It's Easy Being Green

We got a round of thunderstorms rolling through southern Indiana around 4 a.m. and another spout of rain.  The other half of garden bed I’ve been waiting to complete turning and getting ready for planting was primed and ready to go after the rain this morning and it was overcast so I wouldn’t char my skin.

I still have seedlings of cantaloupe, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes, lettuce and a few other random things still waiting to be planted.  I finished weeding out the major chunks of grass and then raked in a layer of Schulz Enriched Gardening Soil for Flowers and Vegetables.  I’m using this as a quick ammendment while my compost gets good and hot and as a holdover until I can put together a raised bed system for next season.

I was a bit surprised though when I dumped out my bag of soil ammendment and found some trash.  Schulz was kind enough to include bits of shredded plastic and even foil cigarette wrappers (menthol to be exact) in my bag of garden soil.  I’m no hort expert but I’m guessing there hasn’t been a new study saying smokes for your garden generate whopping yields!

Free trash included in my bag of garden soil ammendment

I’ve sent Schulz my findings and will see what they have to say about the matter.  In the meantime, it looks like tomorrow will be planting day for Phase 2 of my veggie garden.  Meanwhile my Orange Oxheart Heirloom tomato is under attack by aphids.  It looks pretty piddly right now despite the fact that it’s the tallest tomato plant in the patch.  It had a flush of new blooms at the top but all have turned brown and are dieing.  Since I take an organic approach, I got down on bent knee today and squashed and picked off as much bugs as I could.  We’ll see if the poor thing can recover.  The cherry tomatoes and roma’s have all put on a new flush of growth with all the rain and are looking good.

My sweet corn has finally emerged and is taking off quick.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it does end up making the “knee high by July” standard.  Lemon cucumbers are sprouting new leaves after about a week or two of transplanting.  Zuchinnis are putting on new growth and new blooms are emerging.  It looks like a fruit or two have already taken hold and are sucking up the free water.  My eggplant is flowering and will hopefully bear soon.  Yellow wax beans and the limas are off to the races along my fence line.  They’re beginning to bush out and my late season pea vines are taking advantage of the overcast days and have reached about 6-8″ tall.

How is your garden doing?  Let me know!

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