Blackberries

As I walked down to the big garden, I noticed that the first of the wild blackberries were ripening. Most of the berries on the property are still small and green. But down where the driveway crosses the creek, the berries always ripen the fastest. It won't bee too longer before I can pick the first bucket of berries of the year.

More New Dahlia Blooms

When I made it down to the big garden tonight, I discovered that I had two more dahlias blooming for the first time this year. I was especially excited to the see the bloom pictured above. "NTAC Eliza" is a new variety for me. It was released in 2013. I love the intense pink petals, the white petaloids, and the hint of yellow that radiates out from the center. It's a keeper for sure! And it's nice to see "Red Velvet", a red waterlily form in bloom too. I have grown it for many years

Much Needed Rainfall

As promised, the rains returned today. I was so glad that they came as promised. The forest and fields are getting awfully dry and the threat of fire grows stronger with each passing day. Right as I left for work at 7:30 AM it began to rain. By the time I returned home at 4:30 the rain gauge was filled with 4/10" of water. While we certainly would have welcomed more, almost 1/2" should green up the grass just a bit.

First Dahlia Blooms in the Big Garden

Tonight, as I watered the dahlias, I noticed that the first few blooms had opened in the last 24 hours. The first one to catch my eye was the pretty little lavender Pom "Willo Borealis".

"Raeann's Peach" a Single in a dark blend of orange and red.

"NTAC Brian" a dark red collarette, and below, "Alpen Chips" a dark red and purple orchid. These four are just the first of hundreds of blooms over the next few months.

The Promise of Future Harvests

As we slowly approach the end of July, the kitchen garden is bursting with growth and the promise of future harvests.

I think this is one of my favorite times of the growing season. The plants are getting really large, but they are still growing and there is a lot of the season left ahead. As you can see the three varieties of Winter Squash have now grown together, but there is still room to walk between they and the onions. I know that in a few more weeks it will be nearly impossible to make that same walk. 

Here is an immature female "Queensland Blue" squash. I hand pollinated the bloom yesterday, so I am hopeful that this squash will soon begin to swell and then fully develop.

An even more immature "Butternut" squash. This bloom is still a week or more away from opening. I am excited though because this is the first female bloom that I have found on my two plants. The "Butternut" squash are the farthest behind of all of the Winter Squash that I am growing this year.

Leading the pack is my "Delicata" plant. I think it has already set 5 squash and has many, many more with blooms yet to open. It's looking to be a very good "Delicata" year.

Once again my peppers seem to be struggling. This "Creme Brulee" plant has only set one pepper so far and it is a little damaged. 

At least this "Lunchbox Yellow" sweet pepper seems to be doing a bit better. It has four small peppers set and has many flowers yet to open.

The "Frontier" onion bulbs are sizing up nicely. I have been working hard to keep them well watered during all of this hot, dry weather.

The "Camelot" shallots are ready to start pulling and eating.

The "Red Russian" Kale continues to grow well despite the heat of the last month. I am still smitten with its grey-green leaves and pink veining. 

It appears that my rookie year of growing watermelon is also going well. I have five marble sized watermelon on my  four "Early Moonbeam" plants. It looks like my hand pollination has worked and that all of the melon have taken. They even have pretty green stripes at this baby stage.

All five tomato plants have now begun to set fruit. Here is a nice tress on the "Black Plum" plant.

 The "Bumblebee" cherry tomatoes are already showing signs of "bumblebee stripes" even at this early, green stage.

A truss of "Indigo" Amethyst Jewel Cherry tomatoes.

So far the "Bloody Butcher" tomato is the only plant to have ripen any fruit. It isn't producing a ton, but it certainly is early. And pictured below, three green "Moonglow" tomatoes. I think that they are going to be the biggest tomatoes that I harvest this year.

Filling the Flower Beds

Friday a truck from Lane Forest Products delivered this lovely, large pile of compost to the house.

After waiting out some early morning heavy mist and showers, Dad and I began filling and topping off all of our flowerbeds with Nature's Best compost this afternoon. 

It was slow, but rewarding work. In some areas we were able to use the tractor and dump a whole pile of compost. But in many other areas, we used 5 gallon buckets to carry and dump the compost. This allowed us to get in between plants and other tight areas but made for much slower progress. One area that really needed some work was the back of the beds.They were sunken and really needed quite a bit of compost to get them level with the front.

We also dug up quite a few plants and bulbs and then replanted them in better locations once each area was filled. We also now have a lot of room to add new plants. We were especially glad to finally get the maple tree out of its large pot and planted properly in the ground.

We were really pleased with the site we picked for it once it was planted. It looks like it belongs there and  adds some nice height to the flowerbed. It's near the bird feeders still, so the birds can continue to use it as a safe landing. We worked for just over 2 hours and called it quits for the day. There's still lots more beds to fill - and lots more compost left in the pile. But today's works really looks nice.

As I was laying outside with the cats tonight, this cloud formation caught my eye.

Garlic Harvest #2 & # 1 Totals

Today I harvested the "Russian Red" garlic. I am afraid that I once again I waited too long. As you can see in the above picture, almost all of the leaves on each plant had fully turned brown. Hopefully, once they completely dry, each bulb will still have plenty of layers of paper "skin" protection to hold well in storage.

This is my second harvest of "Russian Red" garlic after purchasing a few bulbs of it the Fall of 2012 in Maine. Once again I am in awe over the size of the bulbs. They are so much larger than an "average" garlic bulb.

Once I got all 12 plants carefully dug, I brought them into the shop to lay on the drying rack and begin curing.

After that project was finished I turned my attention to the "Chesnook Red" garlic that I had dug the week before. I cut off the stock from each bulb, trimmed off most of the roots, and then carefully cleaned each of the 15 bulbs. The largest bulb was 3.7 oz., the smallest was 2.1 oz., and the average bulb weight was 2.99 oz. My total "Chesnook Red" harvest this year was 2 lbs.12.9 oz. It is interesting to note that my average bulb size was down this year, from 3.44 oz in 2013. Two possible factors come to mind. I didn't get the garlic cloves planted until Nov.10th last year, almost a month later than I would have wished. Then we had a hard cold spell in early December, when the young plants were just pushing out of the ground. I wonder if either of these factors, or both perhaps, caused my average bulb size to decrease this year.

I was also able to do a little more harvesting in the the kitchen garden this weekend. I found two more small, ripe "Bloody Butcher" tomatoes and I pulled my first "Candy" onion of the year.

First Dahlia Bloom of the Year

Today I was treated to the first dahlia blooms of the year. Just like last year, they appeared on my Mignon Single "Stillwater Plum". I really like this hot violet blossom, ringed on the inside with red. It's not for the faint of heart. These small dahlia plants may be dainty in size but they produce an abundance of blooms over the growing season. They are especially nice because they can be grown in pots and also look terrific in the front of a mixed flower border. And the bees love them! 

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First Watermelon Blossom

My four "Early Moonbeam" watermelon plants are continuing to grow very well. Today I had the first bloom open on any of the plants. Not surprisingly, it was a male bloom. The blooms are quite wide and flat and are a very pretty shade of yellow. All four plants now have one long vine that seems to grow a few inches each day. And now I am noticing that each plant is producing more vines from its center core area. With lots of hot weather in the forecast I am still hopeful that my plants might produce the very first watermelon that I have ever grown.