Early Morning Gardening to Beat the Heat

The most bearable time to do garden chores in the heat of summer is first thing in the morning.  This morning, I finished my hot cup of coffee at 7:30am and headed right out to the garden where I worked for two and a half hours.

First on the agenda, the okra had to be thinned.  I carefully lifted the seedlings and transplanted one full row down the center of the mysterious bed that did not produce beets.  The soil in that bed has been turned and treated with elemental sulphur.  While digging around in there I did notice that there were a lot of roots (one as big as my little finger) presumably invading from the nearby woods.  Those roots could be sucking moisture and nutrients out of the soil, leaving little for my garden plants.

I realize that the crops in this bed are at risk, but the experiment continues.  With optimism, I  planted two rows of pink-eyed, purple-hulled field peas -- one row down each side of the plot.  I watered the bed well, mulched it, then watered everything again.  While I was at it, I watered the original bed of okra that had just been disturbed.  The plants do look happier with more growing room.