Rain and corn

It actually rained real rain today! Yay! Like, rained enough to not have to water the garden or the lawn for once. Cooled things down a bit this afternoon. All the plants, animals and people were happy. That I know of, of course. Happened with good timing, too. Had just treated the garden with ammonia yesterday. The corn was needing it.

Went out to plant some more corn in the spaces which were lacking. Turned out there were few spaces lacking, after all. Lots of small corn stalks coming up which are still so small they're hidden by the lettuce and cabbage. But they look healthy, still developing a root system.

Some of the larger corn plants are silking and developing ears now. I'm excited! Never been close enough for any period of time to see this process. Was just reading on how to hand pollinate corn plants, which I need to do tomorrow, before it's too late.

The two sun shelters are still doing a great job. Allowing enough light in for the plants to grow but preventing the soil from being overheated. Picked up six more pallets yesterday, have to get busy and construct more shelters soon. Some tomato plants are outgrowing their containers and I have many more plants beginning to sprout.

Planted out some more flowers last night, keeping them currently under pallets and they are doing well.

I'm really happy to see all the elements are in place for growth. After fertilizing, composting, weeding, digging, building and watering, I just could not figure out what was wrong. This was the final element, it seems. All the other aspects remain necessary but were going to do no good if the heat problem was not addressed.

Now I can put more energy into the aphid battle. Arrgghh! I have noted that aphids don't care for onions as well as garlic. I have a solution of garlic and tomato leaf in the fridge, so today added some onion peel to the mixture. Smells like it would make a good Italian dinner. Tomorrow, I'll try spraying a watered down solution of this mixture over the garden and see how it helps.