In The Garden

Here are three plants that are growing quite close together: spinach, zucchini, and chard. The spinach was planted a few months ago. I planted the zucchini near the spinach thinking that the spinach would soon be setting seed and be gone before the zucchini was spreading out. Wrong! The chard was from some that I direct-sowed when I planted the spinach. Most of the chard came up, I harvested some of it and then it bolted (went to seed) when the early hot weather hit. This chard plant was a surprise when it came up a couple of weeks ago. The zucchini and chard will be fighting it out, because the spinach is finally on it's way to set seed. At least they all look healthy and happy!



This is a picture of one of my Contender Bush Beans. I believe this damage is from leaf hoppers. There are only two of the bean plants that shows damage, so I won't do anything about it. Normally I don't think twice when I see something like this because the plants still look healthy and continue to grow, but I looked into it for your benefit. Yea, I know, what kind of Master Gardener am I?!? I don't think this is a serious problem and let nature take it's course.

This picture shows what happens when your mulch is too thin. To discourage weeds you need at least a couple of inches of mulch, covering the soil well (which I obviously didn't do!). Most of this bed is still weed-free.

OK, I found my weeding knife. I found it put away. I guess I was so tired from weeding the other night that I forgot that I put it away, and thought I had lost it!