Which month is it again?

We go from 85 one day to 60 the next. Finally have started getting some rain.the early heat led to tremendous growth on some plants; I still have peppers cukes and beans to plant but trying to hold off on those. don;t have radishes or turnips or lettuce or peas out of the ground! the garlic is huge-but the puppies chose to play  in it. some stalks are bent over but i am leaving them alone; if they die off early, well, we may have garlic greens instead of garlic bulbs. it'll still taste good. the shallots look like wild hairy men who need haircuts.

Considering the growth, I have started re-mulching the beds with compost. ( keep biological activity up, keeps worms happy, shades the ground. soft ground better for plants after all) just a thin layer..which is good because I have used up most of the 3 piles! Goat manure breaks down fast;it's just a 15 minute chore to move more to the pile and then wait a couple of weeks.the rest of the garden compost goes to filling up the potato bags the rest of the way ( no manure, no lime, that's potatoes for you) they are nearly a foot over the bag;compost about 3/4 of the way up. I have just been waiting for the later starters to catch up.( fingerlings. the carolas and kerrs grew just fine) I could just put in straw but i want to see just how many potatoes will grow!( straw mulch did not work for me growing potatoes, even a foot thick) I am not sure if it just the bag culture or if the nettles and comfrey mulches I put in have caused the superior growth.just-do it all even the "one percenters" I guess! there are literally only a handful of holes from flea beetles. I am hoping this means predator/prey balance is good even this early, among the insects.

the polyculture is phenomenal. I am pulling lettuce, radishes, and herbs right now. may have to start planting beans in the next couple of weeks ( you have to keep the plants growing thickly. I didn;t have any peas to throw in so I'll be laying in beans fairly thick for nitrogen)

a medlar ( lovely tree and late fruit, which can be a blessing. you have to blet it-let it soften to eat it) an English thornless raspberry and an Anne yellow raspberry are sitting on the deck waiting to go into the permaculture or "food forest." the only losses up there were the little siberian pea bushes. strange as they are supposed to be drought tolerant.I have to find a different nitrogen fixing bush. the currants and cherries are coming along nicely.

the older permaculture- the chinese yam ( cinnamon vine) skirret and several daylilies survived the winter flooding.lots of alfalfa etc growing nearby to mulch the plants with. that's a surprise- that so much survived.we've never had water up over the road before.

none of the new lilies are up; perhaps they got eaten too. it's sad....