Gardening Update #3: Reinforced Vegetable Garden!

And we’re back with more gardening so very soon. Since this has its own seasonal segment this year, I’m not putting it in the Weekly Adventures to give it more space for events recap and whatnot.

The rain is not stopping in Montreal and the weather can only be described as mild. We’re not exactly complaining because well, we don’t have air conditioning and when its 25C and more, its like an oven. Even worse when I have to do podcast recording because I need to shut the windows and turn off the fan so its like a mega sauna. Like I said, not complaining although, I do like sitting in the sun and waking up to clear skies and pleasant weather. I guess we can’t have everything, right?

Enough talk about the weather. The garden has been in need of some care. After a weekend away in Ottawa, I came back to realize that those sly rabbits (including their new little bunnies which are super adorable and sit around my strawberries a lot), have found a way into my vegetable garden and not only ate the mini carrot plants and the zucchini that Phoebe had given me but also have been eating gradually on my lettuce. Luckily, we had planned for this unfortunate event and planted some in hanging pots already. However, the fence was long overdue for its reinforcement and my husband and I headed off to get that taken care of. After two 2 feet high trellis, some chicken wire and a big roll of plastic fencing and a few bamboo poles from the dollar store, this is is what we put together.

You will notice that there isn’t a door now like our makeshift fence from before but that is because the trellis in front is only 2 feet tall. Most adults that will wander in the yard will be able to go over the trellis. Let’s look over the fence and see how its going there. Everything is now in ground and I’m debating if we have room for maybe one more thing. I might have to head out to the garden centre again to see if there’s anything worth planting.

On the top is the left side of the fenced garden, first row has lemon mint and three zucchini plants. Second row is lettuce. Third row are the three cucumbers and the asparagus which is in its second year (so no harvest yet).

On the bottom is the right side of the fenced garden, the asparagus overlaps as you see. Next to it the ‘North Blue’ Blueberry bush. It should go to about 30 inches high and wide. Next to it is the shallows which will probably have to move to the other end of the garden to make room for the blueberry bush. In front of that is the ground cherry which is in its third attempt for me to grow but I’ve learned now that it is perennial for our zone so hopefully it will be better now that it is in ground. Fingers crossed. In front of that, after much thought is the next blueberry plant, a taller variety which should grow to 30 inches across but 90 inches high. I’m not sure how high it will grow this year so we’ll see if the ground cherry will also have to migrate. I’m also hoping that the blueberries are close enough for cross pollination.

Anyone planted blueberries before and give me some suggestions and share their experience?

Remember last time, how I was so proud of making the raspberry and strawberry area tidier? Yeah, well, the rain continued and after two weeks, we are overgrowing with raspberries. The positive is that there are lot of both strawberries and raspberries growing. My bet is the strawberries will be eaten by the bunnies. We tried to reinforce it also but they have grown too much near the walkway to place anything there. Its not too bad, we still manage to have some some its all good. The raspberries will be plentiful and probably sprout more plants because of that. All very good news to be honest.

Moving to the patio. Last time, I talked about a happy balance of in-ground garden and patio garden. We have a little bit of everything both in ground and patio. The patio ones are doing great. I am only highlighting the new progress so there’s the herbs that aren’t here but also on the patio doing great. Basil and Pineapple Sage, even the Oregano are all loving the rain. Not sure the Rosemary likes it as much but its still doing great. There are the hanging basket of lettuce that have grown a lot. I’m expecting to harvest the first batch soon.

Not so new to the patio is my mosquito repellent container. This time, I used two citronellas of different varieties but both with mosquito repelling properties along with marigolds and the citronellas were much smaller than I used to get so I was worried they wouldn’t survive. But look at it, they are blooming with flowers and getting taller. I’m always happy to see the plants to do well. I’m not a great gardener and I’m super lazy when it comes to watering plants so that is the second benefit of it raining a lot. Nature takes care of what I’m sometimes lazy or forget to do.

I shifted the herbs to the side since they can deal with partial sunny locations and moved the kale, which I potted all of in containers, there. Next to it is the eggplant. My second attempt at eggplants. Last year, the weather was so hot and I kept not watering it enough so it had a miserable 2 tiny eggplants as harvest. I finally made the decision this time to do them in containers. My mom plants hers (another variety) in containers as well and they do really great.

Finally, we have one cucumber that I decided to do in container. We did that one year and it turned out fantastic. I’m hoping for the same thing this time around. And then there’s two remaining kales with it. This has nothing to do with companion gardening as they don’t benefit or harm each other. Its more that in the moment, the kale needed a home and I didn’t have one for them until the garden was reinforced. Hopefully, they will thrive together. A part of gardening to me is trial and error.

Moving to the front yard. My new flowers from the last update are doing great. Nothing new to report there. The crimson stars are starting to bloom and the bleeding hearts are out as well. However, my patch on the side does need to get cleaned up again. Good news is that the rose finally made it through and is officially back. My mom gave me some perennials last year and they are back. I can’t get those bells, which are my neighbor’s and somehow sprouted in my yard, to go away. I keep pulling them and they just keep growing.  My autumn chrysanthemums are definitely not coming back. Not sure why since they are biannual and this is just the first year coming back. Well, you win some and you lose some, right? However, now I have a big hold in the center. I’m actually thinking of planting something with some height to give the patch a little more style. I guess another trip to the gardening center will be inevitable.

That’s it for this update!
We’re having these two quite close together.
Good news is everything going well and first garden project (aka the reinforced fence) is done!
Now, onto the next one. Might be a little bit till the next one unless we get some great harvests. 😉

How are your gardening adventures going?
Any blueberry growing tips to share?

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