This year I didn’t make a single bed of beans or brassicas but rather I’ve scattered a few smaller beds around the shady part of the garden. In April I’ve sown Violette pole beans and Un metro ramp beans. Violette beans are giving fruits, although they are a bit smaller than they should be. Probably the very cold May did a number on the two. Un metro ramp on the other had disappeared once more. It’s the 3rd season in a row I’m sowing these beans and 3rd year nothing. First year they didn’t even germinate, the past year they started rotting as soon as they germinated and this year I’ve sown them to pots and transplanted the big bean seedlings. Again as soon as they were transplanted they disappeared. I’ve got no idea what’s the problem and why they don’t want to grow here. In their place, I’ve sown some more Violette beans. 

Inside the pole bed, I’ve planted my second sown zucchinis. And like the rest of them, these two are a disaster. They are tiny, way smaller than they should be by this time, and honestly, I’ve given up on the idea of them giving me any fruits. 

I still have faith in my fifth sown zucchinis. They were sown in June and they are getting along nicely. They are already bigger than all the other zucchinis and maybe they will have the time to give me fruits. 

There are another two beds of pole beans which I’ve cleaned today. One is in the place where the poor peas were and others on the bed where I had First sown zucchini disaster and where all of them froze. Pea bed ones were sown in July and are a bit smaller and zucchini bed ones were sown in the end of June. They are getting bigger and starting to climb the poles. If everything goes well they should start flowering by the middle of August. 

A big bed with bush beans didn’t need cleaning. Here I have Berggold, Piedmont wonder, and Top crop beans. They have been flowering and giving fruits for almost 3 weeks now and they keep the weeds away by themselves. 

When it comes to brassicas I have 4 main beds, all transplanted in April, all spring cabbages, but they are falling behind a bit this year. Fidelkraut, a very early pointed cabbage should have been already ready for harvest but like the others, heads are just starting to form. 

The situation with cauliflower and broccoli is even worse. They are just getting in height but the heads are still not forming. Last year they started forming in September, I hope this year they will form sooner.

Two successful parts of the bed are kohlrabi and kale. Kohlrabi has been great this year. Heads are perfectly healthy and growing. I’ve started harvesting the ones that are too close to the others and still have plenty to harvest. Also, I’m leaving roots intact, if we get a good year, roots will grow another plant and I’ll have a second harvest from the same plant in October. 

I’ve managed to clean most of the beds, I still have to clean lettuce, chard, newly sown bed, and then I will tackle the weed mess on the bottom part of the garden. 

I should mention that when I say I clean the weeds I mostly remove couch grass and some other very persistent weeds like goutweed, thistles, ferns(yes fern grows in my garden like a weed) while I leave others like mint, chickweed, and clovers. They actually help my garden.

The only parts of the garden that have to be completely clean in my garden are paths. Paths are grass-free, if not as soon as the soil is a bit wet they become slippery and become very dangerous.