The Pea Vines Dried Out Quickly

Bob Bauer

July 09, 2017 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

July 09, 2017

The pea vines dried out quickly in this heat and are now encircling one of my artichoke plants. The artichoke next to it is surrounded by bolted spinach plants. It looks like I've made them wreaths. All the garden waste I've used so far as mulch has dried to the same tan color..

The piles I sprinkled straw on top of look the same as the ones I didn't, so time eliminates the disharmony. I have a lot less bare ground now but keep making new dirt patches where I pull up spent plants. I'll have to break down and get a few bales of straw or I'll drive myself nuts..

July 10, 2017

Picked cucumbers and eggplants today. Thinned the third planting of beets and green beans. Shook the tomato towers hard because I think the ripening department is slacking off. Hula hoed the next corn patch. Remember that every weed laying upside down is garden mulch. Once they dry out I rake them into piles..

The ground approves because when I come back in a few days, and pick the pile up to throw in the compost pile, the ground is damp and wormy. I just end up dropping the pile back down because if I move it I feel obligated to cover the ground with mulch. I'm running out of mulch but growing tons of weeds. Sometimes the health of the soil trumps aesthetics..

July 11, 2017

Our local agricultural extension office has on schedule for us this week the planting of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beets, lettuce and peas. I don't know why they didn't include kale, mine is already up. It's a solid row of tiny leaves, which is what you get if you plant too thickly. I tend to sprinkle heavily when I have excess seeds. I removed the old kale plants today and probably distributed another billion seeds on the ground around them. I should just cover the area with compost and water it..

I could forget about all the transplanting and just thin them. I'll skip the pea planting this fall because we've got so many frozen bags full. Peas store well when frozen and I can't always tell the difference between fresh and frozen. This may be because of the culinary expertise of the talented cook, or the declining discernment of my aging pallette..

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