Attack of the giant Pak Choi!

I can't really complain about the greens that the garden is producing. We have more Arugula and Pak Choi than we know what to do with. Exibit A:

I don't know if the picture does it justice. That thing is huge. It probably should have been harvested a week and a half ago when I noticed it starting to bolt (go to seed). We had so many greens as it was and we had just eaten a bunch of pak choi, so I held off. It just kept getting bigger. Finally this morning when I went out to check on the garden the wind and rain from last night had knocked this guy over. It weighed in right around 2.0lbs. There was a pretty hefty flower stalk in the middle that I discarded, but I kept the flower buds (they look just like broccoli florets) and any leaves on the flower stalk. Jaime had a stir-fry recipe to try that called for 5 cups of cut-up bok choy (same thing as pak choi). After I cleaned and cut up the head, it made around 25 cups. Made a double recipe, heavy on the choi. Not too shabby.

In other garden news, I've noticed the first pea pods of the year. They should be ready to start picking by next weekend at the latest. I know that this is unusually early for that and peas around here aren't usually ready till the end of june or beginning of july. Works out well for me, though. I'm planning on putting Brussels sprouts in that area at some point in july. Next year it might be better to plant Brussels sprouts in a plot after greens to lessen the chances of overlapping times.

A couple weeks ago I planted some Asparagus roots. It will take a couple years before it is ready to harvest, so I wasn't sure I wanted to plant Asparagus. We should be around at least that long, so why not give it try. Its a bit late to be planting it, too. Better late than never? I put it in a spot that is mostly shaded at ground level by the fence. Asparagus gets pretty tall, so I'm hoping that it can grow up into the sun. I planted two purple plants, a green jersey knight and one other green kind. As of now, only one purple and one green have sprouted. I'll probably plant the last two remaining roots (the second green variety) that I have where those two didn't sprout.

I had been letting weeds grow in the heavily shaded area along the fence in the back yard. I realized that they will probably start sending out runners and seeds into my garden, so I decided I should hack them down. Turns out its kinda difficult to get rid of established weeds. Ugh. After 3 weeks of hoeing, there aren't many sprouts coming back up anymore. So then I had a nice approximately 1 foot wide nicely hoed dirt strip. I figured that since greens don't like hot weather, maybe they'd grow ok there where it is cooler and wetter. Not sure how they'll handle the full shade, but we'll see. I planted a bunch of pak choi, arugula, bibb lettuce, and swiss chard.