The planting and weeding season continues on as warm weather is coming in on a daily basis. Overnight temperatures are still down in the low60’s, high 50’s, but most days are coming in at the mid 70’s, topping out in the low 80’s on some days.

I have now harvested 10 strawberries, medium sized and they are delicious. I don’t expect a big crop this year, as these are all transplants and I need to take extra care in fertilizing each of the rows. I am picking the berries a bit on the early side, beating the birds, yet, the taste of the berries is excellent.

I covered the blueberries with netting as well, not looking very professional, but they are covered and the “blues” should be protected. I also covered the broccoli and collard plants and that has held off the cabbage worms to only one in the last three days.

Meanwhile, the Colorado beetle has not shown itself over in the potato plot, as they are all growing very well. I did drop fertilizer down for the potatoes and did the first hilling, so they are looking very good.

I planted blue lake bush beans (two rows) and some celery seedlings near the cucumbers.

I still have one more section to till and prep for peppers to go in, as they are starting to flower in their grow pots. Finally, I still have more tomatoes to plant, in particular I want to get the Ponderosa and Santa Rosa tomatoes into the ground. I can do that now as I finish up the irrigation pic piping for the three rows of tomatoes.

Grass cutting is now a twice weekly event, as I did the front lawn using the Honda self-propelled unit. I am showing my age, as I was pretty exhausted after doing the 5000 sq feet section. I had to take a nap right afterwards. Later this evening I used the Deere riding mower to do the side and back, finishing up mowing until we come back from our trip to Massachusetts.

The Deere has some kind of clanking noise every once in a while, so I am going to have to see about getting that fixed. I don’t want to damage the mower, so I need to get on that ASAP.

The garden work keeps right on coming as I attack one plot/job at a time. Today it was cleaning out the pea plot, despite some rain. That was actually a good thing, as I planted more peas and a couple of rows of Blue Lake bush beans. I spent a half an hour picking up bean seeds, as the bag broke before I could plant the seeds.

I am hoping I can finish putting together the watering system, as it will get up to 80º again on Sunday.

In the meantime, I just completed 6,000 miles of walking since May 2, 2021. I guess the next goal is 10,000, which would be like walking around the world. The 6k miles is 3 round trips to Florida or walking to the west coast and back. I wore out 4 pair of running shoes.

Weeding seems to be the priority at the moment, as I work on keeping the garden as weed free as possible. This is not an easy task, although, if I were to stay on focus, with daily sections being attended to, I am hoping to keep things pretty clean. Today I was able to clean out all of the strawberry rows, about six of them, I think. There were only a few Bermuda grass weeds, while the rest were small weeds, easy to get rid of using my weed tool. I then went over to the pea garden and that job is going to be a lot more difficult. Lots of Bermuda grass, growing very close to the pea plants, which are coming along slower than I had hoped. At least the chicken fencing seems to keep the deer and rabbit out. I was able to weed one row of the pea plot, having to deep very deeply to get as much of the Bermuda grass as possible. Along the way, I cut the grass, I think this might be the 7th time already this season. The Deere mower is hanging in there, despite some clanking noise every few minutes while the blades are engaged. I have no idea why it is making this noise.

It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood, as temperatures are back up into the mid-70’s, with some pretty strong winds. Today was another weeding day. All of the potatoes got a clean look, with fertilizer added and each row hilled up.

Next up was the broccoli and collard section, where fertilizer was added and 5 cabbage bugs were removed. I also took off the netting, hoping the rabbits and deer won’t come around. (I saw a group of 10-12 young deer on my walk down Cedarfield Rd last weekend.)

The tomatoes (three rows) were also cleaned out and fertilizer added. I am using an organic product from Vigoro that has chicken poop in it. I have used this fertilizer since last winter and has done well.

I planted one more Straight 8 cucumber plant against the chicken wire fencing I have up for the peas.