October 26, 2012

Couple of surprises this week. Found some volunteer watermelons in the upper bed. I'm confused by this. Seeds responds to temperature and moisture. The ground has been wet enough, but the temperature has been nowhere near warm enough, I thought. If I had a greenhouse, I would try to cultivate these. Sadly, these are destined to become in-the-ground compost.

My second surprise, the roots on that gourd! With a support system like that, no wonder its vines can spread out so much. I can't even find the end of the roots on the lower part of the picture.

I did score a bonus this week. An empty, grassy lot in my area gets mowed about three times a year. Each time, big piles of grass straw gets left in rows. I find it strange, the county, or city, not sure which, wants the tall grass cut for aesthetic reasons but leaving the cut grass in mounded rows is okay. Go figure. Doesn't matter to me, that makes it easier for me to rake up and bag. This is my second bonus. The first has already been spread out as a very thick ground cover, as you can see in the area in front of the pile. I'm testing to see how effectively it suppresses weeds and grass. So far, it's doing a good job.

My potted seeds are sprouting nicely. Broccoli, I believe.

 Lettuce. Too many in this pot, but I'm not going to thin them, just to see what happens.

 Carrots in the next two pictures. I'm interested to see what happens in the vase.

Suburban Hermit of Fayetteville, signing off.