Adventures in Gardening.....

It has finally cooled down here! I don't mean to complain because I know it's hotter in other places, but man, we are not supposed to be in the mid 90's this time of the year. Thankfully, we're back into the upper 70's- lower 80's for highs. Accuweather is showing it continuing to mild for the rest of the month. Now if we could only get some rain! I did get about an inch over the past week, but it doesn't even put a dent into the 7+ inch deficit we're under. Because of the little heat wave some of the broccoli started to bolt, so we had to cut em before we wanted to. Spinach bolted also, maybe half of it. Other than that, things are jammin right along. Not all the broccoli was lost, so some of it shoud be ready some time in the next week. Lettuce and the cabbage are still doin their thing. Some of the cabbage is starting to head, the rest should begin soon. The black seeded simpson lettuce that we sowed a couple of weeks ago is growing rapidly, enough that we are starting to harvest baby leaves to thin it for now. I noticed today that our cucumbers are starting to bloom along with some of the squash and zucchini.

The heat did benefit the tomatoes and they are blooming profusely, with some fruit starting to form. My dream of BTL's sure to come true soon. Unfortunately, the heirlooms we bought aren't doing so well. The peppers liked the warm nights also and are blooming and starting to set peppers. Yum!! I am proud to say that I have about 70 corn plants coming up very nicely! So, hopefully sometime in August, Cat and I will be eating some super sweet fresh corn!

I continue to battle weeds that really liked the nitrogen boost I gave the plants last week. Dandelions and grass continue to pop up every where except where plants are big enough to shade them out. Another one of the reasons why I want to go to a square foot garden system. As said before, I'm composting like a mad man in hopes of adding 192 cubic feet of compost to the garden before winter.That's a helluva lota grass and leaves. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to plant a winter cover crop to break the soil up some and add nitrogen. Or try to double dig the beds while I incorporate the compost in. Seems like alot of work, but I seem to enjoy the labor part of it for some reason.

The thought of adding chickens to our variety of critters has been talked about recently. Beyond the fact that I can get quite haul of eggs, their poop is supposed to be a super fertilizer when composted. So, if anyone has some useful info on keeping hens, it would be great to hear it. Like most of this, I can only read about it, and that is a poor substitute for experience. I figure like most things, I'll be drawing up plans for a coop and start browsing Amazon for books on raising hens, and making it a bit more complicated than it has to be.