Vegetable Gardens and the Joys of Manure

We have a big pile of manure in our yard and I am so happy. It is well rotted horse manure Bob and friend Dave hauled from a horse farm a few miles away. Bob is almost done spading, spreading manure and planting our main vegetable garden and what a job that was. The manure is wonderful stuff but it added hours to the job. Bob would spade a row, push the wheelbarrow to our other yard, load it with manure, push the barrow back, and unload it into the furrow all along the spaded row and then repeat the whole process. It should be good for Bob, if it doesn't kill him.

If the weather cooperates, we will have three lettuces,(Black Seeded Simpson, oakleaf, and arugula) four kinds of sweet peppers, three kinds of hot peppers, cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, radishes, and four kinds of tomatoes. We have some leftover from last season Kentucky Wonder climbing green beans and those will be planted last. We have found that when they are planted early in the season they develop rot and have to be replanted so it makes sense to leave them until last. We also will grow a few marigolds and zinnias just for fun.

A row of four varieties of Castor beans, which can grow up to 15 feet tall, will serve several purposes. Their large, fleshy leaves and spiky seed pods give the garden an exotic feeling while screening out the neighbor's back yard in the summer. Then, when they have died, the stumps will form the base for next year's bean trellis. How's that for a useful plant?

My mom discovered a source for rare and unusual seeds. The address is J.L. Hudson, Seedsman P.O. Box 337 La Honda, California 94020, or their website jlhudsonseeds.net Their catalog is a black and white booklet that is chock full of information about each plant. Their prices are reasonable and delivery is quick. Bob ordered their Castor beans and a packet of black locust tree seeds.

The tree seedlings were doing very well until some fiendish son of a devil ate every last trace of them. Probably a bunny.

I'll post Bob's solution to the bunny problem next time.