There Were No Sow Bugs

Bob Bauer

May 02, 2018 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 2 minutes

May 02, 2018

There were no sow bugs in any of my ten cold frames this morning. I'm stoked. I think the ones I've been finding were inside when I put the frames down. There are no damaged transplants, which is a first for me. No slugs either. I feel confident now in using some of my compost to mulch around the outside of them. I'll stay back about eight inches to insure that the soil can continue to warm..

The beans are up and the wind turbines were on this morning. It was a very light frost and the fact that I had watered the whole garden yesterday evening resulted in no damage. I got tomatoes in the ground today and covered them with cloches. Even with the vents wide open there is so much moisture that I can't see the plants. Let the summer begin..

May 03, 2018

I started out keeping the compost mulch 8" away from the cold frames, but ended up banking it up against them. It was 78ÃÂ° out today and the forecast is for high 70s during the day, and mid 40s at night for the next seven days. No need to worry about the soil warming up, it's full speed ahead for this gardener. The summer transplants are getting watered twice a day now because the temperature is unseasonably warm, and they are wilting even with the ground around them being damp..

I'm sprinkling the crucifers now with an orbital sprinkler instead of using a watering can because the ground between them acts like a sponge and retains moisture for them to utilize between waterings. I feel safe putting peppers in now..

May 04, 2018

I let my kale bolt because I was done with it, and it grew four feet tall, and got covered in flowers. The honeybees swarmed it and spend all day humming around it. Knowing how beneficial it is to our pollinators to have plenty of flowers to forage in, I let it stay. Perhaps too long. The stems got covered in aphid which started falling onto my cucumber transplants..

I laid a tarp down and pushed the kale bushes gently over on to it, then I cut them off at the ground. I rolled the tarp up, aphids and all, and dragged it down to the creek. They can learn to eat blackberry vines or die. I don't care just don't come back to the garden..

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