Knee high by the fourth of July

When I retired, I had this vision of my entire yard being pristine and perfect. Well, HA, HA, HA. The vegetable garden is not half bad, though. We nudged the beds apart a bit, to make it easier to navigate the pathways. Instead of trying to keep those paths weedfree, I've been weed whacking them every two weeks. This strategy makes for a trimmed look.

Within the beds, I've been diligent about weeding and mulching, so they look nice and tidy, full of the intended plants, more or less. The one BIG FAIL has been the pea/bean beds. The sparrows nibble on the pea plants, ruining the crop, so I hung bird netting over the support structure. The results were predictable: the peas became hopelessly entangled in the netting, unreachable weeds took over the edges, the pole beans could not compete. And then a big storm came through and blew the whole mess down. So I cleaned out the beds completely. The plan is to reinforce the bean poles, then replant the pole beans. I've not had much luck with fall peas, but if I do plant them, I'll need to come up with a new strategy for besting the birds.