A cloudy morning with dark, rainy-looking clouds in the distance ended up giving my gardens a good drink — a 1/4 inch of rain in just 20 minutes. Once it finished, I continued with my work. It was humid before the rain and even more humid afterward. Low 77°F, high 93°F, with a heat advisory.
At dawn I parked under the shade tree and worked quickly replanting things. When I cultivated the soil to loosen it for replanting, I didn’t find any seeds — rotten or otherwise. Can fire ants cart them off, or maybe mice? I would think if mice or another animal were involved, I would see signs of digging, which I didn’t.
I know of one hidden fire ant hill in the Learning Plot. Usually I see a mound with grass or weeds poking out of it, but maybe this one is still being constructed. I need to check with a tiny potato chip — about the size of my pinky fingernail. If they start eating it, then they’re foraging, and I’ll apply the organic Fert-i-lome Come and Get It. The main ingredient is spinosad, a bacteria.
I have one mound here and another big one in one of my old tomato holes in RRR. I hope I didn’t disturb the one in RRR too much when I took out the cage, as they could change locations on me. These fire ants bite, and I’ve been bitten many times. They even bite through my cloth gloves. The bite forms a little pus pimple, and it itches or sometimes continues to sting for a bit.
After replanting, Gerald said he had more tomatoes, so I stopped on my way to my plots and picked a couple of boxes. So far I’ve given more to Morino, and of course I’m assembling Rudy’s produce box. I think I’ll give some to Robert tomorrow when I see him at documents.
One thing a good gardener should do is walk their gardens and inspect and observe everything. Yesterday I mentioned that I had one tomato that was droopy. I put the toilet paper collar on it two days ago, and yesterday I quickly constructed a sun shade for the baby tomato using old landscape fabric I ripped out of the raised bed. I’ve reused that same cloth several times. Last year I bought clothespins from the Dollar Tree and stored them in my old clothespin holder from when I used to have a clothesline. In my neighborhood clotheslines are forbidden. I remember my mom putting sheets out to dry and how fresh they smelled, and that’s why I did it too. I haven’t done that in 20 years, but I still have some very old clothespins that aren’t pinchers.
Getting back to construction — I pinned the cloth onto the tomato cage made out of cattle panel or cement grids. I’m not sure which, as they were given to me by other gardeners. I’m happy to report that the Big Beef regular is getting better.
I checked everything and noted what needed picking — yellow squash, cukes, and okra. I didn’t see any bugs, eggs, or anything unusual in the gardens, and nothing had touched my Armenian or India cucumbers. But I did see a rat in the back 40 scurry into the weeds where I store my cages. In a big community garden with about 500 plots, you’re bound to see rats and other critters. I haven’t come across any snakes yet, but I’m sure they’re out there in my garden.
Once I finished my inspection, I moved on to my first chore — putting chopped, mulched leaves along the inside perimeter of the tomato hills and down the slope to help keep the soil cool and moist, since our heat is scorching right now. Even with the heat, I can already see that the tomatoes I planted on Monday are about a foot tall.
I was applying the chopped leaves in the RRR when it first started sprinkling, which felt nice since I wear Columbia and dri‑fast clothing — sort of like wearing a swimsuit. I get wet and dry fast, and I can wipe dirt off with a cloth and wear them again. When the sprinkle turned into a hard rain, I walked very fast to the truck, closed all the windows, and checked my weather app to see how long it was going to last. I waited it out by reading emails and catching up on things.
One thing I completely forgot was that I had the truck bed open, and all my planting books, seeds, and supplies were in there instead of inside the cab. I had moved things for my grandson to ride in the front seat for water polo lessons on Monday and Tuesday. When I got home, I put all the seed packets on the driveway to dry and then put them back in the truck bed.
After the rain, I finished mulching all the tomatoes and then started boxing my walking paths to suppress that darn nutgrass and Johnson grass. I’m using multiple thicknesses, and since the cardboard got wet, the tape came off easily. Once put into place, it creates a good seal. I’ve learned not to cover it until I think it’s ready for grass. It’s slowly becoming the way I want my gardens to be. I’ll need to redo rows 1 and 2 since I only used one layer back then — I was a greenhorn at it. Now I’m an expert. Haha.
Next I worked on the Armenian and India cucumbers, sprinkled cayenne pepper, weeded the rows, and decided to add more India seeds since germination was poor again. I sprayed garlic-pepper spray heavily around the crops.
After this, I had enough garden waste to construct another Amish compost layer, and last I harvested and prepared Rudy’s produce box for him to pick up.
All in all, I got everything done and was headed home a little after 10:30 AM. Tomorrow I’ll need to do the potato chip test — or just put the bait down, since they’re probably the ones foraging my seeds from the mounds. I’ll need to water, harvest, and be on the road to documents by 8 AM.