May Garden

The May garden is exciting but demanding. Most planting is done this month, watering is crucial, and harvesting begins. We are having some unusually warm and dry days, interspersed with wet spring days - a nice mix.

Agenda:
1. Read "A Comfort of Crows"
2. May harvest
3. May tasks

4. Creative Visualization

1. Read "The Comfort of Crows":

I'm loving this pretty book by Margaret Renkl (2023), subtitled "A Backyard Year"; it includes a reading for each week of the year; this week is Spring - Week 10, And Then There Were None.

She talks about not ever knowing the fate of the birds that pass through her yard. "Life is an unfolding that responds to the cues of seasonal change, but for our purposes it is also suspended in an everlasting present. We can see some of the creatures we share our world with, or at least some evidence of their nearness, but we cannot know the full arc of their story."

I am wondering about the possum who I saw eating out of our duck feeder in the early morning. He is not a threat our ducks, and yet I'd rather he not get too comfortable in the duck yard, so I've been putting a brick under the feeding pedal at night so he can't access it. Does he have a family? Do they have enough other sources of food?

2. May harvest

I'm harvesting leeks, beets, spinach, bok choy, a few peas, parsley, and other herbs.

I use the cut-and-come-again method of prolonging the harvest for greens, including bok choy: I just trim the larger outer leaves and let new growth come up in the center. For tighter lettuces like butter leaf lettuce, you can cut the whole plant and leave about one inch of the core behind to regrow.
 
My rosemary, thyme, sage, and mint are in their full glory, and it's time to harvest them and hang bunches to dry. As soon as they go to flower their flavor won’t be quite as nice. Herbs are one of my biggest money savers.

3. May tasks:

I'm using the Second Breakfast Garden monthly guides this year to update my checklists, because they are in zone 8b.

1. Slug and snail proaction: Here in my valley you have to have a plan or you will loose everything. In our back veggie garden, the ducks have been on patrol all winter, and we are mostly free and clear of slugs and snails. In the front, they are wreaking havoc. (I made the mistake of setting my zinnia seedlings out front to harden and the snails ate them all.) I'll have to get out the Sluggo or I'll loose all my strawberries too.
2. Set up hoses: When it gets dry I need to get my soaker hoses out and plan a layout.
3. Cool season crops (greens, peas, beets, kale, etc.) might need nitrogen during this period of rapid growth - watch for yellowing of the older leaves, because nitrogen is a mobile nutrient and the plant will draw nitrogen from older leaves to support the younger ones. Use a nitrogen rich, liquid fertilizer which is easily taken up and put to use.
4. Warm season crops: I plant these (pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans) anytime after Mother's Day. When planting cucurbits (melons, cucumbers, squash) don’t break up pot-bound roots. These plants have many delicate root hairs and don’t recover well from root disturbance. Also, remember to prune the suckers (branches that grow out of the joint of other branches) on my indeterminant tomato. 
5. Buy starts: It's too late now to start anything else indoors, so I will look for cucumber starts. And start to prepare for the fall seeding I will do in June!
6. Mulch strawberries: It keeps the soil cool and moist, and keeps the berries off the dirt. If I can find it, I’ll apply in May. Be sure it is unsprayed. Broadleaf herbicides are commonly used to raise hay and cereal crops. The residues will harm your garden plants and stay potent in your soil for up to two years. (OSU Extension – Herbicide Carryover)

Pest Control Philosophy at SBG: "My first step, is invariably to wait and see. Many pest species are a primary food source for other wildlife. They just need a minute to move in and solve my problems for me. If I must intervene, hygiene, flinging, and spraying with water is about as aggressive as my pest control measures get. If that fails and a chemical control (the synthetic and toxic kind) is necessary, then I shrug it off and leave it to fend for itself. I don’t see the logic in spending money to risk my health, and the health of the ecosystem to grow something I can do without. And since I have more plants than I have space…opportunities abound!

4. Creative visualization:

Creative visualization is a technique that uses my imagination to create change. I often use it to help bring my goals into fruition, and today I want to tap it to gain clarity on BEING in unity with the earth. 

I'm going to sit outside to practice these three steps:

• First, center and relax each part of my body; count from 10 to 1, then open a connection to Spirit. Feel a soft warmth begin to grow and spread through me, until I am radiating quiet energy.
• Second, create a clear, detailed picture in my mind, as though the objective has been reached. Paint a vivid mental image of exactly how it looks and feels to be in unity with the earth - and put as much positive energy into the image as possible. 
• Lastly, affirm that this is what I want with a short positive phrase in the present tense; for example, "I am aligned with the earth".

The thought-image is like a signal-flare that guides the physical thing or deed to manifest in my life (or it's just a good way to keep my intentions in my mind). I will carry the vision of the completed goal with me, and focus on it often during the day, in a gentle manner.