First Day of Summer Mini-Bouquet from the Plot
Plot Update
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.
Radish Time
Today, I harvested my porch radishes. So crisp and sharp. So good!
Planted!
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.
Late Spring Dinner from the Garden
It feels good to finally start incorporating home-grown vegetables and fruit into our meals again. Tonight we had a caramelized leek tart with a simple side salad. I tweaked this recipe, using Gruyere instead of Blue cheese. First time I made this. So good!
For dessert, it was a simple strawberry-rhubarb compote over vanilla ice cream.
Getting Ready
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.
Overwintered Leeks
Last night, I harvested my overwintered leeks. They looked pretty rough in early spring but recovered beautifully, and some of them are enormous. I also pulled green garlic from a forgotten and accidentally overwintered plant. I am thinking leek quiche or leek tart; not sure yet what to use the green garlic for, maybe pesto.
Spinach
This morning, I harvested the spinach on my back porch. We have had a couple of warm days (in the eighties), and it was starting to bolt. Tomorrow, it will be in the nineties, so time to harvest. In total, my two 12-inch containers yielded 190 grams (6.75 oz.). Not bad. It will be a nice addition to our dinner tonight.
One of the two containers has a parsley plant in the center, and I am adding nasturtium around it. In the other, I planted some tiny Iceland Mix poppy seedlings. It is my first time growing poppies. They are supposed to be difficult to transplant as their roots do not like to be disturbed. Fingers crossed.
Rhubarb
Forgot to post my first real harvest of the year (May 11). A handful of rhubarb, which I turned into a strawberry-rhubarb compote served over vanilla ice cream for dessert. So good!
May Porch
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.
