So much growing, so little warm season to give out. That’s the story of June… Meanwhile, since the “last year’s fallow area is this year’s active” there is some serious work on getting things in shape. The beds are SUPPOSED to be 4′ x 75′ in the main area, 4′ x 45′ in the secondary areas. Well. Lots and lots of stakes up, and the first restore-a-bed commences. Well, technically it will be used for the root crops that get great in the fall.
So, tomorrow those all get planted. Parsnips have become a new favorite root crop, but the carrots and beets all get really great as they stuff away sugars for the winter. This was a long (see there what I did?) project – with the unfortunate ending in a shoal of giant rocks. The next picture shows the rocks from the last six feet of the bed:
Meanwhile, it is looking like there will be a great crop of boysenberries – they are all turning red now (which is a trap: Red boysenberries will pucker you up so hard your eyes pop out of your face and roll around on the floor), with one or two starting to turn that nice dark color. The Raspberries are flirting with being ripe too – it isn’t clear if there will be any this week, but they are close.
By the way, it takes a careful eye to pick ripe boysenberries. One of our members in prior years said the boysenberry that is ripe tastes like a good wine – which doesn’t help me very much; but I do love them. Farmer Deb is a Raspberry fan, so we are compatible in the berry area. I eat mine, she eats hers.
Selecting roses is finally getting to be a choice of many instead of choice of which one of the five. Even the roses in the garden bed are doing well this year.
The veggies this week are still mostly greens. There may be a handful of baby spuds, but the major outbreak of warm season crops is still coming. Lots of really healthy beans, corn, spuds, squash, as well as some new cabbage. This next week should be some fruit, unless something really strange happens!
Here’s what is available this week:
| Lettuce | a few heads of Winter Density, and new heads of Cegolaine. There is a new green lettuce that is out a few weeks – it is a loose leaf that is supposed to be quite good. Spinach has retired for the season – it really dislikes warm. Really. |
| Brassicas | Small leaf Kale, possibly a loose tiny head of red cabbage. New cabbage is settling in. |
| Roots | Beets… There are a few showing a bit of size; nothing like last year when Beets were ALWAYS in your box. |
| Greens | Arugula… yeah, that would be it for greens. |
| Herbs | Cilantro, Parsley, Chives, Mint, Oregano, Basil. No Thyme and Sage, because it spreads we need a walled garden for them. |
| Misc | Will open a hill of a potatoes that might have some way-down. Nominally the main spuds are growing fast, but are at least three weeks out. Almost for sure there won’t be ripe berries sufficient to give out this week. Figs are also out a ways – they are hard to judge for when they will be ripe – but there are a LOT of figs. |
Flower of the week is Rose still – but the Zinnias and Snapdragons are coming up soon.
