Apparently hemlock is a BFD. Five or six leaves, ingested, will kill an adult. The roots and seeds are even more poisonous than the leaves. Even when dry and dead, the plant will remain highly toxic for THREE YEARS. So…here’s the question…are the weeds at the garden hemlock or some mimic?
Both google and our plant identification app indicate that this is Santa Maria, also known as Parthenium hysterophorus, and while it causes horrible things like a lack of tomato yield and contact dermatitis, it is not going to kill us. 🏅
We have little (big) pumpkin seedlings sprouted! Oh my goodness.
Our Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins take 110 days to reach maturity after “transplant” but we direct seeded, so I add 30 days to the 110 for an idea of harvest date. Friday, October 13, 2023 oh my gosh math is so good 🤓
110 days. It was 110 days since we sat at the kitchen table and fumbled through planting Parisian carrots and cherry tomatoes. 110 days since we had ice on the ground. 110 days since we began this crazy journey. On May 23, 2023, we harvested our first harvest.
The feeling when she picked that cucumber was wild. After so much time, to pick fruit from our lovely once-seedling was exhilarating and emotional.
But cucumbers weren’t the only things ready for harvest.
Beans were ready to be picked as well! Charlie picked about 15 beans from the three sisters too. Sophie went around and found three patty pan squash that were ready, too.
Don’t mind our sweet Little Caesars pizza. Gardeners have to eat, too.
In addition to harvesting, Jeromey ran 200 feet of drip irrigation emitter tubing which drips water onto our whole garden. Now, we can water while we work. How today’s garden adventure started:
and how it ended:
What a beautiful night.
BUT…even though we were covered in permethrin, DEET, long sleeves and pants, tilled all of our plots, changed clothes as soon as we got home, and scrubbed ourselves in hot water immediately we still got covered in chigger bites. Jeromey has at least fifty right now on his body (two days later). He went and watered last night and STILL got new bites. What are we going to do? Like…if all of that doesn’t work, what will?
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