The beans in the strawberry patch have wide spacing between leaf nodes and very little foliage for plants that have been growing for about two months. I pruned off several of the oldest lower leaves that showed rust-like damage, which I suspect might be mites. I scheduled a three-round insecticidal soap treatment for the beans and potatoes, spaced four days apart, starting tomorrow.
I think these beans took a hit from the heavy rain in November. That patch gets strong runoff from the awning, and the soil there was completely saturated. There’s a visible six-inch-wide strip where small pebbles seem to have settled from the flow.
Today I pulled the straw mulch back a few inches from the stems to help warm the soil and scratched in a small amount of bone meal. I also lightly fertilized with Jack’s 20-20-20. I hadn’t fed these plants before since beans fix nitrogen, but after more reading it seems they still benefit from a light early boost. It’s not early for them now, but I wanted to test it anyway.
I also aerated the surrounding soil with a pitchfork, staying a few inches away from the stems. The top four inches feel reasonably loose, but below that it hits a dense layer, which is what all of the ground is like in this back yard.
The compost pile reached 111°F this morning. The pumpkin pieces and dry leaves added this week are clearly active. I added a few more greens, including some spent coffee grounds that Alena picked up from Starbucks, along with some straw and dry leaves, and gave it a turn. It smelled a little worse than usual but not rancid, so I will be keeping an eye on that. The pile is finally at about 3′ x 3′ now; as I understand it, this is the smallest recommended size to get a true hot pile going.