Sunday, July 18, 2010

Rains Have Returned

The rains have returned, and pretty much right on target.  Things were just starting to get dry and a little dusty.  Of course, it all had been perfect, I would have preferred them to return later in the week, just after I got the vegetable garden tilled up.  Now that will have to wait a week, but we are still in good shaped.   If I get it done in the next couple of weeks, we'll still be on schedule for the fall planting.

I am still harvesting field peas, although I don't mind saying this is one of my least enjoyable crops.   Constant harvesting of small amounts does not bode well for efficiency.  Next year, I either need to not plant them, or plant a whole lot more of them.   I can see now, that this is one crop that is only efficient in large quantities.

I mowed the expanded portions of the garden down to Golf Green height, then I spread out the roughly 100 gallons of compost.   It didn't go far, but over the next 3 weeks I will prep this area extensively with bio active ingredients.  

The 3 beds adjacent to the tower, making up the cross bed will be tilled and used for a winter crop, afterward, in the spring I will till a final time, and expand the grape vine planting in those areas.   This will give me roughly a 3x increase in the feet of Grapevine plantings leading to some wine making in 2 to 3 years.

Back Roads are Often the Best Roads

These best roads are also not only the fastest, but also the most beautiful.   The are no mountains of hill tops vistas in Louisiana.   Really, the greatest places are best seen from the water, but that not available, a back road that follows a natural waterway is the next best thing.

Here a few shots of Acadiana's back roads, of which this is one of so many.