Horticulturing: A Harvest Today

** Sun Gatherer -- Frens of Blessing Town **

Day 60-ish

Today was actually a good day in the garden. No-one got strip searched (like we all did Friday).

My cucumber buddies have me worried, because the leaves are turning yellow, brown, and even crunchy and dry in spots on Ouest. Nord's looking reasonably healthy, just a few spots of yellowing.
Ms. S (our instructor) advised me to remove those leaves, and consider fertilizer for Ouest tomorrow; those were pruned. I'll make note to get whatever fertilizer we have, check out a soil aerator, and make with the fertilizer deployment. That should help with the rest of the cucumbers that are only a couple of centimeters long.
I also removed the last of my experiment with dry grass as mulch: only Ouest received that weeks ago, and only Ouest has this problem. While correlation is not causation, it is logical: decomposition of grass may be nitrogen locking my soil, and that may be the problem.

The East twins (more cucumbers) on the other side of my currently stewing compost pile are growing decently; one has made friends with ol' One Leaf, the cucumber plant that has a will to live despite having nearly died and the other is corn-curious, keeps trying to make close friends with Gemma, my Glass Gem Corn. Sorry, Eastie, you can't be more than just friends. ;)

The Pak Choi 5 have produced another order of leaves to harvest for me, and so I munch those happily while I write up this synopsis, having gathered and washed them earlier.

Oh, and Ouest has produced! I found four cucumbers that slipped their vines rather easily, telling me it must have been time to collect them. I shared one with my garden neighbor. Nord has tinies, all just need time to grow. :3

I added half an apple, some grape tomatoes that I pulp-extracted for their seeds, and four slices of moldy bread to my personal compost pile, along with the pruned leaves and some stray grass. Watered it mildly, chopped and turned it with feeling (tired is a feeling). I think later this week, I'll dig my compost, bucket it for a full deep turn, and use that time to see what the bottom of the hole actually looks like after several weeks of compost. This will also give me a chance to add some (if not all) of my remaining dry grass to the compost in layers, following a friend's suggestion.

I'm loving watching the bees trundle around, just landing on a flower and waddling a little until their head is in the right spot to have a nice snack, then they buzz along to the next flower. My other neighbor, who is growing watermelons, had a little dragonfly land on one of his plants for a bit of a rest. Last week, we had butterflies in addition to the bees, which was super nice.

For now, I need to get more water in. We get to go tend the dorm flowers today unless it starts raining right now, and it is hot outside.

<3,
J