It's always nice to have a little help in the garden...

Yarri visited 5 nights, 5 days while his parents traveled to the Bahamas. He loved helping with the chickens and the garden chores! Each day he collected the eggs and made note of how many there were. He helped pick sugar snaps, lettuce, onions, and radishes. He ate what he picked. He said the radishes were too spicy for him, but he did enjoy the peas and fresh salads. Plus, he ate beets! Of course, he loved browsing the black raspberry bushes.

I did indeed have to pull up the rest of the brocolli plants. They just kept looking more and more unhealthy. My basil plants have finally gotten some size on them and are being shaded out by the tomato plants. Time to transplant them to the other end of the bed now that the broccoli plants are gone. Plus, Abi says she wants some basil to plant in a container. I have plenty to share with her.

Speaking of tomatoes, I finally got some stakes and a support system rigged up. They're growing well and some have green fruit on them. I pulled off some of the lower leaves today that were beginning to yellow.

I pulled the arugula. It bolted a long time ago, but I decided I'd enjoy the flowers for awhile. We're still getting plenty of lettuce. The rainbow chard is getting big enough to cut. I've started to pull the second crop of radishes. The carrots are growing well, but aren't ready to eat yet.

All the squash is growing well, including the winter squash that I planted between the rows of crooked neck and zucchini. I'll have to transplant it soon. I planted a row of okra between two rows of beets. The new plants are growing well, but won't really do much until the weather gets hot.... about the time the beets are harvested! I'll plant another row in place of the radishes - between the other two rows of beets.

I expanded the height of my sugar snap support system, and so far it's been adequate. We've eaten several small batches of peas (sometimes mixed with carrots to make them go further) in the past week. They sure are tasty! Picked about 1/4 pound today.

The black raspberries have started to ripen in the past 2 - 3 days, just in time for Yarri to get a taste.

The potato plants look lush but I'm not sure there are any tubers down there! Hope our dirt isn't too rich for 'taters!

Noah was home for supper two nights ago. Knowing how much he loves beets, I decided to go ahead and pull some baby beets - some red and some golden. I steamed them up with butter, salt and pepper. I stir-fried the beet greens with onions, garlic, and dried red peppers in a little bacon grease, with a splash of red wine vinegar to finish it off. Now that's some good eatin'!