Gardening in the north

[svalli]

We had finally a really warm summer weekend. It has been above 26°C (80°F) in the shadow, which is really warm here. I moved most of my container tomatoes out from the tent GH. In the city I have 23 tomato plants in containers plus peppers, potatoes, cucumbers, squash, peas, yard long beans, lettuce, herbs and strawberries.


This is my in ground urban vegetable plot: onions, beans, carrots, dill, chard, cilantro and some flowers.


Bigger vegetable plot is at my in-laws. Beans on the front were almost killed by frost, luckily I planted some of them in the city. I am growing beans, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, kale, fava beans, beets, chard, carrots, celeriac, onions, corn and potatoes.


My potatoes looked like this a week ago.


This is the MIL's extra greenhouse, where I am growing some tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and melons.


This is how it looks here at midnight in June.


Here is our crow family. I'm feeding them, because they keep the fieldfares away. The filedfares defend themselves by pooping from flight. I have been hit once this summer when riding my bike and it was not a nice experience.

[Barbee]

Everything looks so nice. Your in laws have a large plot of land looks like. Love the crows and boy do they look different from our crows! Look like the fieldfares pooped on them

[Sherry_AK]

Nice pictures! I especially enjoy the one at midnight.

What is the white screen in your MIL's greenhouse?

Sherry

[remy]

You garden like I garden, plant it where you can or use a pot.
Lucky you to have extra space at the in-laws!
The midnight pic is neat.
I'm glad we don't have fieldfares here! If it makes you feel any better, I once got pooped on by a pelican. They are very large birds with lots of rotten fishy poo.
Remy

[svalli]

My in-laws had a dairy farm and hay fields around it. Their daughter and her husband are continuing the farming and my in-laws kept the field closest to their house for growing potatoes and vegetables. We purchased last year a plot of cut down forest and a field next to the farm. My on-laws are now growing their potatoes in our field, so I can have my vegetables on theirs, which has water source near.

The screen lookin thing in the greenhouse is an electric heater. Usually this GH is unheated, but because there were late frosts this June, they had put the heater in there. I'm glad I did not use all of the greenhouse space and my MIL put some purchased tomato plants to the right side. If she did not have any plants in there, I doubt that they would have carried the heater in there. May sound harsh, but I know her motives by now.

[svalli]

I have tried many nigths to take a picture of a hedgehog, which comes to our yard at dusk. He has so good hearing that I have not been able to get close enough to take a picture.

Today our son came in and told me that he saw the hedgehog to go into my greenhouse. There the cutie was in the corner trying to find way out. I put on leather gloves and released him under a spirea bush.

[ddsack]

Oh what a cutie! Great pics of the little hedgehog!

I was really interested in the growing bed arrangement in your greenhouse. My current greenhouse has been on it's last legs for some time, I'm always thankful when it gets through another spring seedling grow out without collapsing. I'm gathering ideas on how to build my next one, and what I want inside it. If you have anymore pictures of your inlaws greenhouse, both inside and out, I would love to see them.

[veggie babe]

Now I can say I've seen a hedgehog, he is cute.

neva

[Penny]

Awww, cute hedgehog.

Great space you've got there too.

[svalli]

We came back last night (actually early this morning) from in-laws and our lake cabin. When we got there Friday afternoon there was a horrifying sight awaiting. The vegetable plot was covered with weeds.


After tvelve hours of work everything looked a bit better.


Carrots are still so tiny that I did not pull the weeds closest to them, because the carrots would have come with the weeds. Some of the brassicas had died due to root eating maggots. Fava beans and onions are doing fine and so are also potatoes, earliest have just started to bloom. Here is the garden from an other angle.


This is how the greenhouse looks outside:

It has aluminum arches and wooden foundation, double doors are on both ends.

Inside it has three beds lined with wood on the sides and landscaping fabric on the ground.


The greenhouse is about 15 years old. The wooden parts have started to rot and the plastic has some holes on it due to cats, who were climbing on the top of it. It has had the same GH plastic all the time.

Some of my toms there have set fruit.


After hard days of gardening we went to grill out at our lake cabin. This is our lake front. I was standing almost at the corner post and DH in the background wearing a green shirt is on the other end of our 'beach'. The bottom of the lake here is sand with rocks. There is an area in the middle cleaned from the rocks (thats why there is the small breakwater). The water deepens slowly, so it is perfect swimming area for kids, we just have not had much to go to swim there yet. We purchased the lot, when we still lived in U.S. and this is now our second summer here to enjoy it.


Our son learned to paddle his new toy and we could not get him back to the shore even it was already ten in the evening. I had tied long rope to the boat, so he had to land finally.

[veggie babe]

What a beautiful place to spend time with family and friends ENJOY!!

neva

[Robert Brenchley]

Fieldfares winter in Britain, but they don't come into the cities where I live nowadays. I used to see large flocks of them on the fields in Cornwall, always mixed with redwings. Do you get those? They do come into the cities, and get quite used to people. I didn't know about the pooping, but in winter they don't let anyone get near them anyway.

[svalli]

We have the Redwings too, but they are not so notorius as Fieldfares. Quite many European trushes nest in Finland during the summer, so we do not see the large flocks, because they are territorial during nesting, except fieldfares, which nest close to each other. Gettin too close to Fieldfare nesting area can be quite hazardous.

This summer we had a nesting Common Blackbird (Turdus Merula) on our yard. Their song is beatiful and in June the male goes to top of a tree at nights and sings this melodious flowing song.

[Robert Brenchley]

Interesting how behaviour can differ between winter and summer! Most thrushes are territorial, at least in the nesting season; I hadn't realised fiedfares aren't. Blackbirds are one of the commonest birds round here.

What pollinators do you have that far north? I think I'm right in saying you're outside the range of the honeybee, but I think bumblebees get further north. I've got four hives going at the moment, but after two dreadful summers most of the honey this year is for the bees not for me!

[ddsack]

Thank you for posting the pictures, that's amazing to have the greenhouse plastic last for 15 years, cat claws and all. I like the raised bed arrangement inside, I think that would work well for me. Just a question, is it one whole piece of plastic for the structure that covers also both ends of the greenhouse, so that the lines I see on the ends are pleats of folded fabric, not additional wooden slats of some kind running to the door? Is there a wood stove or other kind of heat?

Such a beautiful lake, great place for family recreation, it reminds me of the Canadian shield lakes where we go for fishing trips in the summer. I once had an overnight plane change in Helsinki, so went on a brief tourist tour of the city and was so impressed on how it is built up on sheer rock outcroppings. Also similar in climate and trees, no wonder so many Finns ended up in northeastern Minnesota.