Update - July 14

The vegetable garden was put in late this year -- but with all the rain and cool weather, I don't think the early planters did themselves much good. All is thriving now. We had some cucumber beetles on the squash and cukes, but i used rotenone.

I read about rotenone when the beetles started to eat the plants down to the ground. This was a few years ago. It's very toxic to fish. But it comes from

Finally the vegetable garden is fully in - surrounded by an electronet fence to keep the critters away.
8 raised beds, 8x8' in size, each held together with 2x8" boards in various states of decay.

I planted 6 tomato plants -- all paste tomatoes, 4 tomatillos, thai dragon hot peppers and jalapenos. Broccoli plants stand guard over newly planted haricot vert and beet seeds. Cucumber seeds should

tooooo much to do

To Do List -- this is what's on my list. what's on yours?

flower gardens -- get plants, seeds, weed, edge, mulch
veggie garden -- weed out large burdocks, add composted manure to raised beds, plant potatoes, seeds, buy and plant plants, mulch, move turkey tractor to the garden to cover with plastic for tomato, melon mini-greenhouse
fruit trees and bushes -- too late to prune and feed. Start a

i love spring. planting gardens. new calves. asparagus and strawberries. spring is a poem of downpours and   green.

gardens

I've been hearing from friends who've already planted spinach, peas, potatoes, onions, and other spring crops. I've been ignoring the garden for the most part.

Saturday, I'll fill the eight 8x8 foot raised beds with composted manure. I won't weed or turn over the dirt already in the boxes. I'm finding that less is more when dealing with the soil. I just keep adding good soil to the top of the

Saturday's boil yielded 1 3/4 gallons -- with a jar going to a friend who donated a little sap. I'm loving boiling this year -- we're finally getting it down to a science.

Bob made homemade hash tonight - and we had toasted wheat bread with eggs and hash.

Homemade hash -- 1 lb of corned beef from our cows -- processed in the food processor and fried in a pan with sweet onion, red pepper, potato dice from precooked potatoes, half and half, a little thyme, cayenne, and garlic.

Homemade wheat bread -- 2 cups white whole wheat, 1 cup unbleached flour, 2 tsp instant