Monday Aug 6, 2012

The vegetable beds are almost back to the norm.  This area actually got a real bonafide rain on Sunday morning.  One inch by my rain gauge.  That’s the heaviest rain seen in these parts since early June.  It will take more than that to bring things back.  Much of the corn around here looks like a total loss.  The soybeans seemed to handle it better, although the pods will not be full.  Where I live there’s a lot of pasture, and any rain will help green it up.

The tomatoes are nearly ready to make their comeback.  They should be ready tomorrow.  Green beans and some peppers should also produce next week.  But this week there’s not much variety.  Okra and cucumbers have been dependable through the drought and heat.  The Diva cucumber has gone hog wild and I keep putting extensions on the trellis.  Here’s a pic of two Diva’s and some okra that I picked on Sunday. 

I dug up the last cage of potatoes – Red Pontiacs.   

Something has been eating them and I suspect it’s a mole.  It’s been on a tear through the vegetable beds, eating every last earthworm in the beds.  Since the crazy spring weather must have put the kabosh on the Japanese beetle, it’s main food, it has been going through the beds like there’s no tomorrow.  I think it turned to eating potatoes out of hunger after all the worms were eaten.  I threw out several pounds of potatoes that were eaten up.  Here’s a few that I saved for pictures. 

For the week:  Cucumber 3 lbs, okra 8 oz, potatoes 7 lb 2 oz.  Yearly total 95 lb