Incredible Edible Mills River: Taking Flight

Thank you, Jim, for planting the first corn today. Thus, our field crops are officially in! Mary Alice and I carefully inspected all the tomato plants and found and eliminated more than one kind of beetle. We also removed the tiny flowers that had appeared as we're told the plants are too small and need to continue to use their strength to grow before producing fruit. We are hoping that they'll shoot up in this warmer weather and thus get ahead of the bugs. Otherwise, we'll have to take more aggressive action.

Mary Alice was kind enough to spray my eggplant with Pyrethrium and it seemed to be a lot more effective against the flea beetles than the Safe Insecticidal Soap.

We thinned out some of the Tenderette bush beans by transplanting some to the empty half row where the Green Dragon beans seemed to have failed to germinate. We decided to wait a bit to see which of the remaining plants to remove for thinning, so we can select those that look scrawniest to throw away. Looks like we didn't really need to plant two beans at a time in each hole, since they've all come up!

Here are some pix from the garden today. Reminders: wear bug spray - the gnats and skeeters are out since there's been rain. Be sure to check for ticks very carefully when you leave the garden - lots of folks have found them on their clothes, bodies and hair. Weed early, weed often - the weeds are very prevalent until they are shaded by the growth of leafy plants. Mike and I took our cue from the Dhoms/Stricklands and others who put down weed control paper and then mulched - hoping that will save us some back breaking work.

I had an amazing experience this morning when Mike and I watched a blue bird fledge from the box for her (?) first flight. She flew directly for the largest structure around, which was our house - and clung to a screened kitchen window while deciding what to make of this big beautiful world. I'm posting a picture of that first bird and video I took of the second (it's shaky and rough - shot thru the screen).

Life is good!