The Garden in June

The garden on June 30, 2024.

On this, the last day of June 2024, our garden is doing beautifully. It's always amazing to me that what began as tiny seeds can become food-bearing plants in just a little over one month's time. 

The garden on June 15, 2024, for comparison.

At the very beginning of June, we harvested all our (meager) crop of pak choi. One week ago, I picked the entirety of our arugula. It had begun to bolt because of the stupidly hot weather. My plan was always to harvest it all at one time anyway. I like putting greens like that with other, later plants. The pak choi, for example, was in the same bed as the zucchini and yellow squash. The arugula surrounded the One-Too-Many pumpkin plant.

Garden bed before and after arugula harvest

Basket o' arugula

We've also started harvesting sugar snap peas. It's just been a couple handfuls so far, but they are just starting. Maybe it's because we used to live and garden on Hoth, but I never expect pea plants to grow very tall. You would think that after nearly ten years of gardening here, I would adjust my expectations. But, no, I still only set up a short fence for the peas to climb upon.

The pea fence. So dainty.

It quickly became clear that I needed to add some height. So, we got a few 6' tall poles and I added them to either side of the existing fence. It appears that even the new height will not be enough, but the peas are just going to have to accept that. 

The new, taller, still rather dainty pea fence.

Eh, they seem happy enough.

When we got the poles for the peas, we got an extra one to add to the bean trellis in the three sisters garden bed. Unlike some beans (that shall remain unnamed), rattlesnake beans are great at finding their own way onto a trellis. They've had no problem climbing like champions as the popcorn reaches for the sky and the Long Pie pumpkin fills in around them. There are several teeny tiny pumpkins on the vines, so I have cautiously-high hopes that we'll have some to put up for the winter.

Three sister thriving. Pardon the barely-contained asparagus in the back.

Something new for us this year is a tomatillo plant. I don't think I've ever knowingly eaten a tomatillo, but I hear they are delicious, particularly in salsa verde. My husband picked up a plant when we were out getting the tomatoes and peppers and I said, why not? I had no idea that it would become the largest, lushest, fullest plant in the garden. It is beautiful, though I feel it needs to be restrained in some way. Some research is in order.

Beautiful tomatillo plant with jealous deer in the distance.

It's got lovely flowers too.

Speaking of lovely flowers (we were if you read that last caption), our trumpet vine is going crazy. I was assured when I first got it from a warm acquaintance many years ago that it would be nearly impossible to kill, in a good way. They were not lying and it is gorgeous this year. The hummingbirds like it too.

I'll have to try to get a picture of a hummingbird on the trumpet vine but those little suckers are fast. (the birds, not the vines)

And now for the wildlife update. The twin fawns are still hanging around in our backyard with their mother. There are a couple of yearlings who bound through occasionally as well. Yesterday, I saw a pair of young bucks in velvet too, so that was fun. 

Mama and babies.

I've tried to make friends with the dumb fawn. (In a pair, there is always a dumb fawn and a nervous fawn. The dumb one would probably walk right up to a person if the nervous one didn't start running.) I got close once while offering some fresh snap peas I had just picked, but I've decided it's probably not a good idea. It's better that wild animals don't get too comfortable around people, at least not making-contact comfortable. So, we will continue to be casually friendly at a distance, like good neighbors. We smile and say hi in passing but have never been formally introduced.

Hello sharer of our backyard.

In rabbit news, she may or may not be fixing to have babies under our clothesline again. Stay tuned.

 

The Garden is In!

The 2020 vegetable garden is officially in the ground. I planted all the seeds and transplanted the seedlings on Friday, May 22. It was a lovely warm day without too much sun. As soon as I finished watering in the last of the seeds, a gentle rain began to fall.

