Results are in!

You can tell where the sunny patch is...

 I noticed this morning on the kitchen table a print out from AgroEnviroLab, and Josh mentioned that Claude came by with the results of our soil test. The analysis rates each component on a scale from very poor-poor-average-average good- good - rich and very rich. It covers pH balance, organic matter, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, zinc, copper, manganese, and few other items which I will verify with my son who is writing a French language exam on chemistry and may recognize the terms en français better than I do.
On most items we scored very rich plus, and are only poor in aluminum (my guess is this is probably not such a bad thing). I am pleased that the odd can top that ended up mixed in with my compost did not add excessive aluminum to the soil. I will have to check with Claude if we should be happy or concerned about low levels of aluminum. We also got a high level good in phosphorus, but not quite rich. At first I am very excited, but then I read the fine

That's a decorative mushroom in case you couldn't tell

print at the bottom. It seems I have too much calcium, copper and zinc in the soil, which can blockages in phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, boron, iron and manganese. That can't be good. Claude told me last summer that I did not have enough manganese which was why my broccoli was all stem and not much flower. It also says our Ph is a bit high, which reduces the availability of boron, manganese, zinc and copper to plants. I wonder if it also makes plants tastier for slugs.

Josh asked Claude about what to do next. He said that we should not worry, better to have our type of results than have deficiencies.

Josh also mentioned that he has to buy some spray paint. Why? To spray paint our pots white, because Claude warned him that when it gets sunny and hot (like today, 30 degrees), the roots will bake in the pots. One more strange thing on my shopping list.

By the way, the pink bleeding heart which I featured in the photos on May 5th is still in bloom. Wow! I have been cutting the scapes off the garlics as they make a full circle, and eating them in our dinner the past few days. My irises are blooming one by one, the roses are coming out, and the lilies are almost ready to bloom. The pale pink peonies opened yesterday and look overripe already. We have strawberries going full tilt, but nothing on Iulia's patch which is producing a bucket a day.