Almost done mowing for the season, at least I've got the most important stuff done. With a hectare of land and just a small mower, it ain't easy McGee. But my electric mower agrees with me, less maintenance and no exhaust fumes in my face to trigger asthma attacks. So I should stop whining about the small mower. It's 3.5 horsepower, that's enough to get the work done. An electric mower is always running at full power, unlike a gasoline mower which gradually loses power as it ages or the plug gets fouled. And I sharpen it every time I use it, that only takes about 20 minutes with a file and a steel.
The mustard will be ready to start picking soon for salad greens. Mustard greens are so much more nutritious than lettuce and to me they taste a lot better. But I have lettuce seedlings coming up, Kalura this year...it's alleged to be heat-tolerant and it's a Romaine type which I prefer for taste.
The weather cooled down, it was thirteen Celsius this morning...quite a shock to my system I will say. But the work was much more pleasant in the cool air.
Unfortunately the air smelled like a smoldering garbage dump, mixed with some kind of chemical odor. I did a lot of coughing and got chest pain from being outside in it. Every night it's stunk of smoke outside and I've had respiratory issues from it. Possibly it's worse at night because of something called thermal inversion. I recently read that according to a report by the World Health Organization, over 90% of the world's population breathes air that's harmful to human health...and it keeps getting worse each year.
So urban gardening has very serious drawbacks...but I'm hoping that it's an overall benefit to my health. And I'm also hoping for lots of windy weather to clear the air. I have a powerful urge to go sling those shovels and hoes around...maybe tomorrow if the air is OK.
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