This weekend, I made a first (double) batch of Thai basil pesto. I also made my first refrigerator pickles of the summer.
My cucumbers are doing exceptionally well this year. The pickles are based on this recipe, but I brought the brine to a boil first (and then let it cool down again) before adding it to the cucumbers.
I am really enjoying my back porch this summer. (And yes, it badly needs a paint job.) I love having my tea there first thing in the morning, and a glass of wine or cool water at the end of the day, enjoying the sights and scents of the flowers and herbs.
This year, I experimented with growing flowers that I had never grown in containers before.
I had started snapdragons and Iceland poppies from seed back in February (snapdragons) and April (poppies). There is also a Poodle Skirt dahlia in the container with the snapdragons that is about to bloom. And, as always, I planted nasturtiums throughout.
As usual, there are a lot of herbs: basil (three plants of Italian and two plants of Thai), parsley (three plants), thyme, oregano, lavender (two plants), mint and dill. One Thai pepper as well, but it seems to remain small. So, again, focusing on flowers and herbs for my summer porch seems to have been the right call. (In the spring, I grew lettuces and radishes in the large containers that now are home to the basil/thyme/Thai pepper and the poppies.)
First pickling cucumbers (they are big) plus rainbow chard, basil (from pruning the tips), and flowers.
I love late June in the garden. Everything is starting to take off, and typically, there are no major pest issues yet. Apart from the rabbits, rats and birds perhaps, but no mildew, blight or aphids etc.
I harvested the garlic scapes and lettuces. The rhubarb is still producing. I also harvested mint, which I hung to dry in my pantry, and I picked some flowers, herbs and seed heads to make small bouquets. The tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers and squash are starting to flower. Everything looks fresh and green and full of promise 🙂
This morning, I harvested two heads of lettuce form the garden plot. The garlic scapes are coming in, and with the recent heat, things are growing nicely. I also finished weeding the communal bed, planted the last Zinnias there and mulched the entire bed with straw.
Over the last two days, I completed almost all the planting for my plot. I transplanted my tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, squash, hot peppers, marigolds, strawflowers and dahlias, and also added an Asian eggplant seedling I had purchased from The Neighborhood Farm. My lone surviving Delicata squash was leggy and did not survive transplanting, so I will pick up two more Delicata seedlings from The Neighborhood Farm this weekend. All that’s left for now is to inter-plant everything with more marigolds, and sow nasturtium and beets. I may move the dill I had planted last week closer to the cucumbers. I also need to stake the tomatoes and refine my cucumber teepee.
Today, I spent several hours in the community garden to (finally!) finish getting the plot ready for planting. Because of a major leak, the water in the garden was turned on super late – only about a week ago – which delayed everything.
I weeded and amended the soil with manure and city-provided compost, and I also got my first seedlings in the ground: leeks, chives, dill, snapdragons and zinnias. The flowers were inter-planted with chives. I also sowed two rows of cilantro.
I just love the view from my third-floor back porch in May. The cherry blossoms are fading now (they were an incredible sight for the past two weeks), but our lilac and our neighbor’s dogwood are glorious. And the scent!
It has been a super slow start to the gardening season, and other than the shallots, I have not planted anything in the plot yet. Because of a water leak, we still do not have water in the community garden. I do not trust the weather, and I am not schlepping gallons of water several blocks down to the garden. But my seedlings are ready; they are practically bursting out of their little containers. Fingers crossed the repairs will happen this week.
Meanwhile, my container plants on the back porch are very happy. The spinach (two containers) really took off, as did the radishes.
My lettuce mix never germinated, so I transplanted one of the three Salanova Green Butter lettuces into that container. The other two will go in the plot. The seeds were old, so I unfortunately only got three seedlings out of the handful I started. Over the summer and into fall, the salad container will have Thai pepper, Thai basil and flowers.
It has been an excruciatingly slow start to the season. Such a cold and rainy spring so far, which after this long and cold winter is especially hard. So, things in the garden have been slow to come up. I did not plant peas this year, and have not started anything yet in the garden plot. But both, the garlic and the rhubarb are coming up nicely. As are the grape hyacinths and a few tulips, which have yet to open.
My dining room table is full of seedlings. I thinned the basil seedlings on March 30th and plan to re-pot tomatoes, Swiss chard, sage and thyme this weekend. I will also start hardening off the snapdragons. The kale has been living on the porch full-time for about a week now. This weekend, I also plan to plant my shallots and start my cucumber and squash seedlings.
The radishes and spinach on my porch are coming up nicely. I had started them on March 30. Because it was so cold (we even still had a few frosts), it took them a while. On April 21, I also started leaf lettuce mix in one of the big containers.
