It's been a tough start to the season. With Tim and I moving in, Alycia graduating college, and a few other personal factors, most of May got away from us. Then, Mother Nature stepped in. It won't stop raining here. Which is such a wonderful thing for the plants. But it's also a terrible thing for the weeds. You know what I'm talking about...cabbages buried underneath 3 foot tall grasses and tomato plants competing for space with those terrible thistle weeds. The other unfortunate side effect of the rain is that we were unable to till ever. And so a quarter of the field lay without seeds and was overtaken by weeds. Until this weekend!!! Cousin Tim was finally able to get the tractor in and Mom and I planted every last blessed bit of space remaining. But no peanuts this year. Not Ojo De Cabra beans. No real parsnips. No melons. The timing just isn't right and it doesn't seem smart to waste the seeds. We'll try again next year.
Things that are going well. Dave and Cathy hooked us up with hay! Thus far, we've gotten two and a half rows (some potatoes, basil, collards, and cabbage) fully weeded and then covered in a thick layer of the hay. They look so beautiful! And I'm pretty sure if you were just looking at that, the farm would be perfect. But then you look elsewhere and, well, I mean, you know what it tends to look like this time of year. The very first ground cherry came in! The onions and the garlic are on track to finish in the next few weeks. We only lost 3 of the 220 tomatoes plants we put in the ground. The tomatillos, of course, are growing like weeds. My new fiance is very excited about that particular development. The green beans are climbing and trellised. Oh! Oh! The black garbanzo beans are so freaking cool!!!! They look nothing like anything we've ever grown before...I can't wait for you to see them, they'll blow your mind!
So our corn is supposed to be knee high by the 4th of July. Or so the saying goes. We'll be lucky if the corn has even sprouted by then. I did manage to plant the green dent corn and the popcorn and the country gentleman sweet and the stowall's evergreen sweet. So we'll see if we get anything cool. All of the squash are in...in fact, we have tiny yellow and green zucchinis making their debut this week! I finally uncovered the okra and am hoping it will begin to take off. The radishes we harvested from there were the most perfect I've ever grown in my whole life. Not a single bug-munched area on any one of them. The arugula is big and beautiful as is the kale. The cabbages are all starting to form heads. Progress is happening, I'm just drowning in weeds and a lack of time and extra hands. I can't wait for you to be back, and neither can the plants. I hope this update finds you well!!!!
Love,
Allison