It is Guaming Out

Years and years ago, when I was but a child (ages 2-3), we lived on Guam. My folks never liked it - hot and humid does not go over well in our family. Since then, however, whenever we have HHH weather (hazy, hot and humid), we have said "It is Guaming out." These last two days have been very Guamish. Ugh. The Adirondacks are just not supposed to be like Guam!

Still, at least now we can say it has warmed up! We've gotten some much-needed rain and heat, so things are sprouting. I bit the bullet and have planted the beans (something like 10 varieties, not including the pole beans which went in a couple weeks ago), corn (five varieties of sweet corn, four kinds of popcorn), and the squashes. I stuck the pumpkin seeds directly into the manure pile - I suspect part of the reason they did so poorly last year was lack of food. This should take care of that.

I had bought innoculant for the beans, but it seemed like such a hassle to use it, that I opted to just stick the seeds in the ground. Since last year a whole bed of beans vanished with nary a sprout (birds?), I decided to cover the plots this time with row covers until the seeds sprout.

I also put in an entire bed of sunflowers...if they grow (ran out of row covers, so I'm hoping the birds and squirrels don't discover it). The mammoth grey striped sunflowers did great last year, so I've planted a bunch of those in addition to some other varieties. I think I'm taking a chance this year, though, because they are in a bed next to the fence - easier access to hungry bears. Hm. We'll see what happens.

So, with the exception of the companion flowers, the garden is officially "in." I planted the nasturtiums yesterdy, and some of the cosmos and marigolds, as well as a few of the companion herbs, but I have a long way to go yet. It's just too Guamish to do it today, though.

On the tomato front: all but a handful of paste tomatoes have found a home! And I have about 100 plants in at my house. I may be going into the fresh tomato business this fall!