Circle of protection

 It's Lughnasadh, day of first fruits. Every year I don't think I'm going to get any fruit, it seems way too early. Every year I am wrong.

Last year I'd had my first tomato by this time and this year I have only had my green grocery store cherry tomatoes. 

I had a big bowl of saskatoons yesterday, the bushes are literally bent double under the weight of berries. I pickled the cereal bowl full in a few minutes and the bush looks untouched. I have a bunch of saskatoon bushes around here but this one, my favourite, provides enough for the freezer on its own.

I picked a couple of the first raspberries today, this year, despite not doing any pruning last year at all so there were dead canes, some single year canes, and a whole ton of this year's canes all mixed up together and bending over. It looks like there'll be a decent harvest of them after all.

I've been eating lettuce salads since the lamb's quarters finished, though I am still terrible at making viniagrettes. Josh is an artist with them and I just cannot get the delicacy they need for fresh homegrown lettuce. Today's salad had some of that very nice chard (I only like chard without offensive stalks, which means "perpetual spinach" or biatola e costa) and some oxeye daisy flowers and some chive seeds.

Most importantly to this time of year, I've sorted out some planning on the woody perennial part of the garden just off the house, and put in the remaining apple tree and some accompanying grapes, with spots roughed out for the haskap, a kiwi (issai), some sour cherries, gooseberries, and the roses. With a bow towards Hestia as home and hearth I'm centering the backbone of the gardens in rings on the garden firepit (apple trees in a 36' ring) and on the chimney/woodstove. If I put a bonfire ring in the back the third ring will center on it. 

This doesn't mean a solid ring of trees, but it means that an arc of apple trees punctuated with taller cherries along the south of the property will shade the south side of the garden from south sun and then with raspberries underplanted shade the house from west sun, will part to let the drive run through, and then either spiral out into the plum trees or just continue along the edge of the plum bed. Within that some arcs of roses, inside the fence of the inner garden, will screen the more private area there. 

Running a ring off the chimney will be a little more challenging that running one off the firepit, but I can probably use my work laser for that.

Spent a ton of time this weekend moving the sprinkler around for the garden and being super exhausted. Will make a separate post about corn etc.

Garden progress

 All three Zestar! apples are in the ground now, along with the two Valiant, one La Crescent, and one Marquette grape. I haven't finished guilding the other two, but the first has its black velvet gooseberry and cinnamon rose and some asparagus to start. I need to flatten more cardboard to mulch a bunch of the guild plants when I put them in. The last apple is pretty cozy with some raspberries and a comfrey plant already. Maybe I'll give it a sentry rose?

I just noticed many of my guilding plants have thorns - gooseberry, rose, raspberry.

This morning I went up and collected pollen from the first atomic orange and sakskatoon white that were pollinating, and put it on some of the gaspe corn that was tasselling over in the Early Riser underplanted bed -- early riser is nowhere near tasselling or silking so the gaspe that were interspersed there needed some additional pollen. I also moved around the morden, saksatoon white, saskatchewan rainbow, and gaspe pollen in the main garden.

The gaspe looks fabulous.

Tomatoes are blooming very heavily, especially some of the minsk early and taiga and the peruvianum. Lots of little green tomatoes in the promiscuous bed and in the minsk early and zesty green plants especially, though the northern mixed bed also has many. The taiga on my deck is the one I want to save seed from, it's super floriferous to the point that it looks like a multiflora a little. I want to snip a cutting from it for hydroponic crosses for sure.

Lucinda is a much slower-to-bloom plant than silvery fir tree, and it seems to be less prolific.

Mikado black has beefsteakier blooms than I remember. Corrie in town has some of my minsk black seeds and she's saying one plant in particular has super beefsteaky flowers compared to the others, I'm interested to see how the fruit present. They are both potato leaf so I don't think it would likely be a cross?

Lots of bumblebees on the tomatoes in the morning.

Some of the first female fruits on the squash shrivelled up, they those plants better get moving if they want to produce before fall. They're sure vining a lot, though, and the melons are flowering like mad so I'm interested to see if either of them make it.

Of the corns, I'll definitely grow gaspe, Saskatchewan rainbow, Saskatoon white, atomic orange, magic manna, and painted mountain again. Probably also cascade ruby gold, though it's just starting to think about tasselling and may not make it. I think open oak party, oaxacan green, montana morado, and maybe early riser aren't going to be fast enough though early riser is going super fast right now.

Of the tomatoes, I'm really enjoing the mixed northern patch. The promiscuous patch is kind of uniform seeming right now, but I absolutely cannot guess at what's going on with the mixed northern one. Note to self: next year only do 6 max each of the standard minsk early, moravsky div, and silvery fir tree and 2 each of named varieties. I want at least 150 or so unknown plants to play with. The dwarves: saucy mary, bundaberg rumball, and uluru ochre are opening buds soon but not quite yet, I'm really hoping they ripen in time. Meanwhile a ton of very, very floriferous volunteer tomatoes are filling the saskatchewan rainbow and assiniboine flint holes left by the crows with a sea of yellow. I think there's also a patch in one of the bean beds that's very friendly looking.

Next year I am definitely planting out some gold nugget and sundream and red kuri squashes to do deliberate pollinations with. I am just not certain that anything that's out there now will actually ripen. If it does there are sure lots of fathers to choose from though.

The bouchard peas have set a nice crop of pods, turnips are sizing up nicely, I remain in love with brassica carinata though it's becoming more of a sauteeing green, and my scattered gai lan is growing nice thick juicy stalks.

I wish I could spend all my time out there. Maybe next year.  

Devotions

Being able to set Threshold's beating heart as the center of things, and to ring it with fruitfulness and generous plants.

Sitting on the bench by the long-disused firepit for awhile. Someone made that bench long before me, but it will be used while I'm here, I promise.

My corns. Saskatchewan rainbow, it's a plucky little thing just like gaspe. Saskatoon white, it's even and lush and generous. Always gaspe. And atomic orange that's growing in the face of so much crow devastation.

Having water to feed my garden. It's something to watch corn go from spiky dark green leaves to wide shimmering green.

Swelling cobs on the gaspe, sometimes three to a plant! Always a miracle.

Clover growing along the path to the garden that I walk so many times a day. I love that smell. It belongs to Threshold.

Avi fixing my hand-me-down pellet smoker, and inspiring a lovely dinner of pork tenderloin and carbonara and garden salad I would not have made for myself.

Roses.

The act of scooping duck water out of the pools and hand carrying it to water each newly planted tree and shrub in a clear and emotionally legible act of service and care that is equally legibly rewarded.

Weather that cools down finally.

My dishwasher and my vacmop, these remain miracles of time and cleanliness I wouldn't be able to achieve without them.

A call from Josh where I can talk about the garden without having to explain it first.

Living more in my own head than in my words, for once.

The anticipation of lying in my hammock even though I haven't put it up yet.

A big cool class of water before sleep.

Anyone who reads this and cares, I'm grateful for you too. Thank you and goodnight.