What did you do in the garden today?

[chickengr]

Yeah, isn’t eggplant the tofu of the vegetable world?

for me it is, lol. I never want to spoil the taste of eggplant.

 

[Supercow]

what do haskaps taste like? I was tempted to buy a plant but don't want something that tastes bad and I will not eat.

A decade or two ago, those that were available to the general public they were just interesting novelty plants with fruits that one would honestly consider survival food - edible if nothing else is available. The fruit was also very small.

Nowadays there are many cultivars that are normal dessert fruit in taste and they are a good size. The taste is quite near the regular wild blueberries.

For the USA / Canada folks: I'm in Europe. "Blueberry" is used for another plant here. You call ours "European blueberries" and we call yours "American blueberries". Here, catch -

Anyway, the good cultivars that I can vouch for are the Boreal series: Boreal beauty, Boreal blizzard, Boreal beast. I'm told that Aurora, Strawberry sensation etc. are also great but haven't tried them, we grow close to 30 Boreals and it's enough for a family orchard.

In our experience Boreal beauty is the most practical because it's easier to pick than the others - it doesn't squish as easily while being harvested. Blizzard tends to be a little sweeter though.

Possibly important for you as you're in Greece: haskaps tend to become shriveled and dry when summer starts regardless of how much you water them, they just shut down because of the heat. But this is in our experience much less pronounced in the Boreal cultivars so that's also a plus.

 

[Paz]

I saw two bees today! So exciting. And look at my baby food

This gourd can reach a huge size, but I’ll pick it tomorrow.

And this is my baby melon cucumber, I think it’s the West Bank variety, I planted three different kinds, and didn’t mark which is which.

 

[jerryse]

More hollyhocks. I saw a bird fly away when I opened the door. Reached up into the nest and 3 eggs. The Phobe are reusing the nest. Should lay a fourth and start incubating. I have a cup of coffee and hope I get my want to. I started wearing my chore boots when grass is wet then decided to wear them all the time outside. No new chigger bites.

 

[chicken opey]

My cucumbers have thorns and are bitter!
What’s going on?!
I planted muncher, Monika and Boston pickle.

 

[5.3acredream]

We were away for the weekend so I came home to more random digging in the garden, some slug(?) damage or maybe cutter bees on my newly germinated scarlet runner beans, pumpkins and watermelons have germinated, and my single cucumber plant with 6 ripe cucumbers to be picked. I only managed about a half hour outside before I cried uncle in the humidity and heat.

My Moonlight in Paris rose also put out two more blooms that smell wildly beautiful. Love her.

I think I'll spray my plants with Japanese beetle Bt tonight. We are right in the window for them to show up and I'd like to see if I can knock down the population early. It is my first year using BeetleJUS so I'll report back if damage seems lesser. Mind you, I have ornamental plants now which I didn't last year. Last year, we put the vegetable garden in, and this year I have half my front garden installed. I finally potted up the spider plants that my coworker gave me 3 months ago. Those things live through anything, my god.

I fell down the Heirloom Rose rabbit hole since they are having a summer sale with up to 50% off roses. Ended up buying 3 more roses. But I set for them to deliver in fall sooooo it wasn't THAT irresponsible, right?

I've put together a plan for the back garden. My poor husband is deep in projects and I keep asking for more. I envision this garden as a focused native garden for bird watching attached to a patio. I'd keep the west facing side mostly with lower growing stuff so the view of the marsh, my native wildflower septic mound, and sunset is unbroken.

I want to build brick planters to divide up the garden and the patio. In addition, I want to make an outdoor grilling and smoking spot on the patio by building up a few countertops with the same brick I'm using as the wall/planters. Then I'll add a archway trellis at the back and side openings with those climbing roses and native honeysuckle. Think narrow pathways with some keystone species as foundation plants (winterberry, service berry, jersey tea, elderberry, redbud) a private lounge area, and a firepit location. Sprinkle in coneflower, black eyed susans, hyssop, cardinal flower, fern and grasses depending on lighting, etc etc, plus plenty of bird boxes and feeders. That's the newest project vision anyway. We are DIY people so we suffer the consequences of my ambitions pretty regularly.

My husband recently commented that he isn't going to want to downsize once the kids are out if we end up finishing all these projects. We are going to like it here too much. I told him that tracks- there have only been two families that have lived in our house prior to us- it's over 100 years old. The last owner's family had to essentially force him to leave because it was too much work in his 80s. It's a house of long love.

 

[Paz]

My cucumbers have thorns and are bitter!
What’s going on?!
I planted muncher, Monika and Boston pickle.

Pickle cucumbers are often bitter

 

[5.3acredream]

Pickle cucumbers are often bitter

I hear inconsistent water will bitter them as well

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I don't trust a 3 day dry time out here, God love him. Large bales you can leave in the field?

Yeah he cut it on Thursday, raked on Saturday and baled on Sunday. They were large bales, but it was only 1/2 of the field, he went ahead and got them off the field because tonight we have a chance for rain. Our tractors are from the 80's but my husband told me that he has air in it. I didn't even know. However, the skid steer doesn't and that's how he has to move hay.

 

[chicken opey]

I hear inconsistent water will bitter them as well

We’ve had 3 weeks of rain