Squash

We Have Squash  

We have squash. Only 2 little yellow crook necks, but it is a start. The okra is still bearing, our first eggplant is ready to pick, and the southern peas are thriving. Bush beans have baby beans, pole beans have sprouted, English and sugar snap peas are starting to climb their trellises. Only the pumpkins are not setting. I may have to learn about female and male flowers so I can hand-pollinate them if the bugs don’t do the job. Clara is planning a pumpkin patch where people can come and take pictures. 

First Eggplant  

Two Bales Almost Ready to Plant 

We are also trying gardening on straw bales, with 4 bales for our first go round. They have to be conditioned for a couple of weeks with daily watering and some applications of high nitrogen (N), fertilizer to get their composting started before we plant in them. I used Miloganite, (its NPK ratio is 40, 0, 0) when I repotted my ferns. (Ferns don’t flower or have much root systems, so they only need the nitrogen, not the phosphorus and potassium found in most fertilizers.)  I asked my son if he still had the vintage Milorganite I’d passed to him when we moved from our house. Sadly, his dog Bobby had eaten it. It didn’t seem to hurt him and just passed through. Better than when he ate a lot of a sofa which got stuck and required a stay at an emergency vet and servings pumpkin to help the process. That dang dog will eat anything. 

I have lettuce; 2 kinds of cabbage; pak choy; and sweet bell, banana, jalepeno and shishito peppers seedlings ready to transplant either to our raised beds or the straw bales. All very reinforcing, but a reminder that raising my own food is a hobby, not a lifestyle.