Green (sometimes) Thumb -Year Two
It’s been hot and dry in our neck of the woods this year. We have been declared in a Level 2 drought. This isn’t good for all sorts of reasons but there are some benefits-fewer mosquitoes, not much for lightning and thunder (not enough humidity to muster up a decent boomer), reduced e.coli counts for beach swimming-thought I’d throw that one in.
Crop Report
Dry as it’s been, our garden, or maybe it’s the gardeners, is showing much improvement over last year (so far). Yes we’ve invested in all manner of things and we know more than we did last year. We declare (to ourselves) that we have moved from the bottom rung of community gardeners to possibly mid-range. One early morning last week I spent a glorious few hours-no mosquitoes-pulling weeds, talking to the plants, chastising whatever varmint is chewing on the yellow beets and thoroughly enjoying just being. It was a morning glory-ous.
Evidence about dirt and happiness
There is some evidence that digging in the dirt..and breathing it in-maybe ingesting some is good for your health. Growing up my Mom would bring us lunch out to the field. We’d eat sandwiches with our very dirty hands (from hours of operating a tractor with no cab-there might be some grease in there too). You could literally see the dirt from your hands transfer to the homemade bread and then into your mouth. Mom used to say “everybody’s got to eat a pound of dirt a year”. We secretly thought we ate 2 pounds a year to make up for the city kids who likely didn’t eat any.
Good News and Not So Good News
Good news-two rather robust looking pumpkins. Bad news-some nefarious insect or blight is trying to suck the life out of the plant. Any idea what that might be or what we can do about it?
Good news-potato plants very big. Bad news-potato bugs plus some sort of insect or blight is turning leaves brown and causing them to curl up-any idea what that might be? Or what we can do about it?
Bounty
We are enjoying a much improved bounty this year, so far. Lettuce, radishes, swiss chard, new beets, patty pan squash and just today-baby potatoes!
We held a breakfast come and go at the “farm” yesterday and we were proud to show people our gardening efforts. Those who attended were likely hoping that once they showed up maybe we’d quit talking about the garden and they’d get some peace and quiet (or maybe a butternut squash come harvest time). It was a pleasure to have people drop by.
Barb's True Stories 
Hi Barbie,
I assume you are organic so no chemicals. you can try water and soap in a sprayer for the bugs, the blights, I have no idea.
Garth
Yes to being organic and I did one spray with insecticidal soap but think I need to keep at it to see if there’s any impact.
By the way your garden looks awesome, much better than ours. We are having a funny weather year out here.
Garth
Our garden is really quite a marvel to us this year considering the very lack lustre display we had last year. Weather is a big deal and I know your weather…well we could use some of your water and you could have used some of our heat. No amount of talent at gardening can compete with weather fluctuations.
I think you are absolutely right about eating dirt, I ate lots of it when I was younger, it didn’t seem to hurt me any (or maybe it did!!!!)
Garth
I would suggest the dirt we ingested protected us more than anything else. The exposure kept our systems on alert. However the lack of protection from some of the chemicals we used in farming-well that’s another story.
Sounds like your farm and ours were about the same. Love the come and go breakfast at your garden. Neat idea. Glad it is yielding and looking so good. You work hard and have something to show for it.
Ours is about done. Ate the last of the corn on the cob; rest is in the freezer, some carrots left. Squash and zucchini done. Cucs just for eating now. Tomatoes by the pail full every second day are being canned and juiced. Wish I knew how to make thicker juice for cooking. Tomorrow we’ll bring most of the watermelon home. We grow the old fashioned kind with seeds and flavour. Ella would have loved them. You two could have had a spitting for distance competition
I am always surprised by how much earlier things are in Ukraine. You are very good gardeners and very industrious. I am no help on thicker juice short of simmering it longer.
How large is your garden? It must be huge. Ours is 50′ by 20′.
As far as a spitting for distance competition,I would have gladly participated knowing full well that anything Ella put her mind to do, I might as well ask for the second place ribbon before the whole thing starts.
Always great to hear from you.
Re thicker tomato juice, Tanya says the same though there is a machine(?) one can buy. I dunno.
Our garden is 25 meters by 25 meters I think or maybe 25 x more than 25. Not sure. A great deal of it is planted to vines which are hoed once and then left to their own devices. We are now bringing in watermelon, cantaloupe and a few muskmelons by the wheel barrow full. We supply the kids with all they can eat. I shudder to think what we would have grown if it had rained.
Your bounty is impressive. Do you add organic matter (or “amend the soil” as serious gardeners call it) every year? We did this spring and the results are outstanding compared to last year. I was out to a meeting today-riding my bike and thought I should stop at the “farm” as hadn’t been there since Sunday. The squash were huge so I picked them and loaded them into my panniers. I think I heard nefarious growling coming from the panniers as I rode home. Weighed them when here-12.5 pounds. No wonder I just about tipped over.
We worked a couple truckloads of well rotted horse manure (it was literally topsoil) into the garden last fall. We need a great deal more as the ground is like the fields south of Regina – heavy black clay. And Tanya says the garden is 25 m wide by 35 m long.
Wow, you really did amend the soil and by the pictures and the blogs that speak of your bounty it was worth every shovelful. You have a large garden.