First view of the fully-planted garden

My original plan, in light of the global pandemic in which we find ourselves, was to just use seeds that I had on hand from previous years. I was going to call it the “Leftover Garden.” But, I happened to find myself at the big box home store to pick up an item for my job, and saw that there were still lots of seed packets and no one browsing them at that moment. So, I got some. I purchased royal burgundy garden beans, rocket salad arugula, mixed colors swiss chard, black turtle shelling beans, flatleaf parsley, and fernleaf dill to supplement my leftovers. Those leftovers include rattlesnake beans, purple dragon and St. Valery carrots, Chicago pickling cucumbers, oakleaf lettuce, Cascadia sugar snap peas, and black beauty zucchini. Some of those seeds are as much as six years old, so we’ll see what happens.

I decided once again to try growing some of the tomatoes in buckets. Last year, I had troubles with both woodchucks and deer disturbing the plants where they were on our back patio. I ended up moving the buckets into the main garden last year, and then proceeded to ignore them as I was doing with the rest of the garden. This year, I’m trying again with the buckets on the patio, but with an inelegant yet hopefully successful solution. We got some leftover plastic mesh from the building site of my in-law’s new house. I wrapped it around the buckets as a barrier to furry menaces. I hope it works well. I also planted four tomato plants in the garden proper. It will be interesting to see how they do in each location.

Spooky tomato plants! Pink brandywine, black vernissage, black cherry, and red cherry, like last year

We also decided to rebuild the plant teepee in the front yard. Last year we (meaning my husband in this case) tried loofah sponges with surprisingly great success. This year, he planted birdhouse gourds. The seeds are leftovers from several years ago, so, again, we’ll wait and see.

Front yard teepee take two.

In the few days between then and now, all the pepper (Poblano and sweet banana), tomato, and basil seedlings have perked up nicely, and the arugula, cucumbers, and shell beans are sprouting.

Arugula

Black turtle beans

Some squirrels have been digging in the beds, making shallow little round indentations in the soil, but they’re only disturbing the seeds by chance. It’s annoying, but not the end of the world. I have seen some blue jays hanging around in the garden too. Hopefully, they won’t cause any trouble. Never can tell with those tricky birds. They’re too clever for everyone’s good sometime.  

I wish I had a better picture than this fuzzy one, but the jays have been too quick for me so far.

Going to Seed

I was finally able to get out into the garden this evening during a very brief break in the rain. It has been very wet over the last several days. We got more than an inch and a half of rain just over the weekend and it has only slowed since.

Proof that the sun actually exists

I was glad that the rains paused so I could get a little work done. The garden does not look any worse for the recent soaking. I think the raised beds have allowed for decent drainage. The spinach and arugula have needed to be dealt with for some time now. The spinach bolted fairly quickly with the early arrival of hot weather. The arugula has since gone to seed too. I didn’t realize that it would get prickly as it got older. The flowers are lovely though.

Spinach gone to seed

Lovely little arugula flowers

I pulled out all the spinach and most of the arugula. Under the larger plants there were a half-dozen or so seedlings just starting out so I left them. Over the weekend I got a packet of mixed lettuce seeds. It certainly was not an ideal time to plant with the ground being so wet but at least I didn’t have to water the seeds in. It started raining again maybe half an hour after I went inside to wash the greens. I only planted about half the packet so if the seeds end up rotting instead of growing, I’ll have another shot at it.

After pulling the spinach and arugula and planting more seeds

In other garden news, the beets and turnips are growing very well. We’ll be eating some of them soon. All four varieties of tomatoes have set fruit with the Early Girls looking particularly nice. My sugar snap peas blew over in high winds we had a couple weeks ago. I did not realize they were going to grow five or six feet tall or I would have built better support. They’ve bounced back, though, and we should be eating peas by this weekend. And the corn is already knee-high days before the Fourth of July.

Early Girl tomatoes

Bent but not broken pea plants

The corn seems to be enjoying the weather

Oh, and guess who had babies…

Munchkin in the back yard

Yeah, and her too….

Twins!

Vegetable Rundown

This year I planted every type of seed I had just to see how they would grow. Now that we’re well into the season, I feel like I can make my first report on successes and failures. Here’s the rundown.
 

What didn’t grow?

Soybeans – The seeds were a couple years old and the ones I planted last year did not grow either so I was not at all surprised.

Tri-colored beans – Again, the seeds were a couple of years old but I thought with several different varieties in the mix that something might grow. One seed did sprout. I think it’s a purple bean.

Rosemary, Parsley and Sage – I should have started these herbs indoors but did not make the effort this year. They were older seeds so I just put them in the ground with some hope but little expectation. I had planted some of the sage seeds at my in-law’s herb bed several years ago and the plants are still going strong. I’ll have to try a transplant.

What plants have given a weak showing so far?

Yellow Squash – Only one of the seeds has sprouted and the leaves look shriveled and deformed. I’ll have to plant a couple more and see if they do better.

Eggplant – I bought these as plants and put them in the ground about three weeks ago. They don’t appear to have grown much in that time. They did take a beating from flea beetles before we dusted them. Hopefully the plants will rally.

Green Onions – I’ve never grown green onions before so I’m not sure where they should be growth-wise at the moment. They just look rather wispy to me.

Fennel – The fennel seed have finally sprouted. I worry what the late start will mean for potential harvest.

Basil – This is another case in which I probably should have started the seeds early. I do have two tiny seedlings. In time I may have more basil than I know what to do with.

What are the stars of the garden?

Arugula – I’ve never grown arugula before. My grandmother planted some in a window box a few years ago and it never did much. It has been growing like crazy and tastes good even when it gets bigger than I wanted before harvesting.

Pak choi – I have also never grown pak choi before. The toy choy variety that I planted grew quickly and was ready to harvest sooner than I expected. Next year I will plant a few seeds every few weeks so I can have a longer harvest.

Spinach – I can’t call the spinach a triumph but it certainly is growing better than I had hoped. For some reason I have never had luck growing spinach of any variety. I always got scraggly little plants that went to seed quickly. My spinach is getting spindly and going to seed now (there’s no way to prevent that in this weather) but I did harvest more than I ever have in the past. I’m calling that a win.

Horseradish – The horseradish is making a spectacular show above ground. We’ll see what’s going on with the roots come harvest time.

Horseradish going crazy

I hate to jinx anything or count chickens before they are hatched but nearly everything else is growing right along pretty well. The strawberries are sending off runners, the corn almost has the potential of being knee-high by the fourth of July and the snap peas should be blossoming soon. I still don’t know if we’ll have to plug in the chest freezer in the basement to preserve the season’s harvest but it feels likely that we will. (fingers crossed)

Pak choi (before I harvested it all)

Flowers on a tomato plant

A pumpkin planted among the corn

Neon lights chard

Buckwheat planted outside the garden to attract bees

Roses behind the garage - they're pretty but we can't see them from the house

Guess Who was in the Garden Again

We had a house rabbit for many years. I should have known from that experience that rabbits do not give up easily. Yesterday morning when I looked out the window on my way down the stairs, as I do every morning, I saw a pair of ears in the garden. So, I rallied the troops (my husband), put on my barn boots, grabbed my camera and headed outside. You know that little break in the fence I mentioned before? Well, that was the spot where the rabbit chewed through the mesh fence to get into the garden. We knew that it could easily chew through the mesh if it wanted to but I didn't think it would make the effort. I guess I was wrong. It got out through the same hole after a brief panic among the raised beds. As soon as it was out of the garden it settled down maybe 20 feet away and started chomping on grass. Apparently once it was outside the fence the two perturbed humans were no longer a threat.

The rabbit peacefully snacking on greenery after being chased from the garden.

So, as the rabbit went about its business, I scanned the garden. Nothing was sampled or disturbed this time. I must have seen it right after it got through the fence. The way the rabbit was eating greens from the lawn it was obviously hungry but it didn’t touch anything in the garden. Maybe it just didn’t like what I have growing. Who knows? My husband grabbed some wood strips and the stapler and we repaired the hole in the fence. We’ll see if the rabbit tries again.

