Time

Our garden is far from Eden. It is populated by a voracious horde of cutworms and now the cucumber beetles have moved in. Literally everything we plant is subject to consumption by a tiny insect. I planted some really healthy zucchini and squash the other day and within the next couple of days, most of the plants were dead and I was scrambling to put up physical barriers in a vain attempt to slow down the cutworms. At this point we are hoping that they will complete this stage of their lifecycle and move on.

Such are the joys of converting an old hay field into a garden. Once again it seems that we must wait for time to rebalance the soil. And we must play our part, using our energy to add as much organic matter as possible. So we are not holding out much hope for our garden this year. We are unlikely to be able to grow as much as we were hoping. This is very disappointing but is a good lesson in patience, as I think I've said before.

Our friend Michelle today told us to house animals since they provide an endless source of nutritious manure but we don't have a barn and aren't really interested in husbandry. But she is right, manure is wonderful. Why can't we have a neighbour with an excess of manure? I guess we have our humanure but that's a few years away.

I'm not disheartened but compared with the relative ease of growing last year, this is tough. On a positive note, all our fruit trees look great. We have pear, plum, apple and Dan thought that some of the peach pits mum planted last year were starting to come up. I think just imagining tasting a juicy pear in 5 years is enough to help me get over those bloody cutworms. And best of all, though we probably won't be around to harvest them, the nuts we planted are coming up. We don't know which ones but every morning there's a new sprout. We planted hazelnuts, black walnut, Persian walnut, heartnut, hickory and butternut. And the Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes are coming up and aren't being eaten. I saw a flower on the peas today. Mushrooms are appearing in the forest. The rhubarb is healthy and we are getting a bunch more plants soon. So lots to feel good about.


And on the mushroom front we are actually cultivating mushrooms using sawdust innoculated with spores. Dan, Mark and Ina a few weeks ago prepared a bed for the spawn and covered it with hay. And we cut down a tree and drilled holes and filled them with spawn. We don't expect mushrooms this fall but are hoping for a crop next spring and summer. They are growing patiently by the brook in a damp and shady spot. The mushrooms are shitake and garden giant (I think). Can't wait.