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The weather is still unstable and it’s no fun getting all my tools out and freeing the chicken coop from the tarpaulin protection just when the rain starts pouring down. I did manage to find a hole in the clouds and mount the roosting hatch though:

I went to the DIY shop to buy screws for the hinges but I couldn’t find any that were both short and thick so I ended up sawing the end off those I already had, with a blade from a hacksaw:

I’m sick and tired of this weather and this project standing still, but fortunately the weather forecast is looking good now. I need some clear days to be able to paint the whole thing. I still need to mount the egg hatch, the window, the chicken door and the main door in the side before painting, but hopefully the weather will be better now.

Now excuse me while I go and put on my raincoat

Once a week I mow the lawn and I often use the grass clippings as mulch on my beds. Leaves and small sticks collected by the lawnmower can be used too:

A bed of leeks has been prepared this way:

When you have a layer of mulch the weeds have a hard time reaching the light and won’t take over your beds. This is my old cauliflower and broccoli bed, and as you can see the weeds are forced to grow around the edges of the bed instead:

And that’s just because I’m lazy – the weeds could easily be removed from the pathways.

In the strawberry beds the layer of mulch has been effective too:

The idea of mulching is something I picked up from Lynn Mentgen-Gillespie when I read her ebook about cinder block gardens.

Mulch also keeps the moisture in the soil but I don’t think there have been any problems with drought around here this year, in fact just the opposite, which is why the blight has been thriving. This is how it starts on tomatoes – small brown spots, growing bigger and bigger:

until the tomatoes are ready to be thrown into the thrash:

I just hope I’ll get a few ripe tomatoes this year, from 17 plants(!) but I’m beginning to have some doubts:

At least the cucumber plants are doing fine. I found this little guy taking a sunbath on one of the leaves:

Please leave a comment below if you know the species, or want to share your thoughts.

Last year I saved seeds from spinach and the seeds turned into healthy plants. This success inspired me to look at other plants that I could do the same with, so after a nice harvest of arugula leaves for salads I let the plants bolt. What a mess:

Pods with seeds have been formed that look like this:

Below on the left you’ll find a bunch arugula plants ready for drying along with spinach plants on the right:

I’ll let the plants hang there until they are completely dry. Maybe I’ll have to put a bag below the arugula plants if the seeds starts falling out of the pods after a while. The spinach seeds will stay on the stems, that’s for sure. It will actually take some work to pick off the seeds.

Much of my garden bed space is free at the moment as several crops have been harvested, including peas, spinach, arugula, carrots and potatoes. I have now prepared this space with seeds for green manure plants: Buckwheat, Crimson clover and common vetch:

I’ll have to reserve some bed space for new strawberry plants as the old plants are growing like crazy at the moment sending out runners in all directions:

I plan on planting these new small plants in their own bed and harvest strawberries from them next year. Hopefully I’ll be able to harvest berries from the old plants too, but if I won’t I’m counting on these new cloned plants.

The wind is still strong here and the apples keep falling of the trees but it turned out to be a bad idea to put the apples in a pile due to wasps thinking they own the place. Besides, the kids like to play with the apples in the pile – yuck:

The potatoes and tomatoes hit by blight looks nasty too and all of it will go into the garbage can to minimize the spread of blight: