July 05, 2018
I've been reminded how important it is to add lime to your garden, especially if you mulch with leaves, shavings, chips, bark or any wood products. They tend to make your soil more acidic as they decompose. I used to lime my melon and squash hills but could detect no significant difference so I quit. Now I'm told that it is beneficial for tomatoes and peppers to make sure there is enough calcium available to them..
The old saying "Find something you love to do and never work another day in your life" is not true, because coasting through a hobby does not force you to manipulate the bottom line. I don't always want to follow the science behind producing bountiful harvests of marketable vegetables. When the restfulness is gone from the garden, replaced with the neccessity of making a profit, the joy departs too..
July 06, 2018
The blackbirds that show up every year in the garden to chase away the plant eating birds have built one of their nests within view of my favorite sitting spot. I've watched them bring in dried grass for awhile and assumed they were building a nest. They work in pairs with one sometimes acting like a lookout. Then they began flying in and out with empty beaks and I guessed they were feeding the babies regurgitated food..
Now they are bringing in grasshoppers in their beaks and leaving with round, white balls. It seems they are cleaning out the nest by removing the bird droppings of the babies. This makes a lot of sense because having baby bird droppings around the base of the nest is a sure sign to the prediters that an easy meal is just overhead..
July 07, 2018
I got to pick green beans yesterday. There weren't enough for the two of us so the cook put them in a shrimp stir fry. They were accompanied by fresh garden grown peas, zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, broccolini, onions and garlic. Best stir fry ever. The second planting of cauliflower did not need shading and is producing nice 6' heads..
The fall planting of cauliflower will be going in next week, so it's going to be the longest continuous crop in the garden this year, except for beets which will overwinter. The first planting of cauliflower was on December 25th and they got transplanted out 6 weeks later. The fall planting will be in the ground until it freezes. I've found that the stir fries are the ones that someone else makes..
