Coming up again

The domain is coming up for renewal again. Do I really want to keep it?

Garden this Year?

That is a question. Its not a well-worded one, as I don’t like huge titles. So, last week, I got the garden plot tilled up and the tractor nearly got buried in the process. Its been so wet. Because of that, he (the neighbor I hired to till) ended up tilling a little deeper, digging up some extra clay. So, now its been a mucky trudge between the rows, but I got it planted. A good thing as the transplants were beginning to get root-bound.

So, yesterday, we had downpour all day long, making the garden a nice little series of canals.

Lots of rain on the new Garden

If the rain doesn’t rot it out, we should have a chance at growing 3 varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, brussel sprouts, corn, peas, beans, kohlrabi, and red potatoes.

I hope that they grow.

An 11 year old can do it

And, so can you. Subscribe to the RSS feed for this site and you will be able to keep up to the scintillating craziness, as well.

Good News! Its Warmed up!

Its only -20°C right now! It must have warmed up 5°C since the sun came up! What crazy weather we are having. It’s supposed to get up to -2°C by this afternoon and start snowing. WTF.

The WordPress Site or the Domain Name

I’m not sure how many folks have follow to get here by navigating mrcorey.com, but if you do, it may not work for a few days. The registration is up on the 20th and I’ve not added the funds to my Paypal account to cover it. My registrar doesn’t work with an eCheque and I don’t use credit cards, so I have to wait the 6-8 days (which usually is more like 10) for a Canadian funds transfer from my bank account to upload to Paypal. Since I did that today, its not going to get there before the 20th.

If you’ve clicked on a link at all, you may have noticed that the site is hosted at mrcorey.wordpress.com, so that will still work, regardless. Bear with me. I do want to renew, as I have a few email accounts tied to this domain.

Late Garden Update

I’ve been pretty lazy at updating on the garden’s progress. Sorry about that. This year’s bounty was quite a bit smaller than I had hoped, but everything was tasty.

I started this post on September 18, 2010 and haven’t fleshed it out until now. I apologize for that (Sorry Skye).

Due to the low amount of rain that we got this past summer, the produce was small and not as bountiful. Some things just didn’t grow at all. The previous summer was cooler and had a lot of rain, so things like zucchini grew a-plenty. This past summer, that was a plant that wouldn’t even grow.

I did get a few Hungarian peppers. They are a bit hot. It would have been nice to pickle them, had there been more of them. The bell peppers didn’t produce at all, despite the plants looking reasonably sturdy and healthy. Next year I guess.

The one thing that produced continually was the swiss chard. It grew right into October until the frosts were too cold to promote growth. At that point, the only plant that was still growing was the broccoli. And, that was only when the temperature was above freezing. I harvested the last cabbage after a few frosty nights and all but the smallest brussel sprouts, as well. They were small but tasty.

I have saved seeds from the yellow beans and the pea plants, in hopes that they will germinate next year. I’m not so sure about that. I will purchase new squash seed, I believe. I really like the butternuts, although they don’t store well.

Sorry for the late late garden update, but that’s how it ended up. Too bad that all of that rain that came in December couldn’t have been spread out over the previous summer. It would have been a nice garden then.

A take away from this year’s garden is planning. I intend to row it east to west this coming summer, rather than the north to south orientation I tried this year. This will give me the opportunity to plant things like broccoli in the shade of the poplars behind our property and to plant heat-lovers, such as peppers and the like, in the sunnier southern edge.

Part of the Distraction

We got a puppy a few weeks ago. She was young when we got her but wasn’t eating from her mother’s breast any more. Because we got her from a neighbor, we had to toilet train her. Its an ongoing process.

The cool thing, though, is that we’ve not really had any amount of snow until a few days ago. When we let her out to “do her business”, she had a great time hopping through the snow. Of course, she still prefers a warm, dry tushie, which is part of the process:

Bella's First Big Snowfall - click to embiggen

How Unfair of Me

There I went and didn’t follow through with updates. What has happened with Corey’s garden? Dunno, they say. Well, you’ll find out soon.

For now, here’s a pic of our deck at night. Look at the leaves! The wind’s a-howlin’

Much of the Growing is Done

Today, I went out to the garden with the intention of watering it again. Its been really dry here over the past several weeks. Its been as dry now as it was wet before. So, now, instead of complaining about not having enough sunny days to get the plants growing, we don’t’ have enough rain to keep the plants growing. Where’s the win in that?

the peas grew despite the lack of water

You’d think that there might not be one. However, my garden did actually get established this year, and the soil got tilled better than it had last year, so I had a better start, despite the cold nights in June.

I doubt that we'll get peppers. The flowers are pretty.

tomatoes are small this year

Over the summer, I’ve shown you some of what we’ve been doing in the garden and what we’ve been harvesting. I must say that we’ve been luckier this year with carrots than last year, as they actually grew – some of them did, anyway. We’re having some in our hodge-podge today.

the veggies to be cooked and heated in milk and butter

It looks like the corn will be ready soon for harvest. Its been planted over time, so there should be some getting ready over time as well. The potatoes have been delicious, although small. The Colorado Beetles have had a field day eating, er stripping, the leaves, though. Between their munching and the lack of rain, the potatoes have been smaller than expected overall, bit very tasty nonetheless.

wilting potato plants. the beetles ate a lot of the leaves

We’ve had peas and yellow beans galore, though, and the swiss chard that did actually grow has been good as well. I cut it off and the stalks keep shooting up! Our cabbages have been chewed at a bit by slugs and caterpillars but not too badly. They’re still coming along, so they might prove to be a nice meal filler for some time to come. I have 2-1/2 in the fridge and 3 or 4 left in the garden.

this cabbage is just starting to fill out

corn showing dark silk

The broccoli is pretty much done for and I don’t know if the cauliflower will grow at all. I don’t think we had enough rain and the temperature was way too hot for it. The brussel sprouts are finally showing a small increase in size, though. Overall, its been good, since I haven’t really weeded or watered this garden.

brussel sprouts finally showing

The green onions are just about big enough. The white ones are still growing.

And, there’s more

Its been dry lately and I don’t have a hose. When I’ve been off work, I’ve often been away from home with the family, so the garden didn’t always get the drink that it needed. The good news is that its raining now and the forecast shows that I should be looking forward to a wet day overall.

Ange didn’t take a few angles that I would have liked to had shots of, so this morning, I took a few more pictures.

Its amazing how much plants will grow if left to their own devices. The pictures in the last post were taken 4 days ago and you can already see more progress. Look at the peas. They have beautiful blossoms and they will be bearing within a week, I’d guess.

This year has been bad for the tomatoes and peppers, but I still have hope that the plants will bear a reasonable amount of produce.

One thing that seems to be unappreciated is the flower that comes out on a vegetable plant. I love to see the white and ping blossoms that pea plants have. And, the yellow blossoms that the beans have. They look so delicate, which makes the next stage of growth so cool.

I’ve been meaning to capture the squash in full bloom, as their flowers usually close up as the day progresses. I was lucky this morning and got a pretty good shot, including the plants’ really large leaf. I hope that there’s time enough for the plants to grow. I’ve seen a lot of bees around the yard, so I shouldn’t have any difficulty with the plants producing something to eat.

I hope that you like these updates.