Don't Rush Into Anything...

Now that it's early-mid-June, it's about time to get the garden started. Yeah, that's a month late. I have a few good excuses. Unfortunately, excuses don't grow into produce. They do, however, seem to grow into weeds.

I'm sure there's some sort of spiritual application there, but I'm not heading there. I'm talking real, green, seedy, spreading weeds. I pulled the biggest ones, hand-spaded (*) part of the garden to kill or stunt the smaller ones, and got the zucchini and yellow squash planted. There's still a lot to do, but now I've got momentum on my side. I also have mulch on my side now, too (**).

Next up: carrots, beans, peas, lettuce, cucumbers, and possibly radishes. And if the tomato plants manage to start growing again (seriously, get growing!), they'll get a patch of ground too.

There is a bonus today, though. The strawberries that went rogue years ago managed to produce a bumper crop this year (at least 1 1/2 quarts), and the weeds around them kept the birds away. Add a little rhubarb, add my wife's magical skills, and we'll have a tasty strawberry-rhubarb crisp. Yum!

* Yup, I'm a treehugging organic hippie that uses human power, compost, and patience instead of tillers, artificial fertilizers, and Miracle-Gro.
** Last fall I piled shredded leaves on half of the garden. They worked pretty well as mulch. Some of those leaves are now mulching around the summer squash. The rest of those leaves are protecting about 60% of the remaining garden. Take that, weeds!