I’ve fallen behind in updating the garden progress this summer. I guess that should happen at this point, when there are so many fun things to do outside, it seems like it’s everyone’s birthday, and you have to go sit in an office most days anyway. So here’s a quick round-up of some news and photos from about the past month or so — the most-recent still at least a week or more old, I think.
I had just been really feeling awful about the garden’s progress so far (aside from
all that lettuce), when I heard that it has something to do with the weather. We had tons of rain a couple of weeks ago and cooler than normal temps, so even other people’s tomatoes, eggplants, and so on aren’t doing as well as last year at this time. (The good news is that the lawn isn’t totally brown and crunchy yet this year.)
We’ve also had some issues with our
wonderful soaker hose system we were previously so thrilled about. It needs some fixing and adjusting, but we can’t seem to quite get that done these days, either.
Things that are going well despite it all:
- I am happy with the Dahlia Lounge. It may look a mess to most, but it’s just what I wanted! Tomatoes hanging out with basil, fennel backing up the dahlias, corn leaning on squash, (one) big sunflower leaning in from the back.
- Basil! My first year ever when my basil has really grown easily like everyone says it does, instead of shrivelling off and withering away. I have pinched off handfuls and used in all sorts of things, and it just keeps growing! I don’t know what it is about this year. (I did buy starts and put in the Dahlia Lounge, where everything seems darker green and heartier than the raised beds.)
- Fennel. The fennel is planted in several places and is ready to start eating any day! I’m thinking about a French fennel and onion soup this week.
- Beans. We’re getting lots of them on the little bean bushes. They’re really tasty.
- Garlic chives. I’ve been cutting the leaves for several weeks, using in place of scallions on all sorts of things.
Today for lunch I made this orzo salad to feature almost all of the varieties of tomatoes we have this year. I kept meaning to go out and check the tags to provide an accurate accounting but that was hard to do, considering the plants have all grown and the tags lost or hard to find. Maybe during clean-up, I'll be able to record them.
