Harvested First Zucchini Today

I just harvested my first zucchini of the year only about 12 hours ago when I first woke up today.  I wasn't sure if it was going to be ready because I have never picked one of these vegetables this early in the season before.  I was a little leery on picking it, but once I felt how strong it was and the sound it made when I tapped on it I knew that it was time to pick it.

It ended up being a good choice because then I used it for dinner today and it was well worth the wait and all the work that I put into getting them.  I hope to pick many more this season, but this is just the beginning and I have more that are growing.  I just need to keep an eye on them and watch for any squash borers that might take up residence in the stems.

Other than picking this zucchini I have been weeding the entire garden for the past week.  This process is always a pain, but it is something that I have to do in order to get vegetables and fruit like the one I just picked today.  This is why weeding is very important for all plants. 

Just some pictures I took of the garden when I was finished weeding it for the most part.

Time to Remove all The Weeds in The Garden

Weeding is just one of those tasks that every gardener has to do in order to keep healthy plants throughout the season.  This is what I decided to take on yesterday.  I had only performed some weeding throughout the season, but I had not done the entire garden all at once.  Since most of the garden had plenty of weeds that needed to be removed I thought this would be a perfect time to do so.

Once you remove these weeds by hand you can then work on your plants rather than constantly picking grass and other plants in the garden.  You can also place down a layer of mulch at this time to prevent them from coming back.  I would only do this for the plants that have shallow roots and cannot compete with these weeds.  Corn is one of those that need it along with many others.

I decided to take some pictures of this task before and after to get a sense of what a garden is to look like after an appropriate weeding.

You might think that the above images don't look all that different and that is because this area of the garden did not have as much weeds to deal with as other parts did.  The carrots and beans had the most grass that needed to be removed right away.  You can find more images here.