July 24th in Ontario general garden pics

[nicky]

Full view of the veg garden - note our grass masquerading as straw at the moment. Behind the veggie garden is wheat.


Wheat harvest is underway!


I think I made my 10' cucumber trellis too small this year...


Same with the 16' bean poles - please don't ask how I'm going to pick them - I have no idea, just seemed like a good idea at the time.


To show how quickly its all growing in this heat wave, here is a pic of my cucumber trellis 2.5 weeks ago with the empty bean poles in the background!

[Mark0820]

That is a very nice looking garden. And, the wheat looks good too.

[Zana]

Looky great there Nicky! I know what you mean about beans growing like crazy in this heat. My grass could pass for your "straw"...sighhhhhh.

Did you get any of the rain or just the thunder and lightning like we did last night?

[nicky]

Thanks Mark!

Hi Zana!
Yes we got a tiny bit of the rain. It thundered just long enough to wake up my chicken of a dog & I know that the rain only lasted about 5 minutes because I was up the rest of the night with the dog. Although he is 15 years old and deaf he still feels the storms! He comes to work with me - And this is him at this exact moment... after keeping me up all night for 5 minutes of rain:

[Zana]

Hi Nicky,

Your dog must be related to mine. The only reason I became aware of the storm was the dog barking his fool head off, running around to every window he could see out of...and a few that he couldn't but still chose to jump up trying. Its not so much the thunder in his case that sets him off as the lightning.
By the time I dragged on some clothes and came downstairs, I could see that it wasn't raining yet, but the wind was high. So squeezing past the dog, I managed to get out onto the deck and pull all the pots off the railings onto the deck before the wind blew them off....well almost all of them. Lost one volunteer...not sure what it was. But have repotted it and maybe it will come back. Not a clue as to what it is yet. LOL
And my little Westie has managed to sleep most of the rest of the day, after finally allowing me to head back to bed about 0630 - only to get back up to take the dog out at 0730. I've been up since, he's gone back to sleep since he returned. In fact except for eating or going out, he's slept. But it took me holding him in my arms to calm him down. The lightning was putting on quite the show....but almost no rain....don't think we even got 5 minutes of rain, judging by the pots and containers. I ended up watering them all this morning.
Think I need a nap...grrrrrrrr....sighhhh.....oh well.

Zana

PS what are you using for bean poles? or to support the cukes? looks interesting....and I'm always looking for ideas that might work with container gardening.

[nicky]

Can`t quite imagine my life without darn dog though....

The pole beans are on teepees. I find 12-16 foot branches about 4inches in diameter in the woods. I cut off any side branches leaving the main pole. I bury the 3 poles about 6 inches in the ground & tie them at the top.

The cuke trellis is 2 pieces of concrete reinforcing mesh 4X10` bought at HomeD**** for $10 each. I bend them and then tie the sides together with steel wire so that the sides are about 4`apart. Its like an upside down U tied together at the bottom. Then I just tent peg them to the ground.

I don`t have to touch the beans, they shoot up the poles on their own. Every few days I shove a cucumber vine back into the mesh. I wanted cattle panels but could only find them from a menonite halfway to Stratford & he wanted too much $ for them.

I am really enjoying the vertical supports in the garden this year. I think they look kind of funky!

[Full Moon]

It does look funky. I like it.

Particularly the Cukes Tunnel. I might steal your idea

[nicky]

Here is yesterdays dinner pickings (not including snow peas and bush beans).... and the Evergreen didn't actually make it to dinner...


And this is the start of Bread & Butter Pickle canning of the cukes from the "funky" trellis!