Tag: Gardening

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.