See that little black speck to the right of center? That little guy is eating little holes in some of my tomatoes and also in some of the other seedlings.

I looked on the internet and have found that it is called a Flea Beetle. When you go to pick them off the leaf you have to be careful because they will jump away like a flea. They are very easy to kill tho, very unlike a flea.

Since this is an organic garden, I want to deal with this problem with no chemicals.

The internet says to:

• Use covers (not an option because these guys likely came with the dirt)
• Use a trap crop like radishes
• Use a pesticide
• Use onion or garlic or pepper spray

Its this last one that I will be trying today. I am going to get some garlic and make a solution of it and then swab it onto my affected plants. I am going to start it off at a relatively (as it seems to me) concentration.

I am also having another issue.

My transplanted pimento peppers (Bonnie from Walmart) are growing some gnarly looking leaves since their transplantation. Is this a fertilizer issue? A too much water issue? A pH issue? If you know, drop me a note!

Ed is working on the fifth bed today, 6th soon and then a large 8×8 herb garden.

We got some Mary Washington asparagus (with a bonus extra pack), 40 in all. Now we are deciding where we will put these guys. As you may know, eating these wont happen until like 3 years from now. They take up a lot of space vertically so they do not want to be IN the garden…

I am still working on the 4th garden in terms of seed placement, almost there. I am also working on seeding in the companion crops to help deal with bugs and get some synergistic benefits.

This guy is growing like a weed but we are not going to weed him.

Here is the latest panorama. You can see that Ed has finished the 4th bed on the right! I need to plant that one and the ends of the bed furthest to the left.

I have put a small preview of the map template for each bed (below). I measured the pH of various parts of each bed (as well as nutrient content) so I will be adding that to the maps as well. I will share those when I finish them.

Every day I spend time picking weedlets. I use it as a growing zazen practice. Its precious quiet time.

Sometimes I put on my Maya wrap and take Baby Oh out so he can have some freedom from the tyranny of the older middle 3 year old sister.

He loves it. He listens to the birds, he watches me weed, he doesn’t make a sound and has huge eyes, looking at everything.

Here is bit of an update on the most advanced bed.

The mesclun has moved on to it’s secondary leaves and is looking much like mesclun. Its almost time to plant the next batch in the succession.

The radishes have also gotten their secondary leaves. These are the itchy scratchy ones.

Here is the cinnamon basil which has ALREADY gone to flower. I snipped them and have pruned it to make sure its going to get bushy.