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The late-planted purple potatoes are doing really well among the purslane. I'm hoping for a good crop. Keeping potatoes until next year for planting is going to be a big challenge though. These things are retardedly expensive here. I ordered some purple sweet potatoes too (as slips), but when they arrived they were a mail-cooked rotting mess. $20 down the drain there. The Yukon Gold potatoes are doing amazingly well! I still haven't mulched them. Potato bug larva and hornworms seem to be the only problems, but there's only be a tiny amount of either.
Some volunteer winter wheat sprouted up randomly. I just harvested it. I'll be planting it among the garlic this fall. I've always wanted to grow wheat, but the idea of 10x10=1 loaf of bread seems like a real waste of land. So, I'm trying companion planting and cover cropping them.
There's still about 115 days left in the growing season here until 1st frost. I decided to plant some late season, Painted Mountain corn since it is about 85 days until harvest and is perfectly suited for short seasons and colder weather. I prefer the vibrant kernels, so I found the longest, narrowest ear of corn with the fattest kernels and planted most of that ear.
I had an idea I want to try next year. Tomato stakes are a premium here. I can't seem to find much info on tomato-corn companion planting (neither good nor bad together it seems). So, I'll try planting some early corn, letting it grow to x height, then planting tomatoes on the North side of them. Then I'll use the corn as the stakes for the tomatoes. This will probably work best with determinate tomatoes. If it works well, no more need to buy/make/install tomato stakes ever again.
>pic of my rooster, new batch of hens should be laying eggs within the next couple months. I'll have TONS of eggs to sell then! 