May 14, 2015

Good morning, it is very interesting since I have been posting my weekly emails to my blog site that there seems to be a passing interest in my garden notes. There are over 13 countries including the US. These countries include just about every kind of environment from jungle, to desert and permafrost. Very seldom if ever do I get any comments from these faraway places but it would be real cool to hear about what challenges they have and how they have overcome them.

 

Worldwide gardening is pretty much the same. What is important is how the gardener adapts to their unique challenges that they encounter. It really would be interesting to hear about these “far away” challenges and how they are overcome. Oh how easily I am entertained.

 

Another venue that lets me go on about gardening is the Alpine Avalanche where I write a weekly column. I have a limited amount of space, so each of the articles is fairly brief, but they are getting folks to ask questions and I hope that I am encouraging new gardeners. There is always more room for gardeners. Reminds me of a great saying “gardening….  It is great therapy and you get to eat the tomatoes too”. It is my goal to write about different gardening subjects for the avalanche and this weekly email / blog posting.

 

I don’t like to think that I know all the answers but I have techniques that work quite well for me. With adaption I think these techniques could work for other gardeners too..

Yes I always love questions it gives my gray cells a puzzle to ponder. Not saying I know all the answers but usually someone else’s question comes from a different perspective. These different perspectives can be very enlightening.

 

It really has been amazing how wet and cool this spring has been. To have spinach and snow peas in the middle of May in Far West Texas is amazing in itself. I usually find them to be toast no later than the end of March. This same cool and wetness has slowed the summer veggies to. But what an easy gardening season it has been.

 

Reminds me when talking to a rancher when I was working for the Texas Forest Service, it was also a wet year and he made a reference to the year, “years like this almost make cattle ranching look easy”.

Yes I will say it has not been a problem to get seeds to germinate, it just seems that with all the moisture there are all kinds of critters that are more than ready to be in line to gobble up these nice tender shoots. And a lot of these critters I have not seen before. It very easily could be that I have had them; it is only that this year their populations are big enough to become a problem.

 

I have made a reference about using cold pressed neem oil and being afraid that I would throw my little ecosystem in the garden out of whack. It does not seem to have been the case, if anything; I think it has helped diversify my beneficial population. This could be coincidence; I just do not know how to quantify my observations.

 

The case of spiders spinning webs across my paths between beds, always a bit of a surprise but it is nice to know the night shift got to work just fine.  Or the case of the horn worms that had larvae eating them from the inside out. Sci Fy movies could not have done it better. Or even this winter when I discovered that ALL of the aphids on my spinach were turned into mummies. All of these things are text book examples of beneficial s that go great with gardening. These are only the more exciting observations.

 

Another reason as to why this is happening maybe because the garden is over 10 years old and has been in continuous cultivation for all those years. My garden is a spot of green in the midst of a lot of native vegetation (that is usually brown for most of the year) and it has taken these good guys that long to find me. It is funny how the “guys in the black hats” are always so quick to arrive!

Yes it is exciting to watch this all evolve and I am soooo easily entertained. It is precisely why I need Friday deliveries and Market day to get “redomesticated”. A play on words for those  notorious grade card comments in grade school would be “plays well alone”. Welllll, well supervised by all the fowl anyway!!

 

It was fun participating in Sally Roberts’ dairy field day for lots of young children. What a great age to expose children to where their food comes from. It is a pleasure to be able to participate in these events!!!

 

It was cool that the male squash flowers started opening up. The interesting thing is that there are soooo many other flowers blooming that bees like more than squash blossoms, so I am having to hand pollinate the squash. We will soon be having cukes (first ones have been pollinated), beans , eggplants, habaneros, chili, okra and toms soon. The sweet potato sets took real well so there will be sweet greens in the near future. Deb found an article discussing the health benefits of sweet greens, which I will post at that time. It is nice to see the garden maturing quite nicely. Oh Joy!!!

 

Yesterday morning before heading over to Sally’s I saw the first bee in the squash. Hopefully they will be working the squash today.