Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 14 Entries. Wednesday, February 14 View Page Love Hurts – Pliny the Younger (1552 Young x 1634 Rea) lasted until Valentine’s day, or so I thought. When I opened him up, Pliny was just a shell of his former self. His insides had rotted from the bottom up and his guts were mush. Only got two dozen viable seeds…   Tuesday, March 19 View Page Hope Springs Eternal – Poppies and mustard are starting to flower after the long wet winter storms. Today is the first day of spring and the soil is still too wet to work. Most of my time in the patch is painstakingly picking the weeds amid the poppies…   Thursday, March 21 View Page Poppy Riot ‘23 – Last spring, volunteer Flander’s Poppies ran riot in my front patch. I let them hang around and finally hacked some room for the pumpkin plants in late April. Later in the year, I had serious soil disease issues with my pumpkins. This year, things are gonna be different...   Thursday, March 21 View Page Killer of the Flower Moon – The killer tiller is now in the patch turning the poppies under. They had just started to bloom but I will not be seduced. I plan to plant a quick crop of mustard along with a splash of mefenoxam to help suppress some of the pesky patch soil pests...   Thursday, March 21 View Page Don’t Cry for me – The California poppies along the perimeter of the patch look aghast as their red brothers are mowed down and tilled in. Hopefully, their sacrifice will not be in vain...   Sunday, March 31 View Page The Mustard has Risen – The patch shows a faint patina of green as the mustard sprouts ascend on Easter morning. Hallelujah...   Monday, April 8 View Page Tillin’ in the Shadow - I tilled up a new spot for the tomatoes in the half-light of the eclipse. Here’s a shot of the tomato patch right at the peak of the eclipse in my area. (about 40%) The sun clearly dimmed for about ½ hour which helped cut down on the sweat factor. I could use one of these eclipses every day...   Monday, April 8 View Page Who Cut the Mustard? – If you’re wondering why I’m growing mustard while most folks are planting pumpkins, I’m resting most the patch this year due to soil disease issues. I will try to grow a pretty one in a corner of the patch which was not used last year...   Sunday, April 21 View Page Diggin’ for Treasure – While some folks promote no-till, I double till for the tomatoes. I first amend and till as deep as I can. Then I dig a trench along the planting line, amend with lots of compost and other goodies then till it in. The last step is to move the top soil back. 16 inches of fluffy stuff under their belt and the roots are foot loose and dancin’...   Sunday, April 21 View Page Cornered – I tilled the mustard under in a corner of the patch where I will try to grow a pretty one this year. Should end up with over 150 square feet for the plant, but the plant will be restricted from the diseased areas of the patch...   Sunday, April 21 View Page April Showers – It hasn’t rained in a week and the mustard was running out of gas...   Tuesday, April 30 View Page Mustard Monster Mash – The mustard is over a foot tall and I’m tilling it under in the full patch. The tiller is doing a good job of chopping the mustard up as it turns it under…   Tuesday, April 30 View Page Carnage Continues – Mighty Mustard is not so mighty if you knock it down young enough. When I finished, I gave the patch a good soak. We’ll see if this mustard gas treatment helps with the soil disease issues...   Tuesday, April 30 View Page Temple of Light – I draped Christmas lights on my pumpkin lifting rig and had an awesome Christmas display over the holidays. Next I plan on transforming the tripod into a trellis for some pole beans...