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By Lyle Hillyard
Utah State Senator: Cache and Rich Counties

To say that this has been a very different growing season would be an understatement.

First, with the late wet cold spring, much of the planting was delayed and that impacted the growth of the plants as well. My brother-in-law who was gone to Scotland with his wife on a mission last year had returned so I had someone to help with the work but that also added another voice in the decision making. We have long disagreed about whether to plant two or just one row of pole beans. I like to stand the poles up against each other to help with windstorms but he thinks that two rows produce much more than we can use or freeze with one picking.

By the time he got them planted, he did two rows but about half did not grow so we have two rows of poles but only about one row of plants. They are just blossoming so I doubt we will have much before the first frost which is usually the second week in September for Logan.

Second, I took a family vacation for two weeks around Memorial Day when we just spent some time with our daughter and her family near Sacramento and our son near Portland. I believe my wife is still in shock that I would just go without meetings or other business that would interfere with just being together with the kids. My brother-in-law also found himself gone a lot being with their children and grandchildren after being gone 18 months. I am sad to say that I am rediscovering that there are times to plant and weed and nature doesn't wait for you to return from vacation. The long dry hot summer helped because we had plenty of irrigation water to keep the plants wet and growing.

With all of that said, let me say that the corn is doing very well. We have a very sweet variety that we receive raves from the people with whom it is shared. The tomatoes are not ripening very well but thankfully we have a son-in-law in Centerville that keeps us in good supply. The new potatoes are coming on with the four patches that we planted about two weeks apart. I will be digging new potatoes into October. I eat them all fresh because I don’t eat many potatoes in the winter; we do not store them like we did when I was growing up. The raspberries look good but they do not really come on until Labor Day. The apples are only so-so this year. I find that after a big year, they do not do as well the next year. My dad said that they need a year’s rest. There will be plenty to eat but I don’t know how our apple juicing will go.

I always cover myself with bug spray when I work in the garden but this year I have not noticed very many mosquitoes. That seems strange because, most years, they are really thick. I should feel good about that with the news that the West Nile Virus has turned up in the mosquitoes in Cache Valley this summer.

Let me know if you need some food.

1 Comments:

 Jagger said...

Hey, why don't the other senators write blogs like these? I would love to hear from all the senators.

8/22/2008 12:32 PM  

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