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 Moroccan carrot salad (I always cook the carrots). The beets will be roasted and either go in a salad or will top some fresh bread with goat cheese. I also pulled the last garlic and sowed radishes, carrots, bok choi and lettuces.
2. Dandelion greens (Cicoria) and garlic scapes. With some basil (from the store, as my plants are still too small) , some pine nuts, grated Parmesan and good olive oil, these will make a nice pesto for later this week.
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 strawberry rhubarb galette, which in my house is always gone within minutes. One last one of these today for my son’s birthday.
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 Your Pad Thai or Mine by Didi Emmons from her book Vegetarian Planet.
The radishes, I like to just slice up, sprinkle with salt and pile them on a buttered slice of baguette. Or I use them in a spring salad I make from romaine, sliced cucumber, diced avocado and sliced radishes with a creamy cilantro lime dressing.
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.
In my garden I have currently growing: rhubarb, scallions (already harvested those two twice this season), strawberries, radishes (almost ready to harvest), carrots, parsley, leeks, beets, kale, chicory, Swiss Chard, bok choi, Brussels sprouts, garlic, peas, arugula, potatoes, pole beans, basil, spring greens and flowers. For flowers, the tulips have faded, but I also planted dahlias, nasturtiums, sunflowers and zinnias. And the borage keeps coming up everywhere of course, as does the mint and the lemon balm.
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.
Today, with the help of my 11 year-old, I sowed radishes, spring greens, arugula, mache, peas and chicory.
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.
Last week, I found out why my tomato harvest is so meager this year and why while the cucumbers started out very well, I did not harvest any lately. Rats! They also destroyed my watermelon patch. I had five beautiful melons growing and within a day and a half all of them were gone. The rat(s) had taken up residence under the wooden border of my plot and dug a little nest. I tried to flush them out with the garden hose and I thought it had done the trick. No fresh digging marks for a few days. Last night I discovered a newly dug hole. The obstacles of urban gardening, I suppose. But what a disappointment.
Potatoes. Always for this German girl. I never plant enough it seems, but then I have such limited space and I like variety in the garden. I did not harvest as many potatoes as I had expected this year, only 4 pounds. But I only had 8 plants as some of the seed potatoes never sprouted, so I guess it is not all that bad. And those potatoes (Banana fingerlings) are delicious! I just roasted a few of them and we enjoyed them for dinner with roasted asparagus and prosciutto sage butter. Yum!