Dodging Raindrops and Prepping for Tomorrow

The garden can be a harsh place, if you're an unwelcome bug.  At least, that's what I'd like to think.  Thankfully, we haven't had to deal with too many unwelcome bugs this year.  I check over all of our potato plants and I only found 5 potato beetles!  I think I found more on the tomato plants, but all of those I found I squished with no mercy.This past week we had some pretty rainy and chilly mornings.  That didn't stop us from coming out to the garden, but it did slow us down some mornings :) .  Fortunately, it did boost our starts and new seedlings up a lot.  Our radishes and beans that we planted last week are already up, and many of the squash and zucchini seedlings are peeking out of the soil too.We also trellised our tomatoes this week!  We decided to use the Florida Weave method for both of our rows of tomatoes.  We're using the bamboo stakes we cut last year, and with the help of the awesome Morven grounds team, we hammered them  deep into the dirt every third tomato.  We're using twine to weave around the tomatoes in a figure-8 pattern.  Its working well so far and they are looking good!Continuing on with the planting theme this week, we planted cucumbers and more beans.  The big planting day though will be tomorrow.  We're going to have eight or so students from the Piedmont Virginia Community College come and help out in the garden as part of a Horticulture class they're taking.  We have a lot of fun planting to do!  We've been tilling up our third quadrant the past couple of days to prep rows for herbs, watermelons, cantaloupes, and sweet potatoes.  I'm really excited about the sweet potatoes!  I've never grown them before, so it will be really cool to have them in our garden!  Surprisingly, they aren't part of the potato family; they're in the morning glory family (who would have thought?).  They spread out a ton, so we're going to space them pretty far apart.    Can you tell what changed in these pictures, besides the weather?  The snap peas!  We took out all of our peas this morning in preparation for tomorrow.  Although it's sad to see the peas gone, they were dying and it's time to move on.  I think we're going to plant okra in this row next.  Oh, it's going to be a big day tomorrow- I'll have to get to bed early tonight!