Elixir of life

I can't believe what is happening to the garden after I sprayed everything down with kelp on Sunday. It is a different garden. My hot peppers that never set fruit are now setting fruit and flowering. The zucchini plant that I almost decided to pull on Sunday but decided to give it one last chance for a week--4 new blooms on it this morning (it was mostly dead on Sunday)and I swear it has gotten almost twice as big in a few days and ridiculously lush. The eggplant looks like it is about to flower when I figure nothing would happen. The tomatoes have seemed to go absolutely crazy. 5 days ago, I thought I would have only 5 strawberries out of 19 plants. 2 plants had flowers. This morning, almost every plant has a cluster of flowers.

I can't believe it. I suddenly feel a glimmer of hope that we will actually have produce.

In seed starting news, half of what I put in the seedstarting kit has come up. I'm not worried. I mean, it can take quite awhile for some of the lettuces to germinate. I'm just not sure what to do if I have to pop out some of cabbage and poc choi before the lettuce comes up. I guess I'll worry about that when I need to worry about it.

Amazingly, the turnips are sprouting in the garden. From now on, I will always use a row cover in the garden. I'm going to have to really figure out a plan on how to keep the dog out so I dont' have to wall off each 2 foot section on 3-sides so I can just put down 1 row cover over the whole thing. Right now I have little squares cut out for each square that I'm trying to start something from seed. There really is not reason not to just keep the cover on most/all of the time or for at least significant portions of time. It seems to work wonders for starting from seed, keeping moisture in, and keeping pests out.

I'm so happy. It's been such a frustrating experience for the last 4 months--trying to mentally will my garden into production and failing at every step. We're having a rare spring/summer with high temperatures and little rain where you can acutally grow a LOT of food,,,so it's been doubly frustrating. I might not get another summer like this for YEARS.

Now that things are starting to look a little more healthy and happy, I feel more healthy and happy. I know not everything is going to work out, but I feel like I've been missing the best thing about growing food--that awe and wonderment of watching seeds become plants. Watching how things change every single day. Observing life.



I've sent in my money and form for the Comprehenisve Organic Gardening class this fall. Please keep your fingers crossed that it isn't totally full and I get a space!