Perennial Bed

No big plans for the perennial bed this year - I'm still trying to map out where and what things are.  This is the best I could discern from memory and pictures.

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.

Harvest Monday

We went away for a few days again, just Husband, #3 and #4 this time. When I got home the cukes were waiting for me.

Lots of pickling cucumbers, and 4 lovely Marketmores.  There will be more Marketmores in a day or two.  They're really coming along nicely now, and I really like the flavour and texture.

 I picked a handful of peppers off the plant I thought was the Medusa (sweet green peppers that grow like jalapenos), and a couple off another plant.  It looks like they may both be Medusas, no bite at all from the second batch.  They're definitely a keeper, and I'll be saving seed from them, despite that they may have cross pollinated from the hot peppers.  I'll look for Medusa seed when I order next year as well.  It's nice to have a green pepper that actually produces around here.

One big tomato from the greenhouse, 2 little ones from the perennial bed.  Tomato season may be upon us!  I'm pinching off flowers and suckers ruthlessly now.

I also started deheading squash flowers last week, and came home to find this one had doubled in size.  I have an overwhelming desire to pick it now, but it's still so green.  It's the biggest squash I've ever grown!

 I soaked the cukes for dill pickles (found dill in the grocery store last week), then went out to pick the yellow beans.  #2 had picked some while I was gone, but I thought he must have missed some, since there were only a couple of inches in the bucket.  I didn't find too many more, ending up with just enough for supper and one bag for the freezer.  Afterwards he told me he had picked a full 5 gallon pail- he just ate them all, lol.

I pulled a few northern (dry) bean plants that were starting to topple over and turn yellow.  I think the yield there will be quite good as well, about a pound from just a few plants.

Mom gave me a bag of cucumbers last night, so today I think I'll try a batch of dill pickle relish.

Last week's Cream of Celery soup took a bit longer than expected, but didn't break the rules after all.  The recipe called for chicken stock, rather than milk and flour for the base, so I had to cook a turkey, then make stock, then make the cream of celery soup.  This one will definitely be a winter canning project in the future.  It's nice to have a few jars sitting on the shelf right now though, ready to make Balogna Rolls with all of those beans at a moment's notice!

And one huge fail, just before we headed south.  The freezer in the hallway came unplugged, and no one noticed until it was too late.  Luckily it wasn't even half full, but sadly it did have the last of my roast beefs and corned beefs in it.  I've been cooking it up in my biggest stock pot for dog food, so I can package it in smaller portions.  At least it's not a total loss, but it makes me mad at myself for rationing out those roasts rather than eating them all. :(

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!

Garden Update

An overview of the garden.  We're keeping up with the weeds not too bad this year.  The extra helpers really make a difference!  The funniest thing- #1 pulled a potato plant, and #2 pulled out a bean.  #3 and #4 haven't done any damage yet.  Maybe I should have had them helping all along.  Age apparently makes no difference.

Lots of volunteer potatoes are up in between the beets, mangels and carrots.  That was last year's potato patch.  The one potato plant that #1 pulled already had two potatoes on it, one as big as the ones we found in the spring.  They're a month ahead of the ones I planted.  So I think, this year, if/when we harvest the potatoes, I will try leaving one potato behind from each plant, thereby planting next year's potatoes this fall.

I planted more beans yesterday.  Not that I need them, but the frost is kind of a nice reminder that it's still only early spring here in the north.  Our unseasonably warm weather this spring, combined with seeing everyone else's blog pics of what they're harvesting, had me feeling behind the eight ball already.  But a little frost, a look at the calendar, and hey, I have time to put more stuff in the garden.  I really shouldn't be this far into the game yet anyway.

So, I had bought this package of Yard Long Orient Wonder Beans, and I hadn't planted them.  I was going to save them for next year, but pish posh, in they went.

#1 rototilled the section between the peas and the potatoes.  It was starting to look like a hay field.  I figure I can squeeze another 5-6 rows of something in there.  I will look through my seed stash and figure out what to plant.

