It's really great to see the succession plantings coming up in the teaching garden, ensuring we'll have tender young produce to send to the food shelf for longer throughout the summer. If your not sure what this means, take a look at the dill, chard, and kale in the teaching garden and you'll a few different ages of plants.
This week is the time to plant the 3rd succession in the Teaching Garden. It can be tricky to find space now, but keep in mind that some things will be harvested within the next month and you can start seeds right below or between maturing plants, especially those seeds which take a while to sprout and grow like carrots and beets. If seeds are planted in the spaces in the mulch below the broccoli (see example photo below - I took this pic this morning after I cleared the spaces. I did not plant seeds there though, I believe Joette will do that). When the first central head of broccoli is harvested, some leaves can be removed to give the emerging seedlings some light, and to stimulate side shoots on the broccoli. When the broccoli bolts (begins to flower), the main stalk can be cut at the ground level giving all the space to the carrots and beets. Don't pull the broccoli root out or you'll risk disturbing all those emerging baby carrots and beets.
1) Get in there and weed that grass while it's still young, out of the beds (crab and switch grass) and the paths (likely rye grass sprouting from the straw). Young grass will take 15 minutes to take care of roots and all with any simple hand tool, and will cause a very minor disturbance to the soil. Mature grass happens very quickly, especially with the rain we have been getting! Mature grass will take much longer to remove and will disturb other plants when you try to remove the roots which run deep (crab grass) and long (switch grass).
2) Harvest your spinach, mustard greens, arugula, and radishes very soon. The heat of July typically turns these crops in to tough and/or bitter plants that will bolt (send up a central flower stalk and begin to set seed.) You can plant more of the same seeds right next to the ones you harvest, but depending on how hot the summer gets they may bolt too. It's best to wait until the 3rd week of July to plant these cool weather crops for a fall harvest. Instead, try some carrots, chard, or lettuce which don't mind the summer heat.
3) Mulch is awesome for keeping weeds down but I'd like to suggest that you remove the mulch from directly around the base of the plants (like in this picture below) to prevent slug and earwig infestations.
The next garden class is Wednesday the 9th and will feature insects and weeds, guests and pests. If time allows I would like to be available to answer your individual questions pertaining to your own plots about insects, weeds, or any other topic that interests you.
One last thing, we are making a card from our garden family to Marilyn and her family. If you'd like to sign the card come by the garden any time on Friday and find the giant envelope inside the shed and add your name. Someone from the committee will deliver the card to the memorial service for Connor Cook on Saturday at TA.
Be well every one! ~Cat
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