Snake Alert! Ruth HN

In the night, while it was raining, I remembered that I need to spread straw among the vine crops. Spreading straw will prevent moisture from evaporating in the predicted hotter days this week. We use straw every year to build up fibre in the soil and provide a bit of nutrition. On the farm, we never baled our straw, because it was more valuable to us tilled back into the soil.

I also remembered that last year, a family of snakes lived in the stack of straw bales. And, sure enough, they are there again this year. When I lifted a bale, two young garter snakes were curled up, sleeping. They didn't slither away. So, I took a chance and went to the house for the camera and when I returned, one was still there, wondering whaaaaat happened?

So, the next question arose: would there be snakes INSIDE the bales? Last year there was one inside a bale. I threw the bale on the ground and walked away. Time to take some pictures so whoever is inside the bale can make their way out.

Do you notice the irregularity in germination in both bean rows? I had to plant beans twice. And, it varied between varieties. The variety on the far side of the first row did well. The other 3 varieties, not so much. The third row from the left is our pollinator flower row. Who knows what surprises will grow there? It is so much fun to pick random flowers in the summer and fall for bouquets.

Succession planting is the key to getting production out of a vegetable garden. The parsley that survived the winter and was harvested until it started to bolt, has been removed and Swiss Chard was transplanted in its place.

And, if you look carefully, you can see that we have scattered our kale plants throughout the garden. That way their pests won't find them as easy. We've also scattered yellow marigolds throughout. Thank you, Marney for the marigolds. They will help deter pests too.

Cucumbers are coming along on the left. They have nice fencing to climb up on this year. No excuses not to produce. And, the tomatoes, even though they are weeks behind last year's tomatoes, are coming along too.

Don't you love Ted's tomato cages? Leftover metal from farming.

Inside the greenhouse, the second succession planting is doing OK. Few plants like living in a greenhouse in the summer. Last year, Swiss Chard was really happy there, so I transplanted them around all four beds with one Yellow Zucchini plant in the centre. They will need to compete for space in a few weeks. We'll see how it goes.

The Third succession of Swiss Chard is showing its colours.

Back outside, we still are battling leaf miners in the Swiss Chard (this one aka Perpetual Spinach). Bottom right - brown colouring on leaves. There are little worms between the two outer layers of the leaves. I'll go back in and cut off those leaves and compost them. Soon they will give up.

Having random plantings of things like kale throughout the garden makes picking a little tricky, but it's better to have something rather than nothing. If we plant kale and other brassicas all together, we need to use floating row covers. We've given up on the other brassicas and kept only the kale. It does well IF not planted in groups. Our helper is getting pretty good at sleuthing them out when it's time to pick them.

So far, no more snakes.

And, in the end, not a further snake was seen!!!

I am guessing they will be poking around all year.

“Where are the people?” resumed the little prince at last.

“It’s a little lonely in the desert…”

“It is lonely when you’re among people, too,” said the snake.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince