A busy couple of late June weekends in the garden

The last two weekends have been a bit busier in the garden, and especially today. Here’s a few things that kept Angie and I busy the last two weekends:

Harvesting – Potatoes are coming on quickly now, the peas are still producing as is the lettuce, turnips are coming on as the radishes wane, the everbearing variety of strawberries are hitting their second growing season and are coming on full size, chard and beets are hitting their stride, while sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, and leeks are digging in for a long summer of growing.
Planting – Beans are replacing harvested potatoes, a third planting of turnips, zucchini squash, and beets, a second planting of kale, chard, and arugala, are all sprouting now, while lettuce was just put into the ground.
Mulching – While much from our garden is going straight into the chicken/rabbit pen, they produce some wonderfully rich manure/straw mix that then goes into the compost bin. I’ve never produced this much compost, and it goes straight into the garden. I put it around the leeks and over the potatoes, and mulch lightly around everything else. I’ve rotated the compost bin twice now and produced some 6 wheelbarrows full of compost this year so far!
Weeding – The garden needs constant light weeding, but this year it’s seen more as a foraging on behalf of the livestock, which then eats a nice variety of food and produces the rich manure for the compost that then feeds the garden. A nice lifecycle!https://flic.kr/p/o8S9FU
Cleaning – While the deep litter approach to our coop, hutch, and run minimize how much we do cleaning, we do need to occasionally take out some of the straw/manure/compost mix (where we put the weeds and kitchen scraps, it quickly begins to compost). We move out the lower layer of the litter, putting it into the compost bin, and leave the top bit.
Watering – The soaker hoses have been a bit temperamental so far. I’ve had to do a bit of cleaning of them regularly. In addition, the seeds require regular additional watering. In all, not too much time, but some.
Maintenance – Our younger son Joey brought a friend home and together they power washed our house, garden shed, and coop and then painted the coop and garden shed. Friday I ended up taking the day off to help take down the old trim and put up new trim.
Signage – The new Community Free Pick Corner garden is ready to for people to begin enjoying the harvest! But without signs, they wouldn’t know that, now would they?