More Surprises

Not much gardening activity going on this past week. I did replace the Juliet Roma tomato I inadvertently killed with a new one on Monday. She is now in the ground and appears very happy. We had a lot of rain Thursday & Friday so everything's doubled in size. I checked my cauliflower and broccoli and the heads have tripled! I'm going to have to tie off the cauliflower leaves to keep the heads from getting sun scorched.

Today was a day of unpleasant surprises in the garden. I discovered that one of my healthy, large red leaf lettuce plants just totally collapsed at some point this week. The thing was soggy and mushy when I pulled it out of the soil. I don't know if it got too much water or what. Too much water would be odd for lettuce as the plants like to be moist. When I got back from a day of adventure with my mom I discovered half of another plant had collapsed. Same mushy, soggy mess. I threw everything away too afraid to put it into the compost bin in case the plant collapse was caused by disease.

Other than the lettuce disappointments, everything else seems to be doing fine. I wish the peas and snow peas were growing faster. They seem to be stuck around the 5" mark. Not sure if it's because they haven't grabbed onto the trellis or what. Dave's hops are growing crazy. One is particularly happy growing about 4"/day.

Took a prowl around the Americorps website yesterday in between rounds of migraine headaches. I found the PERFECT opportunity for me! A farm manager at Gateway Greening's City Seeds project. City Seeds is a 2 acre farm in the heart of the city used to help rehabilitate the homeless and sell good produce in farmers markets in low income areas. Too bad they are not currently taking applications. I'm going to keep my eye on this...may even inquire. The experience would be truly amazing and would actually make me feel as if I'm DOING something with my life...leaving a small imprint on this big planet. Yes, I could always just volunteer my time but with a more than full time job and a household, finding a few hours is difficult. Listen to me whine...If I want it badly enough, I will find a way to make time.

I took some pix of the garden last week. I'll get them posted soon!