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The potatoes and corn continue to thrive but the Cukes and Pumpkins are slow to get going
Been a fairly busy week in the garden, despite thunderstorms dropping over an inch of rain. At least we haven’t had to do any watering.Temperatures still haven’t stabilized for the season.
Friends gave me a set of Native American heirlooms, so I planted 4 hills of Mandan sweet corn, along with Hidatsa red beans, Hidatsa shield beans, and Arikara yellow beans. They had no idea the age of the seeds, but they were each well sealed, then all sealed in a ziplock bag, with a pamphlet about each of them. I didn’t think to do a germination test before planting; but did set one up 3 days ago: 1 of each bean, and 2 of the corn seeds, (That seed came still on the cob.) and all of them have germinated, so I guess they’ll grow. They bought them while working at a flea market.
Another plot got compost & fertilizer tilled in, then planted with rows of Painted Hill corn; Espada bush beans; and bush white crowder peas. The crowder peas were given to me by Justadumbblonde, and this is the first year I’ve been able to try them; hope they’re still viable.
Some mesclun mix & some Napa cabbage seed also got tucked into some small blank spots.
I managed to transplant our pole tomato seedlings: Siberian red, Speckled Roman paste, and San Marzano paste. The bush Romas are already in, so I just have left the Bush Glaciers, and both yellow & red pear tomato seedlings to go in.
The sweet bush cherries got bird netting draped & pegged down; the ‘bush’ is now over 5’ high, and loaded.
The winter rye is 5-5 1/2’ tall, and has about another month to mature. Heads look good, but are still shedding some pollen. The winter wheat is much less tall, but the heads are farther along, despite the rye being planted first.
Lots of time-outs this past week also didn’t help: Saturday was Flag Day ceremony at the State Veterans Home; Sunday was first, service the garden tractor; then get curried and combed for Fathers Day dinner, a movie, and, finally, a late dessert at DQ. Tuesday was the annual cats to the vet day, plus shopping & a visit to my sick VW in the shop.
Today, I tilled between the potato rows so they can be hilled again; did some adjustments on the tiller, then spread fertilizer & tilled a corn plot. Laid out, but didn’t plant yet, for 10 20’ rows spaced 30 inches of Golden Cross Bantam; the seed was saved from last year. Left a 24” path on each side of the plot, with 4’ of beds on each side for the sweet potatoes & the cukes & tomatoes. Golden Cross Bantam corn seed saved from last year’s harvest; should get over 250 plants.
We got our first 3 ripe strawberries, and a bunch of cilantro that is currently drying. Also been getting salads from our 3 volunteer leaf lettuce plants.
With the season running nearly a month late, I sure hope it makes up for it on the other end, or we won’t get much of anything.
Meanwhile, Mrs. A.R. has been busy on weed control, and drying herbs & catnip, as well as the cilantro. The catnip goes into small jars, and is donated to the local cat shelter; they give them to new owners when they adopt. We also fill a large container for our guys, and a couple of others for the shelter cats themselves.
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The potatoes and corn continue to thrive but the Cukes and Pumpkins are slow to get going
Such outstanding progress! I hope it all pays off too. That’s really nice catnip for the shelter. We don’t have a local shelter or animal control authority.
We do have feral cats and stray dogs that come through, but they usually don’t stay. Except we do have a feral black cat that manages to survive and have babies now and then.