This morning I had a dream that the straw I had ordered came. Sure enough it did. So Nicole and I put a fresh layer of straw mulch over the potatoes. We also put mulch on the vegetable beds. It will help preserve the moister in the beds. If it rains allot, the mulch will soak up the extra water. If it's dry, it will release water to the plants. And the soil will not dry out. For the potatoes, it helps keep the ground dark. I'll also add some sawdust or something to help keep the area dark. If potatoes get exposed to the sunlight they turn green. Green potatoes are poisons to eat. Another thing we did is add the compost tea to water, and we watered all the plants. It really stinks. I started making the compost tea about 5 weeks ago. It has soil, weeds, peels from vegetables, fish bones, coffee grounds and egg shells and lots of water. It really smells bad! It's been sitting in the sun cooking for weeks. We added a small amount of this tea to the watering can, then more water. All the plants got feed. I hope it helps encourage good growth! I may cover the grass and all the flower beds with this stinky tea. But only if it's going to rain. I wouldn't want our garden to smell awful for the poor house sitter! The videos I've seen on you tube say compost tea will really help the plants grow. I just had to give it a try. Right now everything we are doing is a theory. We have never done these things before. It's all theory. But so far everything is doing pretty good. The only thing that hasn't done well in the garden is the pumpkin plant. I think it got eaten by something? It's dead. but I have new pumpkins starting from seeds. So we will see if we can still get a pumpkin crop this year. It's hard to believe this garden is only a few months old. We will get a pretty good crop for the first year! And in time, as the soil improves, it will only get better! I love it! It really makes me happy to grow some of my own food!
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