March 19, 2019
Spider webs are showing up all over the place, so the return of flying insects is underway. I mainly see little fruit fly sized gnats. The flowers that have bloomed are the tiniest of blue, pink and white. The insects and flowers are compatible in size. The temperature is rising and weeds are going gang busters. I had forgotten how fast they can grow in the heat. The lettuce and spinach in the greenhouse is starting to take off and I need to keep the door open to keep them from over heating..
Birds will hop down the aisle unless I block the doorway with some wire. It only has be 18" tall and they won't hop over it so l can just leave it in place and step over it. My transplants needed water already even though it's barely stopped raining. Soil can dry out quickly in the heat when there is a constant slight breeze. They didn't really NEED water, I just like filling up the little motes around them with my watering can. It makes me feel like I'm actually contributing to their success even though they're doing fine on their own..
March 20, 2019
Birds continue to eat the carrot slices leading into my rabbit trap. They are now cleaning them out of the trap too. I've switched to lettuce leaves and they are leaving them alone. It's funny how birds will eat lettuce when it's standing up and growing, but not when it's laying on the ground. They are eating the Kohlrabi leaves now that the rats and rabbits are gone, and have eaten to the ground the swiss chard that didn't get covered. I wish they would start eating the weeds..
In a perfect world spring weeds would be birds first choice for nutrition. Slugs are starting to wake up now that the temperature is rising. They should be eating the weeds also, but no, they will sniff out any non native plants to satisfy their palettes. Sow bugs also got along just fine until I planted a garden. Now they crave my tender veggies like a kid craves sweets..
March 21, 2019
As gardeners we are facilitators in the processes of creating and sustaining life. Sometimes we have to destroy it. I discovered a patch of burmuda grass that was too daunting a task. It's runners required me to dig up evey inch of soil, down eight inches, in a ten foot diameter, among the roots of an Aster bush. I sprayed Round Up on it and covered with a sheet of plastic because rain was predicted..
I had no other options. It would continue to spread. Killing the grass was no problem but the thought of a toxic chemical in the ground wrecking havoc with the microbial environment bothers me maybe more than it should. How long will that soil be different from the healthily ballanced soil surrounding it? Are microbes really that important of an organism? Does a small change we make here affect the surrounding environment? Are we actually talking about ethical issues here? What are the similarities between the vast underground world of life to the above ground connectivity of all living things?..
