It has been warm and humid these past days and we are in the middle of a heat wave now (temperatures will be 100 tomorrow and Sunday), so things are progressing fast in the garden. The squash is growing very nicely and the beans I planted just five days ago all came up and are looking strong.
A few days ago, I finally got around to make garlic scape pesto with my harvested scapes. As usual, I froze it in ice cube trays and then transferred the pesto cubes to freezer bags for later use. Yum!
Yesterday morning, I watered the garden and harvested lemon balm for tea and my first real cucumber (not pickling cucumber). Garden is looking good.
This morning, I spent three hours weeding my garden plot. I also pulled up all the peas, spread compost, replanted pole beans (Kentucky Wonder) in their place and made a bean trellis. I also planted rainbow carrots, nasturtium and bush beans (Tendergreen). The bush beans were planted close to the asparagus. I noticed that most of my potatoes did not grow (only a handful of plants came up), so I filled the gap with bush beans. There is still some space between the beans and the potatoes, which I likely will fill with salad greens. I moved the pepper plant because it was shaded by the cucumber foliage. I sprinkled Epsom salt around my tomatoes and gave everything a good thorough watering.
The garlic has started to yellow. I will probably pull it in a week or two and need to think what I will plant in its space, part of it is occupied by the butternut squash vine, which is taking over much of the plot. The dahlias are coming up – I saw the first flower buds today.
Today’s harvest: first pickling cucumbers (they are big!), last peas, and Swiss chard. Also, the first real red currant harvest. I had planted a bush in our backyard in the fall two years ago. Last summer, the plant was tiny and we got only a handful of currants. This year, I harvested a good amount. Pictured are about two thirds, maybe.
The peas are winding down, most of the stalks and leaves are yellowing now. I will pull them up in the next few days and plant pole beans in their space. I also harvested two garlic scapes I had forgotten earlier and some chard.
The plants on my Southwest-facing back porch are doing well for the most part. We had plenty of rain lately and last week we had a couple of really hot days so those tiny chard and kale seedlings are finally catching up. I am very impressed with the potatoes and the lettuce.
Earlier this week, I made (up) a Greek-inspired quick dinner. I fried up leeks, onion, garlic and a bell pepper and added ground beef to it. I added tomato paste to make it more like a sauce and seasoned it with paprika, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, oregano. Topped it with feta and fresh parsley and served over rice. Quick, easy and delicious.
The (overwintered) leeks and onions were from my garden plot, the parsley from my back porch.
Yesterday, when I cleaned out the basement, I found my shoe box with dahlia tubers from last fall that I had completely forgotten about. I had not watered them once during the past seven months. Surprisingly, two of the four plants were still alive and showed new, albeit anemic, growth. I planted them in the plot. Yay for more flowers in my garden!
We have had a few warm and humid days lately and the head lettuce leaves started to grow more upright, a sign that it will bolt soon. I harvested the remaining three heads in the plot and one big head from the porch. I still have some leaf lettuce growing with the hot pepper on the porch. I planted a kale seedling in the now empty container on the porch.
I also harvested garlic scapes and snap peas. The snap peas made it onto a crudités platter this afternoon for my now 14 year old son’s birthday party.
UPDATE: For dinner I tonight, made bibimbap lettuce cups with leftovers (meat and sesame spinach). Yum!
