Gardening post 9

Gardening... is food for the soul.

Gardening with wasps... is scary!

I don't know where the heck they all came from, but we have a problem... they're eating my strawberries! :( And thinking the raspberries are all for them! Naughty naughty wasps, they're so mean! My dad even got stung! We must look into some kind of natural wasp deterrent for next summer. We've never had a wasp problem before, so I don't know what changed. Weird and annoying!!

On a bright note, the wasps couldn't interfere with my garden photography... HAH! Take that dumb bugs!!

Let me split these pictures into two groups (essentially how our garden is split in general):

1) Flowers

2) Harvest

Itty bitty zinnia.

I feel like everything this summer is itty bitty since it's been so rainy and cool.

Cornflowers/Bachelors Buttons.

If you don't know what this one is, you have no business being on my blog. ;) 

Special variety of calendula.

Fall hydrangea.

Ooh, and  what's this little pretty flower?

Oh it's the Manta.

She loves gardening (which she considers eating dirt and strawberries). 

Then she follows me around until she gets bored...and then she naps in the shade. 

Could there be a better dog? 

(Good thing Koda can't read!)

As for harvest...

These babies are like rubies waiting to be plucked.

We've been eating zucchini as it grows... 

The pumpkins have little starts, too.

Ok, let me say that this row of peas is utter craziness.

And intertwining pea spiral bits holding on to each other... cute!

And on to the main crop... Well, we're still drowning in it. 

We've probably picked about 15-20 liters already since last week...and there is no end in sight.

Missing from this picture is my dad's 3 liter bucket. These containers all held 1 kg of nectarines before they were put to this use. The furthest container holds the last of the strawberries (what we could salvage from the wasps, that is.)

Here's one of the zillion naughty wasps. 

When we first took on the allotment, there was a little raspberry patch. I remember that first year going to the garden store and my parents buying different raspberry starts... I believe the big raspberry variety is one of the ones we bought, the smaller was the original variety on the allotment. 

Um, yes, juicy, yum!

It's funny to think back to the beginning of this all. I was in high school and very uninterested in the whole place. Honestly, the raspberries were good..,but everything else was just tedious and boring.

My how people mature.

We had only the one plot, which my parents planted full of roses and peas. I think they might have had a row of beets or something, too. 

Now we have 3 of the allotments, tons of crop! 

The garden has really developed over the past 9-10 years or so... Can't believe it's already been so long!

We've been doing a lot of overhauling the past few years since I moved back to Finland...and brought a capable and willing DIY hubby with me. ;)

We've put a lot more effort into variety of crops and general esthetics...and I feel like it's just going to keep getting better.

We're ripping up the daffodil and grape hyacinth row. It's pretty overgrown with weeds once the daffs die, and hasn't really produced flowers as well as it once has. 

Hubby took the job on yesterday...and no wonder it wasn't producing!!

The soil was just clumps of bulbs like this... waaaaaay too overcrowded!

He just started tossing them in a pile... Wow, that's a crazy amount of bulbs!!

We definitely need to make another daffodil patch or find something to do with these! It'd be a shame to just throw them in compost...or maybe they would bloom in the spring on the compost? :)

Oh boy that is a lot of work.

Hubby is going to build a couple of raised boxed in beds to replant them in.

Also on the list before fall, is to re-do the wilded-out chive and garlic area (probably raised beds there too), and re-plant some of the strawberries. 

Still so much to do before fall!! I hope we get it all done!

Well, it's off to the thrift stores and flea markets for me!

Wish me luck hunting!!

 ;) 

I took some more flower pictures of neighboring garden allotments... will post soon! :)

(YAY, "vacation"!)