Bob And Susan

While walking Bailey on our path that leads to the mountain while passing the garlic garden I noticed that some of my garlic had yellow leaves.  Oh-oh, that is not a good sign – it means mold.  That also means I have to get that stuff out before it wrecks the whole crop.  Another thing to note is that at this time it is only the garlic that I got from the Garlic Festival last year that is moldy – hmm.  Thankfully (at this time anyways) the rest of my garlic seems to be doing very good – that would be the garlic that I got from an organic garlic grower in Shore Acres (John Johnson from the Nerve band) – it is just as beautiful as can be!  So I dug out all the garlic that seemed to be in moldy shape (and was it ever), then I tilled the whole garden between the rows of lovely garlic.  Holding the gas lever on the tiller for such a long time really put my hand into quite a funk – ow – I can barely move it.  It is OK now – aging sucks!

Bob told me that he wanted me to grow lots of cucumbers this year.  I sent away for some seeds from Thompson and Morgan for container growing cucumbers (and other vegetables too).  I have about 15 tires inserted into the back part of the front garden.  I has been fairly hot the last couple of days (and I don’t think it has been frosting in the mornings this week) so I figured that the tires have heated up enough to take a chance on putting seeds into them.  I planted two tires of cucumbers, one tire each of Barbara squash, Acorn squash, Blue Hubbard squash and miser Zucchini (also from Thompson and Morgan seed company).  I did one tire each of curly leaf parsley and cilantro.  To prepare the tires I turned the soil then put in a sprinkle of Volcanic Ash, new Sunshine Mix #4 soil, organic sheep manure and some organic matter from my fabulous compost.  As I was preparing each tire I didn’t come across any worms.  My good friend, Patty, grows Red Wrigglers and often shares them with me.  Off I trotted to my fabulous compost in search of Red Wrigglers for my newly prepped tires.  It took a bit of muscle but I found them so each tire got a handful of organic matter with some juicy hard working Red Wrigglers.

Last weekend we went to Kelowna to see Lindsay and Jeff and Willow and their beautiful new home.  They took us to the farmers market on Saturday.  I came across a guy, Dean Dack of Classic Compost, and he gave me his spiel on Volcanic Ash and how much my garden and my health would benefit from it – that I would grow big, bad, mean tomatoes.  I was sold so I bought a bucket of the stuff – and you know what they say about tomatoes – two things you hope to have in your life is true love and home grown tomatoes.

I put a few Zinnia seeds and Calendula seeds amongst various parts of the garden to attract good hardworking insects.

Finally ~ an Asparagus spear has appeared.  I am so excited – it looks beautiful.  As I was planting more peas I stupidly stepped on my long awaited asparagus spear – so I plucked it off its stock and gave it a rinse and ate it – OMG  – it is so delicious!  I can hardly wait for the rest of the crop to show up.