Soggy Friday

Today is Friday we made it through another week.  It is rainy here, so you can't do much in the garden. I have heard it said not to go into your garden after a rain because you will spread disease, but in the garden after a storm is my favorite place to be. I try to wait for the plants to dry some but when the ground is soft is the best time to pull weeds. 
  We went out last night and tied up the tomato plants.  We used panty hose so the wind won't damage the stems.  We weeded for a while until it was almost to dark to see.  Then we planted some Kentucky wonder beans in the corn.  They grow well together.  The corn gives the beans something to climb on and the beans supply nitrogen to the corn which are heavy feeders.   I usually plant sunflowers at the end of the rows to encourage bees but didn't have any seed this year. We also planted some more speckled butter beans and black eyes, because some didn't come up,  

All my plants are starting to look really good.  It is hard to believe that these brussel spouts even survived.  They were so small and spindly looking when I put them out.  The weather was still cold.  Then comes the biggest plant killer, the kids.   In fact my Emily stepped on several cabbage plants last night.

The potatoes have gotten little potatoes already and my father-in-law has already dug some for a pot of new potatoes.  They did take some wind damage yesterday, but I think I can just hill them and they will stand back up.  No sign of the Colorado potato beetle this year.  Two years ago I planted late potatoes and mulched them with straw.  I usually plant early potatoes and mulch with black plastic.  Well they were eat up by the beetles and we didn't even get potatoes to speak of.  One of the problems, besides the late date and different mulch, was that I had never had the beetles before and didn't know what they looked like.  So by the time I realized I had a problem it was to late.

I cut all of the Chinese cabbage because they were going to seed. I ended up with 25.5lbs of cabbage total.  My family is already tired of eating it so I am in the process of freezing it.  First I wash it. Then coarsley shred it up.  Then I blanch it in boiling water for a minute and a half, cool, drain, and put in freezer bags. We will have lots of greens for this winter. I have also frozen some spinach I was given and some poke.  You can only get poke in the spring so if you want some for later use you have to freeze it.