Comfrey Bits and Watermelon Poisoning

Poor Phil! I forgot that last year he had an allergic reaction to the spray on conventional watermelons. Yesterday he ate a good portion of a watermelon, gnawing down to the rind; today he slept off a raging migraine all day.

I started planting the comfrey root cuttings. I soaked and planted 150 at foot by foot spacing in the greenhouse. I intend to transplant them when they grow; perhaps it could be a long-term transplanting possibility, until we get the floor of the orchard into comfrey ... all two acres. Some day.

Joe came to help me towards the end. He got a cutting out of the water, noticed it had roots, and knew to plant it root down. Except, since the whole thing is a root cutting, it's supposed to be planted flat. Perhaps I shouldn't be amazed that he's picked up the proper way of planting, just like I shouldn't be amazed that he scolds me if I say "dirt" instead of "soil," but I am amazed.

"I love to help!" he said. After a while, though, he started to drop two comfrey cuttings in a hole. And then he took my shoe and dropped it in a puddle (we were both working barefoot). So perhaps the love of helping has a shelf life. But for the time he was enthusiastic about proper placement, and entire weed removal, he cheered me with his little jokes ("This isn't comfrey ... it's a bucket!" Three year old jokes: they're only funny because the child is three).

I had 100 goji sprouts large enough to pot on, and I am getting close to the end of bed-making in the moon bed.

The boys also had a good time in the mud. We had almost two inches of rain in about 24 hours, so there was much moisture and mud to play with.