Garden report

I should tell you that these turnips aren't so very big yet, but they are edible at this size. I can count on one hand the foods Cliff doesn't like: Turnips are at the top of the list. He thinks they taste like spoiled potatoes. I love them fixed the way my mom used to cook them, creamed, with a little sugar.

Yesterday I put a thick layer of straw on the tomato and pepper area of the garden. This keeps weeds away and holds moisture in. I couldn't normally afford this much straw,but we got those huge straw bales off Craigslist that were very reasonably priced. In fact, I could mulch the whole garden if I so desired.

There are lots of little yellow blooms on the grape tomato plant; I can hardly wait!

You can see there will soon be blooms on the bell peppers. It'll be fun to watch them and see what color they'll be, since the seeds were a mix of various colors of peppers.

Green beans planted early in spring are always "buggy", and mine are no exception. I dusted them with Sevin, and that will do away with the bugs. An organic gardener would be wise to wait until June to plant beans; then the bugs would stay away.

I also dusted the cabbages to keep worms off them.


I'm experimenting with some bush cantaloupes. In the past I've had a horrible problem with squash bugs, which can kill cucumber, melon, and squash plants almost overnight. Sevin dust doesn't faze them; they almost seem to enjoy bathing in it.

I found this picture on the Internet of a squash bug and some of its eggs. They do their dirty deeds on the undersides of the leaves, so they can have a plant killed before you ever notice them.

I recently mentioned my problem with radishes: they go to seed without ever making a round radish; all I get is a long, slender root. I've seen on the Internet that the problem can be caused by too much nitrogen, not enough potassium, or too-heavy soil. Whatever. Cliff and his sister are gardening in a different area, and Sunday he came in with a big smile on his face, and the nicest radishes I've ever seen! I guess I'll let him gloat.