Blind Optimism

I’ve been struggling with my growlights. The eggplant is supposed to have about 16 hours of fluorescent light each day, but if I do the turning on and off, it doesn’t happen. So I dug a timer out of the basement and plugged it in. Well that night it didn’t turn off. I woke up at 2am and noticed it was still on. So I turned it off manually and tried redoing it the next night. No such luck. So this morning I dug out another timer from the basement (they must be breeding down there). Hopefully this one will work appropriately. Or maybe the basement is just the graveyard for all broken timers.

The garden this morning is soggy and the slugs are having a heyday with a couple of the bok choi. One of the bok choi is already bolting, but not a slug chewed one. It was planted after our last frost so I figured it was pretty safe, but not so. I picked it. The flowers bud aren’t open yet. I wonder if they taste like broccoli. I seem to have trouble with all the cole crops in this garden. I’ve yet to grow any of that genus to full size. Years ago in our first house I had no trouble growing them. I could pick fully grown Chinese cabbage at the beginning of June. But not here. I always wonder what it is that stresses them out and prevents them from growing well. Their roots don’t look deformed when I pull them up. The only pests I notice are the slugs (at least so far). But I keep trying. Maybe this year I’ll be able to grow them.