Nearly Cloud Free Sky
For November, this past weekend was beautiful. The green hasn’t yet been sapped out of everything, and the sky was a mix of blue’s and whites. The few clouds that floated through the sky were small, and diverse in color. I took this shot from the very edge of the garden. The homes visible on the adjacent hill belong to my Amish neighbors. The poles in the photo support cables which will guide the now infant grape vines. I’m hoping in the future they won’t look so odd when the plants grow a bit.
New Tomato Patch
This weekend’s agenda had only one item: My sister Sandy had some composted manure available, and when I arrived, we soon found more. The compost had built up over years in Sandy’s goat pasture, and had to be cleared out. While this was a problem for Sandy, it was a solution for myself. Composted Manure is Garden Gold, and I was all too happy to dig out the drainage ditch in exchange for free compost. As I was digging, I felt like a robber baron. This is by far the best garden additive I’ve found, and here I am digging it up and hauling it away, without putting any of it on Sandy’s garden. She insisted that I could take all I could dig up, so dig I did.
A few hours later, we spread the compost onto the main garden, and used a few bags of it to make a new Tomato Patch. This is soil which has never had tomatoes grow in it, so I’m sure Late blight will not spread out of the soil to destroy my plants. If the blight should strike in 2011, I’ll be sure it fell from the air.
Anti-Weed Weapon
As I finish up this post, and look through all of the photos I’ve taken this weekend, I’ve noticed something odd. One of the areas of the garden has absolutely no weeds. This was the area where all of my winter squash, and zucchini were planted. If I remember correctly, I planted them last, and was disappointed with their growth, so I side-dressed these plants with composted manure…. Which makes me wonder: As soon as the plants got side-dressed they grew like mad. I’m now wondering if the cure for weeds is compost. So this spring, as I plant each and every crop, I plan to side-dress them, and note the number of weeds which grow. My theory is: The compost causes the plants to grow so fast that they hog the sun, and keep the weeds from growing.
