Today I started out by pulling the dwarf tomatoes and grass and left the lettuce stems/seeds. Then I went back and stripped the lettuce of any seeds and dropped to the ground, raked and watered. Now my fingers are crossed that some of it germinates. Put a little bit of cilantro at the end of the row.
I dug up some plants for Natalie to send on Monday. And a few for my new flower bed at the front of my house.
Watered the broccoli, etc. and planted a few cauliflower seeds where there were bare spots and a few turnips at the end of the row.
Then I started the root row. Turnips, parsnips, carrots, beets, more parsnips, more cilantro, more carrots and then an assortment of leaf lettuce. Today is a root day so I am hoping and praying we get a few veggies from these this time. I think I will put row cover on after they germinate. Maybe even sprinkle some shredded straw down too.
Still only one French Gold bean germinated in the GH. I don't think the others are going to germinate. I brought home the tub of veggie seeds and I bought a new variety of pole beans I may replant with them.
I am very tired now but hopefully tomorrow we can get the few plants I brought home planted and the bed mulched along with the regular chores like laundry.
So it started storming around 4:00 am and continues a gentle rain so there won't be any tilling of the garden today. Matt doesn't feel very well anyway so it's probably for the best.
Tomorrow and Friday are root days so I really would like to get the rest of the fall root vegetables planted. It has been tremendously hard to follow the moon planting guide this year but root vegetables are the one thing I really try to do according to it.
Last weekend (Labor Day weekend) I planted replacement broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts plants. The first ones were decimated by the guineas, ornery buggars! I not only planted and watered, but I also mulched and put in hoops and row covers and soaker hose right away.
The row cover did blow off on Monday or so and Matt replaced it so I ended up putting the bamboo clips on the hoops and watering everything well.
On Sunday I planted the yellow pole beans I ordered from Renee's Seeds that Rita recommended. Today there was one seed germinated! I am anxious to see if they turn out and if we like them.
Today I planted snow peas, Oregon Giant. Miranda did help. I soaked the seeds last night and mulched with grass right away. The guineas also ate the ones I planted earlier. Funny thing is, I thought cutworms got them all until Matt told me it was the guineas. Should have known, I caught them eating tomatoes this year and my raspberries! They're supposed to eat the bugs on the plants, not the plants and fruit!!!
I watered the wax beans I had planted in the garden about a month ago and had row cover on but the bean beetles got to anyway. I had removed the cover in disgust and was ready to call them a waste but today they were loaded with blossoms. I did see one beetle and a few eggs that I squished so they may still not make it but it would be a bonus if we got a few meals from them.
I raked the row for a new batch of strawberries to be planted later this month and a row for lettuce and root vegetables, although I am getting disgusted with root vegetables this year too. Mice eating the beets, anything that is above ground and the carrots planted earlty spring not even as thick as a pencil. Not sure what is going on, if they need fertilizing or what.
Oh, I broke off two pieces of the Bolseno tomato plant in the GH and planted them and watered them well. Maybe I'll have tomato plants through the winter if I provide light and some heat? There are some volunteer tomato plants in the garden I may pot up as well. If I'm gonna have a light on I may as well take advantage of it! LOL!
Tomorrow I plan on planting the row I got ready today. I would like to also cut zinna heads for seed collecting then I can pull the plants, or most of the plants.
The zucchini I planted late is starting to produce but there are squash bugs. I have been squishing them by hand as I see them. I'll get enough for us to eat anyway. The cukes don't look like they'll amount to much of anything, but I'm really not doing anything for them, like watering or fertilizing.
There are really a lot of flowers still in blossom in the garden, especially zinnias and celosia. I should try and take a picture tomorrow. I have a lot of volunteer zinnias that are very vivid colors.
I think I'll sit down with Matt and go over a plan for doing market next year but scaling back.
Maybe it's the August heat. Seems like once a year I feel like throwing in the towel and plowing everything under. Today was one of those days.
I picked as many bean beetles off the sticks of beans as I could. I really should have just pulled them out. I actually did later, you know, when you're getting tired and you see how much more there is to do? So half the row got plucked, half pulled up. Then I put the row cover on. But I also had to pluck from the beans that I had under row cover from the get go. It's so depressing.
And I don't know how I don't have anything to take to market. I tried so hard to do succession plantings. And I did. But like with the beans, they just aren't making it. Little rascals, probably mice, are knawing at the beets. Anything above the ground is getting chewed. And the carrots just don't seem to be growing. The melons all rotted and the tomatoes were a bust! Actually, in all fairness, we did have a few nice tomatoes, but very few for all the plants we had.
And it feels like all I hear is negative about being able to keep up with it. I KNOW I AM NOT KEEPING UP but I'm doing the best I can and also doing the best I can to NOT let it stress me out. So I planted a few peas but I did not plant the root veggies because I was in a "I'm not planting anything else" mood. And I told David we're NOT going to market this next Saturday. In fact, we're through for the year. Now, when the sweet potatoes are ready and the broccoli starts coming in I may change my mind.
But I am so done with cut flowers! Gonna let some go to seed to collect. I may cut some for me to bring in but of course there are way too many for me to do them all. I should cut and take to the nursing home but I just don't have the energy/time for that even!
And there is so much clean up needed.
Who knows, maybe next weekend I'll feel better about it all. Just not today.
Today was so hot that after I picked the peppers, okra and eggplant I couldn't stand the heat so I went home. We came back to the farm around 5:30 pm and it had cooled off with a nice breeze so I got all the broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts transplanted.
here's today's harvest:
