A passing grade for this year's garden

Although a river of clay runs through it (see earlier post), our vegetable garden is furnishing us with a modicum of produce this year.

We will have plenty of radish, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, sweet peppers, yellow squash, turnip greens and sunflowers. The sweet corn is about 4-feet high and there might even be a watermelon or two in the offing.

We are hurting for water at the moment, so I've been doing a little drip irrigation early in the mornings.

I think my 8-foot fence has solved the deer problem, but if the drought persists the coons and squirrels will start eating the tomatoes for hydration. Also, as soon as the sweet corn tassels, coons will gather from all over the county. A family of coons can take out a row of sweet corn in a single night.

The only real solution to the clay is to dig it all out this year with the tractor and replace it with new top soil. I'm thinking of a new book: The $300 Tomato.