I am beginning to notice something quite nice and extraordinary. I notice that
the standard concreteblock of 8X8X16 in which the two holes I have planted
some vegetable, be it corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes etc etc, that the
holes act as a natural physical herbicide in that most weeds will not grow inside
the block. Perhaps the limited sunlight stops seeds from germinating. And what
weeds and grasses manage to do grow forth and out of the holes are very easy
to pull out. The reason being is that the stem is so long to reach the end of the
block hole that they are not steadfast rooted. In my corn and tomatoes in the
holes of the concrete block there are virtually no weeds or grasses. On the outside
edges of the block there are plenty of weeds and grasses.

And one thing I failed to do this year was to make all the rows of concreteblock
contiguous rows which I will do next summer because contiguous rows require
less maintenance in that the mower can hug the outside of the block row and then
a headshears can do the final job of trimming any weeds hugging the block.

Another great advantage of block gardening is when it comes time to water.
In that the block holes become sealed and so I can fill the hole where the
vegetable is and it slowly seeps into the ground in that confined region.

Another advantage I mentioned before is that spiders love making those
block holes their home.

And another advantage is that the block help support the corn from wind.
There is a row of corn without block and they were blown over in a severe
wind and have managed to continue in growth. But the corn in concreteblock
were totally unaffected by the wind. But this is a problem for the tomatillo
tomatoes in that the wind sawed off the main stem of these plants rubbing
against the block.

Someone wrote a few months ago about staking tomatoes. And reluctantly I have come
to agree with him. Because of seeing what the
wind did to the tomatillos I began with wire caging the tomatoes. I did run
some steel fence posts into the ground near my largest tomatoes but feel
that the wire cages are the best and next year will go with only wire cages.
And the concrete block are good for cages because they provide a support
anchor.

Finally, the problem of cucumbers and their desire to spread making it difficult to

mow. I have built a steel post fence upright of 4 feet and then stretched some
of this fencing horizontal with a bow upwards alongside the upright fence
so that the cucumbers can climb both vertical and horizontally. With enough of
a bow so that I can get under there with headshears and cut any weeds and grasses.
Cucumbers seem to like that choice of going upwards and horizontally.
And rabbits seem to like that fence area and not eat any cucumbers yet. Rabbits
generally do not eat the vegetation where they run for cover.

Will report more and later as the harvesting is about to begin. Tomorrow I
cut my first cucumbers. I generally live on cucumber salads most every evening
in the summer time instead of any store bought salad mix.

Archimedes Plutonium,
whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots
of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies