Better late than never

Sometimes I wonder when I get the garden up and running late in the season as I did this summer in Canada whether it is worth the effort of getting organised, getting the seedlings started and pampered and in the ground knowing that there is a likelihood of not getting any results in the short season we have here.
But the joy of eating home grown, non sprayed veges just minutes after harvesting makes it seem all worth while even if the harvest isn't huge.
This summer I started harvesting from the vege garden just about as soon as I arrived. There were the self sown peas and lettuces and the perennial herbs-chive, oregano, parsley and thyme.
I also managed to scoop up a few tomato plants cheaply from the local nursery, that were ready to harvest almost from the time I bought them, and have continued to produce all summer.

This tomato bush has been producing for the last 2 months, but has finally just given up. Though there are still a lot left to harvest. Fortunately I still have more tomato plants just starting to ripen their fruit. They are in pots, so when the weather cools down I'll at least be able to move them to a sheltered area.

The jalapeno peppers and the cayenne peppers are starting to ripen in their pots. When we leave in a few weeks, I'll do my usual trick of putting them inside, in front of a bright window, and let them ripen some more, then dry down over the winter. They will then be ready to crush and store on our return next spring.

The beans and peas finally produced a largish harvest a few days ago and lots more on the way. I only need a few more weeks of frost free weather before we go to make those worth their while starting.

Even the zucchinis are starting to produce. The lettuce are continueing to produce. I did have a big failure with the pak choi when the slugs devoured the complete row early on in their life.
The root bound cucumber seedlings I picked up from the nursery on our arrival made a strong come back, and have been supplying our salads for the last few weeks.

This harvest made it all worth the effort. It made a healthy contribution to a dinner party we had a few nights ago.

Summers here

Finally the weather seems to have warmed up and it feels like summer.
Even though I was late getting seedlings into the ground this summer in Canada I hoped that lots of hot weather would really get them going. It didn't happen, though now I have high hopes for a warm fall.
In spite of the weather I'm  managing to get a harvest out of the vege garden.
I'm still getting a small harvest from the peas that self sowed in the spring, and the ones I started in July are almost ready to start producing.
The self sown lettuce is keeping us in salads, with new seedlings starting to show promise.
The parsley patch has gone to seed producing lots of flowers for the insect life to feed on and then lots of seed to keep the patch going next year. Last years self sown parsley plants are big enough to harvest.

The parsley flowers look great in a vase with rudbeckia and Echinacea.

I am managing to get enough tomatoes each day for salads. Lots of tomato plants look a ways from ripening, but if we get that warm fall they may make it.

Still in the wings are the squash and beans. We'll see if they make it.
The chillies that I bought as seedlings and put in pots have lots of small chillies on them, so it looks like I'll have enough of those to get through another year.
It's always interesting to see what makes it and what doesn't.

Todays harvest

Wow, has it ever cooled down. last week we were all sweltering, and dare I say it, complaining about the heat. Today it is cold and grey.
So far the temps have stayed well above freezing, and not meant to go down below 6'C at night over the next few days, so hopefully the garden will keep producing for a while longer.

 

The tomatoes are all starting to ripen up. I think it is time to make a big batch of relish.

The summer squash which have been a little slow this year are finally producing steadily. these are yellow crookneck.

The edible podded peas have slowed down, but mostly because so many of them got too big to eat, and got left on the vine to ripen for seed and soups. I am growing sugar snap peas and sno peas.

The bush beans finished producing a while back and are now ripening for seed and dry beans for cooking. The purple podded beans are coming into their own, and I am able to harvest several large handfuls each day.

Still in the garden I have pak choi, and Chinese cabbage. Also some cilantro that has started to go to seed. I'll harvest the mature seeds for cooking. The basil needs to be harvested and frozen, and there is still lots of parsley and other perennial herbs. The winter squash needs a few more weeks to mature.

At this time of the year I just hope for a few more weeks of warmish weather, so we can keep on harvesting the last of the crops.



