Perennial Bed/Fake Hugelkultur Update

This was the front of the perennial bed last year, after weeding, adding wood and composted manure around mostly established plants.

  

This year, same bed, so far.  It's been badly neglected this spring, but I am working on it.

 I am mulching with bark and wood chips from the basement floor as I get things weeded again.  Weeds are still easy to pull in the beds, and getting easier in some spots.

The asparagus in this bed is much thicker this year and providing us with regular treats- not quite enough for a meal, but definitely getting there.  The lupins are getting ready to flower.  There's a patch of pennyroyal that survived the winter, no sign of the thyme yet.

Jacob's Ladder seems well established, about to flower after the long winter.

Rhubarb is coming along nicely.  It must be double the size of last year, and I think it tastes sweeter this year.  Almost ready for the second picking.

Speedwell well established, spreading and flowering already.

This grassy looking plant- I think it was here before I arrived- is flowering this year.  No idea what it is.


Canadian Columbine is well established.  This is a northern native plant, transplanted from the woods.

It's flowering between the branches of the forsythia.  The nearly dead forsythia.  Not that it's really dead, but 6 years or better without pruning has not done it any favours.  I think there were only two branches that flowered this spring, and the centre of the bush is dry and brittle.  I'll be pruning it back significantly this year.

Another surprise.  What is this?  I think it must be a native plant.  It's growing alongside the columbine, where I had transplanted another native plant that didn't survive.  I think the root or seed must have been in that soil.  It's cute, whatever it is.

And behind it, a strawberry.  Probably a wild woodland strawberry (small, sweet berries), but it seems happy here.


A bit of branch got buried under last year's compost and seems to have taken root.  A new bush is coming up just a foot away from the old one.  I'm undecided yet whether to leave it there, try to move it, or remove it.

Still lots to weed, mulch and discover.  I bought a few herbs at the nursery that will be going in.  None of my perennial seedlings that I started this year have survived to be transplanted.  Some strange looking plants are growing in the side bed where I added seed last year.  I haven't found my notes or attempted to identify them yet.

Frost Damage

Monday morning, after the frost, but before the sun.  Everything looks pretty much normal still.

A few hours later, once the sun has had a chance to warm things up.  It was a mild frost, only damaging the tops of delicate plants.  I could let these beans live on, until a harder frost kills them off, but I've had plenty of production this year.

One final picking, as I pull the plants up.  It's nice not having to bend over to pick the beans.  The plants are going to the turkey pen for fodder, the beans I sort and pull seeds from the largest ones, and freeze or eat the rest.

The hugelkultur beans are showing about the same rate of damages.  The height did not help them this time.

The squash outside are frazzled.

Inside the greenhouses, everything still looks good, strong and healthy.

Before and After- Perennial Bed Tomatoes

I picked off all the orange and larger tomatoes before the frost, but the plants still look pretty good. 

Even the salsa peppers made it through ok.  I do believe I have a microclimate here.

New room mates in the turkey pen.  No one is impressed.  In our efforts to keep Nanner and Sheila from getting knocked up this fall, we've moved them over here.  They don't like it.  They do like beans though, so it's a trade off.

And these two will be sad when the garden is done.  They've both inherited their grandpa's love of veggies.  Don't leave the veggie bucket on the floor.  They steal carrots!  lol.

Home Again

We got back last week, Wednesday night, and itès been busy, busy, busy since.

Picking beans, cutting beans, blanching beans... About 9 gallons so far. My back aches. My legs ache. My thumb aches. Why do I love beans? We'll be well fed and organic this winter!

My hugelkultur bean bed is an overgrown tangled mess of beans. The dry beans in the centre are still flowering, which means I can't let any of the green beans go to seed yet.

While I was gone, Husband, the Littles, and my parents all picked beans. They all agreed, I planted too many beans! lol.

The greenhouses have filled out.  I'm yanking the squash plants out of greenhouse #1.  The corn is touching the roof in there, with tassels on.  That's the sweet corn.  No ears yet.  Peppers are filled out and lush, with tons of flowers.  Green tomatoes everywhere.  Pickling cukes are producing, and I canned two jars so far.  Beets and mangels are huge. Peas are still producing. I feel like I'm in some alternate universe where the garden overproduces. It's amazing!  And most amazing- the weeds did not go crazy while I was away!  Except the perennial bed.  It's a disaster.

We're out of potatoes, so I thought we should just dig up a couple of volunteers for supper the other night, before the tops die off and I can't find them. 5 plants produced this bounty. That's more than we got out of 4 feet of hilled rows last year. We'll keep harvesting these to eat fresh until I run out of volunteer plants. There might be enough to get us through til fall.

The puppies grew like bad weeds while I was away.

That's my boy Smitty, laying with his mom. He's still smaller than the rest, but just as spunky and adventurous.

