Keep On Growing

When work gets stressful or tiring I retreat to the garden. I don't think about too much when I'm there sometimes and then sometimes I do my best thinking there. This past week has been unusually and gloriously cooler in the late afternoons; almost fall like, so a wonderful time to go out and putter about amongst the flowers and such. I harvested my first batch of green beans and cooked them. I should have a batch of okra soon. I have lots of tomatoes but none ripe yet. I am experimenting with companion planting on a small scale. I read where it is good to plant catnip around eggplant, as it deters flea beetles, and I have a time with those little pests, so I tried that this year. It did not seem to be doing a lot of good but then the catnip really took off and the eggplant really looks much healthier now. I usually keep some catnip growing anyway for Grendal and for myself. It is a stimulant in cats but a sedative to humans and if you have a tension headache or just need good sleep, a hot cup of catnip tea works great. I add some passion flower to it also and will sleep so soundly.
The corn is doing well. This is Silver Queen. It is about as tall as I am now. I try to always plant my corn in blocks or spirals instead of long single or double rows because corn is pollinated by the wind instead of insects and if it is kinda clumped together it seems to do better.
Some of my tomato plants are almost my height also. I am very eager to harvest my first ripe tomatoes. I plant marigolds all through the garden also to deter different insects, plus they just look pretty and don't require much attention. I brought home a large roll of burlap from the railroad job and have been using that in the walkways of the garden. It works pretty good but it's better to put it down before the grass gets up much because it will not kill grass already there. I have been intending to cover it with pine straw to kill the grass and for looks but that is way down my list of to-dos. I wish I had brought a second roll of the burlap home now. We had tons of it left over from the job and tried to give it away instead of discarding it but could not find anyone who really wanted it. We use burlap to cure concrete so it is not unusual for me to be able to get lots of it.
This is a new plant for me this year. It is paprika! It is doing very well with all the plants having 3-4 good size peppers each. I am especially proud of these because I started these from seed; something that I am not too good at. You can pick these when they are yellow/orange and use like a pepper or wait until they turn red and then pick and dry them to grind up for the spice. That is my intention. I have not had to water much this year but don't think that is going to last. Our rainfall has slowed down considerably. I also add powdered kelp meal to my soil every year along with an organic fertilizer and compost. I till all of this in when I first turn up the garden in the spring. The kelp is supposed to help the soil retain water and improve the soil texture. I think it helps and it is not particularly expensive. I know a lot of you prefer to only use amendments that you can produce yourself and maybe one day I can have the time to work on that myself. When I get my chickens going (chooks, eh Molly!) I know I'll be using them to help fertilize!
This is one lone Moon and Stars watermelon that has volunteered in the garden. I did not plant any watermelon this year but this one was determined to come up anyway, so I let it have it's way. It's doing pretty good actually. And in case you are not familiar with this variety, the plant is not diseased with those spots on the leaves. The melons not only have little "moons and stars" but the foliage does also.
I have a 3 day weekend now so I am going to attempt to get a significant amount of stuff done on the house. We'll see. I guess I have been a little burnt out on the house lately because I've just been having to make myself work on it. I need a change of some kind; a bit of good mojo to float by. I'm not sure what is wrong with me. I've been out of sorts for some time, cranky and restless. That is why I have not posted a lot at times. I did not want my posts to reflect my mood. I feel like a butt for feeling this way because I really don't have any problems to speak of but I guess it happens to everybody sometimes. Anyway, I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th!!

*Derek and the Dominos