drive by

Posted on Posted in food and garden, projects

today is a work day out in the garden, so i’m just popping in to say hi and happy fourth of july weekend.

the plants are busy-busy, making yummy veggies for our table

like new green beans that should be ready in a few days

yellow summer squash—i was getting concerned that i’d never see one this year and suddenly, there are several very tiny ones on the one plant i have. the green squash are showing a little more motivation, but all the squash plants seem sluggish right now. they are perfectly healthy, but smallish and slow to produce, compared to last year.

they’re in a newly-created garden spot, so maybe the dirt there isn’t up to their usual standards; i think i’ll feed them today to see if that helps.

the winter squash, meanwhile, are placed in the same spot as last year and by comparison, look like olympian gods—feast your eyes on the sculptural shapes of their muscular arms and many tendrils. incredible.

we’ve got greens galore ready to pick—all types and colors. the rapini rocketed a bit at the end of this week, but i think i can still use it for tonight’s stir-fry dinner, with shitakes, shrimp, baby squash, scallions, and noodles, yum.

the rest—swiss chard, beet greens, and zen greens—will get blanched and bagged for the freezer.

and i need to make potato salad to take to a picnic tomorrow.
so i better scramble; sorry for the lack of knitting news, but i’ll be back monday with lots (i hope!). my secret project is all done so i can move on now.

and i’m planning on spending at least part of this weekend communing with regular knitting . . . the tour starts today and we are ready to watch bike races, yay.

11 thoughts on “drive by

  1. Anne, when you said you were going to feed the squash….what are you going to feed them with? thanks, mary

  2. Your weekend sounds a lot like mine is going to be. A little gardening, a little knitting and blocking my sweet little bee shawl. 🙂

  3. so glad to hear you say your squash plants are slow this year….i was beginning to think it was just me!

  4. Anne, I love that butterfly. Is it a Camberwell Beauty? (You might call it something else – Cloak of Evening is the rough translation of the French name, but I have no idea what it’s called in your neck of the woods.)

    I’m spinning along to Tour de Fleece, trying to catch up on the fibre stash.

    See you in London, late July!

  5. That’s a lovely butterfly–I think it’s a Mourning Cloak. And you garden looks great! I hope you have a happy 4th with lots of knitting.

  6. We’ll be watching, too! Rick already has special plans so we don’t miss Tuesday’s stage while we’re flying across the country, heh.

  7. You have a beautiful garden – again!!

    The mourning cloak butterfly looks like it’s really enjoying the sun and the heat from the brick.

    The red admiral in a previous post is so pretty – among the naturalist list serves, they are quite numerous this year. This is nice because their numbers were low for awhile.

    you must have a very natural yard – lots to nectar on and good habitat.

    Enjoy!! Happy belated 4th everyone!

  8. Your photos of swiss chard inspired my to plant some in my garden this year – I have a question about blanching the chard: do you separate the stalks and green portions? Do you have a link for instructions? Thanks again for taking the time to photograph your garden (and knits, of course!) – quite inspirational.

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