Week 7

In The Bag
Broccoli (Limba)
Radish (Easter Egg Mix)
Onion (Walla Walla)
Beets (Early Wonder)
Lettuce (Buttercrunch)
Chard (Bright Lights)
Cabbage (Early Jersey Wakefield)
Fennel (Zefa Fino)
Strawberries (Seascape)

In the Garden
Welcome to summer, how about another winter storm. Sure seems like crazy weather this year. We weren't expecting to have another rainy harvest until the fall, but I guess this is what we get. For the most part this rain will be good for the garden. Helping to push along our heading cabbages and swelling root crops. The peppers and eggplants would feel right at home, like it was the tropics if this weather system wasn't so cold. But since they are well established now and starting to grow big they will really take off once this storm passes, and the weather warms up again. As for the "dry farmed" tomatoes these rains will no doubt sprout a whole new flush of amaranth, purslane, and other summer weedy plants so we will have a busy couple weeks staying on top of them. But just like the peppers and eggplants they too will explode with growth, and pretty soon the tomato patch will be a jungle. One thing this rain will be great for is helping us finish preparing all the beds in our fall/winter section of the garden. Over the past few weeks the top few inches had really dried out. After a day of warm weather the surface will dry again, and we will be able easily to shape beautiful beds for seeding and transplanting into. And so we listen to the advice of an ancient Chinese saying
"Follow the appropriateness of the season. Consider well the nature and conditions of the soil, then and only then least labor bring best success. Rely on one's own idea and not on the orders of nature, then every effort will be futile."
Well, its not really the season for rain around here but we will gratefully yield to the weather for a restful afternoon inside.