Tag: strawberry

More!

I have to admire it from up here (due to a hyper-extended knee) but the garden is looking gorgeous today!

ROLE CALL: tomatoes (Roma and cherry 5), peppers (sweet and hot- 10), artichokes (2 varieties), blueberries (7), huckleberry, salal (many), arugula, green beans, runner beans, beets, carrots, okra (6), asparagus, strawberries (sooo many), kale (out my ears), squash (4 varieties), peas, GARLIC (2 beds), onions (ditto), wax beans, apple (1), plum (1), herbs and flowers. (:

P had to move some soil, so we planted some new White Carolina strawberries, and the last three peppers (paprika and hot).

The Corsican mint looks really happy by the house.

I broke down the aerogarden and planted the basil in a larger deeper pot for inside. The ones I pulled had fully filled the pot with root, and were trying to dig deeper.

Weeded. Watered the clover seeds.

Planted some tarragon

Eating

I haven’t done a good job writing about harvests, so I thought I’d do an update.

We have a TON of kale in west c. I’ve been thinning it and eating the babies, now we are up to mostly full grown plants. This is my best kale result ever. Is it the bed? Overseeding?

Radishes grew well, and we are bunches until my lips started to swell and crack. No radishes for Alison next year ): I’m scared to try the turnips.

We’ve eaten a few young red onions, and 4 garlic scapes!

We’ve had a bunch of arugula. It’s bolting now, but still tastes ok.

There’s lettuce in my plastic bowl for lettucing

Berries are on their way. Blueberries are forming, as are raspberries, and strawberries. There are blackberries and salal in flower stages, and even a few grapes.

MORE!

What to say… There is much food. The Arugula is delicious, I’m also growing it inside, in the Aerogarden.

Some of the onions are still going. The hops are GIGANTIC. I found one okra, and that is enough to make growing them from seed worth it. The tomatoes are doing well, ripening. P loves spicing the sauce ones up and cooking them down into sauces. I think we have enough that we might eventually tire of that and have to can some. Green beans are doing well. I think the squash could use more irrigation (note for next year) as could the blueberries. (I filled a pocket up of blueberries yesterday. Whimsical!)

Uhm, looks like I might have a couple of Brussels sprouts and some leeks this winter; raspberries are happy.

Strawberries are having a second (small) berry time. Yay!

All of this is perfect timing to make me little less aware of my health. My gallbladder went from warning me occasionally, to hurting whenever I have any kind of fat. I do have a relatively low fat diet as a vegetarian who mainly eats home cooked meals, but I am missing my cheese and olive oil something fierce. There is hopefully a cure on the horizon, but it will mean a short break from tending the plants.

In the meantime we are getting creative with proteins, and I have developed a snack I call “hand salad”, which is basically a handful of lettuces (kale, arugula, mesclun) and tomatoes which I shove in my mouth.

It’s like potato chips, except not at all.

Take that nutritionist!

Things are starting to happen.

It’s been hot and sunny, and I had a nice looooooong day rearranging the studio today, then stopped by to water B’s lovely plants. Where our land is wild and jungly- hers has a polished garden feel. It was a nice change… and I may have eaten some peas, before I knew what I was doing. It was part muscle memory, part desperation.

Some of our jungle. It needs trimming and weeding, but boy are the bees happy.

We do have a couple of pea stragglers. I am most grateful for their sacrifice.

The purple peas do not taste purple.

Other things are starting to happen too!

Strawberries are happening for real. This was today’s haul.

First blueberry!

Summer squashes

The ugly duckling nova tomato has the first non-cherry fruit. I’m glad I made room for it.

There’s also the start of a healthy pepper.

Sungolds coming soon!

Okra buds. I hope I have enough plants for pollination. They make really lovely flowers too.

Green bean monster!!

Artichoke taller than me!! More than a dozen heads. (I did get up early to spray it with water and been oil, but I’m not confident we’ll ever get viable good out of it. I’m curious about cardoon since you eat the stem on that. I wonder if it tastes similarly.)

The huckleberries are larger this year, but the tree looks like it’s ailing.

The solal underneath it INSANE.

Its cooling down. The birds are singing.

Well, the weeds are happy.

We’ve only had a few days of sun. Enough that the grass has grown taller than the raised beds, but not enough for p to mow it.

The peas are still getting chewed and pulled up by something. I replanted them today- maybe they will be so excited by the weather that they will overcome all obstacles.

I also planted more chard and kale (this time in upper c) Willy nilly I tossed the seeds in the soil. I really want some greens.

I cleared a portion of the back rocks and spread allysum seeds. I just can’t seem to have luck with this plant that is supposed to reseed itself and be happy here!

The tomato, pepper, and okra starts seem to be tolerating the greenhouse, only doing a little worse than the ones inside. The one tomato plant I already have in a container is still alive.

Parsley basket might be getting started, and the strawberry basket is happy. Once it gets a little warmer I’ll hang them on the porch.

Fingers crossed on all of it.