage to get raspberry juice on my new, white patchwork shorts, never been one to dress appropriately. I am going to make jelly, a cheese cake as well as freeze what's left over the next couple days.

I also found many insects in the plants so I will post photos’ of them below as well as other photos I took. It really is amazing the variety of things you can find in plain sight. It seems now a days everyone wants you to think the environment is going to hell, it seems like it is doing fine to me. As well as the whole arctic melting thing, last time I checked to form ice it would have had to be water at some point so how is it unnatural for it to melt again? Anyhow that is my rant of the day.

I will post about the vegetable garden in the next couple days, exciting things are happening!!!

Milk Weed beetle, on a Milk Weed plant.

Grasshopper

Japanese Beetle


Soybean

Big Green in the field, about the closest thing it gets to manual labour.

Floating Row Cover Arrived

Canada Post delivered my floating row cover this morning, rather quickly too. I placed the order Friday night and it arrived Tueday morning, it traveled 1,800km(1,118miles). Although I have never used floating row cover it is suppose to be a great product. It can be used to fend off insects, keep the heat off crops as well as extend your growing season by retaining heat and protecting from frost. I purchased this product from Veseys which is a garden supply company from Prince Edward Island, Canada. It was the most reasonable and one of the few places I could even find this stuff.

I first saw the use of this product on Tiny Farm Blog which is a CSA farm located north of Toronto, Ontario. They offer a very informative and interesting blog to follow. I copied the image below from their page and it shows that the eggplants bit the bust from not being covered, well the neighbouring peppers are growing fine due to the floating row cover.

First Potato Harvest w/ a few nature shots

I was flipping through a magazine and read about a recipe for new potatoes cooked on the grill. It looked really good so I thought I am going to investigate weather I have any potatoes under the massive potato plants. I crouched down and started digging with my hands, low and behold I found some. I then fired up the new grill and proceed to the kitchen to get these puppies going.

The recipe was for Parmesan New Potatoes and called for tin foil, olive oil, seasoning, new potatoes and parmesan cheese. I started by making a tin foil pouch, then add a few table spoons of olive oil and proceed with the new potatoes, halved/quartered if needed. Once this is done season with what ever you prefer and place them on the grill with an opening left in the foil pouch for the stem to escape. When you have about 10 minutes of grilling time left added the parm to the potatoes leaving just enough time for the cheese to melt and just start to get a little brown and crusty. They tasted great, are easy to make and defiantly worth sneaking a few potatoes from the garden.

Asides from harvesting the first few potatoes, I have also been busy with fall crops. I have started broccoli transplants for the third time, I really don't want to get into it but lets just say it was a combination of mother nature and my laziness. This time they are growing to grow and I have also mail ordered row cover to keep the cabbage butterflies off them once they are in the ground. I also direct seeded turnips yesterday and sprayed the cabbage butterfly larvae that are on my brussel sprouts. Aren't bugs fun?

I have also been out with the camera again so here are a few more shots I have taken:

A Native Bee pollinating one of the cucumber flowers

I saw this huge wasp on the Veronicastrum out front of the house. My first instinked was the run into the house. I then found the courage to venture outside on the porch, 1 foot from the door and take this picture with a zoom lens. I'm so brave! The picture is a little diseving because this wasp is over 3" long with has a body thickness of 1/2".

Updated: I have done a little research and found out that this wasp is most likely a Sphex pennsylvanicus- Great Black Wasp. It even has a mean name.

This is a Cedar Waxwing that I got a shot of in a Mulberry Tree. It was on the bike trail about 5 blocks from our home.


This is a Fledgling Robin that was eating some berries. This birds was in the treed lot behind our yard.

Out with the flowers, In with the vegetable harvest

First off the weather has been crazy hot last week, like 40c (104f) with the humidex factored in and the weekend was stormy and overcast. Normally the storms pull out the heat but it seemed to just make the humidity worse which hovered around 100%. The plants seem to really prefer the weather but it makes me want to stay in the a/c. I did manage to get some picking done though and was rather happy that it is finally getting to the point where I can harvest a variety of things at once.


All the carrots have been pulled, they seemed to be getting thicker rather then longer so I figured I better get them out before they turn woody. Some kind of bore got to about 10 of the carrots so they ended up in the compost, I guess everyone has to eat right?


I also picked a few beets that had grown to a good size. They seem to be all at different growth stages so this is good because I can pick them as needed without having them get to large.


The celery has also grown large enough to start harvesting. I pulled one up, removed the pot I placed over the bottom of the plant to blanch it and it worked great. The celery is almost white, I have yet to taste it but I am betting it is not bitter at all because of the blanching.



The cucumbers are starting to produce a lot of blooms which is rather exciting because I am a cucumber fend.


This photo shows the bumper crop of mild banana peppers that are starting to get almost large enough to eat. I hope they taste good because I am going to have alot of them. The rest of the peppers, chocolate & red are flowering but no peppers yet.


The zuchinni is also producing many blooms but all 15 or so are male with no female flowers in sight, not sure if this is normal.

I will end with a couple photos of the waterfall we visited over the weekend. It is called Grindstone Cascade and is located in Waterdown, ON on Mill St. South. It is a very nice spot and was enjoyable even after factoring in the heat, humidity and I wore sandals on a rocky/clay trail at times on a 20 degree angle. Boy I'm whinny today! Anyhow, I was experimenting with the shutter in hopes of getting the moving water to appear as it is moving in the photo. It worked pretty well with some of the photo's but it was hard not to over expose and end up with a very washed out image.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

In reading SFG in Nashville I found out that it is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day which was started by May Dreams Gardens. I thought, I have lots of plants that are in flower so why not jump on the wagon and join in. Now brace yourself because there are alot of photo's, enough to cramp my hand for shrinking the images, darn laptop mouse thing.

Veronicastrum

The Window Box

Clematis, although not a flower but a seed pod. I think it is just as attractive.

Salvia

Shasta Daisy

Lily

Astilbe

Lemon tree under planted with geraniums with the urns in the background. A lemon tree in a pot that says lemon, who would have thunk it?

Hollyhock

Sea Holly with lady's Mantel in the background

Liatris, just starting to bloom

Daylilly

Daylilly

Daylilly

Gooseneck Loosestrife

Astrantia

Hydrangea

Dwarf Bougainvillea