Sunday July 10, 2016
The heat is still bad, though we had a little rain this week. Some members have been diligently watering daily.
Four volunteers today
Tasks
- Planted new dill and sorrel from nursery
- Planted more peas and beans (from seed) on the hugel mound
- Built new triangular trellises for watermelon and cantaloupe vines
- Weeded kale
- Mulched fruit trees (again)
- Planted sorrel plants donated from another garden
- Pulled out some of the violets encroaching from the edges
- Repaired one side of the square raised bed
- Mounted new Garden FAQs sign
- 100 g lettuce
- 500 g kale
- 200 g herbs (sage, basil, chives, parsley)
- 500 g mulberries
Notes:
- Must buy pipe insulation to cover the chicken wire edges on the cucumber trellis
- One of the currant is producing again, but—like before—the fruits are disappearing before they ripen
- Tomatoes!
- The cantaloupe and sugar baby watermelon both have tiny swellings that will soon be fruit
- The cucumber on the trellis has put out many blossoms
- The big squash under the green trellis (zucchini?) has HUGE leaves and blossoms, and a few female flowers that have just been fertilized
- The raspberries are putting out green fruits
- The new beans in the black container have already grown a few inches tall
- The yarrow is in full bloom
- The basil is doing well—ready to have its tops harvested, which will discourage blooming and encourage branching
- The first beans we planted are starting to form buds
- The bee balm is in full bloom
- The asparagus is still putting up new shoots
- The comfrey, which disappeared after planting, has reappeared: one plant near the easternmost apple, two near the crabapple
- Found 2 aphids on the crabapple. Also found one ladybug nymph (yay! they eat aphids), but a spider had killed it (aww!)
- The row cover did a good job of protecting the cauliflower from squirrels. It also provided a nice, sheltered environment for cabbageworms. Luckily, they had only gotten a foothold on one plant. I squished them by hand and we washed their droppings off with water. Will have to keep an eye on the cauliflowers for more.
- Found a thriving colony of grey aphids on one kale plant. Cut away the parts of the plant where they were clustering and tied them in a garbage bag.
- Arugula starting to form seed pods
- The spinach has sprouted (sparsely)
