The End of Spring Break

Andrea came out to the Peace Patch this morning and we got to work on the massive job of fighting the grass. We took a risk when we threw down the mulch on top of living grass. I had hoped the traffic and the lack of sunlight would keep the grass from pushing through. That has not been the case, however. In fact, I would say that we helped the grass that is growing under the mulch by keeping it wetter than the rest of the grass in the field, much of which has died back to its roots. Now we have to deal with it. This involves puling back some mulch and hacking away at the roots and grass sprouting underneath. Then putting the mulch back and moving onto a new section. Fun for the week ahead!
There are other things growing up through our mulch as well. This thin wispy mushroom keeps popping up every night. We believe the spores came in on the mulch. They grow in small clusters near the edges of the mulch, close to plants and close to the edge of the garden. This one was all alone this morning, but they have been growing frequently this week. The sun kills them, they are vampire mushrooms, noctural anyway. There is also a bunch of cape weed bursting through around some of the three sisters. These are thriving right at the edges of the watering zone for the beans, corn, and squash. There were also insect eggs or larvae on a couple of our plants and on one of the pyramid trellises. With spring coming, we need to keep our eyes out for potential pests.
Pictured above you can see what we planted in the holes where many of our marigolds perished during the January and February frost. They are starting too look quite healthy and I expect we'll see them flowering before the Harvest Fest. We watered the whole garden, since it promised to be sunny all day and I won't go by on Saturday. Monday (hopefully) some one will be out to help in the morning. Then Tuesday, back to the regular schedule as everyone comes back from the Spring Break trips.

As always, more photos from today can be found here.