Svalli gardening 63° N

[svalli]

Last night I picked first ear of corn and cooked it immediately. It was so sweet and delicious. Fresh corn is a rare treat here. Grocery stores have such pre-cooked and vacuum packed corn, which is edible, but not a delicacy.




Tomatoes outdoors are still ripening even the weather is cool and rainy. I picked most of the ripe ones last night and made six quarts of salsa. This is now third batch and may be the last one this year, because we still have canned salsa from year ago. I will make just regular tomato sauce from the remaining tomatoes.

Tomatoes 20220915.jpg

Peeled tomatoes 20220915.jpg

Salsa 20220915.jpg

Sari

[svalli]

Fall is in the air and season 2022 is ending soon.

Garlic has been planted week ago, but leaves had not yet fallen, so I need to go back and mulch the bed. I have still carrots, leeks and kale in ground there, so some harvesting should also be done before winter arrives. Moose hunting season started and DH is hunting every weekend, so we may have to take a day off during work week to drive out to the country and do the last gardening stuff.

Garlic planted 20221002.jpg

In the city frosts had not yet killed my outdoor tomato vines, but they started to look quite sad, so it was time to pick all remaining fruits and cut the plants to compost.

Black Moor 20221009.jpg

There is still some canning to do when all of the green ones start ripening.

Last tomato harvest 2022.jpg

This has again been quite good tomato season, even there was some challenges with pests, weather and botrytis, but that is part of the game.

Sari

[bower]

Nice to see such a great haul of tomatoes!

[svalli]

November here is typically cold, grey and wet. Currently it is a bit warmer than normal but it means that it is also rainy, because without cloud cover the nights would be freezing cold and the low hanging sun would not warm the days much. It did not rain on Saturday and my DH did not go moose hunting, so we drove out to the country. We made stop at the woods to pick funnel chanterelles before going to do the last harvest at the vegetable plot. I lifted all leeks, remaining carrots and beets and picked a bag full of kale leaves.

Harvest 20221105.jpg

I also had time to cover the garlic bed with old hay and leaves before the sun set around 4 pm. Winter can now come.

Sari

[peebee]

How I envy people who can pick mushrooms in the wild, they must taste amazing

[svalli]

I have started season 2023 by sowing peppers, micro tomatoes and some herbs and greens in the indoor garden.
I was a bit hesitant, since our electricity price has tripled, but then I calculated the consumption of LED lights and realized that the cost is still cents per day.

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I have not yet selected all tomato varieties for this year. I would like to grow some of my older seeds, but the new seeds which I ordered and the ones Gotch sent me have to be sown, so my promise to myself not to grow too many plants will not again be held.

This winter has been mentally tough with all the bad things happening in the world and my dad passing away in beginning of January after battling cancer for five months, so I really need some gardening therapy.

Sari

[PlainJane]

So sorry about your father Sari.

[bower]

Very sorry to hear that!
Garden therapy is definitely a good plan.

[MissS]

I'm so very sorry for the loss of your father. Taking care of seedlings will keep you busy and your mind occupied. Gardening is the best therapy in the world for me.

[svalli]

I noticed today first tiny buds in a Venus micro dwarf tomato.

Venus first buds.jpg

[GoDawgs]

It's sad to hear about your father, Sari, and I'm so sorry you had to start the year with that.

Tripled heating costs? Wow.

[svalli]

We have had couple of weeks nice sunny days with temperature during day climbing to +10°C/50°F, but nights are still freezing, so the snow on the ground is disappearing really slowly.

Despite the snow I planted first potatoes into pots on Easter weekend. The pots are now in the greenhouse in a small tent greenhouse with a small thermostat heater, which keeps temperature just above freezing during nights.

PotatoPots planted.jpg

Egyptian onions sent to me by @Bower couple of years ago survived the winter again really well even those are planted in a plastic tub. I had an bigger tub upside down above them and the snow had melted from top of that. I was able to get it off and the onions have already sprouted under the cover.

Egyptian onions 20230415.jpg

I got two more grow light LED-tubes on Friday and was able to add fourth shelf for the seedlings. Now there is room to sow cucumbers and maybe some squash and a pumpkin.

Seedlings 20230414.jpg

[bower]

@svalli I am curious about the potatoes in pots. How soon will you have spuds to harvest?

[svalli]

@svalli I am curious about the potatoes in pots. How soon will you have spuds to harvest?

Last year I planted at April 10th and first harvest was at June 19th. I grow these just for eating as fresh new potatoes and plan is to have first harvest by Midsummer.

[bower]

What a great idea!! I'll have to try that here.
Around midsummer here or a little after is when they stop having any choice of potatoes in the store. They are down to russets for awhile, sometimes a month or more, and they're only good for mashing.

[svalli]

First Venus tomato has ripened indoors.

[svalli]

Snow falls in May morn,
Nature's beauty in contrast,
Winter's last hurrah.

Above is a haiku made by ChatGPT AI for this cold May morning.

This week has been really cold with night time temperature dropping well below freezing. Usually I have moved plants to the heated tent inside the greenhouse in mid April, but this spring has been so cold that I have all seedlings still indoors. Hopefully it will start warming up next week so Sunday could be moving out day for most of the plants.

Plant rack is getting crowded and it is hard to get everything to fit under lights.

Upper shelves May 4th.jpg

Lower shelves May 4th.jpg

[bower]

I hope ChatGPT writes you a planting poem soon.
We are on about the same schedule here, soon moving them out to harden off a bit and then waiting for the three days of tomato weather to transplant.
Too bad we probably don't have enough data for AI to bump the accuracy of weather forecasts.

[svalli]

Roller coaster temperatures continue here. For some days it has been like summer and now we got again cool arctic breeze. Luckily it is sunny so the greenhouse is warm. I have planted most of the tomatoes into final containers and stuffed all of them inside the greenhouse. Most of the bigger round pots will be moved outdoors as soon as it warms up again.

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This year I have planted only one plant per pot and two to the rectangular tubs. Last year I noticed that the pots where I had just one plant produced almost as much as the ones where I had two, so it does no make sense to plant them too tight.

[MissS]

The temperatures here are fluctuating all over the place here too. We have been in the 80's but last night we had frost. Hopefully this was the last of it. I'm ready for growing!