Work in The Soul Patch has been fairly quiet over the past few weeks. Hubert, one of our dedicated volunteers, tilled up the weeds one day, which has kept things looking very neat. He also harvested seven pounds of radishes. Seven pounds! Can you believe it?
We’ve had a lot of rain and cool weather, which has prevented us from doing much in the garden, but we’ve been checking in and managed to get some necessary work done this evening. The tomatoes, peppers, onions, cabbages, green beans, peas, and radishes are doing well, but we’ve had some trouble with the lettuce, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and carrots. The lettuce, cukes and carrots are coming in very slowly; the squash and zucchini decided not to make an appearance at all. In discussing this with Al Jabs, a founder of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) “The Farm of Plenty,” this is not unexpected. Cool weather prevents squash and zucchini seeds from sprouting and excess rain makes them rot in the ground. We decided to try again and planted more zucchini and yellow squash this evening. We mounded the seeds this time, rather than planting them in rows. We also put in extra onion sets.
Al gave us a bag of organic fertilizer to try, so we decided to experiment by adding some to the new onions we planted and to half of the peppers.
Of course, we have pictures so as to monitor the progress and show off the veggies.
An overview of The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010. Cabbages in front, tomatoes & peppers toward the far back.
Cabbage in The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010.
Tomatoes in The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010. Tomatoes always seem to do well. These are in need of staking.
Volunteer tomatoes in The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010. These have sprouted on their own alongside and on the compost heap. We threw a lot of squishy tomatoes here at the end of last season.
Fresh mounds of yellow squash & zucchini in The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010.
Erik planting onion sets in The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010.
Training the peas at The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010.
A lovely radish from The Soul Patch, June 19, 2010. (It tasted good, too!)
