Garden mystery, solved

I had a mysterious volunteer viney plant growing in the garden (bottom left corner), growing among the volunteer potatoes and the garlic I'd planted.

It looked vaguely familiar with its yellow flowers, but I couldn't quite place it. It certainly wasn't a squash (the flowers were far too small), but I was clueless what it might be.

It started growing a fuzzy green something (fruit? vegetable?), so I patiently waited for it to get more mature to reveal its nature.

Aha. Cantaloupe! Product of another compost burial from last year.

Right now there's just one immature melon, but if the number of flowers is anything to go by, we should end up with a nice crop of cantaloupe before the frost hits.

I love volunteers. They're always so much fun.

Racing the weather

We've had a frantic week as we raced to batten things down before a dramatic change of weather moves in, including potentially snow. This is the weather report as of 3:30 Thursday afternoon, Sept. 27:

We've lived here in North Idaho for 16 years, and we've never had snow this early. It doesn't look like it will last, but nonetheless we had to get ready for it -- notably harvesting what we could in the garden. (Some things in the garden will have to wait.)

Accuweather describes this incoming storm as a "freak" September blizzard: "As of Friday, winter storm watches and warnings were in effect across portions of four states. Winter storm watches were issued for parts of Montana, and areas in Washington, Wyoming, Idaho and the mountainous terrain of Montana were placed under a winter storm warning. The snowstorm could reach 'historic' proportions, forecasters have warned, and will unleash heavy and wet snow, tropical-storm-force winds and bitter cold in the Northwest and southern Canada. The heavy and wet nature of the early-season snow will threaten to weigh down tree limbs that are still covered in changing foliage. ... Widespread power outages may occur amid the cold conditions accompanying the winter-like storm. ... Winds are likely to average 15-25 mph (25-40 km/h) with gusts to 40-50 mph (65-80 km/h). Stronger gusts and sustained winds are likely during the height of the storm over the mountains and through the passes."

In our location and elevation, predictions are three to six inches of snow.

So, given a week to prepare, we focused mostly on harvesting the garden and battening down outdoor items. We're fairly well prepped for everything else, especially since we currently have no livestock.

I started with the grapes. It was hard not to go crazy photographing the grapes before picking because they were so beautiful. I almost hated to destroy the tableau by harvesting them.

I started with the green Himrod grapes. I only have one Himrod vine (the other died, choked out by a single morning glory seed I had foolishly planted last year, then ripped out after it dominated the trellis).

The one remaining vine yielded lots and lots of grapes.

Total yield (once they were plucked off the stem): 12 lbs.

I turned about half these grapes into raisins (a future blog post).

Then I turned my attention to the Canadice grapes, of which I had two vines. These are truly beautiful grapes, drawing "Oooohs" of appreciation from visitors to the garden.

As I picked, I found myself with a little competition.

Final yield for Canadice grapes: 37 lbs., or 18.5 lbs. per vine.

I'm juicing these grapes. Again, that will be a future blog post.

With the grapes harvested, I turned my attention to other vulnerable crops.

Darcy had a grand time exploring while I harvested.

I picked every cantaloupe and watermelon, regardless of whether or not it was ripe.

I picked every last tomato, green or red (and, amazingly, forgot to get a photograph). I ended up with 112 lbs. of tomatoes.

I pulled every last onion, which were definitely ready to harvest.

Total for onions: 64 lbs.

On Thursday I picked the pear trees clean.

For this, of course, a fruit-picking basket on a pole was necessary.

Here too I had a bit of competition, but not much. This has been a remarkably wasp-free summer.

Total for pears: 135 lbs.

Just after picking the pears -- and while I was channeling the Magic Pear Fairy and delivering pears to neighbors -- we had a storm cell move over us which dropped the heaviest rain I've ever seen (no photos, since I was traveling). A pear recipient who used to live in Florida said the only time he's seen it rain this hard was during hurricanes.

By the time I got home, the storm was passing...

...and the garden emerged sparkling.

The view to the east showed dark clouds lit up by the western sun.

Lots of weather drama this week, that's for sure.

The final thing I wanted to get harvested before the weather changed was potatoes, which we did yesterday.

As with so many other crops this summer, the potatoes outdid themselves in abundance.

This is one tires' worth of harvest.

We found some optimistic new growth too.

Lots and lots of worms, always a good sign.

