This was one weird spring, if you even want to call it that... The end of April into May was quite cool here and we even got some snow on May 15th! As soon as that event was over the temperature warmed quite considerably, and before we knew it the leaves came out, farmers got their crops in, and we already had a few 30 Celcius days, including yesterday and today. It feels like we went straight from winter to summer!
Looking out the window on the morning of May 15th.
As for us here at home it was GO TIME! Something got into the first peas we planted and by the time we realized it and replanted it was a little too late so by the time they broke through the soil it was too hot, so no peas this year. Our potatoes arrived finally by the first week of May which is late around here as the neighbours already had theirs in by mid April. Unfortunately only half of our potatoes came up. The ones we cut in half when we planted them had some kind of larva in them, while the ones we planted whole germinated and are now plants ready to blossom any day now. Another disappointment this year was that very few of the garlic we planted last fall came up this spring.
That ends the list of disappointments so far this year. Our asparagus all came up this year, though we can't pick any until next year. Marianne's Mom got another good crop of our rhubarb again this year as well. From the propagation in the basement we transplanted our zucchini, acorn, butternut and pumpkin squash into Garden #1. We planted some zucchini from seed as well hoping those come up later and extend the harvest. Garden #2 has the potatoes along with transplanted broccoli, leeks, and from seed we planted carrots, onion sets, and beets. Everything is up thus far except the carrots.
In Garden #3 we planted sweet corn, and transplanted our beefstake and roma tomatoes. In Garden #4 we transplanted the kale, and cabbage. We also planted from seed swiss chard, more cabbage, Dill, 3 types of dry beans for soups and spreads, and our green and yellow bush beans for pickling.
Tomatoes ready to be transplanted
The greenhouse as of now is also full of plants. We have bell peppers, poblano peppers, habanero peppers, ghost peppers, jelapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes and a unique round yellow cucumber that we shall attempt for pickling purposes.
Fertilizing peppers in the greenhouse
The pond as well is coming along nicely. We got some goldfish, along with some pond plants. The pond has already attracted some insects such as dragonflies, damselflies, backswimmers, water striders, a Green Frog, a Leopard Frog, and our local Toads.
We have been picking strawberries now for the past 2 weeks. The Robins have had their share as well, but there is plenty enough to go around. Probably by next weekend they will be done and we will be making strawberry jam. Right behind the strawberries our raspberries and brambles are already turning colour!
Strawberries ripening. They are sweet and tasty!
The chickens are out and about in their run. We haven't let them out of the run yet as our small garden plants wouldn't stand a chance against their appetite. So far we have lost 1 chicken and are down to 16. It also looks like we don't have a rooster, which is a disappointment.
Woooo chicks!!
That pretty much sums up the excitement here on the 3 acres. The first official day of summer starts tomorrow and for the next couple of months will be composed of watering (it's been very dry so far), weeding, looking for pests, picking, canning, pickling, freezing, dehydrating, and of course EATING!
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