June Garden Rescue & Lessons Learned | Battling an Ant Invasion

It's been three weeks since last. Flowers are finally blooming and there's much awaited gardening to attend to. From fixing up an old neglected flowerbed to setting up some cabbage protection and dealing with uninvited guests in the kitchen garden, today is nothing but action-packed. The garden has exploded, much thanks to the tremendous amount of rain we've had and still have. There's a storm passing through this weekend so I need to work quickly. We'll start in the kitchen garden where things are looking promising and are even ready for harvest. The spinach, pak choy and radishes are good to go. But before we can get to that, I've been surprised to find a colony of ants has set up camp in my raised bed. I don't want to use any pesticides so Chris and I are just going to dig them and all their eggs out of the raised bed. I have no idea how to deal with this in an environmentally friendly way so if you do, please share in the comments. Another pest I've had issues with is a cabbage moth. I've never been able to harvest any brassicas because it has demolished them all. So I've decided to try these raised plant covers to see if they can be of any help. They let UV light and rain pass through them so your plants get what they need to grow. I found this kit in the gardening section of a local shop. The only thing you need is a screwdriver to get the job done and a little bit of patience. Now the scaffold is finally up but I'm just going to harvest some pak choy before popping the cover on. It turns out you need to be two people to put the cover on. I don't think you can do it on your own unless you have the world's longest arms. I'm honestly a bit skeptical that this is going to work thanks to the large gaps but we'll see. Let's head to the kitchen with this veg before getting on with the next assignment. If you watched the previous episode you would have seen when Chris and I, or mainly Chris, de-weeded a corner in the garden so that I can make a flower patch. Let's see if any seedlings have popped up since last. Hmm not sure if these are weeds or flower babies from seeds I've sown but they'll be joined by these lanky seedlings. Honestly I'm so embarrassed to show you but this is the reality when you don't have a greenhouse and you grow seedlings on your apartment floor in the city. I'm hoping nature will whack them into shape and beef them up a some support that they can lean on. I'll be tying string between these bamboo sticks so that the leggy cosmos can rest between the string. I tried a technique that went viral last year which is sowing seeds in a soil roll. I used fiber cloth but the roots of the plants have grown through it and gotten stuck to it. As you can see it's made it difficult to remove them and several seedlings have unfortunately gone to waste. I think this would have worked better if I transplanted the seedlings a few weeks ago but it was still too cold to do so. The cosmos and snapdragons are now in place. A bit comically sad looking but let's carry on we have more to do. This empty plant box stands in shade all day so I've decided to risk putting shade loving perennials in it with hope that they will survive the winter. Astilbe, purple loosestrife and geraniums and guanum will inhabit this raised bed. Once I've decided where I want them to be placed I make sure to give them a gentle push to mark their spot in the soil. Back in Stockholm I had perennials on my shady balcony that have survived the winter in small pots and containers so I'm hoping these will fare well here. After securing the plants with soil I give them a good water. Aren't the geraniums so cute? I'm curious to see how the purple loosestrife will look. I've never dealt with that perennial before. There's no time to waste so let's move on to the next project which is this neglected flower bed. The yellow loosestrife has taken over so I'm going to uproot several of them and replace them with delphiniums I've grown at home from seed. Last year I took seeds from a beautiful delphinium guanivere that I also happened to grow from seed. I hope the seedlings this year will turn out like their parents but because guanivere is a hybrid it is likely the offspring can pop up in any random color. For the first time ever I managed to grow iris from seeds that I took from the plant in this bed. Because the seedling looks like grass I have to clearly mark that it's not. I've made a digital sketch of how I want this bed to look and I've taken into consideration what already is planted here. Most flowers are yet to come, some I hope to take cuttings from in the garden to save money. I have however purchased a couple of daylilies to accompany the one that already lives here. These are being planted out now. The plan is to extend the flower bed to where Fofi cuts the grass and make a border around the bed to stop grass from taking over. That however will have to wait until the next time we come up to the cottage. In the meantime let's hope these seedlings can withstand the elements and grow into their full potential. Now to the last task for today, planting out veggie seedlings into the brightest place in the garden. This tiny greenhouse has served tomatoes in the past but this year it's going to house paprikas I've grown at home. First let's do some tidying up and remove some weeds. Yes, the lupine is invasive here in Sweden so it's a goner. Let's see if they'll fit. A bit tight but it works. Off for the pots and into the soil they go. Because this spot has sun all day it should work well for these leggy cucumbers. I was afraid they wouldn't fit in the car but thankfully they did. There's loads of blooms and even mini cucumbers already so I'm hoping they can reach their full potential outside. We've had cucumbers growing in these pots and in this exact spot for the past two years. This resulted in us not needing to buy a single cucumber until late September. I'm hoping the same will apply to this year. The larger the pot the better, in my opinion anyway. Cucumbers are thirsty plants and these pots house at least 20 liters of soil which means they don't need topping up with water so often. The biggest mistake is being afraid of over watering. I give them about 10 liters and it's never been a problem for me to let them stand a little wet. How long you can go between watering however will depend on weather conditions. But whatever you do, don't do what I did. It's now the 21st of June and the kitchen garden is looking fab. The watering system has obviously worked and the rocket has survived the ant invasion. Things however are not looking as promising around the corner. This is what happens when you don't water your cucumbers for two weeks. Ugh, it's so bad. But let's just pause here for a second. These fellas have obviously seen their last days and have gone to cucumber heaven. But what about these two? They might make it. What do you think? With some TLC there's still hope for them right? It's in times like these that I like to quote the late and talented Aaliyah. If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again. So let's hope for the best and in the meantime focus on these beautiful flowers and how amazing this border is looking in its fourth year in the making. One failure does not mean you have a brown thumb. An update is soon to come and until then, happy gardening.