Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 3 Entries. Wednesday, February 27 View Page Beginning the decision of what gets to grow in the front patch... Won't use the rear patch this year, just can't afford the irrigation, nor have the time to maintain it properly. Guess it'll make a good soccer/baseball field for my kids, sigh... chioggia crosses are definently on the list, as is the red kuri and big max crosses. Blue Hubbard cross and Jarradale will probably also be included.. Will include at least 2-3 GPxGP or GPxGS as well. Just haven't decided on which of these to plant.. Tuesday, May 6 View Page Finally got a break in my RA - so guess it's better late than never on getting the patch planted.. Yep, did it all in one day! Redisced it heavily to get all the winter wheat killed off and turned under, did add some 10-10-10 since this is a fairly new patch... And spent hours getting the irrigation system set up. (plenty of soakers from the larger area I used to use! So this patch will be heavily soaked!)... And finally, planted the nine varieties.. yes, only nine! So everything is a 'peck' variety, since I want to make sure to have the best chance of good, viable 'kin seeds for next season.. Planted several Chioggia X 300 pecks - both female GP/GS cross and female Chioggia cross. It shall be interesting to see if the 'unregulated growth gene' is indeed carried in the Chloroplasts of the maternal plant.. The 300 peck 'orange' (female) X blue hubbard - is also included. Some of the Jarradale crosses are included. Of course the 300 Peck X 970 Seals is in there as well.. I'm just listing these by memory. Today, I'll go out and create my schematic from the ID stakes. Just got too tired to do it yesterday.. Tuesday, June 24 View Page It's over before it began. Yes, it's over for this year. With the record heat early in June, and now it being so dry - I'm feeding hay to three calves on 8 acres... I'm pulling the last pathetic plant tomorrow morning. On the other hand, I'm trying to look at this as a good thing. For it should eliminate my entire population of SVB. Another item of note: I've only seen THREE honeybees the entire spring. Yes, even with the hollyhocks in full bloom - there's simply no bees. Even the Carpenter bee population seems to have crashed. Is this due to my heavy use of systemic pesticide last year? I don't know. All I know is that if it was - perhaps it's good I'll have no GPs to use it on this year. Perhaps the bees will recover by feeding on my flower garden. See ya next year.