Slow down.

Thursday Evening 14th August

The weather is unsettled, forecasts of thunderstorms for this weekend prompted me to do some mowing Wednesday and Thursday evening after work. The grass is so long down by the creek that Herbie almost choked. I kept waiting for the drive belt to break but he made it through the first rough cut. This isn't mowing, it's brush hogging !!! I plan to re cut the whole lot down to finished length on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning 16th August

After a pleasant lunch at Montana Mike's in Miami, my wife and I head into town for the full retail experience, returning home around 3-30pm.

Black clouds are forming, I'm into my gardening gear and out there as quickly as possible.

30 minutes into the mowing and there's an almighty "Snap".

The drive belt has broken..........................

..........and Herbie is returned to his stable.

I order a new belt on line. It will be here by next Friday. sigh.

So, this bit of the garden...........................

......looks tidy. But the rest of it................

......looks like a "Crows nest" (All shit and twigs).

Sunday 17th August.

Rising at 8-15am.

Alvin is calling at the bedroom window.
Check and water the seedlings.....................

Cabbage are looking good. Some of everything had germinated except the catnip.
I decided that I was not giving them enough water and so instead of using the spray bottle they got a little from the jug.
And, guess what....................................

.....by Saturday morning I had 3 Catnip seedlings sprouted. Very tiny, but seedlings none the less.
I'm still harvesting, using and selling tomatoes but they are starting to slow down now.

The very hot spell we had a week or so ago was followed by an extremely wet period.
Such fluctuations in moisture levels result in this.................

The most common cause of tomato fruit splitting is uneven watering of the plants. If the plants become a little dry and are then watered or subjected to heavy rain over a prolonged period, the plants take up a large amount of water all at once. This is transported into the developing fruit and the fruit cells expand faster than the skin can stretch and it splits open.
I've been having fruit split for a week now. Some are not as bad as the one shown in the picture and are still edible. I check each evening and pick the fruit before it gets too bad.
My companion plants continue to bloom and add some nice colours to the plots.

All the marigolds are still thriving.
I'm amazed that the Yolo Bell Peppers are still going strong despite some of them getting a heavy attack from the Blister Beetles

Most of the peppers are now turning red.
I think that these..........................

........will be my last two cucumbers of the season.
A few plants are now showing signs of having had better days. The Pole Beans are done and the plants need pulling soon. I'm onto my last few carrots, they have performed well.
The Swiss Chard harvest was a disappointment, made worse by the fact that the little we did get was so tasty. That's definitely one to work on.
I have three potato plants to harvest yet. Then I'll have to decide what I'm going to do with Plot 5.

Finally, our little Red bud tree, destroyed in the ice storm of January, is refusing to die.

A close inspection at the bottom of the stump shows a high degree of rot so sadly it will have to go.