Today I used my cobra weeder (love that thing!) to open up the soil and put fava beans – seeds we saved from our 2015 crop – in. It was amazing to see the difference in the soil as I moved to the north- it gets sandier and harder (like it hasn’t warmed up as much). I mostly just did the east side of the bed, which had less grass growing in it and at the edge of it. Z helped with some of the weeding, and T was also around doing stuff.

A bit later on, I used a sickle to try to beat the grass back from around the garlic. In some places the garlic had just been hidden by the grass this week! I think I did about 1/4 of the area that has garlic in it. That bed also had greens in it this winter, and the sad remains of those plants can be found here and there, along with a lot of the slugs that probably did the damage. I know you can’t tell from this picture but the grass was like 15-24 inches tall before I hacked at it. Sorry for the blurriness.

It occurred to me this evening that maybe I could plant strawberries in that bed — but that’s really only if we get the chicken wire from the base of the low tunnel we used last fall out of the ground and all the grass out. That would really be a lot of work. Maybe I should just stick to the area near the artichokes. Speaking of strawberries, I ordered crowns (bare root plants) today! They should arrive the week after next.

Z and his dad took the hoops and rebar out of the garden today. There’s still some chicken wire in 2 spots (see photo above). I helped yesterday by cutting the zip ties off of the bird netting. I also helped to pull up a few lines of drip tape from an old pumpkin bed.

My alliums are still there! I swear they are.

Tonight I cut a bunch of curly dock seedheads down and put them in the municipal green waste bin. I just don’t even want that stuff in the garden.

The soil is still too wet to be able to do much but it is getting there. At least I can make compost and start getting the zip ties off of this low tunnel. We are hoping to get it out of the ground before the soil dries too much. It has chicken wire at its base that is hooked to this bird netting, and sometimes to the pvc pipes.

I am strongly considering getting a broadfork. I am scared because they are so heavy. And they cost $200 or so.

There is borage flowering in this bed!

From around the summer solstice in 2016. Thank you, WordPress app, for closing and losing the long post I just wrote on my phone.

Yesterday and tonight I planted Bottle Gourd seeds in the eastmost of our winter squash roww. Had 2 packets but T took about 10-15 from first packet. Today I added alyssum and I think calendula to that bed. Also planted 1/2 oz of Kakai Hulless Pumpkins (center row, there might not be enough space for all these things). I took out the broccoli raab because it was nearly finished flowering and put some calendula seeds in its place. The calendula in the corn/bean row is starting to make flowers! The dill in the greens and tomatoes is looking nice. There are a few zinnias coming in at the head of the tomatoes, and maybe at the head of the north sunflower bed. (did I mention I planted some sunflowers on Sunday?).

I tried hilling some dirt around the potatoes this morning. It sure takes a lot of dirt! I didn’t get very far before I felt compelled to do other stuff – like pick strawberries. The Chandlers are really slowing down and I think will be done by the end of this heatwave, if not the week. Wow, 98 next Wednesday! I keep feeling like I should get more fruit-type things to plant.

How about 

Argh! T is only just starting to get better, and now I’m super-sick, and I forgot about this 4-hour meeting/potluck and I didn’t prepare for it or anything, and I’m so sad!

Well, after 6 or 7 inches of rain in like 5 days (8.9 so far this month, according to this article: Huge Bay Area rainfall totals since January 1 ), the whole property is soaked. Z was right to suggest that I harvest kale from the north end of the garden. To do that, I walked through our marshy yard to the less-used north gate to the garden. It’s just too wet in the area just inside the central gate.

This is going to take a long time to dry out. We are planning a birthday party for next month, and I wonder if we will need to change it to an off-site location…

We’ve gotten over 80% of our average annual rainfall in 100 days (it only rains about half the year, which runs Oct-Sept).