Cats in the Garden

Bob Bauer

July 20, 2016 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

July 19, 2016

Ya can't plant corn with cats in the garden. They see you on your knees and come over to flop on the ground in front of you for belly rubs. Might as well go somewhere else and weed. They will still flop in front of you but you can poke them with the weeder and shake weed roots at them. Soon enough a bird or butterfly will distract them. I always plant seeds in pre moistened soil..

It seems to promote germination. I also water them in by sprinkling water right over them to stir the top soil a little and move the finest soil particles down to tightly surround the seeds. Air pockets are not conducive to germination. Dry soil tends to shed water..

July 20, 2016

The artichokes that I cut back sent up new fonds and are now producing a fall crop. That was fast. The plants are only half as big as when I cut them back and the chokes are smaller. It's time to plant a fall crop of lettuce and peas. Spinach can be planted in a couple of weeks. It feels strange planting cool weather crops in the middle of summer when you' re picking corn, beans and squash..

They are called " the three sisters" not only because they are nutritionally compatible but because you can grow them all in the same patch. A couple of bean seeds planted at the base of each corn plant will help provide the corn with nitrogen and the corn will allow them to be upwardly mobile. A few squash plants in the row will amble around absorbing what light they can find. I had such a jungle that it was difficult to harvest, but I sure got a lot of produce..

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