Juneteenth
Summer proper is upon us. Today was absolutely perfect. Sunny with some passing puffy clouds. High '80's & humid.
Celebrating the new Juneteenth holiday by staying at home and basically working on the garden all day. It's work, yes. But it is fun.
We're trying various methods to eradicate the creeping Charlie that overran the top of the hill. Now I'm a tolerant fellow. Generally speaking, if it is green and can be cut to 3" or so, I'm on board with it living in the yard. In this case, however, I feel differently. I'm not sure why. Is it the repulsive smell? Is it the sense that the vines are tentacles weaving around and choking out everything in their path like the vile creature in the pool before the gates of Moria in the Lord of the Rings? Is it that it chokes out everything - including my precious clover? Whatever it is, I want it gone.
I believe I've noted already the attempt to burn it out with the propane torch. Satisfying as it was at first, the wretched stuff came right back, worse than ever, and I'd succeeded in killing the grass. So I've now started laying down thick cardboard and piling topsoil on top of it, and re-seeding with Dutch white clover and creeping red fescue.
It is kind of a pain to keep damp in the draught, and the blasted squirrels have been digging in it.
Another method has been ripping it out by hand. I've used a claw rake, pulled viscously through the grass in two directions to find the tentacles, and then torn the stuff up. This has left big patches of nothing, which today I re-seeded with Dutch white clover and red creeping fescue.
I'm hopeful that this method, which is less satisfying but does leave grass in place and is thus significantly cheaper and less labor intensive, pays off.
We shall see. Either way, we're far from done with the creeping Charlie.
Meanwhile, things are really starting to take off. The strawberries (pictured above) are producing. Unfortunately, it's pretty clear that an 8'x4' plot is only going to produce about a large handful a day at best. What to do? Give over more space to them? Or stand pat? Not sure yet.
The Hubbard squash by the garage are thriving - so it is time to train them up. Along with the "4th sister" sunflowers, they're getting pretty tall already.
In the bed pictured above, the snow peas are just starting to produce pods. They need to fatten up a bit, but we're days from eating them. On the right side above, we've already been through the rocket. We ate what we could, but there were about 5 minutes between when it was ready and when it bolted. Dill from last year's planting has volunteered, and I'm letting it go. In the distal right quadrant, there's some red lettuce that is starting to rise from the earth. On the left hand side, the cucumbers which will take over from the peas later in the season are now about 3" tall. A row of mixed greens is establishing itself and I'd say is about a week out from being ready to eat. The two remaining cauliflower are still going, but I don't hold out a lot of hope for them.
The zucchini bed is looking good. Four plants that worked remain in the center, surrounded by nasturtiums. These beds are all mulched now with clover from the front, hopefully bringing in a nice load of nitrogen and keeping the soil moist against the heat.
The hollyhocks planted last year along the deck are doing alright, though they are being eaten by some mysterious thing, so the leaves are looking a little ragged. The rows of spinach I planted in front of them bolted before we ate a single leaf. Time for a rip out & replace.
I've left the beets planted along the deck covered, because the squirrels have been ravenous, and the cover should allow them to reach maturity while protected. They're coming along.
The weird squash planted in the lowest bed along the deck seems to be growing a little slowly, but I think this is because the area gets a lot of shade.
The potimaron variety of squash in this bed is still pretty tiny. I'm not sure if it is because it doesn't get along with the volunteer onions or because the bed gets too much shade.
The marigolds companion planted in the garlic bed are starting to look pretty good. The garlic itself has been a little sad. I had to tie up the greens. We should see the results in a few weeks.
The raspberries have overrun their 4x4 bed and reached out into the lawn and the adjacent bed. I don't really want to cut them back, though. Looks like we will soon have berries.
I finally removed the cover from the pepper bed, as the plants seem to have reached a level of maturity where they won't die from the sun. This is one of the spaces where the raspberries are beginning to invade. I might let them take the bed next year, though. I like them, and they are low maintenance.
I've left a "lobster trap" cover over some of the tiniest tomatoes in this bed. The marigold companions are doing well. Some of them are well ahead and starting to produce flowers.
This tomato bed is doing pretty well, too. Two rows of carrots that I did not expect to survive I've now thinned so we won't get mutants. We're going to get carrots, unless something unforeseen happens. Only one of the sunflowers I planted in the bed remains, sadly. But the companion marigolds that I planted are doing well.
The marigolds & sunflowers are supposed to keep the invasive stink bugs away from the fruit and veg by inviting in predators. Fingers crossed.
The second, 4x4 bed of Hubbard squash is doing really well. This large bed at the side of the yard gets intense sun and is pretty amazing. The squash seems to be out-competing the cosmos & sunflowers planted alongside them. Distal, you can see the row-cover that I've put over our very best (so far) speckled lettuce. We're eating a lot of this just now, but the fear is that the higher temperatures are going to compromise it. Also planted a succession crop of beets in there which might have trouble in the hot sun.
The picture above was taken April 14. This area was full of dead grass that was burned out annually by the sun. Replaced it with clover, which is doing really well now:
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