May 19, 2017
It only took the first few warm days of Spring for the overwintered Swiss chard to go ahead and bolt. We've had a plentiful harvest this year because of the mini greenhouses and garden cats so I don't begrudge them their fling. The stalks got four feet tall so I cut them off and used them for mulch around an artichoke plant. They look good if you lay them down like shingles so that they make a uniform line. I liked it so much that I used some bolted kale bushes around the pumpkin. They had to be broken into smaller pieces in order to be layered..
It wasn't a very wide layer so I gathered a bunch of Creeping Jenny and circled the kale with it. Then I noticed that there was 8" of bare soil around the stem so I went and got some straw and filled in the circle. Now I have a pumpkin in the middle of a bulls eye. Looks artistic. Like someone's been playing with the weeds..
May 20, 2017
I found a 6" cauliflower in the cauliflower patch today. I usually plant cauliflower in rows, but I had an open football shaped area at the time, and filled the whole area. They seem to like the proximity of their neighbors because they are all doing well. I think they shade the soil under each other and block the wind. I grasped the whole plant with both hands, twisted and pulled, and it broke off at ground level. Then I cut off the head and put the leaves back down over the stem, because the ground was moist..
The ground will stay shaded and the plants on either side will flourish. Cauliflower thrives with daily watering once the heads start to form. I oblige because I don't care if it gets deep rooted or not. As soon as a head is formed, out it comes. Broccoli, on the other hand, stays in the ground for a month after the main head is harvested, so it's more convenient for me if they are deeper rooted..
May 21, 2017
I found the cutest little bunny rabbit in the greenhouse this morning. There is enough lettuce and spinach in there to feed him for a month so he had to go. It reminded me of how many critters I've had to contend with to grow some crops. My six foot high chicken wire fence, with a strand of wire a foot above it, seems to only be able to keep out the deer. I saw six turkeys hunkered down in the shade of an oak tree by the barn today, so I may be in for some major garden rototilling real soon..
The cats don't seem to scare them away, probably because cats are smart enough to stay away from turkeys. A turkey and cat fight would be a terrible thing to see. Our Aussie caught a turkey once. He didn't know what to do with it so he just carried it around âÂÂby the neck looking wobegon..
