This afternoon when I came home from work, I was greeted on the front porch by a snake. Big around as a broom handle, and probably three feet long, solid black/gray. My best guess, based on the pictures on the web, is that it was a Southern Black Racer. He might be fast, but not as fast as I was when I high-tailed it into the house via the back door. He was gone by the time I put my stuff down and went to the front door for another peek. You know what that means, don't you? He's still out there...somewhere.... I used the back door again when I went to the garden.
The garden is coming along right well.
Tonight I picked a plastic grocery bag full of cucumbers, and another bag full of squash and zucchini. I saw a few squash bugs. Nanny said she would dust the plants in the morning. She kept the cucumbers to use for relish. I'll play the Squash Fairy tomorrow at work.
The purple-hull peas are filling out and starting to turn purple. I planted only three rows - not enough for this family of pea lovers. As soon as everybody on the hill gets all the cucumbers they want, I'm going to pull up the vines and plant a late crop of peas in their place.
Did my first serious picking of green beans on Saturday. Had enough for supper (and some left-overs), and a few to give away.
The Grandson's tiger eye beans are drying on their vines, just as we want them to do. They are LOADED with beans.
The chili peppers are making faster than I can pick them.
The tomatoes. Well....
On the up side, we have several tomatoes that would do to eat today, but will be better in two more days. (I'm craving that first ripe tomato/mayonnaise sandwich of the season.) They're still blooming, and there are little tomatoes coming along, but not in the quantities I would like. I planted about 45 tomato plants. I should be covered up with tomatoes, but I'm not. Not yet.
On the down side, I'm battling blight non stop. The blight is probably what's robbing my tomato plants of their vigor, but I'll be switched if I know what to do about it. I tried the baking soda/cooking oil blight treatment that I saw on YouTube. It seemed to slow the blight down a little - about as much as the fungicide does - but it's still there. I believe it's just in the air. You might remember that about three years ago, I moved the tomato patch plumb out of the garden, way up the driveway, close to the road, where ne'er a tomato plant had ever grown. Those plants had the worst case of blight EVER, so I know it's not just in the garden soil from prior years. I even have blight on my two patio plants, which have never been NEAR the garden.
Tomatoes.
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