Wednesday in the garden

 

Sweet potatoes, all lined up and ready to grow!

Just a reminder, it’s time to start your sweet potato slips.  Search “slips” in the right sidebar to get the scoop on what to do.  

Wednesday was a lovely day in the VegHeadz garden with lots of planting going on—tomatoes and peppers, corn  and beans, squash and cucumbers. Potatoes and Sugar snaps are looking good.  

Our hoe brigade is a success.  Weeds are being conquered weekly with a few minutes of tidying up.  We still have some patches in the forest garden that must be dealt with, but give us another week or two.  Where weeds are gone, buckwheat has been sewn as cover crop and ground cover   

The amazing cabbages still growing in the 4-H garden and the many greens in the rest of the garden which have been harvested to make way for spring crops are a testament to our insect control methods. Hardly a hole can be found with no insecticide applied throughout the winter.  This has not always been the case.  

We attribute excellent soil from compost and repeated cover crops chopped and dropped, crop rotation, consistent watering so plants are not stressed, and most especially many, many pollinator-attracting perennials and cover crops to lure beneficial predator insects into the garden.

The insect control has gotten better each season as we interrupt harmful insect reproductive cycles and encourage beneficial ones. Now if we could just do that with the weeds. Actually, consistent hoeing so weeds don’t go to seed will reduce the weed pressure also.  

Savoy cabbage in the 4-H bed.  There are
also regular cabbage and purple cabbage.  

 Collards, now harvested to 
make way for spring’s tomatoes

The good black compost
Produced in our compost bins

Flashy Trout Black Romaine
Lettuce. Don’t you love the name?

Carrots

Potatoes

Peas are beginning to bloom

Janis and Evelyn enjoying the Peggy Martin rose
arbor at the entrance to the garden.