Ready to Plant - July 31, 2020

If Casper the Color-Changing Frog sang his love song last night, I missed it.  I was too tired to listen.

I went to the garden at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon and didn't quit until almost 8:30.  The Husband joined me around 6:30.  By that time, I had pulled up all the green beans and the grass and had piled them in three big heaps.  The Husband got a pitchfork and hauled them away.  When he finished, I sent him to pull up the yellowing cucumber vines while I dragged the tiller out of the shed, gassed it up, and began plowing the space where the purple hull peas and green beans had been.

At the far end of the garden, the grass was still tall.  I don't know what kind of grass this is, but it is vigorous.  It grows 2 feet tall and makes a wispy seed head.  The stems are a purple-ish-red near the root.  It pulls up fairly easily if the soil is soft.  I have pulled up truck-loads of it this summer in an effort to keep it from going to seed.  I did not want to run the tiller through that grass - it would have wrapped around the tiller tines - so I mowed it down with the lawnmower.  While I put the mower away, The Husband took hold of the tiller and began tilling that end of the garden.  I took hold of a rake and smoothed out the soil where I had tilled.

The squash is out of control.  I don't know why it continues to bloom and produce squash this time of the year.  By now, it has usually collapsed from heat and squash bugs, but it is still going strong.  It needs picking almost every day.  I picked a pretty good pile of it yesterday.  We gave some to Nanny and Aunt B, and I brought some home to make a squash casserole.  

We're still getting cucumbers, too.  The Husband left a few of the cucumber vines so that we'll have a few to soak in vinegar for salads.  

The okra needed cutting again, but I ran out of energy and decided to save that job for today.  It rained last night, so I may have to wear my mud boots to cut it.

The poor tomatoes . . . blight has set in with a vengeance.  It may be too late to rescue the plants.  They are still loaded with tomatoes, but many of them are watery on the bottom - too much rain, I guess.

I'm still waiting for the butterbean seeds to arrive in the mail.  

I have not yet delivered the brussells sprouts seeds to Uncle Jack, who agreed to sprout them for me in his greenhouse.

The sweet pea seeds are still on my kitchen table.  If the ground is not too wet, I will try to plant them this weekend.