Robbins Farm Garden

Today we harvested our largest radish, a Watermelon Radish, almost as big as a turnip, a handsome pink color with white, only the radish was burrowed into by the wire worm, all deformed, and in fact one of them appeared so as to have his photograph taken!

We learned that the wire worm is particularly prevelant when turf is converted to garden.  We hope it will not also burrow into our carrots and beets and potatoes!  Continued cultivation in the fall is one solution so that the worms will be noticed by their predators, such as, an article suggests, your chickens!

 
Our new water bowl saw its first customer this morning!

The customer drank and then posed, perhaps sadly disappointed by the lack of a well-earned treat or certificate to mark the occasion.

A smaller crew this morning at the garden, but plenty of visitors (particularly very young ones, we hope they lay down some fundamental memories of their visit).

The harvest was still mostly thinnings (kale, onions, arugula that was bolting) plus the last of our seedling-origin lettuce, and with a foray into radish research. Pulling out a monstrously huge one both to give its neighbors half a chance and to see what was happening: it showed signs of insect invasion as well having odd and giant growth. Divvying the insides up for tasting revealed some radishy heat but not bad flavor.

We decided to let the radishes be for now rather than harvest. A few rain drops fell as we were leaving, but we watered the new grass leading from the street to our water spigot as well as in the garden.

I stayed at the Garden a couple of hours Friday, going over to the Brackett to converse with teachers and mothers. I showed one teacher around with questions and answers.

Other visitors included children from the Arlington Schools for Children, which shares space with l’Ecole Bilingue, and the kids raced through the garden. There were 9 or so.

A neighborhood gardener who has a plot at Habitat was very praiseworthy of our garden; she lives nearby.

A boy wanted to wash the stickiness off his hands, but my first try at the combo failed, so he found other means by the time I succeeded and relocated him. He thanked me for my effort. He is going to Peru this summer!

I tried to draw some minute wildflowers growing along our back fence. Anyway.

The first peas are coming. This one was about an inch long. Elisabeth says it was delicious.

Not too many visitors in the gray and raw day Wednesday. Steven and I talked to several interested people though.

Did I relate we had a Hungarian woman and child Tuesday, who thought of joining us, but then had too much on her plate?

I forgot to mention an Oriole was in our garden the other day! Usually I only see the English Sparrows — what are they into?? Steven saw the Oriole too on the fence!

A good omen I think.