bees and inhibitors

we have an intruder plant in the bush beans. john thought i put it in with a grand plan to inhibit the potato beetles that like the leaves of tomatoes, beans and eggplants. but i didn't. now it is enormous and has these big pods that are drying on the stalk. time to do some research... the beetles are distracted saving the bean leaves for optimum photosynthesis.



inhibitors that i did plant on purpose: nasturtium in the bean and cuke beds + marigolds with the tomatoes. their flowers also attract the bees. bzzzzz.



there have been some fears recently about bee communities and their vibrancy. we have lots. but i've included a link to an article about cell phones + bees. maybe that's why we have to walk to the communication rock for signal, so that we can have bees zooming around doing their thing, pollinating and keeping girl busy (she likes to eat them).

compost

finally shifted the compost....
trying to keep 3 sections:

new
last year's
2yrs ago

new is closest to the house + 2 yrs ago closest to the road, with last year in between. the idea is to rotate the compost so that we always have some older compost to work with in the garden in the spring. just need to cover up with mulch to get thru the winter.

as i was digging and pulling up big flat rocks, i was wondering who decided to put the compost here in this spot below a tree at the side of the house farthest from the garden. john told me later that it was the site of the original outhouse for the house - half way between the barn and the house -- then it was a chicken coop, then a shed. now that i've already pulled out the rocks, wonder if i should have left them there as a deterrent for moles + their cousins....

More Out-of-Order pictures to confuse you. A small strawberry is good anytime, in July or August.

hello from the republic of new orleans

been kicking it up in new orleans.
feeling far far far from the the garden, the catskills, new york, the northeast, the u.s. i'm certain this is another country. maybe when nyc seceeds from the union, it should team up with the big easy.

spent the last few days sopping up good lovin and sweating out every last drop of water while shaking ass to non-stop music. went to jazz mass at St Augustine's church and joined the second line and stepped it on down to the u.s. mint for a day of local brass band magic:

rebirth
treme
soulrebels
freeagents
pinettes

another week of research and play in atlantis.
k

missive from farmer john

new crops





Garden is thriving. Here's the first batch of Zucchini, The last radish from the cuke bed (The cucumbers ate the radishes!) and thepole beans. Beans started producing like mad. Turnips harvested on Mon. They are huge! First harvest of the bushbeans was sunday. Pole beans are ready to start harvesting in a day or 2. We've only got a few tomatoes starting to fruit, but the plants are doing well. We should be tomato-rich by the party. Cukes are probably a week away from the first pickling. So far about 10 have been harvested. Yummy. Lar is going to plant more lettuces this week. We finished laying down the mulch yesterrday. That's about it. See ya soon.

john