Labor Day weekend plantings

This weekend has been a busy one for planting. When I hand dig potatoes the process leaves a narrow, three to four foot wide, almost double dug mound of earth that looks for all the world like a fresh grave. Over the course of the summer I have dug about twenty rows that are about fifty-five feet long each. Several of these were tilled and planted the day after they were dug. Summer squashes went into these beds including Costata Romanesca Zucchini, Prolific Summer Straightneck, Zephyr, Eight Ball Zucchini and a couple others. This left me with fourteen that had not been planted. Sunday I planted them all. I planted the following:

1 bed of cilantro

2 beds of Purple Top White Globe Turnip

2 beds of Nelson Carrots with some Shin Kuroda Carrots

2 beds of Kinbi, Cosmic Purple, Atomic Red and Sugar Snax 54 Carrots

1 bed of Tatsoi

1 bed of Yukina Savoy

1 bed with H-19 Little Leaf and Diva Cucumber

1 bed with Amira and General Lee Cucumber

1 bed of Chioggia Beet

1 bed of Early Wonder Tall Top Beet

1 bed of Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress, Upland Cress and another Cress

I also re-planted the beds that had been used for carrots and a bed that was planted to beets.  These were planted to Hakurei Turnips, Wildfire Lettuce Mix and Spicy Greens Mix. These beds are four by one hundred feet. Earlier one of the turnip beds was planted to Space Spinach, one of the lettuce beds was planted to D'Avignon and Easter Egg Radishes, the greens bed was left because they had gone to seed when I cut them down and were coming up like mad, mostly to arugula.

I will be cleaning out the leek beds tomorrow and readying them and the garlic beds for more fall vegetables. I am trying to condense these plantings closer to the house to discourage deer in early  spring.

The summer squash and cucumbers planted in July and early August are really starting to bear and the radishes planted on August 20 should begin production next week. The final small run of beans is looking pretty good and late planted zinnias have started flowering. Snapdragons are waking from their mid-summer nap and looking to produce well this fall.

So we wander in wonder toward autumn. I have been noticing the emerald reminders of early summer's arial courtship a lot lately. I believe the offspring of the dance of fire flies or the dancers recuperating from all that conubial bliss. It seems to me I see a lot of what looks like fire flies on some of the crops, especially the flowers. Nothing so sad as a single airborne flashing fire fly in the September darkened sky. Reminds me of periods of my life flashing erratically, dimly in darkened bars. "I am here. I am here. Here I am! Here I am! Am I here? Am I here?"