Week 7

It is hard to believe that it is already the middle of July! Where the heck has the time gone. In just a few months the first bite of winter will be upon us and the garden will be done for the year!
It was another very hot week with no rain until Saturday evening/ Sunday morning. I only watered once this week since everyday there were thunderstorm warnings and I knew as soon as I waters it would rain. Luckily everything survived the heat and the ground still had a little bit of moisture in it. I did break down and do the tomatoes and berries with the watering can a few times...and payed the price with the mosquito's! Holly Cow they are bad this year. I spray and spray and still end up with 30+ bites on every limb. They especially love my butt...lol I know its big and juicy so how could they resist....but then I walk around the garden scratching my butt... I am sure the neighbours think I am strange..lol

From East to West..sunflowers are getting big!!

Everything is in full swing now. Lets start from east to west and see how everything is going. The sunflowers that you can almost make out at the front of the picture above are hip height now. Still no blooms but boy they are tall. I am not sure if I should provide them with some support or not. I will wait a bit longer and see what happens. The rest of the flowers are doing well but no flowers yet. I am sure it will look nice when they all bloom...just might be in October..lol
The strawberries are spreading, but no flowers or fruit. Since I just transplanted them in may they might not produce this year.
 Raspberries are almost ready just have to get to them before the birds.
Cucumbers/squash Have really grown this week. The leaves are huge, but no flowers yet
Corn- About knee high. No doing so well on the wet side of the garden
Peas-doing great flowering already. Need to put up twine to keep them from falling
Beans-starting to produce.
Radishes- Pulled up all the Easter egg radishes today. All have damage, but going to eat what we can
Not sure what to plant in its place...but must do it this week

Carrots-still sparse, but about 15cm high

Tomatoes-climbing out of the cages and flowering like crazy.

Lettuce/spinach-ready to start harvesting.

Kohlrabi-look good lots of growth

cabbage-HUGE starting to form heads and trying to keep the moths at bay

beets-well on there way., going to start clipping beet greens

Leeks/garlic-neither are up yet and both take about 100 days so not looking good

cauliflower/broccoli- both are up but nothing is heading yet.

Onions-crazy

flowers-half didn't come up so i need to replant the rest still yet to bloom

I think that is everything...lol

I was able to harvest my first every lettuce today!!!

Bon vivant mix

First lettuce harvest.

 The Bon Vivant Mix looks great and tastes even better. I was a little afraid to cut it. I looked online and read everything I could find and followed the guideline to cut leaving 1inch on stalk. I just did 1/4 of one bunch and 1/4 of another and ended up with the strainer full that you see above. At this rate like with the spinach we are going to be going green for awhile!!

I wasn't sure how to best store the lettuce. I just wanted enough for a salad and ended up with enough for a few days. Again I looked online and there are many options on what to do. So I tried two different ways and we will see what works best.

Option 1 wash the lettuce(sooooo many aphids!!) then dry between paper towels, place in plastic bag but do not seal all the way

Option 2 wash the lettuce and dry in salad spinner. Then place in plastic bag with paper towel.

Today the plan was to till the garden since it was on the cooler side. However, with the rain we got the day before it did not work as well as I wanted it too. The ground was too soft and I would just get stuck,. The more it didn't work the more frustrated I got. So I stopped.

I then weeded the 3 rows of flowers that my parents left last week. There were soo many weeds that I wasn;t sure what was flowers and what was not so I think a few flowers ended up in the weed pile. After 1 row I should have stopped, but I am stupid and kept going. I was disappointed to find that not one of my Dahlias germinated! However, it did make for east weed picking. After that I went onto my lettuce/radish harvest and then the tell tale signs of heat exhaustion started so I went in. I did not get a lot done, but I got something done so I am very happy!

week 7 west to east