Happy Fourth of July to all my gardeners

This past Wednesday there was a lot of activity in the garden. Skip Z., Lisa D. and I pruned all of the boysenberry vines to about 3 feet tall. Berry vines must be carefully controlled in a garden setting, otherwise they will rampantly cover every available surface. Also, when you prune the canes, this encourages the growth of the lateral fruiting shoots for the next year. Late this coming winter, we will cut back the fruiting shoots to about 1 foot, this maximizes fruit size and production.

We also harvested bags of turnip greens and garlic, which I plan to sauté and serve at the Monday Meal at All Saints. We picked and hung bunches of mint and lavender, which we're going to make into herbal tea. The tomatoes, corn and lima beans are going very well, see photos below.

I would like to welcome the Iversens to our garden: they are going to come up on Wednesdays to learn and help.  Plans for this coming Wednesday: I'm bringing my drill to attach a fastener to the corn house door; we need to complete the wire cover for the demonstration square foot garden bed (and maybe the Iversens will plant a few of their non-gmo seeds?) and I would like to start rooting the nice strawberry runners we are producing. Please join us, from 9:30 until around noon.