The Rhino is Coming!

That is what my youngest says every time there is a thunderstorm now.  If you’ve ever seen James and the Giant Peach, you know of the scary rhino that stampedes toward you from the stormy clouds.  I keep trying to tell him its just a thunderstorm, but it always comes back to the rhino.  It makes me laugh too because when I was young, I was informed that thunderstorms were actually just the Care Bears having a bowling party. Funny as it is, it sure did soothe any fear of those loud rumbles in the sky.  Today is a dark, thunder-stormy kind of day.  The type of day that begs for curling up on the couch with the kids and not doing a thing except drinking tea and watching movies.  Most of my garden is happy for the drink too, but my mildewing temperamental zucchini are probably going to be pissed and rebel.  Ive lost one plant already, but the others are hanging in there minus the lack of actually forming zucchinis.  Ive done some research on dealing with powdery mildew naturally, and found that a mixture of one part skim milk to 9 parts water is supposed to do the trick, used nightly to fight the mildew, then weekly to prevent its return, and this concoction is beginning to be implemented in larger natural farming operations all over the world.  Not sure exactly why it works, but so far it has kept my zucchini plant from dying and has stopped the spread of the  mildew to my acorn squash.  In other garden news, we had a late start, and so the plants are doing fine, but still haven’t gotten more than a few grape tomatoes and a few zucchinis before the mildew hit.  Herbs are doing great, just hoping we have a long enough season to see the rest of the veggies come to fruition.  Its always a challenge to start a new garden in a new place, you have to learn how the soil acts and what grows well and what doesn’t.  Still time to plant those fall veggies, trying to figure out where, but would love to plant spinach, beets and carrots.  Well, on this dreary day, I’m going to wander off and cuddle with the boys and prep for the short two-ish day visit from my father in law!