July 10, 2019
The snapdragons are only coming up along the pea trellis. I think this means I was over zealous with the hula hoe. I remember seeing sprouts that looked like broccoli, but knew they couldn't be, so I whacked them off. They might have been snapdragons, but I'll never know. I could blame the weed eater because it tends to make you less selective in what you cut down but I guess the ultimate responsibility lies with the operator. The mint is at it's flowering stage and the bees love it..
I must not have cut it back at it's seed stage last year because it's now everywhere. I also have weeds that look like miniature Shasta daisies that I'm allowing to grow because color in the garden is in short supply this year. It's also the first year that I've really appreciated the Creeping Jenny flowers because I've got it under control. Using cabbage leaves, layered like shingles, and not letting them dry out and blow away, has stopped it's progress, and I've actually begun retaking ground that was lost to it's progress..
July 11, 2019
Picked corn, beans, zucchini and tomatoes yesterday. The day I live for. I don't want the watermelons getting bigger because that means I'll have to pick them and it signals the beginning of the end of summer. It's time to plant another row of beets. You can plant them all summer long. They don't require much diligence because they remain tender in the ground without you having to pick them at their peak. A one inch beet is not less tasty than a two inch one..
Third planting of bush beans is in, and sixth planting of corn. The burmuda onions all have seed pods even though I bent over the stalks when they started to form. All the stalks just straitened up and flowered. Burmuda's have an attitude. They are refusing to fall over and die so I may have to harvest them early if I want a seventh corn patch..
July 12, 2019
I guess it's about time to have a conversation with my Early Girl tomato plant. She keeps growing long, lavish vines and is just too fabulous to consider ripening fruit. If I can convince her that red tomatoes, like earrings, would enhance her beauty, she might comply out of vanity. The bush tomato squatted right down and started putting out fruit like a chicken lays eggs. She's not as beautiful as my tall, full bodied inditerminate girl, but she gets the job done. Adding a little stress to a neglectful tomato plant can hasten the onset of fruit ripening because it wakes up from it's summer slumbers and realizes if it doesn't set fruit it will be in discord with nature's purposes..
I can't cut back the water because it's too close to a melon mound, but trimming some roots is easy. One year I just jumped on a shovel about 18" away from the main stem, sunk the shovel to the hilt, and leaned back until I heard roots pop. Within a couple of weeks fruit was ripening. Every time I walked by I would shake the tomato tower to remind her what's up..
