Fresh is best!

 Maybe...we'll see.  This is my first time making Pico de Gallo, so I really won't know until our dinner guest tastes it and either tells me it's passable, or she spits it into her napkin and tells me to maybe try again.

At any rate.

My tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, and a lime I purchased with my own two hands.  My mother can't deal with cilantro, so I used some freshly snipped parsley instead.  And to think, I put that 3 year old parsley plant out on the porch to succumb to the elements!  I suppose it's earned its spot back under the grow light for the winter again, especially with the impending potato harvest.  We do love parsley and buttered boiled potatoes.

And I'm also quite proud of the yarrow plants I grew from seed this winter.  Some of them have bloomed and I've been very happy with the soft color palette.

The verbena bonariensis has finally come to.  I can only hope it self seeds, it's just beautiful.

The buddleia has bloomed and the pollinators are all over it.

My late planted cukes are finally starting to stretch out.  Hopefully they'll produce fruit before the growing season ends!  I'm glad I thought to leave the dried pea vines intact, the cukes are using those to cling to.

 We had the first taste of the Sugar Buns sweet corn last night.  I was a little disappointed that it wasn't picture perfect, but the flavor...unbelievable! I can't wait for more to ripen.

 

I'm happy to report we're still getting on and off rain, so I'm feeling better about my newly transplanted perennials now.  Not sure how this big guy feels about the soggy weather, though.

And Then The Skies Opened

 Shortly after my last post detailing our water woes, I broke down and purchased a new pump to draw ground water from a small reservoir that sits above our driven well. My new pump is fully submersible, so no need to prime for each use. This is one of those better late than never items, because at this point the vegetables have pretty much gone by or the lack of water damage is already done. 

Why am I telling you this?  Because the day after the pump arrived it started raining, and we've had multiple deluges since.  Some areas of our state have had damaging floods.  So my pump sits in the box, hoping to be put into service next year.  My luck continues to be fleeting in all things yard related.

There is good news, though.  The tomato plants look to have recovered nicely from their issues.  There is so much fruit on them that they are falling over...from desperation to abundance!

 And I don't think I've ever grown pepper plants that were as spectacular as these.  From now on, I'll always grow them in the polytunnel - seeing is believing.

 

 

These little yellow jewels are the NewMex Lemon Spice jalapenos.  I tried one off the plant the other day and it was excellent - a mellow pepper flavor and decent heat, but nothing outlandish.                 

Side note - the little blossom at the bottom belongs to I believe common nightshade, which was pulled and laid on a rock to bake in the sun.  No thank you, pretty poison plant.

The corn continues to grow, bolstered by the recent rains.  I'm looking forward to some ears roasted on the grill, and mom has already laid claim to the stalks for her autumn decorations.

I love the burgundy silk of the Sugar Buns ears.  The Silver Queen has silver silk, on what few ears have started to develop.  She's a later variety, so I'm happy that we'll be able to stretch that harvest over a few weeks.

Two of the three garlic varieties have been harvested, dried, and are ready to dole out.  The Thai Fire is smaller than I'd hoped, but I did roast some cloves with a few potatoes I'd harvested and some of my tiny onions, and the flavor is fantastic.  They don't pack as much heat as I'd hoped.  After speaking with a garlic grower at the local farmer's market, it was decided that I didn't feed them enough.  Apparently garlic loves high nitrogen, so in the empty garlic beds I'm now growing field peas to fix nitrogen in the soil for next year.

In non gardening happenings, another buck has shown up in the pasture.  I think this is the same one I photographed earlier this spring, and at that time you could see black masses on his face.

June 10th

Here he is on August 6th, not a great shot but you can see the hair has grown over the lumps on his muzzle.

I sent the first photo to NH Fish & Game to find out if whatever those masses are would be contagious to my mules, since the buck was hanging around their paddock.  I was told by one of the folks there that these were fibromas, and that "Fibromas are wart-like skin growths that are caused by a deer-specific papillomavirus.  There is no risk to your mules. They generally do not cause any issues for the deer unless they affect its ability to eat or see".  That's good to hear, but I'm sad for the deer.  At least for now they look to be small and not affecting him adversely.  It sure didn't affect the growth of his spikes!

 We also had a couple porcupines on the property.  This coyote was starting to harass this little one, but then thought better of it and trotted off through the woods.

 Now for some truly awful photography - I've said it time and time again, my low-light skills are nonexistent.  This lovely orange coyote was under the mulberry tree recently.  The distinct lack of pattern or color change in the coat makes me wonder if this isn't The Beast.  I've read coats will change from year to year.

