Last night I had a vivid dream that I was able to remember – at least a picture & a thought from it. In my dream, my backyard garden was completely covered with a spiderweb-like substance. It really reminded me of a mold or fungus – and I remember thinking this was a great thing in my dream; in my mind it was Mycorrhizae, a fungus that grows within the roots of a plant in a symbiotic relationship helping plants with uptake of nutrients.
Why would I dream such an awkward & nerdy scenario? And why did this stand out to me as a dream I could actually remember & recall later in the day?
Over the past few months/weeks/days I have made monumental shifts in my normal way of living; I have tried to expand my output from the norms of work, weight lifting, yoga/stretching/maintenance, and gardening to opening up & actually publishing articles that I start working on. In this shift of developing my writing, perhaps it feels like my foci have changed; like I’ve left the garden to sprout weeds in favor of a more glamorous hobby.
And perhaps that Mycorrhizae in my dreams are just the figurative cobwebs of my garden’s progress so far this year.
Last year I listened to my Googled sources that the last frost date in my area was April 20th & my tomatoes paid the price, but this year I listened to local legend & am waiting for Mother’s Day, May 14th. There was a last frost date map I saw that drew a line just a few blocks from my current location – basically half of my city could plant 4/20 & the others couldn’t until 5/10. But that’s what to expect in Ohio, especially living near the northern tip of the Ohio Valley.
So, this weekend we will be brushing the cobwebs off the gardens & begin planting everything I’ve been patiently waiting to plop in the plot:
- Roma TomatoesÂ
- San Marzano Tomatoes
- Green Peppers
- Mini Sweet Peppers
- Jalapeños
- And my favorite – Habaneros
Once you plant plugs out – things get real. The bugs comes alive, the birds start raiding your strawberry stash, dogs are squeezing into your Fort Knox Fencing – and everything is starting to grow; that’s the best struggle of all to facilitate, but I’m feeling super confident about this year! I started seedlings a couple months ago & have actually kept everything alive. All of the above listed crops were sown from seed & doing amazingly so far.
The big differences this year for me are:
- Follow Through
- Daily Maintenance & Watering
- Used Seedling Heat Mats in Winter
- Low Doses of Fertilizer w/ Watering
- Eyes on prepping for the Farmers Market
The weather has been a little crazy this spring, but it’s starting to stabilize & soon I’ll be picking tomatoes, peppers, onions & herbs, posting pictures of my girlfriend’s world-famous pico – Pico de Kyla 🙂
Don’t let your garden dreams grow cobwebs! Brush them off because it is not too late – spring is just getting started and I can feel it… this is gonna be the best spring yet!
For most garden pests I spray with 1 cup of natural unfiltered apple vinager with 2 tablespoons of Palmalive dish soap and stir into 2.5 gallons of water…it works for many bugs and fungus. ..have a great year
Thanks for the tip! I will have to try that, I’ve been using neem oil and hit pepper wax – both organic. Have you ever tried them?
No I have not tried them…oil might stop oxygen to the breathing parts of the plant, at least this was my line of thought at the time. After you try it, if you like, let me know what your finds are.
Wow, thats a harvest!
Good job in your garden
Have a nice time
Didi
Thank you very much, hoping for an even better year this time around!
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you 🙂
Also I hope that the weather will be good enough for a rich harvest from our garden.
Thank you.
Didi
What all are you growing in your garden?
I live in Finland and the climate is rather cold. Here we can grow tomatoes too, but often the summer is not strong enough – so not every year we do have tomatoes. carrotes are fine , onion, cucumbers, sometimes cauliflower (if the summer is good enough), parsley, dill, potatoes, basilica, spinach.
Best wishes
Didi
Good tipd
I usually grow vegetables and flowers in my kitchen, but have forsake doing that for a while, seeing your have inspired me to start gardening again
That is awesome to hear – hope you have a great gardening season!
One word… “Cornucopia!” Looks great!