July 13, it was the hail, I swears!

Whoa so much for keeping this updated! It's been a struggle and I'm super frustrated that I don't have a BIG SUNNY SPOT for my dingdang garden.

GRAGH.

But it's going okay, and I'll have some harvestin' to do this late summer/fall. Biggest disappointment so far: LOST MY MONTREAL MELONS. I even waited two weeks after the last frost date. Planted them and then whammo, a week of cold gross drizzle. Transplants did not take well. I also almost lost my pumpkins. I say almost because there is still one plant wheezing through. WONDER IF I'LL GET A PUMPKIN.

Anyway, here are some rainy day, post freakish hailstorm garden pics.

golf ball sized and bigger!! this is my excuse for my crappy garden!

cilantro is growing enthusiastically, as if to say "it's not so bad! we're fiiiinnne!"

sage too! thanks guys.

basil, not so much

eggplants and peppers are finally recovering from transplant setback. might actually get some stuff!

eggplants got slightly shredded from the hail...

tomatoes lost a couple branches to the hail, but are so far looking good. my leggy little seedlings have almost totally caught up to our neighbours' greenhouse ones, so... 

this little dude decided to start makin babies while still in the house. I decided to let it go, just to see how much it would affect the plant. as you can see, it is pouring all of it's feeble energy into those t'maters. one of them got knocked off by hail. still, those two tomatoes is more than I got from all my plants last year... sigh that makes me feel like such a sucky gardener...

after my extreme hardy cucumber experience last year, I was like, "transplanting? noooo problem. these dudes will be fiiinne," and they were like, "we die now." they were organic, maybe that explains it? so I ran and got some GMO ones because I'm determined to get some goddamn cukes. this is them. they have until early august to please me.

me: "how y'doin pumpkin plant?" pumpkin plant: "GASP WHEEEEZE COUGH COUGH." me: "well okay then, keep up the good work!" the photo is blurry because I couldn't stomach looking for too long.

some plucky summer squash and dill. keepin the dream alive.

and this, which punctuates my failures as a gardener. guess what? veggie plants HATE THE SHADE. what we have here are some silently weeping carrots, bad-attitude lettuces, suicidal beets, and 'not so much angry, just extremely disappointed' peas. the only guys who are happy are the garlic. I should have planted all garlic.

So there it is. Next year I will have learned a thing or two. Mainly that gardening in this zone in the city is really freaking frustrating.

June 7, aka: what the effing crap?

Oh weather, you really don't care, do you? You could've just sent along some nice light rain and been done with it, but noooooooo. You had to up it with freezing nights and all-day sporadic hail. Sigh sigh. Let's work through this and try to move on... even though I know you actually don't care at all. I wish I knew how to quit you.


Hail on and off all day. Hmph.





Tomatoes are priority, so they got the best covers (milk jugs). We missed one on the first cold night so there's one that looks a little unhappy (but alive). They all survived though. Phew!


The pepper plant in the middle of the planter is some kind of weather-immune super-plant. We didn't cover it at all, and it took the hail like the freaking Terminator. I double-checked to see if it was a real plant and not some sort of cyborg, and it's real. Just invincible.


The pumpkin held on like troopers. In my blind love for the tomato plants, I didn't think to cover anything else, so these guys came out of it sputtering and whimpering, but generally okay.


The zucchini were feeling equally abandoned, but I think they're stronger for it, you know? Had to do a bit of pinching on the really ravaged leaves, but after a good pep-talk on "sucking it up" and "powering through" they seem okay.


Not sure about the cucumbers though. They weren't altogether happy to begin with, so I wouldn't be all too surprised if they started up a strike of some kind. I really should have covered them.


The hail didn't touch the peas and beans, so they don't know what everyone is whining about.


And of course, my spoiled little watermelons in the sunroom are completely oblivious to the drama and carnage that unfolded outside. They're growing, albeit kind of wussily... they could use a little weather slamdancing. Might move them outside in July.

All told, it looks like zero casualties. We lost a few extremities and the trauma may linger for a week or so, but we're keepin' it together. Hopefully this June starts looking a little less like March soon.

Oh and also, the pumpkin and squash water/drainage problem has been resolved and they WERE all looking cheery (before the hail). So yay! And nay!