We're back to sweater weather, after a refreshing rain and cold front blew the heat and humidity away. We had been going through 30°C and up, with humidity bringing the temps up to 40°C +. Crazy hot for this part of the world. Now we're back down to high teens and low twenties in the forecast, with a low of 5°C overnight for the week. I admit the humidity was getting to me, but this extreme flip seems a little uncalled for as well.
Inside greenhouse #2, the cukes are coming along nicely, a nasturdium is flowering, and the kale survives. There are a few baby cabbage left that the calves missed, but that's about it.
Greenhouse #1 has the opposite effect- only one cucumber, although it does have a sunflower nearly 5' tall. The tomatoes and peppers are all flowering, and there are lots of little carrots, onions, and radishes interspersed amongst them.
The first green tomatoes are even making an appearance! Funny little side note- I left the 'dead' (never germinated) tomato pots sitting on the plant stand in the house, and for some odd reason, three recently sprouted. What am I supposed to do with three 3" tomato sprouts in Canada near the end of July? lol
Fence repairs were done, but now need more work. One of our posts was a bit too thin, I guess, as they bowled it over last night and made another escape. At least they were kind enough to tell me now, rather than waiting until the middle of winter.
Blueberries are not looking as good as I had hoped they would be this year. It's early yet, but there just don't seem to be a lot of plants with green berries now. I think they may have dropped their berries in June, having so little rain at that time. I'll still get enough for at least one batch of wine, it'll just take a bit longer picking than I had hoped. The plants that do have berries are big and juicy, which helps a lot, just a lot more walking this year to find them.
Can't you put those three sprouts in the greenhouse and at least get green tomatoes to eat before it gets too cold?
ReplyDeleteNot likely. Our first frost date is September 6th, so they'd barely have 7 weeks. The days are getting shorter, nights are already starting to cool- they might make it to flowering, but that's it. I'm a little tempted to try repotting them and keeping them in the sunroom for the winter, but honestly, the peppers that I overwintered last year haven't done anything this year.
DeleteYou could use the green tomato's for jam! Yes I agree breast looks to be best with cattle as well. Blueberries? GAH! I keep killing the plants some how. My soil is the correct ph and they still die. I'm about to plant them on the back fence line and pretend they are not there....maybe it will work !
ReplyDeleteI remember reading once that blueberries need some kind of fungus, produced by rotting wood, to grow well. I never could find the information again afterwards, but it makes sense, as the plants grow well in previously logged or burned areas here. I leave the tree tops to rot in my ditch when we're fixing fence, and 6 years later it's still one of the best picking spots around. Good luck with yours!
DeleteIt sounds like electric fencing for the cows may be something to consider. Maybe I'm showing my naiveté, but it seems like an unusual amount of time was spent repairing and re-repairing whichever type of fence you have now. I've never raised a cow, so forgive me if this comment seems like it's coming from way out somewhere in left field. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've considered it. Electric fencing doesn't work so well in the snow. It would help through the summer (fence fixing season), but leave me struggling through the winter (when I don't want to be out looking for the latest escape route).
DeleteMost people with cattle and the type of wire fencing we have do run at least one strand of electric around the top. Ideally, I want to get away from the wire. We patch here and there, as needed, adding logs to the fence line. Eventually it'll be a wooden cross post fence with wire for decoration.
The cows will still test the weak spots, of course. Fencing is a never ending battle- unless you have lots of money and are willing to rip the whole thing out and start over every 10 years or so. Posts and wire both have a shorter life span when they're buried under 4 feet of snow for most of the year.
The re-repairs were admittedly self-inflicted. I chose a thinner tree close by, rather than a thicker tree I'd have to transport. The girls didn't let me get away with it.
:-) When I had goats I remember the fencing being an issue for me. I was newly married and we were broke...couldn't afford wire or an electric fencer. So, I built a little paddock for the goats with old bead board from renovating the house and carried their greens to them. What energy I used to have! Now that I think of it I probably used more energy cutting and carrying grass than you did mending the fence this spring! lol
DeleteSo true. When we're going to be away from the house for awhile we start the day by pulling grass for Mildred and the calves and keep them in the chicken pen. I can't imagine having to do that every day!
DeleteI know! And I've read that a cow eats 5 times what a goat does. Yikes!
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