What a mess!
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| There are sweet potato slips in there somewhere! |
Last weekend, I picked the last of the green beans and yoinked the plants out and threw them in the compost pile. That bed was now open for business.
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| Freakin grass! |
What to plant now?
Why more winter squash of course. My first bed of winter squash that I planted back in May is doing NOTHING. Male flowers only. Where are the girl flowers?
It occurs to me that the same thing happened last year. In fact, I didn't see any fruit set until August/September. Hopefully time will correct this so I'm leaving that bed be. Since I love squash so much, might as well plant another batch and see what happens.
But it obviously needed a good weeding before planting so I did about half of the bed before SM came out and asked what he could do to help.
"Could you take over here?" I asked.
He finished that bed while I wandered over to see if I could give the sweet potato's some breathing room. I tell you what...It took me 2 1/2hrs to weed those few area's.
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| Teenie, Tiny Sweets next to the ginormous weed pile. |
Look at that weed pile! I'll be honest here, I kinda got away from the cardboard smothering technique these past two years. Now it shows. Big time! I told SM that we need to start saving cardboard again. It seems to be the only way I can keep the weeds in check.
In other news, the tomatoes that we do have are coming in fast and furious. The plants themselves are pretty small this year but loaded with fruit. Just a few BER and a few losses to squirrel bites.
Our green peppers also did well. We're fresh eating right now. I've noticed that I get a summer crop and another in the fall. They'll set out blossoms come September and we can usually squeeze in another harvest before the frost.
Cucumbers are just now starting to get some size. They're usually a June crop for me so they are way behind this year.
BTW, the dreaded SVB's have arrived and the summer squash will soon expire. I didn't bother taking a picture of that. We all know what a dying squash plant looks like.
I'm eyeballing the lettuce I let bolt closely to try and do a "seed save" with them this year.
Have any of you done this? Tips please!
So that was my effort in the garden yesterday.
I'm bushed!
Yeah, Right!
When it comes to the garden, I'm the one who gets spanked!
I spent hours weeding our sweet potatoes recently, only to later discover that the cat has started using those beds as a litter box. As if the deer weren't enough of a problem.
ReplyDeleteGardens start out so pretty and always end up as a jungle of weeds. This time of year I could spend all day every day doing nothing but weeding. Sometimes it feels like that's what I do.
But it's great to be bringing in so much great food. It looks like you're getting lots of goodies, with more on the way. That will help make all that weeding seem worthwhile!
Yeah, the cardboard really does a great job. So much easier. You can get all kinds of cardboard boxes at the big box stores, or do what I do and raid your neighbors' recycle bins.
ReplyDeleteMy pumpkins are doin' the same thing-only male flowers. Guess I'll wait it out and see what happens.
Hope you had a big ole glass of lemonade or sweet tea when you finished!
I had the same problem with squash this year - except for the Hubbard. LOTS of flowers - all male. That is not helpful. I am going to have to redouble my efforts in putting down a weed barrier between my raised beds. Damn grass grows through everything!
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