Atlantic Gardener: July 2016

Monday, June 13
Rained all day. Boo.

Tuesday, June 14
More rain.

Wednesday, June 15
Yep.

Thursday, June 16
Rained some, got out and puttered around a bit. Finished one in-ground bed and planted it.

Friday, June 17
Another in-ground bed groomed and planted beans, squash and melons. Erin edged the far edge of the in-ground garden because it constantly has weeds and grass growing back into it. Buying the wood to box it in next payday. For now the landscaping fabric and mulched path outside should suffice.

Saturday, June 18
Finally a beautiful day, but very sunny and hot. At least it will dry things up a bit. Dug up the final in-ground bed, the 40' long one and started adding soil to it. Hot out so I'm taking lots of breaks and will likely just work for half an hour at a time until later in the afternoon when I can really get going. I'm getting a bit worried about the amount of soil I have left. I still have a 20" deep 4'x8' bed, two 10" deep 4'x8' beds, two 10" deep 4'x4' beds, plus a couple wheelbarrows full each for the remaining 4 fruit shrubs I still have to plant. Fingers crossed I have enough to do it all.

In-ground bed is now complete. Now I can focus tomorrow on getting the last raised bed built and the ones left filled and planted. Then I can get to weeding, hooray! Rough start this year with the weather and all but hopefully things are on the upswing now.

Sunday, June 19
It was another scorcher today, though there was a nice breeze. I puttered around, planted a few marigolds, then set on putting the mulch down on the far end of the in-ground garden where Erin put weed barrier down on Friday. I also weeded one garlic bed and then used the last 6 bags of cedar mulch to mulch 3 of the fruit trees.

Wednesday, June 22
Not a lot of work in the garden the last couple days, a bit of puttering here and there. All that's left now ("all" lol) is to build the 20" high 4'x8' sweet potato bed, and then mat and fill that plus three other 4'x8' beds and one 4'x4', and plant/mulch the last 3 fruit shrubs that are currently heeled into my soil pile. Hoping to be able to get that all done by the end of the weekend, providing we have some decent weather. Tonight I watered for two hours and only got a little more than halfway through. I think it is definitely time to install a drip tape system.

Sunday, June 26
Not doing a great job updating the blog, getting behind on my weeding as well. I still have one bed left to build and two to fill and 4 plant. Then I can get to weeding. It was a very hot weekend, 31 deg C on Saturday and Sunday. I cranked the AC inside and spent half an hour at a time outside working. I would fill a couple wheelbarrows and dump them in a bed, then come in and watch tv and cool off, repeat. Didn't make for the most productive weekend, but I did get a few beds filled and others ready to fill. I also planted a bed of cut flowers and sunflowers, as well as another herb bed that's closer to the house. I noticed yesterday that my garlic is getting scapes. Those will make for a couple of lovely meals, plus once removed the garlic should start sizing up nicely.

Sunday, July 3
Yes, July 3. Final bed built today and filled. I managed to remove the horsetail from 2 beds completely (filling 7 large freezer bags with the dreadful stuff). Now that the beds are completed, I can get to replanting a few greens and weeding that so desperately needs to be done. Hopefully it will be nice tomorrow so I can get some good pictures. We have haskap berries ready for harvest and the Kent strawberries have loads of berries on them. We've eaten probably a pint of them right out of the garden in the last couple of days. Raspberries have flowered and a few green berries on those too.