It was a pretty cool day today. Not as in a swell day, but as in a colder day. I almost needed a jacket for my morning walk. Thankfully it warmed up a tad by the time I got home and the breeze had died down a bit.
My goal this evening was to install a watering timer for my raised beds. The timer had arrived a day earlier than expected, so I was excited to get it up and running. Unfortunately, the threads on the main valve were essentially stripped when I attempted to install it. It is going back and hopefully Lowe’s or Menard’s has some in stock as I need it up and running before Friday morning.
Since I was already out in the yard, I went ahead and started on some things I had been putting off the last few sweltering days.
My beans and gourds have grown a great deal with the intense rain we’ve had along with the heat. They seem to thrive on those two things. The beans, however, have started crowding out my carrots, which isn’t okay. This evening I put them inside some eggplant cages I hadn’t used this season. I had to carefully move the plants around to squeeze them into the cages. When I started to move them I got very excited! There are green beans starting to show already! It won’t be too long until I can start harvesting.
The carrots are starting to take off finally, as are the pepper plants. It was a bit of touch and go with the pepper plants as I’ve discussed before. If you remember, I had gone ahead and planted some pepper seeds directly in the soil a couple of weeks ago. Well, they have caught up with the ones started indoors (which means I will try direct sowing half the crop next year).
My tomatoes started indoors just weren’t doing anything. They weren’t dying nor were they growing. This past weekend I broke down and bought the last tomato plants available at Menard’s. It was my fault for waiting so long, but I wanted to really give mine a chance. I’ll have to wait see if these poor pitiful plants take off or not. The cherry tomato plants I had bought earlier have small tomatoes on them already. Can’t wait for my first tomato harvest as I love cherry tomatoes!
The rest of the plants are doing okay, but not stellar. One of my broccoli plants seems to have caught it’s wind. The onions, lettuce, and the herbs seem to be stuck. No real growth, but not dying either. I’m wondering if my mix of soil is off a bit. I’ll start adding my bokashi mix back into the soil once the harvesting is finished, and turn the soil on the others to see if I can get a better mixture.
Thus the life of a gardener. We try it this way, and then that way, and mix it up until we get the results we are seeking. This trial and error can take several years. So for us, it is definitely the journey not the destination at first, but once the mix is right, the destination becomes key as that means a great harvest.
I’ll keep you updated and will definitely let you know when I get my first produce to use in a dinner.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 