Its mid-aug and I think its time for a garden update.. It was a greatly limited garden season compared to normal years and the last four weeks have been HOT and dry.. o so dry..
Its not that there has not been rain or storms.. there have been but the rain just kept passing us by.. finally we did get rains.. we have had a number of very short, very light rains.. not enough to fill up the rain barrels, or the water system.. my pond is very dry.. I am certainly figured out what plants do well in that dry out.. vs the ones that clearly need more water.. Live and learn.
The area’s that were built in the kitchen garden have been outstanding in growth and production. I have been feeding them with composted comfrey and nettle water as well as Rabbit manure tea. After everything comes out this fall I will be adding a solid inch of compost to all the beds.
In the back potato garden is very poor indeed.. the sub-soil showed me just how much of a difference my normal well done gardens are, despite feeding it, despite covering it with bedding.. it produced about 20th percent of the crop that the well done gardens did.. we will work on it this fall so that it will produce better next year.
I honestly did not expect to get as good of a garden as I have.. the eating garden has been excellent and continues to be so.. I have some limited canning stock.. but I am buying locally produced food or Ontario produced and filling things up
I am limited in what I can do and it changes by the hour at times.. sometimes I get a couple hours where I am pretty normal, and then I move the wrong way and my back reminds me in a big time way that its not fully healed, and that as I am now totally off all pain killers/heat rubs and such.. it leaves me with rest (which in its own way makes me weaker) walking, or ice packs.
Then comes the being tired.. to say that its been draining on my body to be “growing Timbit” is a understatement.. I have at times slept 12 to 14 hours at a time.. its just brutal.. I also have been taking a crazy! amount of naps, and while I mean to sleep for a hour and sometimes that works just fine.. most of the time, my hour nap turns into two to five hours..
I work between sleeping or resting.. and I certainly am noticing the effect on what is getting done!
Still every day hubby goes out and picks bowls of tomato’s and beans and potato’s are now coming in.. and I find the time to top and tail and slice and dice.. I make 0 mile meals and I can up small batches in the pressure canner daily it seems.. 9 jar here and 9 jars there.. It is not as nice as holding things though and doing big batches like I normally do..
However it is working for me.. I am keeping up.. beets come in.. focus and do that one.. plums come in.. focus and make the plum sauce.. and so forth.. The jars are filling, the pantry is filling. Day after Day! and many more to come yet..
This is the WEEK that normally our weather changes and we start to get our late summer rain and then the wetter fall rains.. so far, I have been pleased to see it coming right on time.. we have had smaller but still good rains 3x in the past week.. the garden is loving it, the pasture is loving it.
I am pleased.. how about your guys, I have been reading that in Western Alberta, they are in some area’s getting frost this week.. that be crazy.. I know its happened before, I have seen it with my own eyes.. but still ouch!
I have to own up to something about my current garden.. I am not giving space to seed saving.. I know! I know! I always save my own seed and I do have “lots!” of home grown, home saved seed in the house and I will be saving lots of native flower seed this year but I am not saving “garden” seeds.. everything is being harvested for the canning pantry or the freezer or fresh eating..
I ordered in seed for this years garden and had fun trying new kinds of this or that.. so I am not using up “my keep back always” crops.. they are fine.. they will be planted next year and I will save seed like normal.. but it really made me aware of how much you spend on seed if you are not keeping back your own..
Wow.. a fully done garden that is done by all bought seed is more costly then you would expect, I am SO grateful that I got the BOGO sale from Salts Spring.. thanks to my reader that pointed it out to me! I have been totally impressed by the seed quality!
Just another Day on the Farm 
Hi Val, sorry to hear the potatoes aren’t quite going to plan but glad everything else is. Slow and steady wins the race, you can only do so much at a time!
After the fiasco with the cats digging all my lovely seedlings out, I have learn to balance the pots on a ledge where they won’t go. I have more seeds left and will try again next year. That being said I decided to try planting out a few stalks of spring onion I put in water and that grew some roots, and they have come on really well! I’ll do that again for sure!
My sister and her husband have had something sad happen. One morning in the beginning of August, my sister went out to fetch some of the heifers in, when she suddenly noticed that their own wheelbarrow was left by the side of the main road.
As it transpired, someone had been in the repair shop in the night and helped themselves to two of their chain saws and several of their tools, using their own wheelbarrow to take them down to the road, where they had been collected. Apparently a van has been observed going round the county, helping themselves at farms and remote shops.
They are very saddened by this but more angry really now, especially since the police did not want to come out to check the wheelbarrow for prints or take a statement.
wow, I am so sorry for your sister and hubby, and honestly a bit shocked that they could not get the police to take a statement, while they tell us that we will not get anything back typically they at least will do the statement and fill it so that you can use it for insurance and just in case they are able to bust whoever did it. Good for you on the seeds and trying to regrow the onions.
I have very similar garden things going on here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado…a very cold spring put the garden behind by three weeks so we are definitely behind our usual produce amounts. But at the same time I am surprised at how much we ARE getting out of it. And, I too have completely slacked on seed saving this year. There is just too much on my plate with Mr. Smiles’ medical situation and my parents moving in with us because my dad is at the end of his life…I just can’t deal with seed saving this year.
I am glad to hear you are taking care of yourself and the baby and getting the rest you need. The farm can wait and needs to take a step back during this very special time.
Hi Willow, I am so sorry to hear about your dad, I am aware how hard things can be and I am both happy and sad all in one that you will get both this special time and the added stress.. such a mixed blessing but a blessing none the less. I am so sorry that Mr. Smiles has taken a step back.. I know what its like to put faith in a doctor but find out that its not going to work the way they said.. I hear you on the gardens.. we started so late, we have had this and that happening that has effected things but the plants are pumping out produces none the less.. sometimes it can make such a difference when we let some of the smaller things go for the bigger pictures.. hugs!
Nice you’re able to adapt to the weather such as it is….I never know from one year to the next what we’re going to get. This year so much rain my potato plants are being decimated by slugs – and no longer have ducks to deal with them. Oh well….we’ve a few local places to get potatoes. My broccoli did stellar, beets awesome, tons of carrots, beans – the staples really, seem to be the reliable crops this year. Taking a trip south of us this weekend to pick up tomatoes Ashcroft area. ‘Might’ pick up some fruit.
Don’t stress about napping – your body is telling you something 🙂
Yeah, like it’s already really busy working elsewhere and (never thought I’d get to say this to you; ) but “there’s always next year!”
LOL.. there is always next year.. thankfully 🙂 Man is the food coming in now.. so many baskets of different things coming from Jason’s picking that all need to be done.
After a very late start and a sluggish summer the plants that did make it are producing like there’s no tomorrow, mostly beans at the moment. The strawbs and blueberries did their best and we’ve had a good bit of blackberry foraging, so all things being equal, not too bad. :
Reiterating what Valbjerke said … you nap every minute you can. Once that ‘timbit’ turns into a doughnut, you won’t be sleeping for years! 😀
O my gosh, the donut comment made me lol.. I am stealing that1
glad forage is good and beans too
😀
Baby steps, baby steps Val…
After all, “An object in motion tends to stay in motion…” (and you are still moving; )
True.. very true and so much baby steps