About a month and a half ago, my neighbor and I were standing in my driveway talking when I spotted something at the bottom of the pasture.  As we watched, we realized it was a coyote that was limping very badly.  I was certain it was mortally wounded.  Last night, I was reminded of the resiliency of these creatures when a "tripawed", or 3 legged, coyote bumped across the pasture.  Surely it's the same coyote!  Again, low light and movement aren't my friends, but you can see the right front paw is missing.

 I'm not sure if this is an interloper (single coyote trying to establish territory) or a member of our local pack.  It appears to be in good health despite its handicap.  My game camera has decided to stop functioning correctly, so I'm missing a lot of night action right now.  My goal for 2025 is to afford a replacement, so I can continue to watch these fascinating creatures.

 

Mid-Season Heartbreak

The weather these days is really messing with my garden.  Years with nonstop rain, years with little to no rain, years with extreme heat, years with surprise late season frosts...I can't seem to win.  

This year is one lacking water.  Being on a private well that supports two households and (per the well drilling company consultation) has more than likely run its course, in times like these rationing water becomes very important.  I'm still not set up to use the IBC tote, and the pump we used to access the cistern water in the well has been nothing but a frustration, so I'm relegated to using a hose run from the mule barn across the driveway to the hillside garden.  At first I was only watering vegetables, perennials in raised beds, and newly transplanted plants in addition to regular household use.  Then I backed it down to vegetables and newly transplanted, and lately I've been only watering vegetables.  I'm beginning to pick and choose which vegetables really need water now.  I've pulled some of the garlic and the bulbs are about half the size they really should be.  My onions are giving up the ghost, and they're more like cocktail onion sized.  

The potatoes are looking awful.  I lifted the flap on one bag and dug around to see if I could find anything, and all I pulled out was a shriveled seed potato.  I didn't dig too deeply, so maybe that's just a one off.  

 

The shallots, on the other hand, are doing phenomenally well.  I have one the size of a baseball, which isn't normal.  I honestly believe it's the hugelkultur environment they're growing in; it's said that after a time these beds become almost self watering due to the slowly decomposing materials at the bottom being more water retentive than plain old soil.  This is year 4 since the creation of this container bed, and it must be making some amazing soil at this point.  The hugelkultur container up near the house (where the onions are growing this year) is only 2 years old, and needs consistent watering.

In the polytunnel, the tomatoes were doing fantastically well.  That is, until the record breaking heat wave hit and I didn't water them enough.  I was plagued with blossom end rot, the result of inconsistent watering and lack of calcium.  I picked off all the affected fruit and gave the plants a good feed, and have been watering them regularly.  The result was an infestation of tomato hornworms, which have nearly denuded three plants and eaten much of what decent fruit remained.  

The corn has been loving the heat, but I'm not sure it was planted in time to actually generate a harvest.  I noticed today that some of the cornstalks are forming tassels, which is most likely due to stress.  I have been banking on the extended growing season we seem to experience nowadays; warmer weather lasts into the autumn and frosts seem to come later each year.  I'm sure this assumption will come to bite me in the ass at some point.

 I've moved most of the perennial plants out of the holding beds, so next year I should be able to use them for vegetables.  All of the beds need a good dose of compost and fresh soil this autumn.  Once I've pulled the corn, I may try growing field peas in the cinder block bed.  Peas are a nitrogen fixer, and will add back nutrients that this years plants used up.  

The cottage garden beds in front of the hillside garden are beginning to take hold.  I need to steel myself against adding any more plants at this point, so it doesn't get too crowded.  I need to fix the leaning fence, and I'm planning to add a good layer of 50/50 soil/compost and a thick layer of bark mulch this fall to protect the new plants over winter.  Right now the entire spot encompassing the hillside and cottage gardens is more like orchestrated chaos.  

In the backyard, once again I've discovered too late a sawfly infestation on my yellow twig dogwood shrub.  Like my tomato plants, it's been stripped of leaves.

 

 

The even worse news is that they have somehow found their way to the Midwinter Fire Dogwood shrubs around the front of the house.  I'll try some neem oil spray and see if that can knock them down before they strip more leaves.

But it's not all doom and gloom.  The wildflower meadow continues to throw out some decent color, even if you have to look for it.  A gorgeous buck has presented himself a few nights now, and is a marvel to behold.  The crows have begun to bring their fledgling brood to the cat food feast, and are now a healthy murder of six.  The old turkey hen has three little chicks.  And since it's taken me a few days to put this post together, the weather has taken a turn for the merciful and we're actually getting a slow, soft rain over the next few days.  Just enough to ease water woes and give everything a nice boost.  Life goes on.