There is a chill in the air

There is a chill in the air, and I'm not sure I am ready for it.
We have had way too many night time temps in the single digits this summer, including the last few nights. The day highs are in the low 20's. Is summer over already, or did it not happen at all.
Some things in the garden loved the cool temps and regular rain. The lettuce has done amazing, the sno peas are 7' high and at their peak production. The sugar snap peas are producing well, having recovered from their early summer pruning by the deer.
My current favourite lettuce is Drunken Woman (gotta love the name). It is an amazing green colour tinged with a blush of red around the edges. It is slow to bolt in the heat, which is a bonus in a normal hot summer.

Even the beans haven't minded the cooler temps, and are producing basketfuls each day.
The chili peppers on the other hand, really aren't doing that well. They are only now producing the first few chilies. Fortunately they are growing in a pot. This usually helps, as the roots stay warmer all summer than they would if planted in the ground. This summer however, with the cold night time temps, not so much. However as it cools even further, I can at least run them indoors when necessary. My usual practise, when we leave in the fall is to put the pots-plants and all-in an out of way corner inside, and do nothing else til spring. We then come back to Canada to a plant covered with red, dried chilies,perfect for grinding up and storing. I hope the peppers are far enough along when we leave this year that this will work.

Tomatoes, squash and cucs also struggling with the cold. Maybe the fall will be warm and sunny. We can always hope.
But inspite of this we are now managing to get most our veges from the garden.
We are eating beans, salads and stir fries, almost totally from what we produce.It is the usual story of growing enough variety that there will always be things to harvest no matter what the weather throws at us.

 

Todays harvest

Here is some of the harvest for tonight. Lots of beans and peas, and the first of the summer squash.

 

I have started to make sour dough bread. I have been making bread in a breadmaker for along time now. Recently I started to make it out of all spelt flour, as that is meant to be more healthy to eat.

That made nice bread.

But I have avoided making the even more healthy sour dough bread because,I wasn't sure it would work in the breadmaker(and I love my breadmaker).Since we returned to Canada in June, I have been playing around with making the sour dough starter and then making the bread. Everything I read suggested that making sour dough bread in a breadmaker wasn't that successful. With my first attempts,I fussed around, with the breadmaker hoping for the best. It turned out great from the start, and now I just throw the ingredients into the breadmaker as I used to for yeast bread, and have had consistently good results. I'll try and get my recipes up here for the starter and the bread.

How and why I garden

I love to eat and I love to garden, it's that simple.
I don't want to eat pesticides or herbicides, so I don't use them.
Because of the way we live I garden in four very diverse climates. In Canada(zone 4) I have a short season garden-2 1/2 months frost free if I am lucky, followed by very cold winters. In New Zealand I garden in a mild temperate climate-almost frost free all year round, and in Thailand I am gardening in a tropical climate.
Most of my garden practises are based on a permaculture approach. That is I try to be sustainable and build in lots of diversity which cushions me against crop failures and pest invasion.
My gardens aren't big, but there is always something to eat in them no matter what.
I try and eat in season, and according to the country I'm gardening in.
I have compost bins and worm farms on the go, and every now and then spend enough time in one place to even keep chickens
.
Here is the garden on June 29th a few weeks after arriving back in Canada, just weeks after the last frost of the season.

 

and here it is again today, 1 month later.

 

 

I am eating lettuces, arugula,peas-both sugar snap and sno pea,beans,summer squash,pak choi,rhubarb,basil,chives, parsley.

The lettuce and parsley self seeded from last fall,so that gave me a good start.

Beans and Peas

I've been saving the seed from these beans for a while now. They started as roquefort, a yellow variety. But it seems like they have started to cross with the purple podded variety I also have on the go.They taste great,so I'm not that worried.At least they are still a bush variety while the purple podded beans are definitely climbers.

The sno peas have started to produce before the sugar snap,which doesn't usually happen. This year though a deer go into the vege patch and chomped on the sugarsnap peas. They have bounced back, and are starting to flower again. The fence around the garden is a 3' high chicken wire fence. Obviously not a deterrent for the deer. However extensions screwed into the corner posts and fine bird netting draped around the garden to about 5' high seems to be a good deterrent. They don't seem to like the almost invisible bird netting, so stay away from it.