A couple of the pepper seeds have germinated... finally! Yesterday I went ahead and put my tiny cabbage plants out; they look no worse for the wear today. Cliff says he's been seeing rabbits frolicking around near the garden area when he comes home from work at night, and rabbits love peas and lettuce. We may have a problem. I don't imagine rabbits are easily trapped, because they are vegetarians. What would I bait the trap with? They have everything they need growing all around them. One thing I have to say about the neighbor's previous pesky dogs: While they were around, no rabbits were seen near the place.
It's still five or six weeks until I put out my tomatoes and peppers, so they have a long time in the house yet; poor things, I have such a reputation for killing house plants. I'm really trying to be vigilant this time, though.
Last year, my friend Ora sent me a recipe she found somewhere that's supposed to help prevent tomato blight. While I really don't think it will help, I'm going to try it. Here's the recipe:
Tomato Blight Buster
Use this mix to ward off many common tomato diseases from your newly transplanted tomato seedlings.
3 cups of compost
1/2 cup of powdered non fat milk
1/2 cup of Epsom salts
1 tbsp of baking soda
sprinkle a handful of the mixture into each planting hole...for additional disease defense, sprinkle a little powdered milk on top of the soil after planting, and repeat every few weeks throughout the growing season.
I was talking to another friend, Carol, on the phone the other day; she said someone told her to put a teaspoon of soda in the hole before you plant the tomatoes to prevent blight; as you can see, there's soda in the above recipe. So who knows? Maybe it's just the right mix of mumbo-jumbo that'll keep the blight away.
I wish I weren't so skeptical. Also, I'm a little worried that Iris will get a whiff of milk in my tomato patch and start digging.
I'll keep you posted.
