STATE OF THE GARDEN

Some Random Observations--

• The garden is glorious right now. What a pleasant place to hang out. It's been a good year for gardening. 
• Early blight on tomatoes seems better this year. Some tomato plants are faring better than others. It might be useful to consider why. Better prevention? (mulching carefully, watering only at the ground level, pulling and discarding of affected leaves) Variety of tomato? Notice which plants are heavily affect and which not so much. When I called Johnny's Seeds last winter they said they didn't know any varieties specifically resistant to early blight, but we can see what works for us. Or is the weather just more favorable?  But it's not gone, so it's important to keep on working at it.
• Lack of mosquitoes--look up and notice the swallows and dragonflies-they are well fed.
• "Wayneing" of the vole population-that's a really bad pun, sorry Wayne, but thanks for all your work on this.
• Thistle seems diminished, but not gone, Another situation to stay on top of. Keep at it. 

Weed! weed! weed! 

The outside perimeter of the fence is becoming weedy and could use some attention. Those pretty yellow flowers (Butter and Eggs, I think they are called) are pretty aggressive and need to be pulled.  Foxtail and crabgrass are forming seed heads. Pulling one plant now avoids thousands of pulls later. If you haven't completed your volunteer hours, here is an opportunity to spend a little time improving the garden. 

Cover cropping

There is a bag of seed (either oats or rye, I forget which) in the back of the shed to use for cover cropping. When you harvest something and have bare ground, sprinkle a little seed down.