The Gardening Me: August 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

Harvest Monday - August 31, 2015

I’ll start off with the biggest surprise this past week, literally:

Gargantuan Choy

That is a (not so) baby bok choy. That's right, I said BABY choy, and we harvested two large heads this past week.

Garden Bloggers Fling - Day 1 (Morning)

The Garden Bloggers Fling was all about stimulating the senses – sight, smell, sound, touch and taste (those box lunches were so good!). Originally I was going to write one post for each day, but since our schedule was jam packed with so many different destinations, I decided to break it up into morning & afternoon posts.

Most out-of-town flingers stayed at the Royal York, a historic & grand (which is really the best way to describe it) hotel in Toronto’s financial district. Since I’m about 1 hour from the city, I opted to commute each day, either driving in or taking the GO train.

Royal York Hotel
as seen from the corner of Front & York

Harvest Monday - August 24, 2015

This past week, we harvested the rest of the Burbank plums:

Burbank Plums

Mid-August Update - Main Garden Beds

This past month was about mulching. I finally finished doing the paths in area #1 and the front of the house and now I have to move on to the paths in area #2, which I hope to finish this weekend. But even with lugging all that mulch around, I was able to get some work done in the beds and start some fall crops.

I’ve picked all of the main broccoli heads and am now relying solely on side shoots. Most are fairly tiny, but there is one plant that is producing huge ones:

Broccoli Side Shoots

Mid-August Update - Hilltop Beds

Last Thursday, it rained...a lot. How much is a lot? This much:

My new rain gauge (courtesy of Bonnie Plants)
was included in my OTHER goodie bag from the Fling

Over 3.5 inches in 24 hours. Of course, I had watered the garden the day before as the soil seemed quite dry. These days, you just never know - half the time when they call for rain, we only end up getting a sprinkling or two.

Harvest Monday - August 17, 2015

This week there was one new, surprise crop that I didn’t expect to enjoy at all this season. Corn. That’s right – I actually picked a cob of corn. Of the ground. Because my corn muncher had severed a mini-cob right off one of the stalks. And then left it there in the path – untouched. I’m thinking this rules out a raccoon.

The miracle cob

Harvest Monday - August 10, 2015

Not a lot of harvesting was happening this past week as it was my son’s birthday & his party with his friends was on Saturday. But I did have two very exciting, highly anticipated first harvests.

The one that literally made me dance around was the first of the potatoes – in this case, it was the first ever potato harvest as I have never grown them before:

First ever potato harvest - Yukon Gold
The large one weighed in at 386 grams (13.6 oz)

Garden Bloggers Fling - Welcome Evening at Lee Valley

I had said I would do a series of posts on the Garden Bloggers Fling and, wouldn't you know it, the summer has just been so busy, especially in the garden, that time has been in short supply. Yes, I'm sure you're all shocked :)

The welcome party for the Garden Bloggers Fling was at Lee Valley Tools in downtown Toronto: