Thank you, Pea. The garden is where I do my best thinking. It is peaceful except early morning and early evening when there is some traffic (not much) on the road that runs in front of the place. But I love looking at the fields. They surround us on three sides. The owner of those fields just brought in 23 cows about ten days ago so I get to watch them too.
Despite mornings around 43 there has been progress with stuff coming up. Over the past two days the yard long beans, climbing blackeye butterbeans, Blue Lake bush beans and a couple of the Cajun Jewel okra have started coming up. Still no sign of the Roma bush beans, popcorn, Black Diamond watermelon or Choppee okra.
Starting Tuesday temps will be climbing each day and by Saturday we'll be back to the upper 80's again with lows around 65.
This morning I cut some stakes and pounded one next to each of the ten peppers. It will give them something to lean against when the wind comes across the pasture and something to tie them to if necessary. The peppers have carrots along side and front left is the bean bed with Contenders and somewhat skippy Golden Rod. I need to find a better yellow bean.
Today I read an article about staking and pruning summer squash like you would tomatoes. Grow 'em vertically. The theory is that keeping the leaves off the ground helps prevent disease. One also cuts off all leaf stems below the lowest fruit and they are cut off right at the main stem where they are not hollow anymore.The main stem sans leaves should be easy to wrap against borers. I'm going to play with this and this morning put a stake next to each of the two summer squash.
In case anyone is interested, here's the link:
https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/youv ... all-wrong/
The peas got way tall this year! They've grown above their fence and the wind we've had lately has blown the tops over, not to mention that extra weight making their fence lean into the aisle. The wooden fence supports just couldn't do the job. What a mess! I pounded in three t-posts behind the fence, tied the fence to the posts and ran some baling twine post to post in front of the vines, trying to help them get vertical again. Some success but not much.
Today was the second day of pea picking and it's a pain trying to see what's ready. It will be slow going. Meanwhile the usual old powdery mildew is starting to fire up the vines at the bottom. This evening on this pea bed I'm going to try a light vinegar spray mentioned in the squash article. On the other pea bed I'm going with a baking soda based spray. Either method is supposed to alter the pH of the leaf surfaces to where mildew can't grow there. We'll see.