My Haven #1: a second begining

Just goes to show that even when you think you’ve started a blog, turns out you (meaning me) might not have after all, guess I really need to sit down and work at typing blog entries down when I think about them!

So I guess in this entry I will bring things up to speed. Just a little background info… I live on a farm just outside of Windsor ON, Canada. Soil is clay (heavily modified in the garden) and theres lots of sun! The main garden is about 100’ x 50’ (give or take) and has been in service for 7 or 8 years now? Though it has evolved quite a bit in its time. Speeking of eveloution, this spring we added an additional 50’x 50’ section (co now its “L” shaped) namely for sunflowers.

The main theme in the garden is edible I suppose… it is after all mostly veggies, berries and herbs, heck you can afterall eat the sunflowerseeds too… but there are a few other inhabitants… The carnivorous bog and also a flower row. The carnivorous plants have their own blog, i just have that much to say on them lolha!

So what do i grow? “Standard tomatoes”(beefsteak, early, slicing, paste and the simular size) about 25 plants worth, “cherry tomatos”(red, yellow, and grapes), dozens of sweet pepers (reds, yellows, oranges, giants and stuffers), egg plant, zuchini, yellow bush beans, and english type cucumbers rounds out the veggies… I also have 3 berry patches (strawberry, raspberry/blackberry/golden raspberry, and blueberries). And somewhere in the middle I have a row of god knows what flowers… nothing in particular, just what caught my eye that day ( so lots of petunias, dhalias, snaps, salvia and lobilia).

The big news of the garden so far is “OH MY GOD Look at all the rain!!!” which I’m sure alot of you are facing. Not quite what I expected when all winter i heard how dry they were predicting the summer to be. The soy beans would sure like a week of no rain, and ‘m sure the tomatoes would also. Can’t complain too much though, it has saved on me watering much, think I’ve only watered twice since I’ve planted.

I was a bit slow to get things going too, so I’m only beginning to harvest. The beans are loaded with flowers, as is just about everything, i have some very promising peppers, about 3” so won’t be long for them and even the tomatoes are showing some colour. The eggplant had a very bad encounter with potatoe bugs (the real menace, not the adorable rolly polies) spent some time squishing all I could find. On the good insect end of things, I have spotted a few black swallowtails on the dill (which grows abundantly in my garden). Nothing from the tomatoe hornworms as of yet though.

Tons of rain has left the garden untillable so the aisles are a wee bit weedy but other then that, all seams to be on the up and up. Have finished overhauling the standard tomatos a couple of which are nearly to the top of their cages. Oh and found i have a bird nesting not even a foot off the ground in the raspberry patch… hard to tell but i think its a yellow finch!

Hopefully some pics and more timely reports to follow!
Happy gardening!
Sib ;)