Canada August Garden Updates

Happy August my fellow Canadians! I can't believe the summer is half over already.

So far in my garden, I've harvested 1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 1 eggplant and a bunch of green beans since my July update. There are 5 more tomatoes growing, 4 or 5 cucumbers (with one ready for harvest in the next day or so) and 5 or 6 peppers growing steadily. I'm really excited to finally harvest some yummy veggies!


Today I planted some seeds for my late summer/fall garden. 4 squares of a lettuce mix, 1 square of beets and 1 square of radishes.

How is your garden growing? Post your August updates here!

Kimberly

Good day!

Well I have been enjoying way more snap peas that I have ever had before and still going thanks to successive planting. I am sure that in a week here the first plants will be ready to pull. I just started eating my cherry tomatoes with many more to come. One zucchini is dying to be picked here soon.

I just pulled my first lettuce out and the chard is still going quite well. Romaine is starting to look good.

We enjoyed one good picking of a nice head of broc and then went to the cauliflower the next week and cut a nice head of that one. Came inside and put the cauli in water and ewwwwww! Those stupid green caterpillers (cabbage worms? that grow in to those white butterflies) came out. I counted 10 just from what I discovered. :0( Needless to say we did not eat it and that was the first sign of those things.... The next day I was in hospital and when I was able to get back to the garden in a couple days, all my broc, cauli were skeletons. Now they are heading to the cabbage... Just when I get the slugs under control...

No sign of carrots yet but good toppers coming up.

Using my herbs as much as possible.

Tonnes of flower on cukes, melons, squashes, but no pollination yet. I am trying to do it myself (yes I know the diff) but it is not working. Will keep trying though.

Pepper are all over the place and my banana peppers are just about ready to start eating but the bells and jalapenos are slow going

Corn shot up to over 3.5 ft and have now stalled?

Enjoying raspberries. :0)

Have started my second plantings now and will continue with that.

So we have managed to survive slugs, winds, snow, hail, floods... and now I am on to cabbage worms and cool weather again.

This only makes you a stronger gardener in the end right...

cansaskgard wrote:....This only makes you a stronger gardener in the end right...

I'm counting on it this year!

Are there any other forum members in zone 2? Just looking at it feels cold!

I googled your weather...average daily temps about 62 degrees in June, July, August. I wouldn't think that was warm enough to grow corn. Have you grown it before? When we have a cool summer, my corn will grow slowly but the ears never develop properly.

Ok, pictures to come.
My 2nd round of gardening is much, much better.
I have picked radishes, beets and a few green beans.
My carrots are still growing but I don't expect to plant any in the future.
I moved my 1x8 bed off the side of the barn and made it into a 4x8 bed full of new strawberry plants.
Tomatoes are really going well, still green but I learned a lot this year. Next year I will have awesome tomatoes.
I planted new lettuce 2 weeks ago and they are coming along nicely.
My buttercup squash is doing well but only flowers and some early growth.
Letting a square of beets grow until this weekend then I'm gonna pull them out.
Planted new green and yellow beans which are growing well.
Raspberries galore in the bushes next to my SFG location
Blackberries are just laughing a me now, but I will laugh hardily next month when I eat them all.

Everyday I go out and I play with the leaves and I extend to them some energy which seems to made a big difference.
I also have 1 giant pumpkin that started growing, should be interesting a month from now.

Good feelings all around.

boffer wrote:

cansaskgard wrote:....This only makes you a stronger gardener in the end right...

Are there any other forum members in zone 2? Just looking at it feels cold!

I googled your weather...average daily temps about 62 degrees in June, July, August. I wouldn't think that was warm enough to grow corn. Have you grown it before? When we have a cool summer, my corn will grow slowly but the ears never develop properly.

Not sure who is all out there but it is not too bad here.

As for the corn, yes I have grown it quite well before and I see others around doing quite well also. It may be the location I have them but we will see... it really was a weird growing season for many. Hopefully I get maybe one ear???

But on the bright side I picked a cucumber tonight! (it was hiding on me )

It sounds like my Zone 3 garden is a little behind!!! But hopefully we'll catch up soon, the weather has been co-operating here in Edmonton!

Lots of GREEN tomatoes on my vines, can't wait for some RED ones soon.

Have been eating lots of our edible shelled peas (in fact none have made it in the house before consumption!!)

Onto my second round of spinach now. I originally planted 3 squares, and they came up nicely, I prepped those three squares for freezing, and they shrunk down into 3 measly snack sized zipper bags! My ENTIRE first harvest ended up on ONE pizza, lol....but it was delicious. Put in 4 squares after that, and will probably do double that next year! Live and learn!

The carrots have beautiful bushy greens on them, but the skinniest little roots you've ever seen. They're seeded fairly densely and I'm hoping for the best, but concerened that they might not have enough room grow outwards. Time will tell.

Cukes and zucchinis are flowering and I have tiny little fruits on them.

Pumpkins are flowering and overflowing onto my lawn....we now mow AROUND them.

Spaghetti squashes are fruiting. I'm excited to cook with these as I've never even tried a spaghetti squash.

Herbs are doing well...I should probably start freezing/drying some of them before they all go to flower. My basil is a bit behind, but I started it later than the rest, kept forgetting to pick up seeds.

I like to think my strawberries would have been doing well had my dog not nosed out every single one before it had the chance to grow.

Potato plants are flowering, such pretty flowers, they add some nice color to my boxes.

One of my super chilli plants has tons of peppers on it, almost full sized, the other one in the square beside it has none yet...

And by far my favorite success so far is my first sunflower that just opened. They're a little behind as they're in a shady spot, but they'll be beautiful color outside my bedroom window once they all decide to open.

So nice checking out the regional forums to see how everyone's coming along! Any other Alberta SFGs out there??