Blue Ridge Gardener

but were afraid to ask…

Saw this online today.  I found it to be much easier reading than I expected, and it answered some specific questions about cover crops that I had been looking for.

You can buy it for $19 dollars or get a PDF for free:

Managing Cover Crops Profitably

Available from Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education (SARE)

The American Horticultural Society has an interesting web tool.

It doesn’t have the bells and whistles or the graphical quality of some sites, but it does have some accessible information.

Try the AHS Q and A page for your gardening questions.

• We had some moisture last night with a thunderstorm.  Mostly steady rain, so the garden was lush this morning.  Even the grass which had gotten a little crusty after some dry days showed a little more life.
  

  Week old seedlings

• The bok choi began sprouting on Monday afternoon and are already showing some tiny leaves (these were planted on Saturday).  This morning, broccoli were poking through.  I am seeing the same pattern from plantings a week ago.
• It looks like germination rates for bok choi are about 95%, broccoli is about 90% and the cabbage is about 70% on the first set of seeds sown.
• Squash is healthy and is beginning to be abundant–I can count about 3 dozen fruit on the vine–and we picked four squash yesterday.  This week we will get more than we can eat.
• Roses are beginning to bloom.  I wasn’t expecting anything from the plants in their first season, but I have been pleasantly surprised.

Compare with picture from 07-08-08

Everything got done on the list from Friday–except for grass cutting.  None of the neighbors cut their lawn, and the grass has not grown significantly, so it might be this evening or Tuesday.

A few things to note from the weekend–

• We got a nice steady rain on Saturday, several hours worth.  The garden was lush all weekend.
• We’ve got dozens of squash on the vine, and numerous cucmbers.  We should have our hands full of these two vegetables for days to come.
• We have lots of tomatoes on the vine, none ready to pick and most have a long way to go yet
• The buckwheat came up in a bare spot that I planted last week–I will get a picture up later
• Beans began to bloom over the weekend and seem to be on schedule to pick in mid-August
• I took a comparison picture of the garden–amazing what a couple of weeks of sun and moisture will do for a garden