Peas! Heat! More Bad Environmental News!

 

It really was amazing. These things popped out overnight. Yesterday, there were just some white blossoms (I know, because I spent about an hour installing the chicken-wire fencing around the squash bed next door to it). This morning when I did the garden walk, BAM! Peas! And lots of them.

I've been thinking succession planting, and I think the thought may have been late in coming to me. 

Just this past Saturday I planted some broccoli seeds in with the peas for later in the season. I'm not convinced they'll do well, as they're a cold weather plant. They join the late planted peas and the nasturtiums that I planted to replace the plants damaged by the rodentia. 

I had to hide the potted peppers in the uber-bed this morning. All three pots showed signs of burrowing rodents. The cucumbers, though covered with bird netting which seems to have kept them safe, are, I deem, in danger. After work this afternoon, I will have to get out there and put chicken wire around them. 

It's going to be a hot job, as another heat advisory was just issued. No rain until Thursday, and even then it looks like it will be minimal. Humidity is low as well. 

That really is predicting a very long time with very little rain. Fortunately, there haven't been any restrictions on watering yet. 

Switching topics, I read another disturbing article today about industrial farming and the damage it is doing. 

Apparently, the Environmental Protection Agency, when it tests pesticides, only tests them against the European honey bee. It completely ignores the mass of species that live in soil and keep it healthy. They say, "Scoop up a shovelful of healthy soil, and you'll likely be holding more living organisms than there are people on planet Earth."  

Against this, "beneath fields covered in tightly knit rows of corn, soybeans, wheat and other monoculture crops, a toxic soup of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides is wreaking havoc." 

It would be nice to think that the EPA would listen to the results of this new study, and actually do something about it. But obviously the EPA is controlled by corporate lobbyists and the government will never do anything.

We're on our own.