Garden saga continues...

The potatoes in the hay bales, they are doing extraordinarily well! 

Can I stop there? No... Ok...

I planted some summer squash seed, in the hay bales, along with some pumpkin seed.  They all came up, great and strong, and looking terrific!  The next morning... Stumps.  A slug fest, a slug FEAST, and my poor plants were the victims.  I have put ONE MORE batch of seed in, and totally covered the hay bales with diatomacious earth, until I can get some Sluggo, or something that will keep the little slimy monsters from ruining my new plants.  I don't have any copper, or I would make a barrier with THAT, too. (Supposedly, slugs don't like copper, it gives them a bit of a zap, and they don't go past the stuff.)

I put in Kohlrabi,  just a few days ago, so hoping for the best, as it was requested by a couple friends.

I planted 4 different kinds of corn, and nothing seems to be coming up.  However, no birds have eaten it, so the netting is doing its job.  But I really want the various corn types to do SOMETHING...

Planted beans.  Both green beans, and dry beans.  The dry beans are mostly because I like them, they are Wolverine's Orca dry beans.  Cool looking, some of the money goes to a good cause, and we'll have beans for eating.  Win, win, win!!!

I have some crookneck, zucchini, and my tomatoes, all doing okay, at this point.  The tomatoes seem a bit small, but I will give them a bit of time and attention, that should help.

The watermelon in the hay bale... It's okay. Not dying, not thriving.  It's... Meh.  The one in the soil, is doing better, but I had to have Husband help me by digging out a dock weed.  Nasty long roots on those things!  Well, he didn't realize the watermelon plant was there, and dropped a big clod of dirt on it... It's doing alright, but it did munch it a bit.  I have now put flags by all the items that need to be noticed, so hopefully that won't happen again... Eeep.

And, I have most of the weeding in all the beds finally down to a manageable level.  I do need to work on two of the beds, one is covered in... Dandelion starts?  I think?  The other is just wild grasses.  I hope to get them finished this next week sometime, or sooner, but this week seems to be filled up already... 

Time.  Let's see, there are 96 hours in a day, right??? 

New Garden Store.

Our community has a new garden store.  My Mom and I went to the grand opening, and wow, oh, boy were there a lot of folks!  I think that when you mention free food, there is a huge turnout.  Especially since it was a nice, warm day, and they had free ice cream, churned by tractor.  No joke, the guy churns the stuff from the PTO on the back of the tractor in a large ice cream maker.  He makes ice cream at one of the local farmer's markets, and it is very good.  However, he was going through so much of it, it was a bit more "soft serve" than usual!

I suppose that I am a garden geek, (among other geekdoms), but I have been looking for 2 different fertilizers.  Yep, specialized poo, so to speak.  I have found one at a local store, but the other thus far was more than an hour drive away, and I just didn't see the value in that... BUT, this store has the second type I wanted.  So, I have been trying it with the new plants I have, (some watermelon, acorn squash, and tomatoes, along with columbine, and a couple wave petunias), and it is working quite well...

However, the one I used has an... unintended side effect.  It's a fish fertilizer.  I put a dab in the ground, and went to get the hose to dilute it.  I come back, and Buzz is twitterpated, making sure she is front and center of stinky fish smell.  I almost had to spray her with the hose to get her to leave it alone!  But everything that is planted so far is doing well, except the potatoes.  I am going to start over with those.  The carrots aren't really taking off yet, but I did notice a nice side effect of  bird netting.  The evil, nasty, no good, rotten slugs haven't gotten in yet.  I don't hold out hope that they will stay out, but at the moment, the slug trails remain on the OUTSIDE of the netting. 

And for any keeping score, I honestly only bought 4 tomatoes.  I want to buy/grow some red and yellow pear tomatoes for myself, but I am trying to keep it under 10 this year.  I have had as many as 16, and harvest tends to get a bit overwrought.  So, just enough for family, and a couple friends that would want any, and the others for me, for soup.

I will be getting some other seed in the ground soon.  Farmer Cat and her garden strike again!