I got to the garden today and someone had left us a present in our lettuce bed! An empty beer bottle!
There were also lots of cigarette butts under and around the bench.
We need a cigarette butt disposal post!
But it's not all bad news though. We also have some friends in the garden!
A bee having breakfast on sage flowers!
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A wee bird foraging in our bed...hopefully, it was eating the 'bad' insects! It's making itself comfortable! If you know what kind of bird it is, please let us know!
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| Can you spot it? Do you know what kind of bird it is? |
One of the next things to acquire for the garden would be a few water sources for our pollinators.
Here are some notes on the progress of our garden:
The thyme is flowering and it looks like the parsley is going to seed.
The thyme is flowering and it looks like the parsley is going to seed.
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The lavender we transplanted has flowered! The flowers are tiny in this picture but they are there...We also have some garlic chives growing in the top right corner of the bed.
Potatoes are coming along - they're flowering as well!
There are aphids on our fava beans! Oh no! (They're those black dots you see on the stem).
Not to fear, you can easily spray them off with water....
The lacinato kale has gone to seed and we were thinking of saving it for seed but we finally decided to take out most of it, in the interest of space, and keep the 2 best-looking plants.
In its place, we planted some gladiator parsnips, after mixing the soil with some Gaia Green amendments.
Our cauliflower and lettuces are looking good.We also seeded some chard in this bed.
We wanted more herbs in the garden and planted some dill and oregano seeds. The Oregano seeds were planted in a pot so it wouldn't take over the garden.
Similarly, the comfrey was also transplanted into a pot to contain it. It's looking pretty contented in the pot....for now! Comfrey is a good mulch!
The wild garlic that we transplanted 2 weeks ago was overlooked during our watering rounds so it's looking unhappy....
The phlox, which was hiding beside Bed 1, was also overlooked but it's doing okay.
The snow peas are ready but because we planted both the snow peas and shelling peas together, which in retrospect isn't such a good idea, we had a a hard time knowing when to pick them!
Some bug's been munching on our cabbage leaves but other than that, it's looking well. Does anyone know what that plant/weed is in front of the bed?
Still on the roll with creating more pollinator habitat, we seeded some nasturtiums and marigolds in the area in front of the strawberry bed.
We also laid some cardboard under the strawberry plants to prevent the fruit from touching the ground and rotting. Let's see if that works....
After a few weeks of thinking we had cucumber in the garden, one of the volunteers pointed out that she thought the 'cuke' had 'funny' leaves....Turns out it's a zucchini!
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| A case of mistaken identity |
Talking about zucchinis, our friend in the little box seems to be happier and has produced several flowers. I think they're mostly male flowers but it may be a little early to tell? The female flowers are the ones you want to leave on the plant as they're be producing the vegetable you eat!
We cut off the scapes on the garlic last week and apparently, you still need to water them for few weeks after you harvest the scapes. Some people leave 1-2 scapes on the plant so they can use it as an indicator of how much to water the garlic. Interesting idea.
Our harvest this week: some kale and spinach for those who wanted to take something back. There will be more harvests in the weeks to come!
One of the great things about growing your own produce is that you see things you never get to see when you just buy from the store. Check out this strawberry!
