never trust the rain

when i got to campus this morning i found that the school of nursing had planted their beds with an assortment of peppers tomatoes, and what could, to my eyes, be beans or peas...i will know more as the season progresses...

when i got to my bed i discovered a relatively mild outbreak of jerusalem artichokes...

after i hoed the outbreak down i noticed that the soil in the corn hill looked rather dry, as did the soil in the unclaimed bed next door...this left me in a quandary...there was rain in the forecast and it had been raining on my way over...however the rain had been very light and very scattered ( i had windshield wipers on and off at least twice in about a ten mile trip )...if that was going to be the extent of it i needed to water...if it rained more there would be no need...i never trust the weather so i watered...i did not do my usual soak every bed twice routine i would have on a day i knew there would be no rain...i went over each bed once as a sop to the possibility of precipitation...

i brought a geranium along to plant in my bed and after i hoed and watered i set about finding a spot for it in a bed that already is fairly busy...geraniums ( and foxglove and plus fours ) are toxic to japanese beetles...a substance in the flowers paralyzes them and makes them easy prey for birds...in my experience they act more as a repellent than a trap so i plant them around fruit crops like grapes and strawberries the beetles like to gnaw on...admittedly i have never seen a japanese beetle on a tomato or potato plant ( they are nightshades and i imagine the solanine is not beetle friendly ) or a maize plant for that matter...but i have found them on beans in my bed in this garden before so i am revving up the repellent before the beans appear...

which should be soon since the maize they are going to vine on are approaching ten inches in height...a week or so to bean time...

so the season in my bed is just about set and the we will wait for developments...and the inevitable surprises...

as i moved around the garden i stumbled on some apparently homeless plants still in seedling trays...this tomato, which i planted in the corner box by washington street and a couple of peppers which i put in the asparagus bed...if anyone had plans for those three they can easily be moved...

leaving, i took a look back to see the garden shaping up pretty well...and the approaching deluge...never trust the rain...( in my defense, the "deluge" at my house, which lies about a mile north and a few miles east of the garden, was only about ten minutes of reasonably heavy rain..then nothing )