Garden Update

There are beans to pick! They are in 3 different rows now, coming in faster and faster as July rolls along.

The second planting of corn came in nicely. It looks small compared to the neighboring fields but it's growing fast.

And speaking of growing fast, the cherry tomatoes in the small garden have been growing incredibly! They are abundantly fruitful but still green at the moment.

The zucchini is also growing fast - on Monday it's flowering and by Wednesday there is a six-inch fruit. Amazing!

All our melons are starting to vine (watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew). They should start coming in in late August.

Tomatillos are green and they're ready to pick if anyone wants to make salsa. They're not ready to be eaten raw until they turn purple.

Peppers are steadily getting bigger. They like it hot.

The peas are almost done. That's interesting because they were planted 5-6 weeks apart, but the heat is ending them all at the same time. Peas do not like it hot.

We do have dill and cilantro, but it needs to be weeded. Volunteers can come Wednesday morning or Thursday morning, just give us a call.

We are seeing more and more earthworms in the main garden, which is great news! They are our soil's best friends! Who would have thought that all of humanity depends on worms?

And of course, Japanese beetles are also here. They're not too bad, comparatively, but you may see some damaged leaves from them. There are 2 options with Japanese beetles: cover everything or spray. The latter is not going to happen, and the former doesn't seem necessary with the numbers we have. So, we do option 3: Share.

The conference last Friday at Rodale was great for Rako - very informative and practical. It was all about using cover crops and organic no-till farming methods.

See you Friday!