Difficult Times For Me

It's been a while, I know.  I'm still gardening, but I got discouraged about things because I've been limited in what I can do lately.  This is all due to air pollution triggering asthma attacks...we have people in my neighborhood who are doing illegal things and causing smoke and chemical pollution.

I had to abandon the South Garden and let the grassy weeds have their way with it.  That's OK, the plant-parasitic nematodes can't survive on grass roots...so the weedy grass will be a good cover crop through the rainy season.  It's astonishing how quickly grasses like Dactyloctenium aegyptum can take over from bare ground to knee deep once the rainy season is going full tilt.

I've been enjoying lots of okra...variety Gold Coast.  It's my first season growing Gold Coast and it seems to be doing extremely well in the 57 cm containers.  It's an heirloom variety brought here from West Africa, hence the name.  African varieties of veggies seem to do the best for me...far better than the varieties grown for the US market.

I have one container of Corrientes peas...those are Vigna peas from Mexico.  No pea pods yet, but the vines are extremely stout and vigorous with big leaves.  I'm hoping for a lot of string beans...Corrientes is supposed to be good for string beans.

The air was OK this morning, so I managed to tear down a 57 cm pot and clean it out well.  The eggplant I tried to grow in it died, and there were knots on the roots.  All the soil has been mixed with compost and stored in my fallowing barrels.  After the pot bakes in the sun for a while, I'll put fresh twigs in the bottom, fresh landscaping cloth, and refill it with soil that's been fallowed for 30 days or longer.  I have a small pot with some pea seedlings growing in it, maybe I'll plant those in it.  You have to go with whatever works best in your climate, not try to force things like lettuce to grow in tropical conditions just because you're used to eating it.

The sweet potatoes are growing rampantly in the 57 cm pots, despite having the vine leaders stolen by a chubby swamp rabbit who especially likes them.  I need to cut some poles and trellis the vines up in the air to elude him.  Swamp rabbits don't like to climb.

I'm a vegan, so I'm not going to shoot the rabbit.  It's my responsibility to trellis my sweet potatoes, he's just doing what swamp rabbits do....eat and eat and eat...LOL.  I'm harvesting nice big spuds out of those containers despite his grazing.  He only eats the greens...smart rabbit, greens are really good for you.

I have flooding, but it's not really deep so far.  If it keeps raining every day, the water will build up.  Oh well, that's what boots are for.  And that's why all my containers are up off the ground on concrete blocks.