The potatoes weighed in at 160 lbs., or almost 23 lbs. per tire (I had seven tires planted).

I also had one tire of multiplier onions (often called potato onions), which I pulled.

I added them to the groaning wheelbarrow, and tottered back to the house with the load.

Much of the produce was piled on the side porch, and we even dragged out the large bathroom scale to weigh some things.

I've been passing out pears, green tomatoes, and watermelons to neighbors.

Then to top off our week, we're working on a large production run of tankards.

So yes, it's been a chaotic week.

As I post this, it's early Saturday morning. It's raining hard and very windy. There is a very little bit of wet snow mixed with the rain (the thermometer current reads 35F). The rain will change to snow later tonight. We're bracing for power outages as the snow falls on trees which have not yet shed their leaves. We'll see what the morning brings.

Spring garden update, homestead chores

The garden is not completely planted -- there are still a lot of staples I have to get into the ground, including corn, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. -- but here's an update on spring happenings:

In late April, the pear tree was chock-full of blossoms.

Now we can see tiny pears forming behind the blossom ends.

The cherry bushes we planted three years ago are thriving. This year, for the first time, they exploded with blossoms.

Buds:

Flowers:

Minute cherries, about 1/4 inch across:

Garlic:

In late April, Younger Daughter and I weeded the pea beds...

...and got four rows of peas planted.

They're now poking up. I'll get them trellised shortly.

Inside the garden expansion, on the other side of the pond from where we planted the orchard, was an unused strip of ground.

Don rototilled this area, over and over.

We plan to heavily amend the soil with compost and some sand, and try planting corn there this year. As the development of our tire garden abundantly illustrates, we've had limited success planting directly in the ground in years past, so this will be an experiment.

Of the cayenne peppers I planted indoors in February, it was past time to get them planted. Some were even forming flowers.

I hardened them off thoroughly over a period of a couple of weeks...

...and cleared three beds for them.

A few days ago I transplanted them into the garden. I planted about 58 (give or take) and still had about a dozen left over, so I gave them to a neighbor.

Rather to my surprise (since I always expect plants to die on me, black thumb that I have), they are surviving so far.

The older blueberry bushes are heavy with blossoms.

The younger blueberries we planted last year are also blossoming in modest amounts. They're all healthy, but they're also just getting started, so I don't expect a lot out of them for a couple more years.

We've seen a few pests hanging around. I have a feeling it's going to be a heavy yellow jacket year.

The raspberries are lush and full...

...with thousands of buds about to blossom.

The strawberries are absolutely exploding with blossoms, thousands of them. These are some of the June-bearers:

This is one of our ever-bearing strawberry beds (we have two):

This is one of my surviving pineberry plants. I planted two tires' worth of these hybrids in March, but unfortunately I neglected them during a dry spell, and many of them didn't grow. My bad. My hope is the eight surviving plants (four per tire) will spread out and multiply over the next couple of years. (Black thumb, I tell ya.)

The Brussels sprouts I planted a couple weeks ago are doing wonderfully. I lost a few, of course, but the majority are thriving.

I had three that looked like they died, but they have small new growth, so I'm hopeful.

I'm using a variety of tools to clear tires of weeds and prep them for incoming transplants or seeds.

This is a winter wren, a tiny bird with a huge and beautiful voice.

Now that the pond is entirely enclosed, Lydia (who is not a water dog) likes to explore the edge.

She doesn't like to swim, but she does like to pretend she can catch frogs.

I have three beds of potato onions, all growing well.

These are red grapes (I have to look up the exact variety), temporarily potted until we can get tires and a trellis set up. These are a new venture for us. I chose this particular variety because it's supposed to be suitable for three purposes: fresh eating, juicing, and even wine.

Some of our second-year carrots. These overwintered and will go to seed this year.

At this stage they look like these huge freaky mutant things. I've never watched carrots go to seed before, so this will be interesting.

I planted some red bell peppers in the house a few days ago.

This is just a grocery-story pepper. In the past I've planted seeds like this and they've grown beautifully, but so far nothing has come up. We'll see what happens.

Today I planted eight each of cantaloupe and watermelon (no pix, sorry). I also planted broccoli...

...and carrots.

I also got the basil in the ground, the plants I started from seed in late March.

The basil will share a tire with some lettuce that keeps reseeding itself from year to year.

We're making progress in the garden. It's slow, as always, but we're moving forward.