What's been happening in July

This summer I have really been falling behind on the blog. Lots of things to write about, but I have just had no time to sit at the computer and write. Today, back from 2 weeks of vacation, I am going to catch up, but in installments. My first post will be an update on my own back yard. I will be posting about some of our vacation adventures in the next day or two.

Nights have been cold, and we have had a lot of rain and clouds the past few weeks. Not only has that been a big drag for Josh and I who have lived in our tent for most of the past 16 days, but it has had some interesting effects on the garden. Usually my biggest concern when we are on summer vacation is the tomato harvest, which was a non-issue this year because the tomatoes are still green. Not one single ripe tomato in the month of July. We decided instead of a long distance trip, we would camp out at Allan Reid's new place near Lachute (an hour from home) which allowed us a longer time away with short trips into Montreal to restock food and harvest every 4-5 days. The girls are still at sleep-away camp, and Isaac stayed home while we were away, so occasional check-ins were a good plan. He is not particularly interested in the garden, so this worked well for everyone.

Although tomatoes are behind, the sunflowers were gorgeous early bloomers. We still have a few later varieties, including a couple of giant ones still to show their colours. Josh refilled the coyote pee containers today, and hung one on the leaves of the biggest sunflower in hope that will keep the squirrels from decapitating it.

The beach peas did not do well, a few attempted to grow and were demolished by something (possibly Japanese beetles, there were a few in that part of the garden). The weeds growing closest to that area are infested with black aphids, so that may have been an issue as well. This year there seemed to be at least three different variety of aphid (small black, large black and green), and the local ladybugs took some notice but did not make much of a dent. My attempts to kill them with insectigone and earlier in the summer with the dish soap/baking soda solution likewise did not do much good. I was not very consistent in my efforts, though. We need to work on it better this month. Time for a consultation with Claude.

My neighbour, Iulia, had a knee surgery which has limited her mobility for the past few weeks, and thus her ability to garden. She has been using her time productively by painting some gorgeous new paintings. I have been dutifully photographing material for her from the garden as well as landscapes across Quebec for her inspirations. She is working on a couple of paintings of sunflowers, which is why I have taken so many pictures of them this year (they are so beautiful!!).

On one of our short trips back into Montreal, we harvested all our garlic and hung it to dry in the bike shed. I also did the first basil harvest. I had fewer plants this year, but they did spectacularly well. They were in pots, in hay bales and in a couple of the concrete blocks (when I ran out of sunflowers to plant). There were a few varieties and they all did well except for some I put in the hay bale a bit too near the tomatoes which ended up shaded too much. Josh made basil before we headed back up north with fresh picked raspberries, salad greens, garlic, pesto, green and burgundy beans, snow peas and sugar snaps, broccoli and Swiss chard. I planted bok choy in one of the empty rows where the garlic had been, as the first batch I tried never grew. I have been selectively harvesting the lettuce (taking the big leaves and leaving the small ones to continue growing), for most of the past month, and they are still going. Only one plant has bolted, and I am letting it go to seed for next year. I also have a surprise patch of chicory, both blue and pink, where I had lettuce last year. I think it was in the mesclun mix I planted last year, and either it only sprouted this year, or it blooms the second year maybe? I need to do some research on chicory. It's very pretty between my tomato cages.

The cucumber experiment has been mixed results. We do have some small cucumbers now in the shape of half blown balloons (round at one end, skinny at the other), and did manage to avoid cucumber beetle problems (yay!) but the hanging pots dried out very quickly and even though we had a lot of rain, I suspect they would look a lot more robust if I had been watering them daily as well. Likewise the poppies (perennials) in the centre of the yard dried out and yellowed early this month, and never bloomed. The calendulas I planted next to them survived but are small, and only one has bloomed to date. The poppies (annuals) and calendulas that went into the new patch in front of the bee balm and bergamot patch on the left side of the garden are huge and all blooming in a riot of colour. Unfortunately, the petals of the poppies are so delicate that they fall apart in the rain, so we have not managed to get much time to see them or footage on film. Lisa kindly took a picture for us of the first one to bloom when we were camping. There are lots of green hot peppers but nothing red yet.

Our garlic were mostly small, with a few robust heads here and there. I can't tell what factors made for more or less success in the garden, but my friend Jasmyn commented that generally small cloves produce small heads. My garlic definitely appear to be smaller than their immediate progenitors. More of this when I write about our trip to the farm up north. I alternated the garlic with the carrots again this year, and planted the carrots much more sparsely than last summer, but they are not very well developed. I will see how they fare by late September, but am thinking about giving them their own area next year.

The front garden has been well balanced this year. There was always something in bloom even when there was more foliage than flower. Our new lilies planted last year started to bloom, but I suspect it will take a year or two before they are really robust. I put some of the orange day lilies on the corner of the property where nothing else has done well but weeds (call it giving in, but they are likely to be happy there.)

I came back from our camping trip today and found my aunt had left a bag of green onion ends tied to my front door knob (thank you, Katie!), which I promptly popped into the garden in the back where the beach peas had failed, as well as in whatever free spots were left in the green onion/savoury pot.

While harvesting beans, I watched a baby sparrow being coaxed to fly by two adult sparrows (parents?) in my carrot patch. Very sweet!