broccoli

After our road trip of 12 days from Toronto to Vancouver we reached home on 12th June and spent some time to clean up our yard and check on some of the plants I planted a few weeks back. The broccoli were doing great and the cabbages are yet to show some productivity. The Red Russian Garlic is doing well but shows signs of stress as I didn't set up the drip irrigation timer till yesterday. Fortunately we had an extended spring with lots of rain and cool weather which didn't do much damage. Yesterday and today we spent some time planting some vegetables from the nursery and building trellis for the beans.

Broccoli

We have been having some good warm weather of late but last week's heat wave was good for the tomatoes and eggplants but not for the Broccoli. It bolted and shot up flowers. However this was only with one plant which is the senior most. The others are doing well and I hope they don't bolt!

Broccoli & Zucchini

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This year we have had the longest spring with cool weather extending into July. This is unusual with temperatures at six degrees C below normal. This is good for the brassicaceae we are growing but I suspect the hot weather vegetables like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants may be delay fruit setting. We just checked the Broccoli & Zucchini starting to form. The other day I hand pollinated the Zucchini so I expect it to form into a full sized Zucchini. Also we transplanted more tomatoes in two new raised beds beds which I'll post later in the day.

Snails feeding on my broccoli,...

Since I sowed the Brassicaceae- Cabbage, Cauliflower & Broccoli I have been checking them for snails & slugs. After last year's experience I bought Copper wire netting from Lee Valley and nailed it to the sides of the bed. Since it is expensive I tried this for only one bed. I nailed some left over wire to a side of the second bed where I sowed Broccoli. The plan was to thin them after they grew a few inches high. It's here the leaves have been eaten. 

 

 Found the culprits - two snails. I crushed some egg shells, which I have been saving for my Tomato transplants, and spread around the seedlings & covered with milk cans. Will check to see if it's effective. 
Later in the evening went to Rona & Home Depot to find diatomaceous earth. Seems they have no clue what it is and I had to explain the purpose. Both stores assured they'd procure this product. Probably I might have to check at a local nursery if the egg shells doesn't work.