May 21: Woke up this morning to see snow! And not just a little \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we got a good (or bad) half inch before it turned into ordinary drizzle. Two hours later, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost gone. Of course, I had left my seedlings (pumpkin, squash and cucumbers) and pansies on the porch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been hardening them off for the past week. So I rushed out in my jammies and brought them in. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now fairly confident they will all survive, and happy that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t plant them all yesterday as I had initially planned.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen what effect this will have on the sugar plum and wild cherry trees. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve enjoyed their blossoms, of course, but I like to have the fruit, too. More seriously, the blueberry bushes were beginning to blossom … quite a few people are dependent on me for blueberry jam, and, on occasion, pie, so a poor berry crop this summer would be a disappointment to more than just me.<\/p>\n
MAY 28: It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been busy! The windows for the sunroom\/greenhouse finally arrived and are installed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as are my tomato and pepper seedlings. It will be interesting to see what kind of yield we get; despite having a couple of years advance notice, I never did research growing them in containers inside. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve put three plants to a 16″ square container, two of them combining tomatoes and peppers, and I suspect we might do better with one to a pot … we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see.<\/p>\n
My other seedlings have been in the ground for at least a week \u00e2\u20ac\u201c two colours of morning glories, at the trellises in front of the little cabin, and the pumpkin and squash in huge containers on the concrete pad next to the vegetable garden (where the original owners put a henhouse). The vegetable garden is in, of course (peas, beans, lettuce, spinach, and carrots) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c actually a few days before the traditional Victoria Day weekend. The black flies were thick, so I figured it was time. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never had a frost after the blackflies come, so I generally go by that. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve thinned out some now, but I still get bitten if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m out working in one place for any length of time; once we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had several days in a row of really hot weather they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be down to virtually nothing. Some years we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had them only for a few days, when we had an early hot spell, other years it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s several weeks; apparently we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got some hot weather coming next week so I hope that will do it.<\/p>\n
The blueberries, sugarplums and wild cherries were not discouraged by the snow, and have all set fruit. We should have a good harvest this year, and it looks they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be a couple of weeks early.<\/p>\n
The spring perfume is in the air. One of the first trips we took north, when we were still living down south in Toronto, was at this time of year, and the fragrance was amazing. Some combination of growing things in the clean air makes a strong, spicy-sweet perfume which is positively intoxicating. If there were some way to re-create it we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be millionaires. As it is I feel so fortunate to be able to live here! There is so much beauty in every season … which I will try to share. It won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always be about gardening!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
May 21: Woke up this morning to see snow! And not just a little \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we got a good (or bad) half inch before it turned into ordinary drizzle. Two hours later, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost gone. Of course, I had left my seedlings (pumpkin, squash and cucumbers) and pansies on the porch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been hardening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenabeek.wildideas.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}