Meanwhile, in the perennial bed,

I transplanted a couple of extra tomatoes. They're doing well. Either the fake huggies (about a foot higher than ground level) also raised them enough to protect from frost, or I have a bit of a microclimate in there. Either way, no frost damage!

Peppers are also mostly doing well. I had three planted at the edge of the big pile of compost that the frost wiped out. That's why I think it's the height. Raised beds. Who knew? lol. Definitely going to be doing more garden construction.

My poor Lady's Mantle. I bought two of these from the garden center, so they may not be as hardy as the seed that I bought. I was really looking forward to trying it out this month. It's supposed to help with lady issues. It's not completely dead, so maybe I'll get the chance to try it next month.

Does that look like English thyme to you? I lost a lot of my transplants, but this little one is doing great. Go figure. The mystery plant has spunk.

And there's a nice shot of the first lupins blooming.  Doesn't it almost look like I know what I'm doing?  And the weeds aren't completely out of control.  Although I do need to add mulch to the cracks in the walk way.  Or remove the walkway.  Since I really don't walk on it much anyway, and have decided to keep the grass between the mini beds. 

Perennial transplants have suffered some losses.  Frost, heat, shock, lack of water, lack of nitrogen- any or all could be responsible.  I added seed around the original transplants.  Hopefully I don't accidentally weed them out.

I found a patch of mountain mint in the perennial bed.  Did I transplant that last year?  I can't find the patch outside the turkey pen.  But then it was pretty close to the fence, so the turkeys could have gotten it.  Hmmm.  I had planned to transplant it.  I just don't remember doing it. 

Chives are flowering now.  I do want to get one more batch dried before I leave them for the season.  The car drying was working out well.  Since it's raining more now it may take a bit longer.

And it's raining today.  We need it.  The garden still feels really dry.  The weeds will be happy, lol.

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!

Some Pictures

to make up for yammering on this morning...

This is the front, south side of the perennial bed.  Against the wall there's a bunch of sedum, or possibly roseroot.  a large, velvetty petalled purple flower, a clump of white clover, Lupins, asparagus, and some grassy type of plant.  In the center, more lupins, asparagus, the survivor plant (lilly), English Thyme (hopefully), pennyroyal, lovage, and a little something in the corner that I'm sure I transplanted, but has no stick, and I have no idea what it was.  It's kind of viney like the English Thyme, but a much lighter coloured green.  To the right, some creepy edging type plant with white in the leaves, another lupin.  In front of those, the other mystery plant.  In the front of the picture, along the walkway, there's quite a bit of open space for planting, clover, lupins, lady's mantle, daffodils, clover, and more lupins, and the big daffodil.  It had another plant on each side of it, with thick green grassy leaves.  I think they might be irises.

Close up of center patch.  

The lilacs in full bloom (smells divine), and trying to take over the rose bush.  A small patch of sedums to the right, compost pile to work through to the left.

The back half of the south side.  Yes, the fence is seriously leaning, and yes, the pop cans need to go in to the recycling center.  Along the fence line is where I've been transplanting my herb seedlings; Chinese Lantern, Wild Bergamot, Jacob's Ladder, Calamus, False Indigo.  In front of those; Lady's Mantle, Yellow Bedstraw, Hyssop, Speedwell.  In front of those;  Scullcap, Red Clover, Roseroot, Meadow Clary, Prairie Clover, European Goldenrod, Ellecampane, Maral Root, and a couple of lupins and a strawberry.  But it just looks like a whole lotta dirt.  The chives are in front of that patch, then the walkway, which still isn't finished.  There's a mystery plant almost right under the fence.

And then there's this:

Is this chamomile?  Or fennel, maybe?  Or something else?

My dad bought a patio tomato a couple of years ago, and it came with this stuff and a strawberry in the pot.  I transplanted it at the end of the season for the strawberry.  Now this stuff seems to be springing up everywhere.  When I squish the leaves they kind of smell sweet and familiar, almost minty, but not quite.

The north side of the bed still needs a lot of work.  The mountain mint is tucked in under the lilac, along with some sedums.  Rhubarb patches and the log planters are doing well.  The grass is doing exceptionally well as well.  I may need to dig out the weed whacker.