While locating seedlings for the next plot, I could not find the zucchini. I planted yellow and green, then realized they didn’t germinate and I pulled them from the greenhouse. After stewing for a while, I planted more of the same old seeds and made a special order for new ones. Luckily, there is enough recovery time. When the seeds arrive, they will go directly into the ground. In the unlikely event the old seeds germinate, they will also go into the ground.
This week was hit or miss. Most of Wednesday was devoted to a trip to Des Moines. Friday we took care of early voting since I will be a poll worker all day on election day and we wouldn’t be able to vote together. Saturday morning I woke to the sound of rain, which continued until predawn light. We need rain. Sunday morning it rained again, this time, a thunder storm. It rained again Monday morning. Garden work continued in the gaps between these events. Mostly it was in the garage and greenhouse.
Some of the kale leaves were large enough to harvest. It made a five-gallon bucket full. Half went into the freezer, and half will be for Taco Tuesday dinner next week. The first fresh kale is always the best. Everything in the cruciferous vegetable plot is growing and—fingers crossed—predators are staying away.
I planted the rest of the covered row. Although a few of the first-planted seedlings didn’t take, most did and it looks like there will be a normal production run. This year the covered row is greens and herbs. There were enough parsley seedlings in the greenhouse to harvest a cup of leaves for the kitchen and plant four of them in separate small pots for elsewhere in the garden or to move to the kitchen herb garden.
A deer stopped by the potato patch for a snack of the young leaves. After seeing the evidence, I put up a temporary fence to keep them from further dining. Only two or three tops of plants were taken by the ever present herbivore mammals.
The next plot is taking longer to prep. After designing it, specially configured ground cover was required. The main issue was finding places to let okra, zucchini, huckleberries, and tomatillos spread. There are two small patches in the shaded area where I seeded arugula, daikon and regular radishes, tatsoi Asian greens, and chard. The rest of the plot is planned for rows of green beans, sweet peppers, eggplant, and remaining sundry items. The ground cover is mostly laid, so the fencing can go back up and seedling planting begin. I hadn’t grown huckleberry before, and it has been a while since I had a good tomatillo or okra crop. Same with daikon radishes. This plot represents a lot of experimentation, and provides hope for new things.
It looks like I will run out of rolls of ground cover. I re-use what I can, but don’t want to fall short. I mail-ordered from the same supplier as last year. It should be here when I need it for the following two plots.
Despite the hit or miss nature of this week’s gardening, progress was made, and muscles got sore. This is the time gardeners live for.
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