The Bounty of the Land
We were in a drought at the end of spring and the beginning of summer. And yes, I realize that we have just officially entered summer in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern United States, summer hit here about May 5th. Spring starts in early March.
But we were in a semi-drought, and Dave and I have been very worried about our landscaping and the garden. No more. Now we have entered into what I believe is the typical southern summer. Bright, hot, humid days followed by thunderstorms at night. It may be extreme right now. We’re getting about a half inch to an inch of rain per evening. But the plants are (mostly) loving it.
Our landscaping is doing so much better. The nandinas just took another growth spurt. Our daylilies are starting to bloom, a very pretty red with yellow background. The new magnolia recovered from a close brush with death and is now blooming and the camellias all look quite healthy. The hostas and the impatiens have both perked up and are growing. There were some shrubberies up front which were looking sketchy, but the rain has really, really helped them.
The garden, though, is the scary part. It is loving this weather. Well, most of it is loving the weather. The zukes are not happy. I had to pull up one plant this week when it just collapsed on the wet dirt. Of the other two, one is ok and half of the other one is wilting. I don’t see many blooms on them right now, so I’m not taking that to be a good sign. Oddly, the cukes are doing well, despite being ground dwelling, too.
Everything else seems to be a good state. The chard has grown back from my aggressive harvesting 10 days ago (I froze all of it). The okra is growing a few edible pods per day. I harvest until we have enough and then we have a good gumbo from it. The good news is that if the sketchy zuke dies, it will leave more room for the okra to grow. I’ve harvest about 6 tomatoes already---3 yellow and 3 red. And for all you new tomato growers out there, be sure to harvest tomatoes when they are turning color not when they have turned. The bugs get them otherwise.
The eggplants are producing, particularly the Japanese eggplants. The peppers are starting, but have yet to arrive at a good pepper popping. We’re going to have to pull up the beets soon and freeze them. But the carrots are not ready yet. Finally, for the veggies, the pole beans are about ready for their 3rd harvest. We’re going to have pole beans out the ying yang all summer.
I performed some neutering activities on the herbs this morning. Although they are eager to procreate, I’m cutting off their blooms so they will focus on making more leaves and less on making love. The curry is not so happy. And the fancy purple sage wilted a bit under the sun. But everything else is turning into a big bush o’ herbs. It’s so yummy to go out and cut or rub them. The whole garden smells good. And it’s even better to start cooking dinner and think “Hmmmmm, what would taste yummy in this dish?” and go get it. That experience doesn’t last forever, so I appreciate it when it happens.
Of course, the garden is also sprouting a boatload of weeds and bugs. Yikes! This organic deal makes for some interesting work around the garden. And I’ve been up close and personal with more bugs and spiders than I care to admit. Including one small black widow looking thing; she was very small, but I swear I saw the red on her belly and her long legs. I thought, however, that black widows preferred dark dank spots so I didn’t know why she wanted to hang out in the tomatoes. In any case, she’s not there anymore, and let’s just leave it at that.
I’m trying to follow the philosophy of the Prodigal Summer. Gardens have good bugs and bad bugs. The bad bugs eat the plants and the vegetables. The good bugs eat the bad bugs (yay good bugs!). We want to keep the good ones, but insecticides don’t discriminate. Insecticides kill all bugs, both the good and the bad ones. The real problem occurs, though, in the fact that the bad bugs procreate much, much faster than the good ones. So that after one has eliminated all the bugs, the garden becomes overrun with bad bugs because the good bugs haven’t grown quickly enough to keep them in check. So, if you just let nature take its course, then there will be enough good bugs (and spiders) to feed on the bad bugs and the bad bugs won’t do that much damage.
That’s the bug plan. So far it’s working pretty well. I don’t note any real damage to the plants beyond a few holey eggplant leaves and it just feels better with a baby in my belly to use as few chemicals as possible on our food.
I spent the morning out in the garden weeding and harvesting and avoiding or ignoring bugs. Now it’s time to get some work done.
9:00:59 AM 
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