I suppose it's all nature...

Would eating honey on the comb be considered, “putting nature in your mouth?” I was surprised to hear my garden guest say that with a look of slight disgust as I forced the sweet, gooey chunk toward her face. I was a bit surprised by a lot of things she said. We’ve grown up together and she and I go on epic backpacking trips and she’s always game for most everything but when it came to tasting honey straight out of the hive and eating a green bean fresh from the vine, she wasn’t really having it or at least enjoying it. I can’t really understand being afraid of food that you know exactly where it’s coming from and being okay with eating deli meat. I think the “knowing” part is what compels a lot of people to start gardening in the first place.


Speaking of the garden, that was a treacherous place this weekend. Although the sky seemed to be touching me with its cooling shade of blue, the color had nothing to do with its actual shading or refreshing abilities. As far as I was concerned, I was hoeing on the surface of the sun. The sun was fierce and not only did I take a beating but so did my bell peppers. Some of my most beautiful ones succumbed to sun scorch and had to be removed.

Once again a neighbor tried to intervene with my garden tactics. This time it was the neighbor across the street. He is a sales person for a large fertilizer and chemical gardening product producer. Of course he diagnosed my sun scorch as a bacterial problem that needed his product or I would, “lose the whole garden.” I think he genuinely wanted to help but he was wrong. He gave me the product and I accepted his generosity but I certainly wasn’t going to use it. He had me second guessing though so I did a little research.

Sun scorch is a common problem with pepper plants. According to Texas A&M, bell peppers get as easily sunburned as I do. You can easily tell if you have sun scorch because the area getting direct sun will have a tan to translucent spot and the rest of the pepper will not be affected. A bacterial infection will result in a black spot and will affect the whole fruit and even the whole plant.

I had sun scorch and I remedied it very easily with a makeshift shade cover.

Before and after sun shade and some more pictures of how things are going: :

Japanese eggplant

What I like to call, my squash forest. And the mean neighbor's garden on the other side of the fence.

Beets and chard and an okra in the bottom right.

A watermelon the size of a small bouncy ball. It's so adorable with it's little tiny stripes.

A honeydew the size of a softball. I've placed "nests" beneath each one to help it from getting too moist.

And my bees in bed for the night:

And a few pictures from this weekend. I was able to once again go to one of my favorite places in this world and share the day with good friends:

Almost to the top!

Yes, we hiked up that and it's fun.

A pristine pool that looks more like a spa.

One of my friends thought it would be refreshing to jump in an alpine lake. I think it was more invigorating than anything else. There was snow running off directly into the lake a few feet away.

So maybe there is nature all around after all but I like it that way.

Daphne