Today is the feast of St. Basil of Moscow, the patron or my youngest son. So, while praying the ninth hour today we got to sing the Troparion for St. Basil of Moscow.
Most of the beets, kale, and pumpkins - all the pumpkins, actually- we transplanted two weeks ago were destroyed by squirrels. But we are still getting 5 or six big tomatoes, a dozen little cherry tomatoes, and three or four zucchini every day. (The squirrels, even though I shoot them, get more of the zucchini than we do.) I've put up six quarts of pickles. I really wanted more pickles but there have been very few bees in the garden this summer, so thought there have been many flowers there have not been many cucumbers. I don't know what to think of that. The carrots did not do well. But the bell peppers are doing amazing. The pumpkins we planted back in February were harvested and all but one given away. I started more cantaloupe and pumpkin 2 weeks ago on the back balcony. Tomorrow I'll transplant then into the garden. The turnips and radishes did really well but I'm really the only person in the house who likes them, so I won't plant any more, I think.
A word about the tomatoes: The Cherokee purples did not do well. We only got three or four off each vine. The real star among the tomatoes this year is the Lemon Boy vine. It is prolific and is the best tasting tomato I have ever had. We might plant three or four of them next spring.
I ordered some short growing season watermelon seeds from Baker Creek. They should be here in a couple of days. I'll sew them directly into the ground and hope to harvest them in early October.
Kathleen and I have been doing a lot of fun stuff this summer. We go shooting at Coyote Sporting Clays pretty often. And, of course there are all the trips to Tahoe/Truckee/Reno. (Basil and I went last Sunday and Monday. He had a great time on the boat.)
Something kind of neat happened at dinner tonight. Kathleen and I were talking about the reading list (Bastiat, Smith, Friedman etc.) for the economics class she teaches when Anselm, who graduated from high school two years early so did not take the economics course high school seniors take, asked Kathleen if he can take her class. And since she, like all teachers in the county, is teaching online he can take it.
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I wish I could send you some of "my" bees. I think I have a thousand on my little property every day. Poor things, I had to trim back the germander, and then the 26 lavender plants. The bees now are thick on the oregano and still finding nectar on the echium and many other flowers.
What I haven't seen this year are butterflies - well, maybe one or two, last month... I read on one blog about how butterflies in tropical arboretums are attracted to very ripe bananas left "open" on a stump, etc. and I think I might try that. I just this moment realized that I have no parsley to draw the swallowtails. What is a garden with no parsley?? Well, it's some kind of.
And all my Monarch nursery work last summer -- I thought the progeny of the butterflies I raised would come back here this year. But perhaps those butterflies were eaten before they got out of the neighborhood. I hadn't planned to be involved in their breeding this summer, so I'm accepting of it. And I'm really glad that I don't have an aphid problem. I think it was the mulch in my planter boxes that was perpetuating that pest.
If you ever come to the North Bay please come and visit my garden!
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