Yesterday I drove out to Petaluma to pick up some cheap overgrown organic seedlings from a local seed company. It was a lovely drive, aside from how sick I felt. We’ve had a stomach bug this week.

Tonight I got the tomatoes and peppers in (with fish meal, fish bone meal, and oyster shell lime) and 1 or 2 marigolds (they are flowering). A couple of the tomatoes may have passed their permanent wilting points. 😦 It was 93 degrees today. There’s a huge leak in the drip tape way down in the peppers – hopefully Z will deal with that first thing in the morning.

Z’s parents picked some of the old strawberries, which is great because they said you can pretty much pull some leaves aside and find a basket’s worth of berries right there. They also picked some greens. Hope all that stuff made it home in decent condition! The flea beetle damage in the greens is pretty bad. I shifted the compost tonight :). It’s about as done as it’s going to be for a while. I am going to reuse that stuff in the next pile.

I don’t remember what I last posted, but I’ve got 2 1/2 beds of winter squash/pumpkins in. Hoping  to have at least one nice, diverse bed with flowers and stuff. The sunflowers are coming along well, even with all the weeds.

Yesterday and tonight I planted Bottle Gourd seeds in the eastmost of our winter squash row. Had 2 packets but T took about 10-15 from first packet. Today I added alyssum and I think calendula to that bed. Also planted 1/2 oz of Kakai Hulless Pumpkins (center row, there might not be enough space for all these things). I took out the broccoli raab because it was nearly finished flowering and put some calendula seeds in its place. The calendula in the corn/bean row is starting to make flowers! The dill in the greens and tomatoes is looking nice. There are a few zinnias coming in at the head of the tomatoes, and maybe at the head of the north sunflower bed. (did I mention I planted some sunflowers on Sunday?). I picked a few basil leaves tonight. I am not a huge fan of lemon basil, as it turns out ;).

I tried hilling some dirt around the potatoes this morning. It sure takes a lot of dirt! I didn’t get very far before I felt compelled to do other stuff – like pick strawberries. The Chandlers are really slowing down and I think will be done by the end of this heatwave, if not the week. Wow, 98 next Wednesday! I keep feeling like I should get more fruit-type things to plant. There will be blackberries soon. And pears.

My child loves to work on irrigation. His dad does 98% of the irrigation work in our garden (plus pretty much all of the tractoring). Z got him outside to watch him put together the new hoes that I got (collinear, wire weeder, and scuffle/hula). Then they went to the garden to check on something w/r/t irrigation. (I was folding laundry and stripping our sheets, largely related to the “sick day” title above). Z had stayed home because had gotten so little sleep…

The child rarely goes into the garden with me. Sometimes he’ll plant seeds with me. But it’s rare. I think it partly might be that when I’m weeding or picking berries, I throw the trash behind me and if he’s in the wrong spot, he gets hit. It’s hard to see behind you when you’re on your knees.

Anyhow, I did get out there this evening and pick some berries. Not a big “good” harvest day, but I picked up a lot of trash from the 2 newer beds. There are a lot of things on the to-do list. I think he might like putting out cucumber beetle traps if he’s home sick again, but it’ll be hard to keep him away from the containers of lure…

This morning I hoed the sunflower bed and some of the tomatoes, and picked a basket of Chandlers (in less than 15 minutes!). I think Z scattered pearl millet seed this morning (from Fedco?). This evening I weeded one of the brassica beds and the beans/corn. Then I headed to the summer strawberries, where I got some good weeding done and picked less than a basket. After that, I moved on to the old strawberry bed and picked some berries on one side of the bed. I had to throw a lot out. I went through and picked up the waste from tonight and whenever I last worked on that side of the bed and it filled half of a 5-gallon bucket.

Not sure how much I can get done on Tuesday, since I have a dentist appointment and T is not feeling well. I keep forgetting/running out of time to fertilize in the morning, so that’s what I’d hope to do.

I found flea beetles infesting the greens this weekend :/. Fortunately, the dill is starting to emerge. That’s almost as good as if I had planted dill, chamomile, marigolds, and whatever else weeks before planting the greens!

Today I planted 2 packets of Bloody Butcher corn (PVFS) and 1 packet of org French Garden Bean (PVFS). Picked 4 total baskets of berries (2 chandler in morning). I even got to some of the old berries, some of which appeared to be in excellent shape 🙂

Z mowed the grass in the large empty area in the south side of the field. Can you spot the kitty cat? Maybe if you double click on the image.

I think that the plant in the path near the summer strawberries is, in fact, catnip. Or are cats really that into lemon balm? But lemon balm’s leaves are a deeper green… The cat was really into this plant!