Odds and Ends

The weather has been very drippy and cloudy, but I did find a nice time between rains to get the second half of the bean trellis up. I did get a few drops, but nothing soaking. I elected to leave the radishes in place and erect the trellis over them. I did have to take one out as the post was going in at that spot. I prepared 3/5 of the bed, but the other section under the radishes will have to wait until they are pulled.

I tried to take a photo, but you never have your camera out when you need it. I might not have too much of a problem with squirrels this year. They seemed to be less prevalent than last year. Today I found out why. The mockingbird chases them out of the yard. The Squirrel was over by my strawberries (but not in them) and the mockingbird dived bombed him and made a really loud screeching sound that didn't sound like a bird at all. The squirrel was chased all the way down the fence until it disappeared into the maple tree. I'm really liking this mockingbird. I usually get the sparrow hoard often in my garden in the spring. They will rip at anything, but especially the lettuce and the peas. I didn't even cover my peas this year and I have no damage. So a lot of nice things. I'm sure the worms and slugs will be worse as I'd guess the other birds eat these too.

Later in the morning I went out to do just a touch of weeding in the break between drizzles. I noticed that my baby Asian greens bed had a lot of bolting plants. All of the Fun Jen and the earlier planted white stem bok choy. The early planted tatsoi was way too crowded. So I went and fixed the problem. Now I just have the Shanghai bok choy and the happier tatsoi in this side.

The other side was planted later and seems to be growing well. Oh I had to rip the choy sum out of the other side as it really bolted prematurely in the earlier heat. The stems were too tough. Maybe the choy sum in this section will be better. It was planted after the worst of the heat was over. And has grown well in the last two wetter and cooler weeks.

What I've been picking is more than me and my townhouse mates could eat. I'm really hoping to find someone in the neighborhood to take the extras. I hate throwing good food on the compost pile. But there is always an over abundance at certain times. It just happens. So I sent an email out and hopefully I'll get some responses to my excess produce. Either that or the poor tatsoi is fated to meet with the grass clippings in the compost.

And last but not least, the tomatoes were potted up. I should have done this days ago, but I just didn't. But now they are happier. When it gets sunny I'll bring them outside more often. They were out on Monday soaking up the sun as was the basil right next to them. I have to say. It is weird not having trays and trays of tomatoes and peppers indoors at this time of the year. I'm so used to them. But I potted up just three plants. One Cherokee Purple for my garden. One Market Miracle for a friend. And an extra just in case one of them dies.