Garden plot “bouquet”: dahlia, mint, asparagus and yarrow.Last night while watering my garden, I took stock of what is going on right now. I have a couple of tomato plants that are not producing as heavily as I would want them to and one cucumber plant which has given and is giving me plenty of delicious cucumbers. I also harvested a bunch of beets, kale and parsley, and a small bouquet of flowers and herbs.
The radishes, carrots, lettuce and bok choi I planted a few weeks ago are coming along nicely. I had also planted pole beans earlier (my second batch and a little late this season because the first batch of seeds went right to the birds apparently) and they are looking alright. The leeks are looking good as well and the potato foliage is starting to yellow.
Two weeks ago, I harvested most of my garlic. I had planted a ton of softneck garlic last fall, but I realized in the course of the spring and summer, that I had a few hardneck volunteers popping up in clusters all over my garden. Those came from plants that I had forgotten to harvest last year or where the stalk had broken off and I had not dug up the bulbs. They produced several small heads very close to each other as they all came from the same garlic head. 
Garlic right after harvest
Dried and cleaned
Space-saving drying places -1
Space-saving drying places -2
I spent several hours on this cool cloudy summer day weeding, harvesting and planting. I pulled all remaining carrots (a total of 2.5 pounds), a couple of large cucumbers and some beets. Also parsley. The plan is to turn the carrots and parsley into a 
Rhubarb – always one of the first harvests of the year in my garden, together with (my minature patch of) asparagus, spring onions, radishes, spring greens and herbs. I got a new plant last year, and the stalks are still thin. But very tasty. Sadly, this year’s rhubarb harvest is winding down. One of my favorite things to make is this 
The various stages of delicious sugar snap peas. Both pictures were taken today.
The garden plot has started to deliver: radishes, rhubarb and tons of green garlic and scallions. All in pretty shades of red to purple and green. The scallions I harvested today will go in a vegetarian Pad Thai. I love the recipe for 
It has been a cool and wet May here in Boston and my vegetables are loving it. This morning, in the drizzling rain, I put in pole beans and bok choi and also direct-sowed basil – an experiment. In the past, I have always started basil from seed indoors and then transplanted.
For a number of reasons, I did not start seedlings indoors this year. One of those reasons is that I am not planning to plant fruiting crops in the community garden because of our rodent problems. I want to discourage other gardeners as well to plant anything those critters like so we have a chance of driving them out of our garden. From personal experience I know the rats and mice love watermelons, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn (obviously…) but they left my root and leaf crops alone. So this year, I will be planting root crops, legumes and greens. Plus a lot of flowers and herbs.
I harvested my last carrots today. The light on this late autumn afternoon was so beautiful. No filter needed for this (iPhone) picture. So, no more carrots for the season. Still growing in my garden are: kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, leeks, arugula and a ton of parsley. And of course the four rows of garlic I planted a couple of weeks ago, but this one I will not enjoy until next summer.