I am back from a week trip to cottage country and have 22 days to update you on with 22 pictures so buckle up!
Gardening season is relatively shorter than in other places in the world so I have to pack the good updates up weekly in the middle of the summer. 10 days since the last Pickleman Family Garden but I have an excuse!
One of the more rewarding experiences to share is gardening which happens to be a highlight of my summers after those long Canadian winters. The latest Garden Journal Challenge by 
Welcome to the 6th year of The Pickleman Family Garden series on #hive. What started as a reclamation of lawn and repurposing to a simple garden veggie box has become and expanding and perpetual yearly tradition of exploration.
This edition, we return from the cottage, check on the Herbs and see what has grown the last 3 weeks!
22 Days Ago
The last update, we were cleaning up after some heavy rain and my tomatoes were threatening to be ready! This was the biggest of the bunch and I was waiting for a little red to start showing before picking it.
Just returning from the garden now, they are looking more like pumpkin in size and shape. That looks like a normal tomato but it is actually the size of my outstretched hand, and I have pretty big mits!
There are other tomatoes as well and we are playing the
game where we wish we labelled them a little better and guess which variety they are. These are either vine tomatoes or Romas and I will probably have to wait a week to know for sure. Love the green flames on the sides of them and I bet they will be delicious.
Another fun surprise is these Black Brandywine tomatoes which we planted for the first time this year. I want to pick and sample the biggest one but it is still only the size of a golf ball so I am not sure it is done growing or ready? I like to pick the first fruit on each a little early so the plant is inspired to commit resources to the rest of them. Stay tuned!
Herbs!
I grow herbs every year because they are easy, can be grown in movable containers, and are an awesome feature for cooking when you can pick some fresh from the yard. Basil is our favourite because we can use it all the time in pasta sauces and even pizza topping, then make a pesto at the end of the year with the final big harvest. Our basil has had a bit of a tough time with all the rain but I seem top have a little helper tending to it.
Nestled next to the Thyme was supposed to be Italian Parsley. The leaves looked similar for a while but, upon closer inspection, it appears my little one planted celery in there! Taking a while to grow in a container but at least the rabbits are not feasting on it this year! The rain seems to have claimed the cilantro this year too. I am going to have to drill some holes in the bottom of these planters so the excess
water can drain out.
This year, the oregano from last sprouted up in the spring so I split it up and planted some among the tomatoes, and a bit in a pot near the flowers. Looks like it is sprouting blooms to keep up with the petunias, daisies and pansies in my ornamental, pollinator planter.
Zeke Pepperman
I love all kinds of peppers, especially the hot ones, and my I think the perfect balance of heat and flavour is found in Habanero Peppers. I have 4 full plants in garden boxes between the tomatoes and cucumbers which should be enough for a huge bag to turn into habanero salt and hot sauce. I couldn't help but pick this one up for $1 in a clearance sale and planted it in a pot on the deck.
Wonderful colour and I can tell you these go to war with your tongue, leaving you wondering when the heat will subside.
Sharing the pot with the habaneros is a neat Cherry Bomb pepper plant. These too are supposed to be hot but not overly so, and we love dropping one into a chili for flavour and heat. They grow very well and I will have enough to make pasta sauces and augment hot sauce all winter I bet.
We discovered Mad Hater Peppers from a relative's garden a couple years ago. They milder and sweeter than jalapenos at 500 to 1,000 Scoville heat units so much better for the feint of heat. They look cool too!
I have saved the hottest for last. These are my prized Ghost Peppers which, by comparison, are ~417 times as hot as jalapenos, weighting in between 855,000 to 1,041,427 Scoville heat units. It is a shame they are so traumatically hot as their flavour is amazing! I only grow a handful of these every year as a speck is enough to fuck up any sauce. I keep 2 for my favourite restaurant Revival House as the bartender infuses a year worth of vodka with only 2 for spicy specialty cocktails. The rest, I puree and ferment into 1 jar of hot sauce which is only used sparingly to zing up another sauce or punish people who think they are manly enough to tolerate very hot.
What Else?
I am damn happy about our cucumbers this year. I grew them from seeds and have been harvesting at least 1 per day since the end of July. They are so sweet and juicy and flavourful that I may have ruined store bought cucumbers for my family.
The leaves seem to be developing spots and googling this seems to lead me down as many holes as doing that to diagnose health symptoms. Everything from angular leaf spot, to lack of nutrients to too much sun to under watering to overwatering and everything in between. For now, I am fertilizing them again and spaying them a little with apple cider vinegar in case it is a fungus. doesn't seem to be hurting the yield so far!
I think Kale is a nasty, bitter & inedible weed but I seem to be alone in this. The family has been mixing it into all their salads and a bag a week for our friend
has been celebrated. Better them than me but I do enjoy how well this has produced since sprouting on its own when the frost stopped.Blooms
My budget hack when it comes to saving money while still wrapping our yard in colorful, pollinator-friendly flowers is to hit the mid-july 'all you can fit in a box for $10' sale at the nursery. It is vacation season so I haven't put together a post on these but here is a small taste of what is growing.
This beauty is a Zinnia which is doing well in a patio planter among a variety of other flowers. Looks almost like a different variety of flower growing in each bloom.
Pansies are actually short-lived perennials, but I treat treat them as annuals and plant them every year. Wonderful for even novice gardeners, they bloom almost all summer and have so many varieties of colour and design. Highly recommend.
One of my assistants agrees.
This is one of my favourites this year as the daisies and funky grass started growing on its own in the spring. I added the impatiens, petunias and Blackie Ipomoea from the big sale.
Like an old lady, I try and water my hydrangeas every day with rain water. They are going strong as a result and the ones I planted last year in my front year are starting to bloom too. Perfect perennials that need nothing but consistent watering.
Last year, a friend gave me some neat looking papery pod seeds telling me they grow every year bushy and beautiful in her yard. I planted the seeds last year and they didn't grow very big so I forgot about them. This year, they started popping up and didn't look like a familiar weed so I left them. Turns out they are known as Apple of Peru and boast the neatest seed pods and purple flowers. I think I will plant some in the flowerbed under the cedars next year and see how they do.
So far so good.
Before
After
So, the last 3 weeks have made everything including the lawn a little bushier. Fertilised again and just now enjoying and sharing the tomatoes, cucumbers, habaneros, kale and even cucomelons! I should tell you about those neat things next edition of The Pickleman Family Garden!
Thus ends this chapter of the garden update. Really loving the fresh veggies form the garden and will have too many to eat by the next garden update.
Mom started me along my path of growing stuff when I was a kid. Motivated by so many blockchain blogging gardeners, I figured I would plant and share and learn as I reclaim as much grass space as I can. It has turned out to be a fruitful experience and I hope to inspire you to sow and grow no matter what your location or experience level is.
Wherever you are...JUST GROW!
