Journaling

A lot of the gardening blogs mention keeping a journal about your garden., what you plant in it and how it does. I know I should. The "Whys" are as easy to find and list as they are at this site. Am I going to do it? I've been telling myself, since 2005, when I started this blog, that my garden journal was "online". Well, I have to admit it.. that's kind of been a cop out.

Truth is: I'm lazy. I like journals and I like writing in them. I just forget to do it every day. I think I'm going to give it another try. One of the things I got at Spring Fling was an empty garden journal. NOW is as good a time as any to start, as I'll be planting things again this month. "Fall" is our second "Spring" here, and is actually a nicer time to garden as the pests that eat the plants have gone through their major life cycle for the year and so there are fewer things to munch upon the plants. It's a little dicey, and a gamble...which has its own allure. Are you going to beat the first frost? Is there going to BE a first frost? (Seriously...sometimes...we don't get a 'frost' until sometime around or after Christmas.)

So, in goes the beets, the radish, the carrots and more lettuce. I've had to resort to chemical warfare against the snails this year. This spring they were simply overwhelming. I'm hoping to get some sort of crop before they eat it all. The spring crop of lettuce was cut short. One morning, I went outside to get some and discovered there was not a LEAF to be found. It was if someone had "unplanted" it. You'd never have known there had been lettuce anywhere near the pot, except that I did have pictorial proof. They also ate my snap peas, bush beans and all of my squash and cucumber ---they even beat the squash borer to the squash!

So.. into the journal goes this year... bad for snails...little to no rain this summer...but great basil production. My overwintered tomatoes did well this spring and will be going back into the same bed they were in last year. That bed's been free of tomatoes all summer, so it should be good for another growing season.

Ahhhh... I do like fall.