I Can't Believe How Many Kale Seeds

Bob Bauer

August 21, 2017 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 2 minutes

August 21, 2017

I can't believe how many kale seeds have germinated in the area that I let them go to seed. It looks like purple ground cover. I think I'll just thin them and grow a kale patch. It might be a little messy but hey, this from a guy who uses garden waste as mulch. I got beets and corn planted. The beets will mature in 59 days and the corn in 62..

All the growing a corn plant has to do, with all the different types of cells, stalks, leaves, pollen, tassels, cobs, silks, kernals, and the time they all take to mature, and it takes only 3 days longer than beets. Beets are a round red ball. Are they even trying. Radishes only take 22 days. What's the hold up?..

August 22, 2017

The smoke from the surrounding wildfires is keeping our valley 10ÃÂ° cooler. The artichokes love it. They do well on the coast where it's foggy a lot. I've cut my watering way back because the soil is staying moist for days at a time. All the crucifers respond well to the overcast, reminding me that they prefer cooler temperatures. They tolerate the heat, but like me, perform best when temperatures are in the 70's..

The corn has slowed it's ripening process. The hotter it gets the faster they grow. The kale I planted to overwinter needs picking already. They grew faster than I anticipated. I may be glad for the back up kale patch, which may have a better chance of surviving the freezes..

August 23, 2017

Every morning I've been taking a huge grasshopper out of the greenhouse and letting it go in the garden. The transplants in the greenhouse are looking less chewed upon now. I'm not naive enough to think grasshoppers eat only grass, but I was unaware that we are garden adversaries. Grasshoppers have a special place in my memory because as a young one I could go to the river with just a fishing pole, and come back with a stringer of trout. Fish always hit on grasshoppers. If you're quick to set the hook you can spend more time catching grasshopper bait in the dusty pathways than you spend waiting for a fish to bite..

A fisherman's friend indeed. I still enjoy seeing them. They can snack a little in my garden. I'll grow extra..

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