It seems as if it has been forever since I posted something here. I really have no excuse for not keeping things up to date but it seems as if sometimes other things just seem to get in the way.
Spring and summer went quite well although Spring seemed to be cooler than usual which put the planting a little bit later. Most of the seeds went into the allotment garden in the first two weeks of June rather than the last two weeks of May.
The tomatoes went in between the second and last week of June which is also quite late. This year I planted eight different kinds of tomatoes; 42 Days, Black Cherry, Bonny Best, Red Brandywine, Giant Belgium, Gray’s Sweet, Indian Strip and Martini’s Roma. Plus one row of ?? tomatoes. Some how the name label had been lost. All of the tomatoes did fairly well but they did not seem to produce as much as previous years. I am going to have to rotate the crops for sure next year.
I also tried some different kinds of squash but did not have good luck with that. I only have Butternut and Spaghetti that survived. And even then there was an infestation of Squash Bugs on them. Yes that is the name of the pest. I also tried pumpkin and have one large and one small. That should be good for Halloween as well as a pie or two. Adrian wanted me to plant some corn so I tried some Early Bantum. The cobs are very small so I don’t think it is worth trying that again. Haven’t harvested any yet so can’t tell what it tastes like.
I have started two 42 Day tomatoes as well as some lettuce and basil in hydroponics indoors to see how that works out. So far the tomato plants are doing quite well and the lettuce is slowly coming along. Bought a heater and air pump for the hydroponics to see if they help. Back in the Spring one of the owners of the hydroponic store told me to add an air stone to help things along. So finally getting around to it.
The past couple of days I have looking on the net and learning about growing ‘microgreens.’ I bought some containers from Dollarama and window screen (as per Jeb the Gardener) from Home Hardware and have the containers ready. I put Sunflower, Radish, Swiss Chard and Spinach in water to soak for 24 hours. Will plant them tomorrow.
So much for the gardening. What else has been happening. Not much!
Sadly my brother John passed away in December and in January I went out to British Columbia to attend his memorial. I had the pleasure of overnighting on my arrival with an old navy colleague, Ken and his wife Debbie. Ken was kind enough to drive me to Quailicum Beach, where I met and stayed with John’s wife Bernadette. On the trip back I simply took the bus and again stayed with Ken and Debbie before flying back to Ottawa. On the return visit we made arrangements to meet up for drinks with another two other colleagues, Darcy who was the Military Policeman at the Canadian Embassy in Damascus while we were both there and I had not seen since my departure in 1997, and another navy colleague Paul who was a young private back in 1974.
Wendy and I went on a Caribbean cruise in March and visited our friends in Florida before the trip. I will have to make a special page for that trip.
Went to Upper Canada Village to see Mieka on her last day of ‘Time Travellers.’
Ran the Tamarack 5K Race. Placed 3/23 in age category with an official time of 34:36. A little slower than I would have liked but because of the cold, cold winter not much training was done until almost the middle of April. Being away almost the whole of March did not help either. Although I did do some treadmill running and walking onboard the ship.
OH3 water station for the Marathon for the same event.
Training for the upcoming Army 5K race on the 22nd of September. I want to get my time down to closer to 30 minutes. Would be overjoyed to get it below that level.
I have been posting silliness pretty regularly on Facebook.
That seems to be it for now. I am going to keep my fingers crossed to try and keep this thing more up to date.
Watch for an update about the March Cruise.
Below are three of my favourite tomatoes.
Spring and summer went quite well although Spring seemed to be cooler than usual which put the planting a little bit later. Most of the seeds went into the allotment garden in the first two weeks of June rather than the last two weeks of May.
The tomatoes went in between the second and last week of June which is also quite late. This year I planted eight different kinds of tomatoes; 42 Days, Black Cherry, Bonny Best, Red Brandywine, Giant Belgium, Gray’s Sweet, Indian Strip and Martini’s Roma. Plus one row of ?? tomatoes. Some how the name label had been lost. All of the tomatoes did fairly well but they did not seem to produce as much as previous years. I am going to have to rotate the crops for sure next year.
I also tried some different kinds of squash but did not have good luck with that. I only have Butternut and Spaghetti that survived. And even then there was an infestation of Squash Bugs on them. Yes that is the name of the pest. I also tried pumpkin and have one large and one small. That should be good for Halloween as well as a pie or two. Adrian wanted me to plant some corn so I tried some Early Bantum. The cobs are very small so I don’t think it is worth trying that again. Haven’t harvested any yet so can’t tell what it tastes like.
I have started two 42 Day tomatoes as well as some lettuce and basil in hydroponics indoors to see how that works out. So far the tomato plants are doing quite well and the lettuce is slowly coming along. Bought a heater and air pump for the hydroponics to see if they help. Back in the Spring one of the owners of the hydroponic store told me to add an air stone to help things along. So finally getting around to it.
The past couple of days I have looking on the net and learning about growing ‘microgreens.’ I bought some containers from Dollarama and window screen (as per Jeb the Gardener) from Home Hardware and have the containers ready. I put Sunflower, Radish, Swiss Chard and Spinach in water to soak for 24 hours. Will plant them tomorrow.
So much for the gardening. What else has been happening. Not much!
Sadly my brother John passed away in December and in January I went out to British Columbia to attend his memorial. I had the pleasure of overnighting on my arrival with an old navy colleague, Ken and his wife Debbie. Ken was kind enough to drive me to Quailicum Beach, where I met and stayed with John’s wife Bernadette. On the trip back I simply took the bus and again stayed with Ken and Debbie before flying back to Ottawa. On the return visit we made arrangements to meet up for drinks with another two other colleagues, Darcy who was the Military Policeman at the Canadian Embassy in Damascus while we were both there and I had not seen since my departure in 1997, and another navy colleague Paul who was a young private back in 1974.
Wendy and I went on a Caribbean cruise in March and visited our friends in Florida before the trip. I will have to make a special page for that trip.
Went to Upper Canada Village to see Mieka on her last day of ‘Time Travellers.’
Ran the Tamarack 5K Race. Placed 3/23 in age category with an official time of 34:36. A little slower than I would have liked but because of the cold, cold winter not much training was done until almost the middle of April. Being away almost the whole of March did not help either. Although I did do some treadmill running and walking onboard the ship.
OH3 water station for the Marathon for the same event.
Training for the upcoming Army 5K race on the 22nd of September. I want to get my time down to closer to 30 minutes. Would be overjoyed to get it below that level.
I have been posting silliness pretty regularly on Facebook.
That seems to be it for now. I am going to keep my fingers crossed to try and keep this thing more up to date.
Watch for an update about the March Cruise.
Below are three of my favourite tomatoes.
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