Pests and Promising Produce

  The slugs have helped themselves to a few of my lemon cucumber sprouts. One the rain clears up (yes, it is once again raining in the PNW. Nevermind that it is almost July.) the situation calls for MORE BEER! Just bought a 12 pack of Miller or somesuch cheap swill.

 

My corn is looking pretty sad. It has been in the ground for 6 weeks and were healthy sprouts from the grow lamps before that but they haven't grown much since then and they're looking anemic. My working theory is the root systems are having a hard time transitioning from the growing medium to the newly covered soil. I think the things to do differently next time are to surround the sprouts totally with soil rather than half soil half wood chips and try to plan things better so as to have enough space prepped more than a few weeks beforehand. For space sake they ended up planted in the new section covered just this spring. Now I know why you should have the wood chips down for at least the fall and winter before using them to plant. They haven't broken down into plant accessible material yet and it is dry for two or three inches instead of one inch. Since the heavy rains started a few of these groupings of corn have really started to darken and flesh out. I think they broke roots through the wood chip layer and into the soil below.

On the other hand it is the second year my raised beds have been covered with wood chips and everything in them is going bonkers! The peas grew so fast and so beautiful we didn't get the trellises set up in time for them to climb very much before they blew over in some wind. These things are by far the tallest and sturdiest peas I've ever grown. For the first time I have bulb onions actually growing a healthy bulb and all nine of us can't keep up with the leafy greens coming. 

 

Walla walla onions, red sails lettuce, beet sprouts, and bok choi all doing marvelously.

  

Beginning to have a consistent harvest of greens, peas, and now red berries!  

The blueberries are not far behind.

 I am still retraining my taste buds to get excited over so much chewing and a lack of refined grains and sugars - note a delicate portion of ravioli and white sauce to ease transition. But the way I feel afterward is so much  more refreshed, light, able to continue the day rather than succumb to food coma. These fibers and plant proteins also cause me to eat smaller portions more spread out in the day because that is what my gut wants and that voice is becoming easier and easier to hear. Take that, poorly programmed brain! 

P.S. I'm mucking around with some formatting. Let me know if you have any preferences for readability or ease of use. Thanks!