All but the cukes

Everything is planted in my garden ... except for the cucumbers.   I'll do that this week.   This year I read that cucumber seeds need to be sown when it is at least 18 to 20 C for them to properly germinate. 

Yesterday I planted the rest of my tomatoes and took the bag off of the one that I put out a little over a week ago, they look a little anemic but are still ok.  The rest look ok.   It is now around 20 and hopefully, it stays around this temperature or a little warmer for the rest of the spring.

The one thing I learned is that I can water my berries and tomatoes with the whey from making yogurt.   I did have some whey from the 10 days ago and then I made yogurt yesterday so I had  about 1.5 liters of whey.   I put it in my watering can and watered my blueberries, strawberries, and tomatoes.   I tried it on my tomato seedlings when they were inside and they really liked it but I only did it once because the bacteria starts growing on the peat pots.  

Garden almost fully in and watered.

 Of course, I need to fix that bench and the lattice at the beginning of the garden.   In time I guess.  What needs to be fixed first is a piece of fence at the back of the garden as I don't need anyone raiding my garden.

What I have enjoyed are the tulips I planted last fall.    It was a bag of assorted tulips bought at Costco. 

trellises

On May 5th I planted a row of red onions and put the trellises up for the peas.   I always soak the peas for 24 hours before planting them.   Tomorrow I will plant some green arrow peas and some edible snow peas and probably the rest of the tomato plants but I'll make sure I have them covered with plastic bags like the one in my garden now. I'll likely also plant some radishes.   I'd like to get the garden in by the end of the weekend.    Although the 7-day forecast says it's going to dip below 0 next week at night I don't think that will happen.

It might be time to put out a few of the gnomes but I think before I do that I will need to fix my fence as a section towards the back that you cannot see is falling apart.  Hopefully, in a couple years I can replace the fence.   If I win the lotto jackpot, it would be this year.  LOL

Trellises for peas

Early Preparations

 So this year I have rototilled early.... WAY early.  Last year I believe I rototilled the first week of June, so I would be a month early.  I've already started my Zima tomatoes in February and next week I'll start putting them outside to harden them off.

Today I finished pulling out any final weeds that I could find in the garden and decided to rototill before it rains tomorrow.  I cleaned up the strawberries and blueberries as well as any quack grass that was growing along the fence.   [I don't know if I mentioned in my posts from past years that my neighbour covered parts of her lawn (quack grass) with carpet - quack grass can travel up to 15 feet easily when covered so I'm always picking out quack grass along the side of the fence - righthand side of the photos below).]

I spread the CIL Sheep/Cow Manure and Peat Moss (3.8 cubic feet).    I do this annually because it just enriches the soil naturally and the plants (and unfortunately the weeds) do much better.   It keeps the top soil...well, as nice black top soil.   😀

After spreading the smelly manure, I then topped it off with the peat moss and then got the rototiller going.   First going north and south on my garden, then east to west.    After years of being after quack grass and dandelions, this year I don't seem to have nearly as many; it could be because I've rototilled early and not everything has had the chance to come up.  When rototilling normally I see roots from quack grass and dandelions but only a few this year - not like other years where I had weeded a good garbage bag full and then more on top of that after rototilling.

I will rake it but perhaps tomorrow.   I have to pace myself.   Raking is a tough one for me as it is a motion where there is a twist and pull and this displaces a couple of lower ribs from my back.  So maybe in a couple days after the rain has dried up I will gently rake to see if there are any roots that I missed.

I feel so happy that the rototilling is done the earliest that I've ever done it in all the years that I've gardened.   YAY!!!!

Top Photo =Soil Amendments (Manure & Peat Moss on top)
2nd Photo = Rototilling North/South
3rd Photo = Rototilling East/West

And so it begins...

Spring is here and it's time to start to prepare the organic garden.

Last year, I didn't tear up the grass that accumulated at the side of the garden where I normally step.   So on April 24th for a few hours, on hands and knees I was able to pull out all of the grass that grew.  I had to pull the roots.  It all fit along with raking half of my front lawn fit into my  garden waste bin but hopefully it is not too much.   I still need to rake the boulevard but that will be for next week's garbage pickup.

Weeding   - This was about 12' of grass that I was able to take out.

   

So with the first weeding completed, I knew that I can likely start to rototill in the next few days, almost three weeks early.    To that end I picked up a large bail of peat moss and three bags of cow and sheep manure.

I noticed that my garlic is already sprouted 

Garlic

Also today I took a photo of the flowerbed that is sprouting, tulips, peonies, irises, and lillies.  Tulips should be blooming within the next week but I had planted a variety pack.   It looks a little odd as some are already popping up before others.  I did a solid block of tulips and with a few spares I put them by the lillies and peonies.  It just looks very odd.  I don't know if I will do a variety pack again as I think they definitely come up and bloom at different times.  I guess I will see what will happen.

