Spring has arrived and it is a beauty! Last year when we bought Jack a Harley, he said it made him feel 10 years younger just to climb on and ride it a little while. Well somehow buying tomato plants has the same effect on me!! Starting the year's kitchen garden brings on a surge of happy energy. I am thrilled to have them in our kitchen tonight, two kinds, and some lemon thyme and a packet of yellow squash seed, and a bit more to come in the next week when we can locate parsely and basil plants, and cucumber seed. We have cut down to just 2 narrow raised beds now, and hope we can keep up with the bugs better. Last year was a disaster for our veggies, as it was for many people here.
I have a sneaky plan... the pill bugs got almost all of the squash last year, I tried to raise the little things out of harm's way by shoving wads of hay under each one, but lost almost the whole crop. THIS year, we are going to stretch net wire across the bed, side to side, and coax the young squash plants up through the wire leaving all about 4 or 5 inches off the ground. The vines and fruit might bloom and grow safely up there away from contact with the bugs on the damp soil. We shall see! I have never heard of anyone trying that. If you see a strange figure in a straw hat and floppy clothes in our back yard, it is not a scarecrow really. E
