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it's been nearly 2 weeks since i last visited the community garden. there was nobody else there in the late morning, i had the whole place to myself, except a few noisy adults picnicking in the playground field behind the garden. my plot was a jungle, the stone and brick pathway i laid out swallowed up by the plants. the pruning i gave to the lemon balm bush grew back by a few inches. striped mallow flowers dotted my garden, more to come as other mallows mature. my hydrangeas remain defoliate, i don't know if they can come back next year. my zucchinis lot a bit sad, most likely not enough nutrients. the daylilies are doing remarkably well in the full sun, growing taller than me. of my eggplants, the one in the grow bag with the fresh potting soil is a monster compared to the others, once again stressing the importance of proper fertilizing.

it wasn't just my plot, but everywhere else in the garden, plants were thriving. dave and EJ's plots put mine to shame, their plants even more monstrous than my grow bag japanese eggplants. in EJ's garden they have squash plants so large they take up half the plot. in dave's garden he already has small japanese eggplants, about 4" long.

i took a tour of some of the other plots to see what people were growing before i finally walked back home. i gathered up my things and rode the motorcycle to belmont.

my parents were emptying out the sunroom so they can take out the moth infested rug. after my father vacuumed the corner where i sprinkled diatomaceous earth powder yesterday, we started moving the bigger pieces of furniture so we could roll up the rug and remove it. there were some empty patches were moths had been feeding in the past but were no longer active. the rug was big enough that it curled up on the far side of the room. that also happened to be where all the current moths were hiding. i thought maybe there was a chance we could save the rug but when we saw all the moths flying out, we knew we had to throw out the rug.

once the rug was removed, my father vacuumed the carpet dust (from where the larvae were feeding) and mopped the floor. later we went outside to cut the rug into smaller pieces with a box cutter so we could throw it out in the trash. it seemed a shame, such a large 100% wool oriental carpet, purchased by the previous owner of the house. but we never really took good care of it, seldom vacuumed the thing, and now infested with moths, it was time to get rid of it. besides, we still have another old oriental carpet, that one seemed to have escaped any moth damage. that good rug was actually layered on top of the bad rug, maybe the moths didn't eat it because it got more foot traffic.

afer pulling up some garlic yesterday to see they were ready to harvest, i pulled the rest of them today. the soil underneath the layer of salt marsh grass was dark and rich with nutrients, and full of fat worms too that glistened iridescently in the sun. under these ideal conditions we should've been harvesting large heads of garlic, but most of them were stunted. i blame the drought and not enough watering, though when i dug my hands in the soil they seemed plenty moist. i should have know there was going to be problems when i lot of formerly straight and strong garlic stalks were beginning to fold over. once they lose the nutrients from the leaves, the garlic bulbs themselves can't grow any bigger. i'll just have to try again next year.

our seaflo 42-series on-demand variable flow pump is a thing of beauty. i still can't get over the fact that it works, i was so sure we were heading for a disappointment after some of the things i read online. now we never have to switch on the pump when we need to use it, just turn on the spray nozzle and water starts coming out just as if it was connected to the faucet. the technology is amazing, anyone with a rain barrel should get one. it works so well i'm tempted to get in touch with my contact person at seaflo to let him know how great it is.

for dinner we tried the chinese knockoff choya umeshu plum wine. it was okay, but the japanese import has a more complex flavor. the chinese version tries to copy choya with its distinctive green bottle but the bottle isn't actually green, it uses a see-through green tape to make it look green. in a pinch i could see someone getting the chinese version, but who knows what other chemicals are in that one; at least with the choya umeshu you know you're getting some quality plum wine.