For the last two week, the weather has been (mostly) spectacular and I (we) have been working in the garden every day.  On average, I have been spending between 2 and 4 hours watering and weeding each day.

We’ve been enjoying lots of spinach, kale, chard and lettuce. The raspberries are just starting and the strawberries are well underway.  Today I finally pulled up the spinach and arugula which have gone to seed and are starting to fall over and crush the rest of the vegetables.

Many things are thriving: potatoes, kale, bush beans, beets, pole beans, brussel sprouts, chard, leeks, garlic and romaine lettuce. Other things that are kind of holding on, or perhaps just are slow, are the peas (just four plants), parsnips (just two), carrots (disappeared under the kale and potatoes) and cucumbers (not sure what happened).

The whole “three sisters” planting – corn, beans and squash – is growing well, but there are very few mounds that feature all three plants together. Most have beans, a few have squash and beans and many have beans and corn.  Last week I noticed that the beans were growing faster than the corn, and each plant had a vine that was reaching up, for something to grab on to, so I put in some bamboo teepees for the beans and within a day most had wrapped their vines around the bamboo.

Next week: potato harvest!