Sun and Rain

The rainy season is going strong lately.  This morning I tried to do some mowing, but got rained out by a heavy downpour that popped up without warning from the TV radar.

The peas look good.  I got 100% germination and the plants are starting to shade the ground a bit already.  I really should mulch them, but with the lawn areas all overgrown, it's difficult to get to everything.  Air quality in the early morning continues to be very poor, there's always a definite odor of smoke during the night and early morning.  I have an idea why there is trash burning going on every night, but I won't get into that in this blog.  We have trash pickup at the curb here...recyclables, garbage, and yard waste in separate collections once a week.  So there's no legitimate reason to burn trash.  But it's very widespread here nevertheless.  As someone once said..."You can educate people, but you can't fix stupid."

The okra is doing well...great big leaves and thick stalks.  They don't seem to grow in the sandy soil in the garden, but do extremely well in my potting soil.  It's probably a pH thing.  The "soil" here is about 95% calcareous sand from the look of it.  My potting soil has loads of humus from all the compost I'm mixed with it over the past forty years or so.  I got a lot of it originally by gathering up soil from an old abandoned homesite I found in the woods, so gardeners before my time probably added compost and manure to it as well.

Humus plus sand equals soil, the equation seems to be as simple as that sometimes.  You can make humus by cooking compost, so there you have it.  Speaking of compost, that open pile I started when I didn't finish sharpening the flails on the chipper/shredder was steaming like mad last time I dug into it.  This time of year the rain keeps an open pile moist enough to make it practical, so maybe I don't need to shred everything first.  Running the shredder gives me sinus headaches, so I'm always happy to avoid cranking it up.  I do need it to process the woody material, so I'll have to finish work on it soon.  Woody twigs and branches break down on their own, but it takes years.  I chip and shred them all and use the chips as mulch.

I do have my problems sometimes.  Right now I'm dealing with some chorosis in my Basella and sweet potatoes, not sure why that is. I'll have to look into it, something could be attacking the roots. Chlorosis is a loss of green color in leaves with the veins showing as darker against a pale background.  I'll try spraying them with seaweed extract before trying anything drastic like dumping a container out to look at roots.

My disabilities hold me back or I'd do a lot more.  My legs don't work very well at all anymore and I've had respiratory problems. But I don't have the sense to give up, so I keep at things.  It's what I've always done.

When I make my vegan soups with molokhia and other pickings from the garden, I know it's all worth it.  You can't put food on your table with wishful thinking.  Perspiration works better.

Update on the Peas

It's only been a few days, but the peas are all up and growing with large leaves fully spread out and catching the sun.  Things do have a way of happening very rapidly in tropical sunshine if conditions are favorable.  I'm looking forward to harvesting them and using them in the kitchen, lately I've been eating a lot of pinto beans and I could use a change of pace.  I'm about halfway through a 25 pound sack of the pintos.

I've had to do a lot of watering.  It used to be the case that there was no need to water the garden much at this time of year, because it rained almost every day.  But things seem to be different now, our rains come in spells, interspersed with dry periods that last for a week or more.

The rains cool my house in the evenings, if the air isn't too smoky to open the windows.  I used to leave the windows open all the time during the rainy season, but that's no longer possible.  It makes life very unpleasant at times when you have no air conditioning in your house and you can't open the windows.  I survive with cold showers.

The molokhia is growing very well as usual.  Planting the right varieties of veggies is an essential part of subtropical gardening. Right now many of my older plants like peppers are struggling in the heat, but the Vigna and the molokhia are growing very rapidly with no problems.  That shows the wisdom of proper varietal selection for the current conditions.  I pick a colander of molokhia leaves every few days from just two plants in 34 cm containers.  I like them best in soup.

My hope is that I won't have to completely rework the planting beds once I get them all rehabilitated and shielded from root invasion with landscaping cloth.  It only takes a morning or two of adding compost and mixing with the fork to amend a bed for a new crop.  The trick is to get out there and do it, lately I've not been feeling up to it...might have had a little heat exhaustion in addition to the usual bronchitis I get from the smoke.  I do work outside, but I run out of steam very quickly lately.

This time of year...what gets done, gets done.