Life in the Garden

Posted July 2, 2011 in Photography

Summer is here and I’m loving the warmer weather! I think my favorite part of summer is being able to have all the windows and doors (well, the ones with screens) open and a warm, fresh breeze blowing through the house.

Things continue to grow in our garden. We’ve been able to start picking strawberries by the bowl and they are fantastic! The garden actually looks slightly ridiculous, because we couldn’t figure out a decent way to cover the strawberries, so Ty spread the netting over some sawhorses that he found in the barn and stapled the sides down to some 2×4′s along the perimeter. It does the job, but looks rather silly and amateurish. Probably because it is.

One of the things on our list to do today or tomorrow is to pick up some hay/straw/mulch and spread it under the strawberry plants. So far we’ve only lost a couple to rot, due to sitting on the dirt, but I’d like to halt that process before the number of casualties increases. I love my strawberries!

I have a few pots and containers on the back patio, where I’m growing cilantro and basil. The basil is taking its sweet time, but the cilantro is thriving! Unfortunately, you can only have so many plants within a small area, so most of my baby cilantro plants will have to go. I’ll probably keep two or three in the large bin along with the basil, which is closer than they recommend, but I figure it won’t hurt to try!

I’m super proud of my peas — not that I’ve had anything to do with their achievements. Ever since they sprouted, they’ve been growing like weeds. Tasty weeds, though. We planted sugar snap peas for me and shelling peas for Ty (we disagree on which is the best pea, so we’re doing both), and the snap peas are about twice as tall as the shelling peas, currently. It might just be general plant differences, but I’m proud of them anyway.

Both kinds are technically bush peas, but Ty spread some netting from one side of the posts up and over to the other side, so it forms a netted column for the peas to grow up between. It actually seems to be a pretty good method, as the peas are latching onto the netting and twirling their little tendrils around it. One of my biggest gripes about bush peas is when the plants just sort of flop all over the place, so I’m super happy that these are going to be strong, supported plants.

Our potatoes are a mismatch of spuds that we bought to eat and failed to use fast enough, so they sprouted! (We have a bad habit of repeating this process quite often.) We planted six potatoes: 2 each of reds, Yukon golds, and russets. I’m a little disappointed, because I’ve suddenly discovered that I love sweet potatoes, so I’m wishing we’d planted some of those, too.

Things are finally moving past the “grass” stage, which I’m so happy about. The carrots are getting their signature frilly-looking tops and the spinach is looking spinach-like. We thinned out the spinach the other day, to give the plants room to grow as big as they like. The broccoli plants are growing like weeds, too. I’m pretty sure that all but one broccoli seed sprouted. Of course, we had to thin them out, but they’re clearly very healthy.

Our romaine is looking pretty hearty, as well. We’re doing small batches of romaine so it doesn’t all need to be eaten at once. The second set has been planted and is already peaking through the soil. I have a feeling that, even with our efforts, we’re going to be inundated with lettuce.

And last, but not least, the kale! This is definitely a new venture, for me. I’m hoping I’ll actually eat it. If not, I’ll need to find someone to donate it to, who will enjoy it. So far, I love it as kale chips, but I’m trying to branch out in my tastes and find new ways to enjoy it. I guess we’ll see!

I didn’t get photos of everything. These don’t include the sweet onions, scallions, corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, and strawberry plants. There’s not much to see for the onions, yet, and the corn currently looks like very ambitious grass — definitely not knee-high by the 4th of July! I don’t feel like showing off the tomato and pepper plants yet, since we bought them as young plants and they’re still getting established.

I’m currently watching NBC’s coverage of the Tour de France (stage 1 was today), and after that I’ll probably figure out something for lunch, then go check out the garden, again. Ty picked a large handful of strawberries yesterday evening before we went dancing, but I’m sure there are already more to be found!