Garden update, swimming for Monty, and of course a hurricane update

Every year we get better at gardening. Another few years and we might have an entire salad 😉

Here’s what we planted this year:

• Green Beans – We moved these to the back of the garden so they don’t hog all the sunshine this year, but they really don’t seem to be growing up the poles like they did last year. I don’t know if they were mislabeled and aren’t pole beans, or if it is because of the wet season, or just because they are too close to the edges of the garden. We have had 3 small green bean harvests. NOTHING like last year when we had many extra to freeze.
• Yellow Beans – aren’t doing well at all. Too close to the edge of the garden (aka the fence). We’ve eaten fewer than 10 of these beans.
• Broccoli – tried broccoli this year. Planted 6 plants. Harvested our first head of broccoli yesterday. Had some of those green mini caterpillar worms. Picked them off and boiled it extra long and stubbornly ate them anyway. It was slow to mature because of the weather. Maybe it would be less wormy if it matured faster? Or is broccoli a don’t-even-try-to-grow-it-yourself kind of vegetable?
• Tomatoes – bumper crop of Scotian tomatoes coming in the garden. Also have some bigger tomatoes (forget their kind) and cherry tomatoes in pots on the deck. I grew those from seeds under the grow light and they were light years ahead of their schedule when I planted them. I planted way too many per pot though and they were not doing well at all until I started slipping them a little Miracle-Gro once a week. Now they are green and the cherry tomatoes are plentiful. LOVE cherry tomatoes. Reminds me of the plant my Dad had outside of the barn when I was a kid and when he was done working we would snack on some cherry tomatoes. Remember that Dad?
• Green Peppers & Jalapeno Peppers – stubbornly, we’re trying to grow peppers again. We just don’t have the heat, and living on the side of a valley, we don’t get enough sun probably. Luckily we have two peppers coming along nicely now, and a bunch of flowers on the other plants. With any luck, and with our long fall, maybe we can get a small crop! Or realistically, maybe 3 peppers?
• Pumpkins – I planted a couple pumpkin plants late in the season. They are the type that grow the little cooking pumpkins. We have lots of blossoms but there isn’t a pumpkin to be seen, so that may be a write off.
• Cucumbers – first time growing cucumbers! I love them! They grow so fast and have attached themselves to the chicken wire fence around the garden. We’ve harvested 2 in this last week and now there are plenty more just starting. What an easy thing to grow. I could eat fresh cucumbers every day!
• Lettuce – We planted Boston lettuce this year and it was done a month ago. From now on I’m going to grow lettuce from seed, and I’ll stagger it, because we planted 6 plants and they all were ready at the same time, around the time we went back to Ontario for a week, so we only had 1 head of it. Delicious lettuce though – better than the romaine we grew last year!
• Herbs – Still have herbs growing – oregano, parsley, rosemary. I don’t dry much of them – I prefer them fresh. Before winter, I’ll transplant smaller plants and put them back inside on the kitchen window ledge.

I think that is it. Our garden isn’t too big, just 12×12 or so (is that right Jeff?). We’re surrounded by woods on the side of a hill so it’s not the ideal gardening location, but we’re learning how to cope with it.

The fence keeps the deer out, and most of the time it has kept the bunnies, squirrels, and chipmunks out, but there was another tunnel dug in there this week, and a tomato look gnawed on, but I guess they get hungry too!

Slugs and snails are always a huge problem here in wet Nova Scotia. I’ve given up on the beer in a tuna can approach and have been using a safe-for-animals-and-people-but-definitely-not-safe-for-slugs product. I sprinkle the little buds in the garden every few weeks and they are really helping! The only problem is the beans are too close to the outside edge and grass is growing up through the fence and the bugs are travelling in on it.

I haven’t grown zucchini yet, but I did buy a big one at the market and made a new recipe. They were zucchini/oatmeal/buttermilk/raisin/bran/whole wheat muffins. Unfortunately rather bland, but had very little sugar and were moist. I think I can figure out a way to spice ’em up a little. The recipe did call for walnuts too, but I opted out! (see recipe: Zucchini Muffins)

Swimming

We took Monty down to the picnic stop on Lochiel Lake after work. No one was around so he had a good swim. The water was so clear. Beautiful. And other than horseflies, there were no bugs!! Often I’ve been down there and the blackflies and mosquitoes are horrendous.

I should have taken the camera. I thought of it. But his ears need trimming so bad, I didn’t want to show him all shaggy. Silly me – you can’t see his shagginess when he is all wet. He is very quiet and sleepy tonight!

Hurricane Update

We’re going to miss most of this one, but I’ll be watching it like a hawk anyway because I love extreme weather.

I’m really worried that the media are going to blow it so far out of proportion that unless it wipes 55 million people off the planet, it will seem to be a dud. I think 24 hour news broadcasts have killed legitimate news coverage.

I will be on my computer all day tomorrow working on assignments for the GIS course I’m taking, so I’ll likely have Twitter open for news from real people.