Garden 2021

We planted the garden in the same plot as the last two years. It gets full sun from dawn until late afternoon when the sun dips behind our western willow trees. This year we put in 7 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants and one each zucchini and cucumber plants. Along the north side of the house we have chives, basil, parsley and rosemary in pots. Shelly picked up two purslane plants and for a couple of days I puzzled over them growing smaller, thinking I was watering too much or not enough, until I realized the rabbits were munching on them, so they have been moved to a bench hopefully out of their reach. Shelly discovered a new weed control method whereby she cut an X in the flat cardboard we put down, opened the four flaps and that is where we dug a hole for a plant. We dismantled a huge dog kennel in the machine shed last year that was full of straw, which we saved for this spring to spread over the cardboard. Currently there is a heatwave here in Iowa with temps in the 90’s, with the forecast calling for the same all next week into the following weekend. All we can do is keep the garden watered and hope for the best.