The garden is full! Between mature plants, seedling transplants, and seed beds there’s virtually no open planting space. The last addition was a 2’x10’ row of beet seeds and another 2’x6’ row of carrots and radishes. Also used the last of the fall compost pile. A few weeks back it was full – 3’x3’x6’ – 54 cubic for the math challenged. Now it’s doing its’ thing in the garden. I always have two compost piles going with all new stuff going into one while the other cooks. At this point I have one that will cook for the next 3 months and one just getting the first inputs. That one will be the fall load for 2022.
I had troubles with a few things last year but those items seem to be doing just fine this year. For some reason I just couldn’t get a decent spinach crop last year. Had trouble even getting seeds to germinate and when they did, the plants never produced. I compensated for that this year by planting more seed but have been surprised by how many popped out and are going gangbusters. Last year I had good swiss chard which made up for the poor spinach but it looks like this year both the chard and the spinach are off to a great start. The first run of turnips proved so good that I planted another patch. The lettuce likewise was not all that great last year but off to a strong start this season. One thing I did differently this year was not growing much at all during the summer. It was so hot and buggy that I decided to give it (and me) a rest. Perhaps that is why the new stuff is doing so well. I have 6 Fennel plants going. Never grown them before but they look healthy. In the herb dept, nice basil, rosemary, and parsley.
The vegan lady brought us over some new dessert a few days back. This time it was a chocolate tuxedo cake and a pumpkin-cranberry cake. The tuxedo cake is a feature at the Costco bakery but not the vegan version. Both full vegan, both full delicious. Her cakes are really dense and moist as opposed to dry and airy. I think this is going to be interesting when the garden is putting out at peak.
Getting close to spec season. It’s gotten cooler and that usually triggers action.
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