Here it is July 21st and I haven’t posted a single thing since spring and this was supposed to be a gardening journal. Yesterday I transplanted the new guinea impatiens we had bought way back in June (if not may). They have not done well but then I really didn’t prepare the soil underneath them and they haven’t been fertilized. Plus it was a cool and rainy June, very unusual. Now we just had several hot days – perhaps almost 90 – and I have finally had to water. The vegetables are doing well. We had about 20 quarts of sugar snap peas from the vines that I had started under the plastic vinyl sheeting over the raised bed. Next time I will plant them in the ground with the vinyl sheeting since they grow too tall for the PVC pipe supports. But the vinyl tunnels are a good solution to the short growing season here. Harvest Valley farm is advertising tunnel tomatoes at the farmers’ market.
We didn’t order mulch or mushroom manure this year. I wanted to rely solely on the stuff we produce from shredding. We shredded one batch of material that I had collected since the fall. That was in early spring. Now we have a gigantic mound and are waiting until we have the energy to shred it. It does shred down to almost nothing, surprisingly. My compost bin is working fine. It is half full and takes all our organic garbage. Willy says that his is completely full and he complains that it is hard to get the compost out of it. There is just a little door at the bottom. I suggested that he get a second compost bin and use that for the fresh stuff while the first bin ages. Then he can just pull the top off the compost and start over.
My worms eat some stuff but I don’t think they can handle too much. I’m not sure that they are that productive but they are pets.
I’m trying not to buy plants this year but I am still tempted and bought way too many seeds. I have plenty of perennials to divide and transplant or weed out so we don’t quite look like a jungle and one plant is separate from the next.
The day lilies continue being a highlight of the garden and are in full bloom now. They do very well no matter where I put them. It is probably due to their underground tubers that let them survive dry weather when they are in the sun. I just hope they don’t get the rust or something. I have divided some of them and will think about dividing more this fall.
Here is a list of the vegetables that were available at the farmers market from Harvest Valley farms this weekend. This is so that I will know what to plan about two months earlier in May!
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Cucumbers
Green & Yellow Zucchini, Patty Pan Squash
Radishes
Green Onions, Sweet Onions, Red Onions
Cauliflower
Green Beans, Yellow Beans, Kentucky Wonder Beans
Sugar Snap Peas
Red Beets
Blueberries
Lettuce – Green Leaf, Red Leaf, Romaine, Green Bibb, Red Bibb, Red French Leaf
High Tunnel Tomatoes
Okra (I wasn’t able to find okra seeds in Monroeville so didn’t plant any. my roselles – also a hibiscus – are doing VERY well)
Basil and Parsley
Sweet Corn / Bi-color
