Dec 24 and still in the double digits. New shingles on the garden shed. Last year’s garlic seeds are well up already. A record setting El Niño.  

  

  

 Work for next year is well underway. Kevin has generously dropped off 20 feet of boxwood hedge.  I warered it in so I can place it in the spring.  Not a great job of covering it up, but it should keep some salt off it over winter and prevent it from burning. At least that is the hope. 

  

   
It has been a hit and miss season. The weather?  The fertilizer? Me?  Some pleasant, but small surprises. The cherry tomatoes have started, always a treat and plentiful. The full sized tomatoes are just ripening. Some have done great, on the upper deck and salad bar, but in the main garden they seem to have stopped blossoming.

  
Got a handful of strawberries from the raised bed, and they are producing lots of runners and even a second round of blossoms and fruit. The scape sere amazing and the garlic bulbs reached full size.

cleaned off the parking pad!

  
A perfect July weekend. The weather is great. Got a major day in yesterday so, the parking pad is hosed off, the brick border is edged, lawns are mowed – at least all the front yards. Brunch with Ken and Doug and Liam.  Soufflé! 

  
Only the clematis remains in bloom. The honeysuckle came and went very quickly.  But the apples are the real thrill. Both crab and dare I say fruit apples. Let’s see if the net covers work?

  

Was totally on fire today. Got all the richter scale acquisitions in the ground, clipped the boxwood hedge, the cedar hedge, reported the rubber tree, transplanted the jasmine and piled straw up around the potatoes.  

  

After an incredibly dry May, June has been really wet the past two weeks. Some real downpours giving us about 6 to 8 inches of rain. And more today.

  
Got the composter emptied yesterday and spread over one of the veg beds and around the potatoes to ,Lund them up a bit. Applied a couple of handfuls of hen manure around the potatoes and the garlic to give them a boost. 

Have planted beans three times and only two or three have germinated. 

Did a run to richters $90 for the rarer herbs, wintergreen, verbena, hops, jalapeño peppers and then a quick stop at Jays for some jasmine and cannas for the front pots.  

Rachel is going to plant the front of #14 next week, hostas, dahlias, lavender one day next week. Doug is here painting the front porch.

Cut down the sycamore maple. It was full of mealy bugs, something I don’t need and the pear trees are showing first signs of rust. If it wasn’t raining, I’d be out cutting off the infected leaves.  

Did it. Built a potato cage.

  
Had to dig up a big part of the left over garlic patch and move the thyme. But there was no other spot for potatoes this year. I did not bother getting seed potatoes, so I took a dozen left over baby spuds and tried to chit them in the kitchen. The sprouts were so small, that I was hesitant to plant them and then figured why not.  Could get a surprise crop. 

Got the beefsteak tomatoes in that I got at Canadian tire.  Two at Astrid’s, one in the salad bar, one in the bed by the peony, good sun, and two in the vegtable garden.  

Watered 14 for 4 hours yesterday.  The front lawn was so dried out.  Hope I can save it all.  Been so dry. 

The end of a week off.  

  

i thought it was pretty harmless when I found the two boxwoods in the veg bed full of leaf miners. I observed how they were eating between the upper and lower skin of each leaf.  Gave them a hard cut back and put the cuttings in the garbage.  Today I see that all of the boxes in the perennial garden have what looks like microscopic puffy noodles all over the new tips. Looks like I have boxwood psyllids (Hemiptera).  I researched a systemic toxic, but they are right next to the columnar apple trees that have bloomed this year.  Let’s hope it is something innocent.

It is the year of blooms. The lilac is amazing, the apples and even the young pears bloomed.

  
Need to find an easy way to track my use and application of fertilizer. A bit random and that’s not good.

Even the evergreens are going to town.  

  

Getting ready for Mimi and Kevin and  Rory and Ashland to come over for dinner.  Got the front yards top dressed with some sheep manure and reseeded and well watered. Will keep soaking it this week while I am off to make sure the seed takes.  I love the look of a fresh mowed lawn. 

Got the rest of the transplants in. $70 at loblaws yesterday, including three bags of sheep manure.  That means two peppers are in, a pot of la endear at the back door, one in the garden, along with the rosemary.
The revised fence quote came in at $30k. Just can’t do that with the siding bill yet to come. About the same amount and one is going to be a lot more important come winter. Plus there will be some surprises once they peel back the old stuff.

officially the first year to have four yards to mow. Asrid’s, 10, 12 and 84.  Not much to mow. Ironically Astrid has the best grass, though weeds are creeping in.  Got the summer tires out of the shed, empties back and a stop at loblaw’s garden center.   Bough some lavender, basil, green and yellow pepper for the salad garden. Devin’s mom says he likes pepper. Got some seeds in from last year. Socked peas, bush and pole beans overnight and planted the all on the veg bed. Sowed some arugula seeds.