Svalli gardening 63° N

[svalli]

Fluctuating temperature seems to be the normal now. Cooler than normal beginning of June switched to hotter than normal. There was still frost out in the country in the morning of 10th of June, when we went to plant potatoes and onions. Since DH's knee still hurts, he was just relaxing while I worked. Our trusted Troy-Bilt Bronco still kicks like mule and I got the plot tilled after I had dragged the 8 m x 25 m plastic silage cover off from the area which will be used for vegetables this year.

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My vegetable beds are 1 m x 20 m and covered with black plastic sheets, which I reuse many seasons. This year I am growing there onions, leeks, kale beets, potatoes and carrots in addition to the garlic, which was planted las fall. Anything which needs frequent picking like beans, I grow in the city in my kitchen garden.

Vegetable plot 20230610.jpg

I did not take a picture last Saturday, when I covered all remaining bare soil with landscaping fabric after I had sown carrots and beets and planted leeks and kale. It was a bit too hot day to work in there, but I wanted to finish everything, since we drive out there only during weekends before taking vacation later this summer.

Greenhouse is now finally in order, when I was able to move a lot of the containers outdoors. We have eaten first cucumbers and some ripe tomatoes from the micro dwarfs.

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Alliums are now in full bloom after apple blossoms have dropped. I am trying to make sure that there is constantly some food for the bees in our yard and planted bee friendly flowers and let wild flowers to grow in the edges of the garden.

Alliums.jpg

[PlainJane]

The alliums are wonderful!

[bower]

Congrats on doing all the hard work! I know you'll have an awesome garden bounty.

[worth1]

Something magical about the north during growing season.
Something we don't really have in the south west.
We just have different growing seasons.

[rxkeith]

you might want to consider trading in that troy built tiller for a rear tine one.
i used to borrow my uncles front tine tiller as a teenager to till our mostly clay
soil garden. it was like trying to control a bronco. it plum wore me out by the time
i was done.

our weather yo yoed from one extreme to another too. major snow storm to start the
month of may. warmer than normal later in the month to first week of june to cool, and rainy
the second week of june. we are just now emerging back into warmer weather. cucumbers, and some
squash have had to be replanted. my garden has been confused.

yeah, there is something magical, and glorious about northern summers after some of the winters
we go through. keep on growing sari.


keith

[worth1]

Well the tiller (is) called a Bronco.
And it is a rear tine tiller.
@rxkeith

[svalli]

Well the tiller (is) called a Bronco.
And it is a rear tine tiller.
@rxkeith

Yes, it is a rear tine tiller and the name suits it well. Since it is the model with forward rotating tines, it needs to be held down firmly on hard ground, or it will run away and sometimes in soft ground, it will just start digging itself in same spot and needs to be pushed, because I usually have the wheels rotating freely. Last fall when tilling the garlic bed, I went too close to the woodpile and it hit the logs and the pull start cord cover got bent. We were able to fix it and now I made sure that I did not go too close to the woodpile.

Bronco.jpg

Still it is an awesome machine and I like using it rather than wait that DH has some tractor pulled implement mounted behind one of our old tractors. We purchased that Troy-Bilt 24 years ago from Farm & Fleet in Waukesha, so it has served well. We do have also a small tiller for the John Deere garden tractor, but it requires that the lawn mower deck be removed before it can be attached, so it is used only if tilling some new ground.

[pepperhead212]

I got an "Econo-Horse" Troy-Bilt tiller, back in '89, and it's still running well! Only minor things I've fixed on it, through the years, and the usual maintenance on it.

[rxkeith]

hah, i didn't notice the bronco on the tiller until i enlarged the picture.
now its clear to me what worth was saying.


keith

[svalli]

We had three weeks without rain and now it has rained on and off for two days. Luckily the rain started as little drizzle, so it moistened the surface of soil before more heavier downpour. I have filled all rain water pails and garden looks much happier. During sunny days I had to water all container grown plants and raised beds almost daily.

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Garden 230704_1.jpg

[GoDawgs]

Everything's looking gorgeous, Svalli!

[svalli]

I was checking my garden tonight and was standing still looking at pumpkin plants, when I heard some rustling. Cats were out with me, but they were not close. Then I noticed a hedgehog approaching and trying to get past me

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.

