Waiting for Raspberries

This dragon fly is sitting on one of the posts in the raspberry patch. I have blown up this picture to maximum size in order to show the detail in the wings.

Blossom Time

Lilac overlooking the Produce Garden - 6 June 2018

This is the lilac just to the west of the Produce Garden. It has come into bloom much later than other lilacs on the property.

Here are the lilacs on the east side of the Theatre area. This photograph was taken May 25, almost two weeks ago.

Lilacs and Red Chairs - 25 May 2018

We're thinking of setting up a spreadsheet to record when each of the plants bloom at Riel House. As you can see from these lilacs, it is not on the same day. Blooming varies by location which, of course, is influenced by sun and soil conditions.

What is This?

What is This?

Okay look for the eyes. Is that enough of a hint?

This is a wood frog that hopped through while we were weeding our corn beds. I actually had a problem in the first picture locating him in the screen of my camera. We look upon this frog as an indication that we are creating an hospitable environment at Riel House. No chemicals, lots of habitat (leaf litter in this case) and sufficient food - probably worms and insects. And yes, from our weeding, we are seeing lots of worms in the soils at Riel House.

You can read more about our visitor in this Wikipedia link regarding wood frogs.

Starting on Onions

This year's onions are Dutch Yellow, a medium size onion with strong flavour and aroma. One of today's volunteers offered "I guess we're planting onions today" before seeing the sack that contained them.

The way we plant onions is a bit of a tough slog (and may not be historical). We have used our square foot planting grid and planted four onions in every square. We were able to plant two 4 x 22 foot beds today once we had finished weeding all six onion beds. We should be able to finish planting the onions in the Produce Garden by the end of Wednesday.

This year, the onions will be in Produce Garden Beds 21 - 26. Also in Kitchen Garden Beds 6, 7 and 8.

For the record, this year we purchased five pounds of onions. We'll see if that is the correct amount for the number of beds that we have planned for onions.

Heritage Tomatoes

Gosh, it looks crowded. we have planted 27 heritage tomatoes in the Kitchen Garden Beds 3, 4 and 5. Thanks DD for your time, generous energy and grow lights. As instructed we planted each tomato half way up its stalk after removing the lower leaves. This way, more roots develop from the plant and help it to thrive in the soil. By the way, this year's soil is dark, friable and filled with worms. As you can see, we have mulched the beds to keep the soil moist and weed free.

Because these tomatoes are vines, we have given each one its own stake, manila plant tag and, of course, a jar to protect the writing on the tag from rain, but especially from crows who like to rip at the tags for nest material. By "heritage", we mean plants that may be referenced prior to 1886, the year to which Riel House has been restored. Here's a typical description from Heritage Harvest Seed of one of our tomatoes:

• Red Fig Tomato (1700’s) A historic variety that was grown since the 1700’s as an ornamental and for preserves. In the 1840’s "tomato figs" became popular because it was an inexpensive way to create a substitute for figs. The Red Fig Tomato is 1-1 ½" in length and pear shaped, resembling miniature bowling pins. They are an excellent addition to salads or eating out of hand, not to mention essential for making old fashioned "tomato figs". Very productive. Indeterminate, regular leaf foliage (70 days from transplant) 

I will admit that there is one cheat in this year's crop, but you will have to go on-site and read the Kitchen Garden plant list to see which one it is.

PS an "indeterminate" tomato plant means it just keeps growing and producing tomatoes until frost, as opposed to a "determinate" tomato which will only produce a certain number of tomatoes before it shuts down and dies.