Mystery Afoot

WHY WHY WHY aren’t the cucumbers, yellow squash, and hot peppers thriving? I actually woke up in the middle of the night the night before last worrying about this. One side of the veggie garden – potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes – are fat and happy, but the other side of the garden is just lurching along, barely growing No signs of insect or animal damage. What’s the problem? My husband asked me about this the other day.

We supplemented the garden soil with a little compost, that’s it. Connecticut soil is clay, almost adobe-type clay, and pretty wretched for food cultivation. We really should have tilled in a heavy load of manure last spring. Live and learn, I guess.

Then it occurred to me. Maybe – maybe – the reason that the potato-tomato side of the garden is doing so well is the organic fish fertilizer I have been feeding the tomatoes with. Some of it spills on the potatoes and carrots. Fish fertilizer is fabulous for veggies. But I haven’t been doing the same for the squash, cucumber, and pepper end of the garden. These veggies are not heavy feeders like tomatoes.

But I think now that I should have been applying the fish to the whole garden, seeing as though the soil is so barren. So tonight, I will give the anemic side of the veggie garden a good feeding. And then again in 5 days or so, and regularly after that. It might do the trick. What’s summer without HG cucumbers? It’s not summer!