September 5–7, 2026
Saturday and Sunday were in the 100’s F and then a cool front came in on Labor Day weekend where 95F felt noticeably cooler. I must be getting acclimated to the high heat.
I got a lot done towards getting the beds ready for the cover crops. I don’t think I mentioned the seeds I am going to use in any open spaces— Crimson Clover, White Dutch Clover, White Mustard and Daikon Radish. The cover crops do several things like add nitrogen, cleanse the soil, drill compacted soil and cover the soil for erosion prevention and keeping weeds from getting established.
On Saturday I focused on replanting or succession planting on other crops. Some crops that I started on 8/23 Spinach and lettuces seeds are in the freezer to be planted when much cooler and the freeze period is called cold stratification where the seeds thinks it is spring and will germinate better. With it being so hot and I don’t have time to water twice a day I am using the box method —Where I mist the bed good, then place a wet flat carboard box on top. Would you belive purple top turnips germinated in one day and the Daikon and 7-turnip tops in 2 days. Now all I need is the collards to germinate.
When I took the cardboard off yesterday I found Mr. Toad. Here is a very short video of him and very quickly you will see him eat a bug, I think a fire ant.
On Sunday I focused on temporarily boxing the Learning Plot. I first took the tomatoes that died out and brought the cages back to my plot. Then I weed‑whacked and put down some cardboard that a fellow gardener didn’t want. She had just gotten a new refrigerator. She kept saying she was going to try landscape fabric, and I told her that I have a fall project that involves ripping out landscape fabric. If only I hadn’t covered mine with wood chips — not for one year, but at least four years’ worth. The good thing is that when I put the wood chips on top of the fabric, I had already taken out the landscape pins. I will be making most of the beds larger by doing this, as my new walkway width only needs to be 2 feet on the two middle rows, and instead of 3 feet next to the fence, a foot is a good buffer.
Monday I was going to construct my rabbit fence but after inspecting my garden especially my tomatoes I decided the tomatoes were under attack by septoria and early blight and it was a cooler morning 74F to spray copper fungicide. Once that was done, I started the 2-3 second watering and when I was going to start watering my lonely watermelon, I decided it was ready to pick. Before I think I found at least where Peter Rabbit has been hanging out or where he likes to go #2 and that was near the watermelon. It seems to be a lot for one rabbit. I wonder if he has been showing other rabbits how to get in. Once I picked the watermelon I weed whacked the area and pulled out the 3 foot walkway by the fence and used the black plastic to help snuff out the weeds. This whole area will have the cover crops.
Today I rushed to pick the produce as I had to make my daughter’s birthday cake as we were meeting for cake and presents at 2:30p.m. She wanted me to make what we tasted in the UK —Sticky Toffee Pudding cake. If you are not familiar with it,it has chopped Medjool dates as a main ingredient. Then the toffee sauce gets poured over the cake. A sticky —yummy cake. It is really similar to our prune cake except prune cake has more spices in it. I made a 9 x 13 pan and after everybody ate and assembled their take home containers, I have a quarter of it left—it will last a couple of days.
This is as real as you get — I went straight from poo to pudding cake.
Real life, real garden, real good food.