may update

Wow, I am a bad blogger.  It seems I have time for any 3 of the following things and not more: work, garden, cook/bake, bike/hike or blog.  Needless to say, blogging got put on the back burner, especially because I forget to lug my camera around.  We had really good weather in May!  Warm, sunny and a every so often rain, so I didn't have to hand water too much.

Planting:
Our last official frost date is May 15th, but the tomatoes were getting enormous and leggy, and the weather forecast on May 10th showed warm days for the next two weeks, so I went ahead and planted them.  Of course a week later on May 18-19th it got down to 0.2 degrees Celsius.  Close call, but the row cover seemed to help.  The nights were cold in the first half of the month and have just started staying around 10 Celsius.  Daytime highs are around 15-20 Celsius.  A week after the tomatoes, on May 20th the eggplants and peppers got planted, but they haven't put on any growth, probably because of the temperatures.  I will get a row cover on them to hopefully speed things along.  And on May 29th all the curcubits got planted (zucchini, cucumber, and winter squash).  I still need to assemble some type of cucumber trellis that stores well in the winter. One blueberry bush (bluecrop) was replaced because it didn't put on any new growth after an Easter freeze killed the young leaves.  I went ahead and 'splurged' on a slightly older plant this time from a local nursery and bought a miniature variety( top hat) to plant as well. 

Growth:
Some heavy rains followed by sun made the brassicas take off.  Around May 15th I watered all the plants with our homemade nettle tea, which I am sure helped.   The beets and fennel have started to bulb up.  The radishes bolted and had to be composted and the carrots are very very slowly coming along.  The peas started blooming around May 10th, but I have just got a few odd ones here and there.  I am hoping next week will be the 1st big pea harvest.  The favas are overwhelmed by aphids, and don't seem to be setting many pods (this could be because of the spacing or because of the aphids).  The onions have bulbed up, but unfortunately are infested with onion maggot, I'll have to use row cover or a net next year.  Also the drastic swings in temperature caused quite a few to bolt.  The rather small strawberry plants are slowly growing, and have even given us a couple of strawberries every few days.  They are a day neutral variety, so I hope they continue into fall.  The red currents have started ripening (starting May 28th)  and I hope in a few weeks at least some will be ready to eat.  The flavor is supposed to improve as they stay on the bush, but then I will have to share with the birds!  The broccoli has started to head (on May 25th) I hope to harvest the first next week and many side shoots thereafter.  The herbs have taken off and oh yeah....so have the weeds!

beets and fennel, lettuce and radishes

baby brassicas, lettuce and favas

carrots FINALLY have first set of leaves

Harvesting:
I have harvested rhubarb 4 times since April 15th, and about 800 grams each time.  The plants still look strong and are putting on lots of new growth (and surprisingly haven't sent up a flower stalk like the neighbors) so I think I can get in another 1 or 2 harvests before the summer solstice, the date where you are traditionally told to stop harvesting because of the oxalic acid amount and to help the plant store energy for next year.

We haven't purchased salad since May 1st!  the plants were slow to start off but seem to be doing really well in the sunny weather.  Hopefully they wont bolt anytime soon, but I got more seeds of all the salad varieties planted this week as replacements (especially of the heading varieties that have to be pulled after harvest)

A few snap peas and strawberries as well as onions when we need them.
We had to pull lots of mint that was taking over other herbs and tried an entire jar full for tea etc.
Elder flowers are in bloom, we are just going to make a little syrup this year as we don't use very much.

rhubarb and radishes

Cooking:
Other than our daily salads, I have had fun experimenting with the rhubarb, so far I have made
Rhubarb streusel cake
Rhubarb crumble
Rhubarb custard tart
Rhubarb mousse

Still on the list: a small batch of refrigerator jam from the last harvest to use immediately thereafter and possibly a souffle, pie and classic compote.


 Whew, that was a busy month, but now that all my seedlings are in the ground i am somewhat relieved!  On to the weeding, harvesting and processing phase!

Flowers:  the last of the daffodils and tulips are fading, and being replaced by borage, azalea and poppy

borage, a bee magnet

a wonderfully scented rhododendron(i think)