Lay it By

When you plant a garden and work it, you are waiting on the day when you can "lay it by".  After all the work's done...all the planting, plowing, hoeing and thinning; you can sit back and let mother nature do her thing.  There's nothing else to do but watch it grow.  We layed it by this week.  And, it is beautiful. 

Today is the 11th straight day with above 90 temperatures and we have had only one significant rain in two weeks, so we have watered everything but the corn.  In spite of that, the corn is tosseling.  The tossel is the grain that comes out the top of the stalk.  The stalk and leaves are green and the leaves are flat, not twisted.  All of that and we did not "side dress" it.  Granny said that we needed to put some "soadie" on the ground next to the plant so that it will make a fuller ear.  Soadie is the fancy word for amonium nitrate.  It is what makes it green and pretty.  It is also what you would use to build a bomb!  Tony thinks we'll be fine without the soadie, we shall see.

Tossel




90 degrees, no rain, no soadie...looks good!

Before we layed it by, Tony had to plow the peas for the 1st time.  He planted them the week before last and they are coming up.  Among the peas are quite a few weeds.  Plowing takes care of the weeds between rows; but, it will still need to be hoed to get the weeds between the plants.  Tony used the tractor to plow.
He also plowed the okra.  He had to be extra careful because the plants are still small.  And the soaker hoses we laying next to the plant.   



There were some odds and ends that needed to be done.  Tony has always used ground cover between the bean rows and on each side.  This is great for weed control.  By rolling it out, it does not need to be hoed and you can walk easily when picking beans.  At the end of the season, Tony will roll up the cover and use it again the next year.  The vines are starting to bloom and soon we will see some beans.  The first beans will be close to the ground which is another benefit of ground cover.  It is alot cleaner than red dirt!

Between the bean rows.



Jerry also caged the tomatoe plants.  It will keep the plant growing up and makes it easier to pick the tomatoes.  We use just basic fencing and roll it into a cage.  Jerry drove a post in the ground and tied it to the cage to keep it from falling over.  As the plant grows, we will make sure the limbs stay inside the cage.  This helps to keep the plants off the ground and healthy and gets plenty of sunlight to the fruit.

Tomatoes before they were caged.

Caged

Okra

Squash...it is blooming!