As I put these thoughts together on this cool morning I am finding that time is just flying by…just not enough hours in a day to get that “to-do” list completed on a daily basis.  The weather is finally cooling down and getting back to a somewhat normal spring-like range. Many of our overwintered fall planted crops like spinach and Swiss chard are already trying to set seed heads. Hopefully they will slow down now. The spring planted spinach (which won’t sprout above 70^o F) had spotty growth; we are reseeding today.

The warm weather crops have been transplanted to larger pots to allow more growth under the lights.

Eggplant and peppers

However, with spring and life emerging everywhere we have found that plants were succumbing to a terribly oppressive force that was killing selected groups of our seedlings…by squashing them.

Squashed romaine lettuce seedling

There were only tell tales signs left behind that only the most skilled tracker could read.  Morning after morning we woke to find additional plants falling to this nemesis…in the garden and in the seedling trays. Finally we got a clue.  If you look closely at the photo below you might see some of the signs that this destroyer of plants left behind….



This was an entire tray of Cimmaron romaine lettuce seedlings

This led us to the guilty party …..



The Great Squasher of Plants

Sadly, only harsh thoughts could be given…for this is Forrest….the great defender of the barn from field mice… an adopted member of the family…and aptly named after Forrest Gump. He’s not too bright. A story on its own, but for another time.

Well the to-do list calls and more seeding needs to be done…

Until the next time,

Jeff & Sandra