We didn't set up at the farmers market Saturday as planned.  With thunderstorms lurking in the forecast, weary bodies that didn't move as quickly as needed to be set up by 9 AM, it was an easy decision to forgo the market. We arrived home from our week in Charleston late Friday afternoon to find there had been no rain all week and the garden in dire need of watering.  Despite the absence of rain, the weeds flourished.  Yellow tree pollen blanketed the porch and the outside furniture.  Saturday we did some garden chores, cleaned off the layers of pollen so more pollen could take its place.
We added more compost to the potatoes in the 4x4 and added more boards for height.
Fifteen more potatoes.  Wayne's Feed was out of the straw I needed to mulch around the hills so will pick some up when his delivery arrives this week.
The dreaded dastardly Colorado potato beetle.  The vile creature that took over my potatoes last June when we drove to Florida for Richard and Sarah's wedding has reared its ugly head again.  The striped beast becomes dormant during the winter only to taunt me in the spring when it smells potato greens.  The female slyly lays dozens of tiny orange eggs on the under-side of the potato leaf where she thinks I don't know what she's doing.  But this year, I'm up to her sneaky ways.  Today I searched  under all the leaves and found her hiding spots, snipped the leaf that held her eggs, and dropped it into a cup of soapy water, along with over a dozen adult beetles.  When I buy my straw from Wayne's Feed, I'll also purchase an insect spray with spinosad.  Spinosad is a relatively new insect killer that was discovered from soil in an abandoned rum distillery in 1982 and is safe to use.
Picked, washed, and stored three big bags of spinach and some rhubarb today.  We set up the two 5' long wire fences for tomato which I'll transplant tomorrow. 






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