Beared again

Got beared again last night but I’m chalking this one up to a victory for the home team. We heard lots of dogs barking last night and had speculated that the bear was roaming around. Sure enough my trash can was up-ended again. But surprise, it was empty. Our trash is picked up on Monday and we didn’t have anything to put in it so it was empty. I didn’t put it in the shed as I have been for a week or so for just that reason. I guess that tells me that the bear is not smelling something that tickles his fancy but rather doing a sight thing. Based on that, I guess hiding it in the shed has been successful.

Moving on to phase 2 of my fire pit revival project. I planted it this spring and got pathetic results so started loading it with organics in May, layer after layer of leaves, grass clippings and a wide variety of other yard debris. Yesterday I tilled it all in and created 4 rows. The rows are now elevated nearly a foot above last season’s surface and the tilled organics are at least 18” deep. The rows are 8′ long by 3′ wide and the plan is to put in two tomatoes in one row to start the experiment. The actual transplant will take place circa September 1, the tomatoes being 6 weeks along at that point. I have been saving gallon jugs for deep root watering and planted the first one in the designated tomato row. What I do is drill holes along the bottom of the jug then bury it such that the neck and fill hole is a few inches above the surface. I can then fill the jug with water or even a few spoons of soluble fertilizer which insures that the moisture and goodies are distributed down by the deeper roots of the plant. Next I dug holes about a foot deep exactly where I plan to put the tomatoes and liberally sprinkled them with sugar, my first line of nematode defense. Once a day for the next month I’ll fill each of the holes with scalding water, sun baked in the hose -my second line of nematode defense. Last for now, I crumbled a couple of egg shells into the bottom of the hole to provide calcium to the plants. Supposedly that prevents tomato bottom rot, a typical tomato problem. About a week before planting, I’ll sprinkle each hole with a good dose of special fertilizer then overtop that with very well prepared compost. I don’t need the tomatoes at all since there will be more than enough planted in the main garden so no great loss if all these preparations prove for naught.

Haven’t decided yet what I’m going to plant in the remaining rows but for sure nothing before September. I’m leaning towards maybe trying some early cabbage plants.

Oh yeah, understand why they call if Star of David okra. When you cut it, the inside cavity is exactly star shaped. Both varieties were tender and delicious. Going to have to be very vigilant in terms of harvesting. The okra is colored the same as the stems so it’s tricky spotting them inside the foliage. Not sure about these particular varieties but if they get too large, they are totally inedible. Maybe I should let a couple get big just to experiment and see if perhaps these never get woody. That would really be a big deal.