4:30pm.
Took photo for comparison: 78 degrees exterior; 83 degrees growing rack, 58% humidity.
Next to the lettuce bed, I planted seeds of: chioggia beets, yellow beets, daikon radishes, 4 types of carrots (red core chantenays, yellow and orange mix, and dragon [red]). I covered the bed with a frost blanket at the suggestion of a guy at Harmony Farm Supply. Also threw some yellow beets into the bean bed (uncovered) as a little comparison.
Planted more mesclun seeds into lettuce bed to get some succession planting going. I’m hoping we’ll have greens through the early winter - we’ll see!
In the growing rack planted seeds of kohlrabi (my grandfather used to grow it when I was a kid), broccoli di chicco, early palla rossa radicchio, rossa di verona radicchio, wild garden chicory, ruby orach mountain spinach (supposed to withstand heat), pentland brig kale, russian red kale, and dinosaur kale.
AND (I was busy) planted oregano, cilantro and marjoram in the large bed with the fragrant flowers and beetberry.
As I was checking the seedlings tonight, something flew against the plastic wall of the growing rack near my face. Scary! As I looked again, I saw it was a frog. They seem to love the environment in there. I’ve found brown, orange, and greenish brown frogs, most of them about 2” long. There are larger toads in the rows of grapes, that occasionally come up to our yard. Some also hang out in the squash jungle with the crickets.
More wildlife... we also have pretty scary looking moths the size of birds. They look and act like striped giant june bugs when they’re crawling. And, like a june bug, they fly straight into windows and screens. Can be frightening at night.
Butternut plants are growing like crazy - looks like buds are starting to form. Our first pumpkin is now about 6” in diameter, with lots of smaller ones beginning to form.
Recent transplants: basil, eggplant doing well. Parsley is a little sad looking. Lettuce suffered in the heat yesterday but doing ok now - I’m keeping it misty.
