Hottest June

Here is what the weather looked like yesterday. Which prompted this lamentation on the MetOffice site ...

Solstice Stocktaking

On this, the hottest day of the year (so far) - 32° - a look at how things are progressing. I was late sowing - April 10th for tomatoes, courgettes, squash and cucumber. But even so, cucumbers are ready to cut now, courgettes just a few days away and black cherry tomatoes have formed and will ripen in another couple of weeks I guess. Early riser beans are 6 feet up the poles and charlotte potatoes are in bloom behind them. The corn is as high as a pygmy goat's eye and there is lettuce aplenty and still pickings of chard and kale from last year. No rain in sight so lots of watering to be done...

Hugelkultur

A couple of new garden projects this year - a wildflower meadow and hugelkultur. Two weeks ago I constructed my first Hugel and have now begun to Kultur it. I achieved a height of about 3 feet and it's about 10 feet long. So, perhaps not as high as is optimal, and it will settle. Though I can add to it in the fall. I've started it off mostly with bush beans and a few cucumber and courgette. I will be adding some chard, spinach and nasturtiums soon and perennials later.
Anyway, Ta-Da!

Winter Projects

Before leaving for Canada I did a little garden DIY. I built a half-timbered mock-Tudor birdhouse and constructed a wattle containment for the 'hedgerow' that I'm trying to beat back control. Happy to report that a pair of Great tits have set up housekeeping in the nestbox and I hear a chorus of peeps from within every time an adult flies back with it's beak full. Impossible to get a photo of entry or exit - just a blur.

Sectioned

Just eating up the last of last year's squash. After a two and a half month winter sojourn on Toronto Island I've spent the past few weeks playing catch-up in the garden. Trays of seedlings are now coming along in the green house and most of the beds are weeded. Not so many weeds this spring due to the lack of rain, and I'm already siphoning grey water into the rain barrels. Oh, maybe it's too soon to start moaning about dry weather.

Higglety & Pigglety

I realize that I haven't even immortalized them here with a photo or description. My two Exchequer Leghorns who hatched June 5th along with two brothers that were later transported back to the farm. Here they are at a few weeks old and then again at three months.

Higglety's Egg

Higglety laid her first egg on Friday. Small and slightly pointy compared with Blanch's Grade A extra large. I guess Pigglety will start laying very soon as well.

Psychedelic

This past week I spent in New Brunswick where the leaf colour was 'mind-blowing'. I'm not sure I've ever seen quite such a spectacular display. Photos don't do it justice. It's more like wandering around in a Franklin Carmichael, Tom Thompson or A J Casson painting.

Parsley...

... is gharsley.

Ogden Nash Further Reflection on Parsley

The parsnip, children, I repeat,
Is simply an anaemic beet.
Some people call the parsnip edible;
Myself, I find this claim incredible.

Ogden Nash The Parsnip

Celery, raw,
Develops the jaw.
But celery, stewed,
Is more quietly chewed.

Ogden Nash Celery

Late Early Risers

"The most productive early pole bean I have ever grown. The huge long flat pods are produced at about the same time as the bush snaps are ready and continue producing all summer long. The long pods keep their excellent texture and flavour even when quite large. Highly recommended!"
From Heritage Harvest Seed

I concur. Started producing early July, these just picked September 17th.

Grape Harvest

This is my first grape harvest. Last year the birds or squirrels made short work of them while my back was turned. I got about 8 lbs. of very tiny, but perfectly formed grapes and spent a day reducing them into about 3 litres of what can best be described as 'slops'. Even using pectin-infused sugar and boiling it up to 'jam' on the candy thermometre, I couldn't bully it into setting.
Ah well, it's not bad dribbled over yoghurt. Next year I'll make wine.

*Footnote - Injury added to insult! The hour of squeezing grapes between my fingers has resulted in contact dermatitis. Grrr.

Leopard Slugs

On Saturday just enough dampness drizzled out of the overhanging cloud to moisten the ground. And that was all the invitation the slugs and snails needed to have a night out. I took this picture of the group congregating at the chicken feeder and, as they are rather well camouflaged, I have outlined the ones I can see. Mostly leopard slugs (Limax maximus) and the odd snail. Apart from that spritzing it has been bone dry since June. Click on picture to enlarge

Blanche

Not only is she our star layer (5 or 6 eggs a week over the past year, right through winter!), but she is also quite photogenic. Four of the six Leghorn eggs that we put under Doris in May hatched and it looks like two are pullets and two are cockerels.

Swell

Pollinators at work on a male flower (c) and female flower (r)

The recent warm weather has kickstarted the squash. The vines had been rampant and lots of tentative fruiting, but finally some look determined to go through with it.
'Anna Schwartz' Hubbard on the left, 'Black Futsu' moschata (top) and 'Oregon Sweetmeat' (bottom)

The Mrs.

This is the third female stag beetle I've found in the garden this week (different sizes). She spends 6 or 7 years underground and then comes above ground for a couple of months to mate.
Her final act before she dies is to make her way back to the place from which she emerged where she buries herself into the ground about 12" down and lays her eggs.
I just saw a male 'flying' around tonight ...

Alpine Meadows

Just back from a week in the mountains following the Annecy Animation Festival...

(the big picture)

(and the detail)

Here in Canada

'Robin's' eggs look like this.

Winter Arrives

Snow in the night amounting to a couple of inches, gone by noon.

Or Be Electrocuted

Back in September I took part in a group art exhibition in Bruges. And for that I produced a silkscreen print - 3 colours plus spot hand colouring - in an edition of 35. Fits neatly in a standard 30 x 40 cm. frame.
Click on image to read and get in touch if you are interested... a snip at £50.

Oca 2015

Just dug up my oca crop. I find them to be really beautiful objects with their intense, luminous colour.
If only I had protected the foliage in time, before mid November when we got 2 days of light frost, they might have bulked up a lot more through this unusually mild December*. Just by putting a few back in each year I've been getting a good supply. They don't seem to be affected by any pests or disease (so far) and are happy to go on growing in the same corner year after year.

(click on picture to see it in close-up splendour)

* The average daytime temperature on the winter solstice was the same as it was on the summer soltice!