garden report #?

 It was a dreary spring. Cold. Wet. Foggy. Overcast. The garden struggled. Some of the seeds I planted never sprouted. I blamed the weather. It was colder and greyer than usual. Volunteer oriental poppies did thrive. Peas languished. We have a zucchini plant that has grown nicely. Big leaves. Flowers. But small hard rind fruits. While I was cleaning the garden shed I found a large plastic bag of lime, obviously from the garden place where I shop. Oh no. Did I forget to add the lime to my mix of bulk stuff fertilizer? I recalled  a soil test kit that I have I have.

So I collected samples from two of our raised beds, dried them and prepped them as directed. Actually measuring the chemical makeup of the soil using the test kit is a bit tedious but very informative.

Finished the first sample. WHOA. The soil ph is 8! which is very acidic. Most veggies do best in neutral-to-slightly-basic soil. It is also woefully low in nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium! That explains a lot. Still, that is still just one bed that i have tested so far out of seven. In afterthought I should have first tested the soil in which the zucchini is growing. and yet we grow a lot of kale very successfully in other beds. i will fertilize the zucchini. a quick check with dr. Google on zucchini growing reminded me that zucchini fruit sometimes needs to be hand pollinated to grow well. I have done that in some years past. have done so now.

                                              sciency stuff

                                              scientist (resting)

                                               zucchini (poor quality)