Foggy

Have you ever turned your back on your garden for a day and come back to total disorderliness?  What was trim and tidy is suddenly all damp and disheveled?

We've had a quarter inch of rain two mornings in a row, and yesterday, we took all day to go out and play.  I had a list of things I needed to get done today and when I did my morning walk through in the damp and fog it looked a little yucky and overwhelming.  The buckwheat bed I planned on cutting this weekend was beaten down by the rain and a real mess.  There were tomato branches to remove or tie up, and cucumbers to pick.  Lettuce to transplant.  Marigolds to deadhead.  It seemed like a lot.

The later reseeded bed of buckwheat is in full bloom, so I wanted to deal with the other one as it is going to seed.  Since that was the biggest ugliest project I did that first.

Before long it was all tidy again.  I pulled all of the plants, raked the bed, then chopped the tops back into the bed.  I put the tougher bottom stems and little root balls into the compost pile.  We'll see if that makes the task of tidying up a bed full of composting buckwheat a little quicker and easier.

The old cucumber vines are still healthy and putting out a fresh batch of blooms.  Some bumble bees have turned up and they are working on those.

The old vines are putting out huge straight cucumbers.

The new vines direct sowed the second weekend of July have produced their first cucumber.  I picked it today.  The vines are vigorous and full of blooms.  I just looked up the growing information, and the SV4719CS averages 56 days to maturity.  This one did it in under 35 days.  Not bad.  not bad at all!

 Pretty nice looking vines.  I'm sort of glad they took so long to start up.  I think we will have the longest cucumber season ever.

The old Blue Lake Bush Beans are putting out their second crop.

The new Gold Mine beans are full of flowers now.

The younger Lenny and Gracie heirloom plant is producing like mad.

Wow.

The tomato plants in general are looking a little ragged.

I seeded two flats of lettuce.  I am using the strawberry bed for the fall lettuce again.  This will let me rest the big 8x8 bed where I usually put them after it's busy pickling cucumber season.

I obviously have a LOT of transplants to deal with.  I'm going to put some in 4"x 4" pots for later planting.  I am putting some in pots to bring into the cold frame.  I've got lettuce everywhere!

To keep the young lettuce cooler in the August weather I'm trying the 50% shade cloth.

The only thing I didn't get to today was wrapping up the dill crop and planting a cover crop in that bed.  But when I walked away the garden was again trim and tidy.

"Mooch" the semi-feral neighborhood cat says Hello.