Those Nasty Raccoons!

Remember our pumpkin post? We started out with three pumpkins, one fell off, leaving us with two wonderful pumpkins. We were looking forward to seeing how big they would get before Hallowe’en , even more to eating the seeds and trying out a few new recipes we had found.

Just look at what has happened to them:

We did not have a critter problem any other year. Mind you, we sprayed all our plants with cayenne and garlic and didn’t bother to do it this time around. It chewed into four of our tomatoes too! Why not just eat the whole thing instead of going plant to plant and take bites? My husband was so upset when he saw the first mangled pumpkins. We were so busy, we thought we had a few days to rig something up. How wrong.

Now it is after the cucumbers. This is war! I rushed out to the bulk food store and filled a bag with cayenne. Sniff that, you nasty beast! My husband took a more drastic approach. He cut the blackberry canes (the birds got the berries before we could) and placed them around the tomato plants. We might get a few people who say this is cruel but while it is using our garden for a litter box, they are known to carry disease, we decided it had to be done.  He read to trap and release it into the wild would be worse as they are creatures that live in urban areas and to take them so far from their environment would surely be more unkind.

This is what my husband did to keep it out of our cucumbers. Thorn free. Not too pretty. We will have to see if it works.

Green Bell Pepper

This is just one variety of peppers we planted this year. We are pepper fanatics in this house. This is the only one we planted in the garden. Never having much luck with them, the others we have kept in the greenhouse all summer and they are doing very well.

This plant is so short, it was a surprise to go out one day to find five peppers on one plant. We have been eating them for a few weeks now.

Tag Information:

Green Bell Pepper

Notable features: Square, very sweet, green pepper. Popular variety.

Height 50 cm (20″)

Spacing: 60 cm (24″)

Location: Full sun.

Harvest time: July-August

Detroit Dark Red Beets

We planted beets for two reasons. We read how good they are for you.  Second, Mom loves them. I hated them as a child. There was no forcing me to eat them.  I had tried pickled beets and that was it. After that, I wouldn’t try them again.

I still don’t like pickled beets. We picked a few to boil, steamed the beet tops. Ha! It was delicious. Both of us thought the beet tops were great. The root was tasty too, but I’d take the tops over them any day!

I’ll be growing them every year from now on.

Tag Information:

Detroit Dark Red Beets

61 days to harvest. Heritage variety and most popular in beet family.Dark red, globe shaped roots have a smooth crown and small taproot. Excellent for tables, canning and freezing, and greens.

Sowing: Plant in early spring or later in summer for fall crops. Rich moist sandy loam is best.

Planting depth: 1cm (1/2″)
Seed Spacing: 2.5cm (1/4 inch)
Row width: 60cm (24″)
Thin to: 7cm (3″)

A Tree Frog

A tree frog decided to hang out with us for a while. It looks as though, instead of hanging out, he is hanging on for dear life!

It fell out the umbrella when my husband opened it. I was glad to get a few pictures, he didn’t seem too bothered by it.  

A few hours later he/she was off to better adventures and hasn’t been seen since. I hope we meet again some day.

His one front hand seems to have a bit of deformity. My husband has noticed bees and flies with odd growths this summer. I wonder what is going on.

Homesteader Peas.

We planted a row of Homesteader Peas this year. It’s been a battle getting any of them onto a dinner plate. The three of us love eating fresh peas. I won’t touch them cooked! They were a great choice, nice and sweet.

The picture was taken some time ago. They are picked clean right now. We have some peas drying for seed next summer.

Tag Information:

64 days to harvest. The dark green pods of this heritage variety are 10 cm (4″) long, pointed and slender. Each pod contains 7-9 large, very sweet deep green peas. Flavour is superior fresh or frozen.

Sowing: Sow seeds in successive crops every two weeks from early April to mid-May, as long as weather is cool. In long season areas, also sow in mid-August for a fall crop.

Comments: Avoid high nitrogen fertilizers. Stake for easier picking. As pods mature, pick daily to encourage additional pod growth.

Planting Depth – 2.5 cm (1″)

Seed Spacing – 6 cm (2.5″)

Row Width – 40 cm (16″)

We also enjoy the kind of peas that you can eat the pod and grew one in the green house. I can’t remember the name of it off-hand.

Anise-Hyssop

If you love black licorice, you’ll love this herb! When we get the time we will be adding the many different uses for everything in our gardens.

Anise-Hyssop:

We bought this plant at an herb shop and will propagate it for new harvests. One thing we have learned is that herbs need a lot of space. They need to be in the ground with freedom to roam. Next summer they will be moved to the back into a much larger garden. Things we want to contain will probably take their place in this raised bed.

Tag Information:

Anise-Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

Attractive honey plant; produces abundant nectar which yields a light fragrant honey. Strongly anise-scented; delightful for tea or as culinary seasoning. Showy blue flowers.

P(Z4-9)

HT 60-120cm

Lily

Mom bought this Lily at Canadian Tire. It had no tag. We think it might be an Asiatic Lily Olina Tango. My Aunt can’t wait to see the picture…so here it is:

This is planted in the garden by the log. (Side of house)

Yucca Plant

I can’t remember how long I have had this Yucca Plant. It never bloomed for years and then one day it did. After that I got two new plants beside it. I gave them away thinking that more would follow. Little did I know it wouldn’t bloom again for years! Which meant no new plants.

This year it decided to bloom again:

I am so happy! This time I will keep the new plants and put them in another garden. You can take cuttings from this plant but I didn’t know that until I looked it up today. All this time…

(This is planted in the garden by the old well.)

Everbearing Strawberries

We bought Everbearing Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa) this year.  We planted them in a bag and hung it in the greenhouse. Since then I have rooted the runners and filled a clay strawberry pot. There are still more runners I have to root.

The greenhouse is so full right now that it is hard to move around. The berries are hard to get at and I don’t have the space to root the runners without shoving other plants around. The peppers have taken over!

Some of these strawberries are sweet, others not so much. We used to pick organic berries at a near-by farm that were so sweet! I don’t know if we will choose another kind next year, or simply beg the owners of the farm for a plant or two!

At some point I would like to grow them in their own cold frame. They would never survive in a garden because the critters would grab them before we’d get a chance to pick.

Seed to Feed Me has a cold frame that would be perfect.

Photo of cold frame care of http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/

Tag Information:

Everbearing Strawberry:

Bloom Time: Blooms in spring and again in summer.

Exposure: Plant in full sun.

Water weekly during dry spells.

Height: Grows to 8″ (20cm) tall. Space 18″  (46 cm) apart.

Hardiness Zones: USDA Zones 4 (-30F) to USDA Zone 8 (10F)

Juicy, vibrant red berries have a sweet, rich flavor; great for jellies, pies and fresh eating. Plants produce two large crops, with sporadic fruiting in between. Young plants form at the end of runners. Use these plantlets to replace older plants.

Jack O’Lantern

We didn’t have the room in our vegetable garden to include our Jack O’ Lantern Pumpkin plant. We dug a circle in some grass at the back of the lot and hoped for the best.

Having never grown it before, we had no idea the flowers would get this big:

My Mom is holding a Canadian quarter (25 Cents) to give you an idea of the size.

My husband read to let the plant grow on top of small logs to keep it off the ground. We have plenty of those around the property!

We bought this plant and will save some  seeds for next year. It was planted on May 24th.

As you can see it is doing quite well:

Tag information:   (Grown in Canada)

Excellent pumpkins for carving or pies.

12-16 inches in diameter (30-40 centimeters)

100 days

How to Grow: Plant in full sun. 2 plants per hill. Space hills 4-8′ (1.2-2.4 m) apart.