Back Flower Bed
Tulips
Peonies = red circles
Irises = purple circles
Lilies = yellow circles

I do have other flowers coming up but not really much to see yet.

Two days ago I had planted some hollyhocks, poppies and bluebells.   We'll see if any of them come up.

Progress I

Well the rains have come....

I've had to turn the auto-watering device off today.

There has been progress with the plants.   I've been weeding and so far it's not too bad.   It looks much worse in the last photo than what it actually is.   I started weeding from the back of the garden moving forward and I haven't been able to finish the thinning of some of the rows.   I continue to do lots of weeding but there are lots of thistles and quack grass no matter how much I am after they come up faster than I can more or less keep up with.   If I just hoe them over, they are like hydra and just spread.

On a really good note, the dandelions are no longer growing in my front or back yard.

Here is the progress so far in the last month of the garden:

May 15

May 17

May 24

May 27

June 6

June 14

First Iris bloom of the year

I adore irises.   

The first of my irises bloomed Friday/Saturday.   This particular iris had not bloomed last year when I purchased it but this year it is nicely blooming.     I need to weed that flower bed, but that may happen this week.   I have sprayed on the path beside and the weeds and quack grass was dying back.   

Iris - "Cherry Blossom"

On Saturday, I had a nice chat with my lovely neighbour a few houses down and she has a similar type of primula but the flowers are purple and white and we will be exchanging some plants.    She also would like to get rid of some of her ferns so I may take one or two.

The Old Yellow Dusty Miller primula that I have is doing exceptionally well this year as are all my other flowers with the exception of the tulips.

Primula update

Here is another photo of the same Iris on Sunday.    Irises are short blooming flowers.

Cherry Blossom 2

Also here is a photo of some of the first budding veggies in my garden.

Veggies Sprouting

Dandelions - have I ever told you how much I hate dandelions?

this will be unusual - two posts in one day.  

I'll be heading off to the store soon. but since my last post I've mowed my front lawn and sprayed it with a dandelion killer.   It's very diluted so I think I need to buy one of those dandelion bars and it turns out that they have them at Canadian Tire for $30 each   I hate the smell but I need to do this each time I mow the lawn which is about every 10 - 14 days..    

I've so had it with picking those *#^*&ing dandelions tops (blooms and buds).   This year only a few have gone to seed but I was able to pick those off before they spread.   That is how on top of it I am in the front yard.   The back yard is a different story...  

After shopping I will clean up the back yard and mow. or at least move a lot of the stuff around and mow.    It's a forest of dandelions but they have yet to go to seed - just a carpet of green and yellow interspersed with a variety of junk that I must clean up.

I am just cooling down before I go to the store.  My face is crimson from wearing a mask and mowing the lawn and spraying it.    Between allergies and chemical sensitivities, the N95 does a pretty good job to keep me going after any yard work.    I don't know if I will be able to even find them anymore of these masks with COVID, but I still have enough left at the moment.  Cloth masks won't work because I really need that high micron filter when mowing or using chemicals.  What I have been doing with the masks when they are in reasonable condition is I spray them with Hydrogen Peroxide and hang them up for a week.   Where possible I put them out in the sun when there is not a lot of chemicals in the air.

I have this gorgeous smelling facial wash.   It is fragranced with Vanilla & Clementine.   I think I need to find perfume with this scent mixture.     So strange that I can wear perfume and really enjoy most of them but not be around most chemicals.    The only perfume I can't tolerate is hibiscus and patchouli.  Patchouli is so strong if someone is wearing a lot of it I start choking - interestingly if you smell patchouli within a couple to three months of picking it is gorgeous but most put it in some sort of oil and it turns into a completely different fragrance.   Hibiscus I'm just allergic to and generally start to sneeze or get headaches.   My poor daughter can't be around most perfumes so I always need to be aware like yesterday when I was at work and brought her some lotions that I don't wear any scents.

Today also is Kombucha Day.   Every couple of weeks I make kombucha.   I think I've made it a bit too sweet.   I like things sweet but this is almost like lemonade and because I changed sugars but it doesn't go with the right bit of sour/bitter that Kombucha has, I think I need to use much less.   

I'll have a quick late lunch and then I'll be off to the store to miss the main rush.   Hopefully there will be enough WeedEx dandelion bars left.   I will buy Scotts stuff but not Monsanto.   Monsanto is not a company I feel good about in any sense of the word since they have sued Canadian farmers when their proprietary crops end up cross pollinating with other people's crops and when the farmer uses some of his own seed for next years crops Mosntanto sues the farmer for their proprietary gmo - through no fault of their own.   It is absolutely disgusting!