Soon I noticed an other one too, so I put some dry cat food for these guys to munch.

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Our cats do not bother the hedgehogs at all. They know that touching those things causes pain.

[Bower2]

They are so cute !!!

[Moth1992]

Beautiful greenhouse, huge garden and hedgehogs. You are making me so jealous.

[worth1]

I had a pygmy hedgehog once someone gave me.
It came up missing from it's pen outside and couldn't find it anywhere.
My old dog Bullet that never hurt anything and friends with all creatures great and small came walking up from down the street.
The darn hedgehog was balled up in her mouth.
She was actually walking around with the critter in her mouth but not hurting it.
Bullet used to also carry the cats around in her mouth.
And she would lay next to her food bowl and watch the squirrels eat out of it.
She came home with a little Dove that fell from it's nest and we raised it and gave it flying lessons and turned it loose.
Bullet was an amazing stray dog that showed up one day and just started following me around.
We had her for many years.
The hedgehog reminded me of her.

[svalli]

Yesterday was a busy day at the country side vegetable plot.

Strawberries have started to ripen and I picked all the ripe ones before covering the area with a net to prevent the abundant fieldfares to eat them. The berries seem to have suffered a bit about the dry heat we had for couple of weeks.

Strawberries 20230709.jpg

Haskap berries had also ripened. While I was weeding the garlic bed, DH was picking berries. I did not notice to take a picture before he had picked them, but since these do not ripen all at once there were still some left. I am making jam from these with the strawberries.

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Potatoes are growing fine and all the other plants had also survived and grown a lot in three weeks. Before heading home we put some nets over some of those cherry bushes on the background. There are a lot of cherries ripening and if we don't cover them, the damn fieldfares will feast on them. It was quite a struggle to get the nets over the tall bushes, but last year I invented tools to do it. We have two tall poles with styrofoam balls on the top. We can use the poles to lift the net and the balls prevent the poles going through it.

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Here in the city garden peonies have started finally to flower and I am happy that the flowers did not open before the rains last week. Sarah Bernhadt is my only peony and I wish I had room for some other ones too.

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Some people here say that they have not seen many bumblebees this year. Our front entrance seem to be a bee and butterfly magnet at the moment with constant buzzing. It is a bit messy with all the different color and shape flowers, but it does not bother me, since it invites a lot of pollinators, which are more welcome visitors than some people

Front entrance 20230708.jpg

[PlainJane]

Looking wonderful! The SB peony is gorgeous.

[svalli]

We are now on third week of our four week summer vacation. It has been busy time working on the house, because we had to empty the attic and get it ready for added insulation, which will be blown there next week. It was good to empty all stuff in the storage, because I found a lot of mason jars and a box full of new lids and also some new bands.

This year we got record harvest of cherries, because we put nets over as many bushes as we could. The ones we did not cover have only pits on the stems, because fieldfares had eaten the flesh from the cherries. I have made 21 litres of cherry juice and 12 litres of cherry-raspberry juice with the steam juicer. I canned 7 quarts of cherries in brine and made many jars of cherry-strawberry and cherry-blueberry jam. Some cherries I preserved in rum. Naturally I also used some fresh to make pies.

Cherries.jpg

With all the canning and garlic harvesting I have had time just for watering in the greenhouse, so now I should spend more time in there to tend the plants. Cucumbers are growing on top of the horizontal pipes which are as tie beams in the greenhouse. There are again more cucumbers than we can eat. So anyone who visits us gets to take some.

Cucumber vines.jpg

Tomatoes and peppers are starting to ripen. On Monday we ate first Roulette pepper and it was absolutely delicious. I love the habanero taste without head banging heat. Thanks to @Cornelius_Gotchberg for the seeds for those and many more pepper and tomato plants.

Roulette pepper.jpg

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@svalli Sheesh! Yer a coupla clicks from the Artic Circle and have Roulettes before me???

I'm gratified you like 'em!

Head-Banging-Heat...heh!

The Gotch

[svalli]

Head-Banging-Heat...heh!

Those Roulette peppers are not only great tasting, but safe to eat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/foo ... na-reaper/