11 Days Later

I tried several times today (7 or more actually) to post a picture of my garden, but it wouldn't upload. The blue corn I saved from last year's harvest, the Bakers Creek hubbard squash and some pumpkin seeds I saved from a pumpkin we bought at a private farm market all came up where we planted them directly in the manure.

It is an experiment. I've been reading all about no-till planting. We did weed the manure, and Bruce spread it out using a garden fork. It was spongy stuff to plant in. I didn't bother trying to mark the rows. I'll be interested to see if the corn stalks stand tall. That area of ground was seeded with yard rye and bluegrass, and we just dumped the manure on it straight out of the barn last fall. Now little corn sprouts are poking out of it.

The kolarabi and brussel sprouts have been suffering from some bug. I dusted them with diatomacious earth the day after I posted last. It seems to be helping, but negligably. Any help they get, however is worth the effort if we get kolarabi and brussel sprouts in the end.

The geese ate my beautiful Lolla Rossa lettuce down to the ground. They were banned to the goat pasture the very next day. The geese are big enough now that they can't get through the woven wire fence. The lettuce is coming back slowly. Fortunately they left the mustard, so I have greens to put on my sandwitches for work, without having to buy them.

I planted Job's tears, turnips and basil that day. The turnips are up. I'm not sure if the basil is or not. I'm hoping the storms today provided enough water to moisten the Job's tears thoroughly and get them going, because I did not soak them before planting.

I think menopause is beginning to settle in. After being 17 days late, taking 3 negative pregnancy tests and surviving a flood that wiped me out that entire week, I've pulled out a book someone recommended to me a few years ago, "New Menopausal Years The Wise Woman Way," by Susan Weed. It is a wonderful book. There are some new herbs, flowers and vegetables I am thinking of growing now; not to mention, the dandelions all over my yard have taken on a new important function. Dandelion greens are better for you than about any green leafy vegetable and replace exactly what you need in such circumstances.

The big new project this summer, gardening-wise, is going to be the flower bed next to the house. I'm finished with my Japanese knotweed eradication program. It didn't work. And since it still has to be pulled out, better that it is not between briars. See, I let some bird-planted blackberries grow in the flower bed the past few summers, propogated them, and harvested bumper crops of blackberries. But half of the berries have a bad rust. So after the blackberries are done, they will be cut off; all the knotweed pulled up, and we are going to do a manure experiment on the flower beds. When I figure out how to post pictures again, I will.