July 24, 2017
I've gotten tired of picking broccolini, and I need the room for my cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprout starts, so out they went. It's not crop rotation because cruciferous plants should not be planted in the same spot for two years. My rows get an 18" wide by 2" thick covering of fine compost three to four times a year so the soil I'm planting in is always changing. Every time I overhead water microbes and micronutrients flow down through the soil, replenishing the pathogen fighters..
One day I may discover I'm wrong but it's been working for twenty years. The broccoli bushes were three feet tall with woody textured stems so they would take forever to decompose. I drug them down to the creek where all our landscape trimmings go, because I don't care if the horses get gas..
July 25, 2017
The peppers and tomatoes are ripening. The garlic and onions are cured. It's time to make salsa. There are so many recipes available on line that you could make a different batch for every week. The less spicy it is the more inclined you are to eat it by the spoonful though, so go lightly on the hot peppers. The zucchini are putting out some huge fruit..
It's time for zucchini bread too. We all love it but that's because it's more like cake. We put so much sugar in it that it's not really bread anymore. I think we just call it bread so we can feel free to believe it's a healthy choice. Try putting a slice of bologna between two slices of zucchini bread and then tell me it's not cake..
July 27, 2017
The watermelons are starting to throw some long shadows, it might be time to cut back on the water. When the plants start to sense the end of the growing season, by getting less water, they begin turning the carbohydrates in the melon to sugars. That's why you get sweeter melon. When tomato plants start getting less water they speed up the ripening of the fruit, preparing to reseed themselves. I looked back in my journal to see when the watermelons got planted and discovered I don't know..
The season got off to such a rough start that I can't tell because I only kept track of plantings, not dyings. The easiest way for me to reduce their water is to continue my normal watering cycle, but when I get to the watermelons, I pull the orbital sprinkle back away from the mound and water only half of it. When the little curly pig tail c!osest to the melon turns brown the melon is ripe..
