It rained the other night, and some critter took advantage and went snail-hunting in the beds covered with the pea-vetch cover crop. When we went out the next morning to let the Wyandotte sisters out of the chateau des poules, snails were all over the yard, fleeing the scene of carnage in the raised beds.
So I've been pulling out the broken and trampled cover crops and getting the beds ready to plant. Not like I feel we need more planted beds! We currently have a variety of squash, beans, peas, corn, strawberries, tomatoes, collard and mustard greens, and lettuce growing back there. If we skip a day eating salad with or for dinner, we get behind and have to give away a bag to family or the neighbors. The greens are reaching the same stage. So two more boxes? Maybe I'll plant herbs and dry them in the fall; I don't know.
Blackberry eradication continues, and the straw mulch is really keeping the areas I've already dug up weed free. It also makes it easy to spot and dig up blackberry sprouts that I missed in my first (or second) pass.
But I just got another four 4x4 raised beds with a promise of three more. If by some miracle I get them all installed in time to plant this year, that will be eleven 4x4 beds and another two 2x8 beds! My friends, that is a lot of vegetables. I wish I had a pantry to store all the stuff I'll be putting up this fall.
It's a good hobby, this gardening. Keeps me busy, fed, and the girls (cat and hen) enjoy the activity.
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