Wonder and a bunch of her little ones. 5 of the pups left to go to new homes yesterday. Brownie, Belle, Miley, Giligan and Goldie. That leaves us with one black female, Shaniqua, and two tan males, Shaggy and Sam, who need homes. And they're just 8 weeks old today! Pinky will be staying with us as well.

Our trip was good. Lots of visiting, family we haven't seen in a while. No surgery for #1. It was found to be ineffective, and they've stopped doing it. He's three letters shy of being legal to drive right now. They've recommended rigid contact lenses. Because they'll scrape his eye lids and annoy him, his brain may tell his eyes to slow down, which might get him over the edge. and practicing the letter charts, at a distance, to help strengthen the muscles. We have to go back in six months so he can be retested. Oh joy. Winter driving on a long trip. I think I may let Husband take him on that one.

 The Littles did great while I was gone. Grandma had to wake them up once, and Husband had to do a few repairs, but they survived, the critters survived, the garden survived. All is well.

#2 returned from camp on Saturday.  He was a little home sick, but now he's missing camp.  Go figure.  He figures he grew a couple of inches, but I don't find it as noticeable this year.  Probably because he was already towering over me when he left.  It's good to have him home!

And Another One Bites The Dust

I am beginning to think the universe is trying to tell me to give up on technology.  I am now using #1's lap top connected to my monitor, because #4 knocked it on the floor a couple of weeks ago and cracked the screen.  (My computer still hasn't been replaced.  And will now be on hold longer, because #1's is more important- large screen and set up for his visual needs.)  I had been using the kids computer, which has become infected with the ransomware virus.  If Husband can't get it sorted out, it'll have to go in to see a tech.  What a pain in the arse. 

Shaggy- napping on top of a blanket, on top of the paint cans, on top of the wood stove platform.  King of the hill.  The puppies have discovered a hole at the back of the garage where they can crawl underneath to beat the heat.  Getting out though- not so easy.  There's a small hole at the front where they can see everyone, but can't fit through.  It takes some cajoling to convince them to turn around and come back out through the back.  Turds.

The peas are producing nicely.  They've reached the top of the fence, still flowering, still growing.  I've convinced the cucumbers to start climbing.  They're also flowering.  Beans are flowering like mad, with the first little pods starting to appear.  Blueberries are coming along, although it doesn't look like they'll have a good season.  That late frost may have killed off some flowers.  It's a bit early yet, but the lack of green berries concerns me.  Raspberries are just starting to produce.  Rhubarb is still coming along.  And I am leaving.

Pinky running towards me

#1 and I are headed south on Wednesday, in my new car- 1998 VW Beetle- diesel.  He has appointments with the University of Waterloo for assesments, visual exams, technology enhancements, and info about possible surgery.  Then we'll spend a few days visiting with family and friends.  If the heat doesn't kill us.  Or the traffic.  The Littles are staying home to deal with chores.  Wish them luck!  They have Grandma and Grandpa next door to keep an eye on them, and Husband home at night, but the responsibility of farming falls to them.  I hope they're ready for it.

And of course they'll have the wee beasties to attend to as well.  Or entertain them.  The pups are becoming more dog like every day now.  Happy and rambunctious.  It's hard to believe they're only six weeks old.

We've been working on more hugelkultur piles, with the small trees that were trying to take over the back field (where the pumpkins and squash are out of control!) and more manure.  I think the manure levels will be kind of high compared to wood.  We still haven't got the chicken coop cleaned out!  These are more of a 'where are we going to compost this stuff' huggies, rather than true hugelkulturs.


And that's about all of the news here.  I'll be enjoying a couple of cooler days before heading south into the heat wave.

Update & Huggies

Summer has arrived, and it seems that moms taxi is on the go non-stop.  #2 got accepted to camp after all.  Not what he applied for, but rather, military band at Blackdown.  Totally unexpected.  His C.O. worked it out for him.  Awesome.  So I have been shopping to fill his kit list before he leaves next week.  New glasses are on the way for #2 and #4.  I still don't see why they make the darn things so flimsy.  I took the boys to a movie yesterday, Canada Day celebrations at the park on Sunday, and a friend to pick up on Tuesday to go horseback riding.  I'm looking forward to a week at home to catch up with the weeds!

Hugelkultur bed is growing great.  Check out the hay field beside it.  I can barely see the currents in that mess!  But keeping up with the garden weeds is more important.  On a serious note, we have about 300 bales of hay to pick up today.  The farmers are out cutting already!  At this rate, they might get two cuts this year- which would be amazing in our climate.  Some years it's iffy if we're going to get one!

Next year's huggie is under construction.  The goats have found the perennial bed, so we are working on a short fence up the north side driveway.  The tops of the fence post trees and all the branches are now the bottom layer of the huggie, covered with green manure.  This will end up being more of a lasagna gardening huggie, lol.  I figure it will work just fine, and it means we don't have to move the manure twice.  And all of the nutrients will leach into the garden soil over the winter, rather than under a pile in the pasture somewhere.