A perfect little bunny-sized hole nibbled through the mesh fence.

Hopefully the repairs will keep the tricky little bunny out.

After the quick emergency fence repair I harvested some spinach, more arugula and all the pak choi. It had rained the night before so the greens were gritty with dirt. I gave them all my standard triple rinse then ran them through the salad spinner.

The day’s harvest

I froze a lot of the pak choi. I chopped it up, blanched it two minutes in boiling water and then plunged it into ice water. After letting it dry off a bit on some paper towels, I packed it into a quart freezer bag. I also fridge-pickled some of it in a simple brine of 1 cup of white vinegar, ½ a cup of water, 1 tbsp. of sugar, ½ tbsp. of salt and some fennel seeds. I’ve never had pickled pak choi before. I’ll give it a week or so and then see what it tastes like.

Two pints of pickled pak choi

I’m going to use most of this round of arugula for my lunches this week but I also used some in a salad today. I mixed four servings of cooked and cooled pasta with a can of rinsed kidney beans and a couple good handfuls of chopped arugula. I dressed it with 1 ½ tbsp. of oil, 1 tbsp. of lemon juice and some salt and black pepper and then sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top. It made a great light meal for a hot, humid day and all the subtle flavors worked really well together.

Mmm, pasta with fresh arugula and beans

How the Garden Grows

The other day, my husband and I were enjoying our morning coffee and tea on our back porch when a movement in the garden caught my eye. “There’s a squirrel in the garden,” I declared. “I don’t think it’s a squirrel,” my husband replied. “That’s the rabbit.”

Bunny enjoying a break in this evening’s rain

I recalled that part of the fence behind the asparagus was missing a cross piece. That must have been where the bunny got into the garden. So, we went out to evict the furry little creature. As I contemplated how we were going to capture the rabbit or chase it out with the least amount of disruption to the plants, it leapt at the fence and wiggled its way through the latticework. I didn’t think the spaces in the fence were large enough for it to fit through until I saw it with my own eyes. Long story short, later that day we added additional mesh to the fence. Other than some disturbed soil by the peppers where the rabbit probably made its entrance and a sampled beet green, the garden was unscathed.

Nearly-invisible added protection against ferocious bunny rabbits

 In addition to the unexpected potential of rabbit predation on the garden, we also discovered that flea beetles had been sampling some of the vegetables. The eggplants seem to be a particular favorite of the tiny insects but we found them on several other plants including the pak choi and the pumpkins. In the past, I have found Seven to be a mighty powerful weapon against the bugs but it is also mighty toxic to everything (including people). Since many of the greens were getting ready to harvest and eat and we’d rather not kill everything that enters the garden, we decided on diatomacious earth to discourage the beetles. So far, so good.

Other gardening chores over the last several days included laying straw around the strawberries and tomatoes, stringing line for the rattlesnake beans to climb and thinning the abundance of kohlrabi, turnip and kale seedlings.

Strawed berries and pak choi dusted with diatomaceous earth

Last Wednesday, I harvested our first vegetables from the garden – arugula with a few leaves of spinach and some baby beet greens and chard for color. We’ve enjoyed a couple salads so far and I’ve been able to make a second harvest of the greens. I love that at least part of the salad I eat for lunch at work has come from my own garden. I can’t wait until I can add other veggies to the greens.

The garden’s first harvest

Plenty more arugula to pick

There are ten gorgeous pak choi plants in the garden and they are all ready to be harvested. I have picked a few for tomorrow’s dinner but I can’t let the rest of them sit in the garden too much longer. I’ve done a little searching for pak choi recipes and will probably be experimenting with pickling and freezing over the next few days. Stay tuned for a report. Next year, I’ll have to remember to plant a few seeds at a time a couple weeks apart so they aren’t all ready at the same time.

Big, beautiful pak choi