Hint from Mimi

Shred Irish Spring into nylon bags and hang on tomato stakes to keep deer away. 

PeaPickin'

Even with neglect, a plant knows what to do. I'm only getting to the garden maybe once a week and it shows. Last week I sprayed herbicide on the weeds because they were so thick I knew I was beyond pulling or tilling them up. It looks pitiful with all that deadness, but I can at least get to most of the plants now. Started picking a few tomatoes, though I'm pretty convinced a whole bunch will ripen while we're at RMSP next week, if the 99 degree temps don't do them in first. The deer are enjoying the purple hull peas, though they left me enough to gather a big handful. Lady peas are just starting to flower. Butter beans are showing some buds. Cucumbers are flowering.

 I remain hopeful. 

Catch up

This is my fourth year at the SFCG and has to be the latest for getting started. Plots were just plowed and marked in the past two weeks which is putting me behind before I even get started. The volunteers work really hard and the weather has just not cooperated for the county to get the field plowed. I sprayed the weeds last week and started tilling. Yesterday and today I plant. 

We have roughly ten rows. Facing from the front, the far right two longest rows have lady peas. The first row on the left has about 5-6 ft of butter beans with the remainder left fallow to act as a barrier to all the weeds. The second row is another 5-6 feet of butter beans then 10 feet of purple hull peas. Row three is a purple hull " pink-eyes." I'm leaving a little extra space then rows four and five are for tomatoes, except the start of row five has three pepper plants. There are currently 21 tomato plants in the ground. Row six is extra wide which will be nice for cucumbers and squash. Row 7 & 8 are down with lady peas. Those are the longest rows at about30 feet each.