Here’s an good article about weeds:
Good Weeds

I have other beds where I collected OPL (Other People’s Leaves)–about 75 bags of them, nicely chopped by their lawnmowers, thank you very much–and spread filled in beds bounded by haybales. One of those beds was planted with tomatoes, one of which was a broken top of a plant I just stuck into the mix. It rooted with no problems.

I know y’all have giant slugs out in Oregon so this might not work as well as it does for me in Alabama. We had lots of rain in the spring but now it is HOT. The good news is that because of the heavy mulch, I don’t have to water so much!

I think that I started it not to save money, because it seems like there is always a cost, but more so to teach my children, (3 yr old and 2o month old twins) where their food comes from. Last year, I dont think that we had one cherry tomato enter the house. My daughter would eat them straight from the vine.

Thanks again…I always look forward to hearing more about the garden project.

The initial cost was minimal (community garden fee, and seeds). It is so great to be part a new renaissance in gardening.

I’ve actually been in Portland for the last week on vacation; I left a friend in charge of the garden, with free access to anything that was ready to be picked while I was gone. I get home late tonight, and can’t wait to go check on things in the morning light.

I have a question about your strawberry valuation, though. Your post mentions that you bought 24 pounds of berries for $20, but you value your home-grown strawberries (13.55 pounds) at $61. I see that you are calculating the cost of berries at the market, but if you have access to berries in bulk, the math doesn’t seem quite right. It is, however, a GREAT argument for pick-your-own patches!

I planted one roma and one beefsteak and they are now big enough to be staked! I tied them to the stakes with pretty blue satin ribbon because why not have them look pretty?

I have 6 tomatoes on the roma and just 1 on the beefsteak. I had 7 tomatoes on the roma but I accidentally picked one when I was trying to get a closer look at it to see if it was getting any red to it yet as it was plenty large enough. No red, and now I have a green roma in my kitchen windowsill with no idea what to do with it.

Was your manure composted? The heat of composting kills off viable seeds within the manure. Otherwise you need to remember that weeds are just plants growing where you don’t want them and manure feeds them just like it does the plants growing where you do want them. So you just gotta be Santa in your garden (hoe, hoe, hoe) almost daily in early summer.

learn to make your own compost. Never spread excrements on your garden.

I envy that you already have a harvest. Here in Central NY, I’ve got blooms on everything but only the very thumb-tip beginning of a spaghetti squash for actual fruit.

The main problem this year is some type of pest we have yet to find, that keeps stripping our cucumber plants. The corn seed hasn’t been very productive either. We’re trying to sprout some indoors to see if they are active. So far only 50% came up. We are experimenting with quinoa this year to see how they grow here in the Okanagan, B.C. It’s been a bit of a pricey year putting in the beds, but so far they are so much easier to keep weed free. Next year we may raise them up by another board width again.

We love to hear everyone’s gardening experiments. There is nothing better than a fresh, garden ripened tomato, and of course the wonderful chunky pasta sauce we put down by the quart. Yum!