Jill and the Beanstalk

It started out as a vague idea in the spring:  the three sisters garden.  Native Americans planted corn, beans, and squash together for millenia.  They called them the three sisters.  Corn first, a heavy feeder but when planted with its sister bean, a nitrogen fixer, it was kinder to the soil.  Corn also provided shade and a trellis for bean to grow on.  Then sister squash was planted last, to grow around the base and smother out the weeds.  Great idea in theory, but what do you do when sister corn grows 10 feet tall?  Now I need a ladder to pick sister bean.  Sister squash keeps trying to escape out into the lawn.  I guess this is just normal dysfunctional family behavior.

Rain!

Finally, some rain on our poor, parched, piece of property!  After over a week of unrelenting heat and sun, it sure was a blessing to see rain falling, even if it contained a little hail.  So far we've received about one-half inch of rain.  That's not enough to relieve the drought, but enough to green things up a little.  Too bad we haven't finished our cistern project yet.  More on that, with photos on our next post.