Meighan's Journal

I harvested two perfect ripe tomatoes from my ‘Stupice’ tomato plant last weekend. These are the first tomatoes that are ripe in my garden. To honour the first tomatoes of 2008, I made a reconstructed tomato salad. To make this salad I sliced each tomato into four slices, then put them back together, adding in a layer of fresh mozzarella cheese, course sea salt, olive oil and african blue basil, garnishing the top with mini globe basil, and finishing with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I probably should have made a reduction with the balsamic, would have looked better!! Sure tasted good though! Ate the salad out on the patio with all of the flowers, it was lovely. I love summer!!

I harvested two perfect ripe tomatoes from my ‘Stupice’ tomato plant yesterday. These are the first tomatoes that are ripe in my garden. To honour the first tomatoes of 2008, I made a reconstructed tomato salad. To make this salad I sliced each tomato into four slices, then put them back together, adding in a layer of fresh mozzarella cheese, course sea salt, olive oil and african blue basil, garnishing the top with mini globe basil, and finishing with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. I probably should have made a reduction with the balsamic, would have looked better!! Sure tasted good! Ate the salad out on the patio with all of the flowers, it was lovely. I love summer!!

We had a HUGE windstorm yesterday, came out of no where! The temperature dropped and the wind picked up in huge gusts which shook the trees and rattled the potted plants. Many of the container plants were blown over, and my patio umbrella flew away (it was safely recovered). When I arrived home from work the ground surrounding the cherry tree was strewn with cherries. This was a bonus, because about 95% of the cherries in the tree are too high up for me to reach. I collected the non-damaged ones and also harvested a handful of raspberries to make these “cherries and berries” still life photos.

I think by now everyone is aware of the issues around Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder. In many parts of the world Honey Bees have declined by over half their population in just the last year alone. What you may not be aware of though is that other pollinators are under threat as well – everything from pesticide use to monoculture and habitat destruction all effect the little animals that pollinate our food crops, flowers and native plants. You can help by avoiding the use of pesticides, planting flowers to attract pollinators and creating habitat for these insects to nest.

If you live in Canada and you are interested in collecting data about pollinators, you can sign up with Pollination Canada, download their Observer’s Manual and then submit your data online.

By observing pollinators in gardens, local parks, along country roads, basically anywhere flowers are growing, and then sending in these observations, Pollination Canada participants help scientists to better understand the crucial relationships between pollinators, ecosystems, plant diversity, and human activity. This information is needed now, so that steps can be taken to preserve pollinator populations.

My sugar snap peas are starting to produce! I get a good couple handfuls every day. They are delicioussss! Last night I added them to a Pasta Pimavera that I made, they were great in that, along with some farmer market local baby summer squash and local hot house peppers.

My Corsican Mint (Mentha requienii) is flowering! Tiny little purple flowers. I was checking on it the other day, and when I first glanced at it I wondered what had fallen down all over the lush green leaves… then I looked closer and saw they were tiny little flowers! So pretty!

Corsican Mint is interesting because it’s the mint that is used to make the liqueur Crème de menthe. It is very fragrant, just touching it lightly will leave your hand smelling strongly of mint. It makes great mint sauce.

I have nicknamed this plant “Mini Mint”.

This morning I was whining to my friend Jen about how my greenhouse has been taken over by aphids, and she asked why I hadn’t used biological insect control yet. The only reason was because last time I tried to buy some ladybugs, the store was sold out. So, I called around and found that GardenWorks had them, so I went after work and got some. I got a bag of 250 for $9.99 (Bug Lady Brand), I had a points credit at this store so I got $5 off. I don’t even want to know how much I’ve spend there in order to get a points credit!

They keep the ladybugs in a cooler so that they aren’t active. As soon as they came out of the cooler they started crawling up the sides of the bag and you could see them through the clear plastic window on the back of the bag.

As soon as I got home I ran to the greenhouse to let my new little friends free. I sprayed down all the plants with the sprinkler hose first, because on the ladybug bag it said to mist the plants down. Then I opened the bag and let them all run out. I put them around on all the plants, with the majority of them on my peppers and eggplants which have the most aphids.

I soon discovered why the instructions said to mist the flowers, the little ladybugs started drinking from the water droplets, they must be thirsty. I left them be in the greenhouse and went about in the yard watering some other plants. When I returned to the greenhouse I saw a wonderful sight, the ladybugs were chowing down on aphids!

The fruit on my volunteer raspberry bush are starting to ripen! I have to thank the honey bees for this, as they were the major pollinators of this bush. When it was blooming it was just covered in honey bees, which was a very nice sight to see since honey bees are sadly becoming quite rare.