If I were smart, I'd mark my calendar for a round of weeding and mulching two weeks after I put a mass of seeds in the ground.  Instead, I just play it by ear, which means I freak out when the garden suddenly seems to be overrun with weeds and in need of attention.  Luckily, a few busy mornings gets the beds back into shape.

Every plant needs slightly different care.  Slow-growers like carrots and onions (from seed) really require two rounds of weeding before they're big enough to mulch around, while most summer crops can be carefully mulched just a week or two after emergence.  At the other extreme, close-planted lettuce beds often grow so quickly that they don't need to be weeded at all.  This year, though, our manure is chock full of clover seeds, so I had to do a round of lettuce weeding, which is always difficult and makes it look like a cyclone blew through the bed.  One rain later, though, the planting is once again vibrant and ready to feed us half a gallon of leaves per day.


Speaking of rain, an inch or two on Saturday morning turned our tomato raised beds back into chinampas.  You can't really see the tomato plants in this picture, but a few are already starting to bloom.  Visions of plump, red fruits are swimming through our heads, even as we anxiously wait for earlier crops to ripen, like the first spring peas.  This is definitely a good time of year for dreamers!