#1 rototilled between the potatoes for me, and started hilling, last week, before I got behind on the weeds again.

The mystery survivalist plants are lillies, eh?  This isn't the perennial bed.  This is the patch on the lawn that I transplanted them from a few years ago.  They came back, and they're flowering. 

There were three cranes circling overhead as I worked in the garden one day.  I only managed to snap a pic of one.

Puppies are doing great.  They're developing their personalities, wandering all over the house, wrestling with each other, getting under foot, starting to go outside, climbing on things, eating dog food, and generally wreaking havoc.  They bark when anyone comes in the door!  It's so cute, and funny!  I can't remember another litter ever doing that so young!  I found this one curled up in the bowl this morning.  Too cute.  Life with puppies is bliss.  (although a little stinky, lol).  My favourites change every few days.  The polar bears (whites) are currently winning.

Their mother is in trouble.  She has been eating chickens.  My little hens, to be precise.  While I couldn't blame her at first- feeding ten is really wearing on her- I adjusted the doggy stew, adding more protein, and the puppies started eating it as well as nursing- she hasn't slowed down on the chicks at all.  I hope she hasn't made it a habbit.  For now she is tied up when she is outside, until the chicks get too big to escape their pen.

Our heat wave (rotflmao) has broken, with a good dose of rain last night.  I know everyone is complaining about the heat lately.  We had a week of about 28-32°C.  It was really hot for us, with humidity!  It's almost never humid here. Down to 20°C today, but the forecast claims it'll be climbing back up all week. Better than dropping!  Rage on, Father Sun.  Lots of work to do in the north!

Garden & Turkeys

Mushrooms coming up in the hugelkultur raised bed.  They look almost good enough to eat.  I have no idea what kind they are though, so I will just admire them.

Lots of rain yesterday, and more in the forecast for today and tomorrow.  Lots of new weeds up and growing too.  Oh joy.  But not just the weeds.

Pumpkins in my forest garden are really gaining ground!

And rhubarb is now tall and slender.

Peas are clinging to the fence nicely, and just beginning to flower.

Not growing in the rain, but the turkey poults are happy to have been set free from the turkey shed.

It's been about a week since any have squeezed through the fence dividing the turkey shack in half, so I figure the garden should be mostly safe. Of course they'll find a whole where they can slip under the fence eventually, but that's just to keep me on my toes.

Frost Damage

Beans took the worst of it.  There's a bit of damage in the perennial bed as well (my Lady's Mantle!!!).  This was about a week past our 'frost free' date.  Between the dry heat of early spring, and now a late frost, things don't bode well for the garden.

I am happy to see the beans in the hugelkultur raised bed didn't suffer at all.  Another plus for the huggies!  I have tons of beans up and coming, so this frost may have just saved me a ton of work, without a big loss.  Definitely more huggies going in next spring!

Happenings

Beans in the hugelkultur bed

The garden is coming along nicely now.  Still lots of weeds to pull, but we're making headway.  #3 is assisting with weed pulling for the first time.  #1 & #2 pulled just as many plants as weeds at his age, and with some things, still do.  I'm impressed with his efforts.

The beans in the hugelkultur bed are bigger and healthier looking than their counterparts in the garden.  Not that the garden beans look bad, it's just that obvious that they like the huggie.  Definitely more to come in the future.

The back field is growing weeds nicely.  I've only found one pumpkin so far, and no beans.  I'm going to try a little bag gardening experiment on it.

11 Pumpkins around the apple trees in the forest garden are doing well. I can't find any in the trees. Guess I should have marked a couple for curiosity's sake.

New apple trees are planted. I had eleven bags sprout this year, with several seeds in each. I didn't pinch off any yet. I figure I'll do that in a couple of weeks after they're settled in from the transplant.

Wild roses should be blooming in another day or two.

While the blossoms on the rose bush beside the house opened yesterday.

Puppies are growing in leaps and bounds, losing their hamster like appearance. They're still sleeping most of the time, but also starting to get up on their feet, and wrestling with each other.

Wonder is back to her old self mostly. She's still thin, but she's eating and drinking lots, and once the pups are asleep, she leaves them to join the family.

The chicks have adjusted to their move into the hen house. The turkeys are aching to get outside, but I don't trust them to stay on their side of the fence just yet.

Sharlotte and Shiloh have become best friends. It is so cute to watch them running through the pasture together, although I have to say, neither one of their moms looks impressed by it. Dorie is still huge, and still no new calf. Casper is finally staying on his side of the fence- although I'm not sure if that's because the grass has finally thickened in the pasture so he doesn't care, or if it's because he can't leave. 

And that's pretty much the news here in the north.  Hope all is well with you.