Sunday Morning At The Beach Farm

The garlic is coming on strong now and the least weedy bed at the beach. Waiting for May's scapes.

Finally, with the recent rains, the chard has sprouted, but not before a thousand weedy competitors also sprouted. It wasn't too hard to identify the chard with its red colorations. Ack, that white thing is a paint chip from the scavenged fence.

The broccoli is finally growing under the tents, although they've taken a little beating with all the wind.

And there, too, the weeds are a sproutin'. The tented broccoli has a tender quality.  Those on the edges get whipped by the fabric rippling in the wind, but they're hanging on.

Compare the tented broccoli to the broccoli planted outside. Both are growing, but the untented row is tougher, more upright, and a little smaller.

But here is the real reason for the tents. This is last November's broccoli, over-wintered and growing. It's already been getting chomped by caterpillars. You can see the chomp-outs in all the leaves.

Pulling weeds from the mixed greens is fine finger work. We in-filled afterward with new seeds.

While weeding, multiple earthworms popped out of the ground. What must weeding sound like to them? The end of the world?

Notice the colorful sheen on its side.

The snap peas weren't worth photographing as they have changed very little. I feel that these may need to be pulled before producing anything, as they are in the line of the future rows of tomatoes. Wolf, one of our fellow gardeners, and one with three plots of his own, told us that we are serious enough to have more space and that we should get more space. He is right, we need it, and we are hoping it is just there for the taking as it was for him. Maybe our neighbor will never show up. He planted cabbages last year and never once seemed to return to check on them.