thinner, but better

boy, did i ever miss my garden while i was away. i know it was just a short weekend trip, but when i got home, everything seemed to have doubled in size. and i missed it—drat!

it makes me nervous about my travels in july; i’m finally realizing what it will mean to be away for four weeks during the height of gardening season—yikes. who will pick the chard; who will freeze it?? ay, yi, yi .. . .

the hydrangeas continue to be stunning this year, with an almost ideal alternating schedule of sunny and rainy days (a few of this, a few of that). just look at how green the leaves are—and that’s for real; not a trick of the camera.

we always have a nice mix of pink and blue flowers, even from one side of the shrub to the other. i love the variation. the shrubs are absolutely loaded with big buds—so many they are weighing down the branches.

the blooms on the variegated bush have not opened yet, no matter how many times i check. i’m waiting with bated breath to see what those look like, but they are stalling me. heh.

that’s ok, i’ve got bee balm to keep me company.
our barrel of bee balm plants has begun to bloom and again, we have a wealth of blooms and buds there.

including this very unusual one with a double flower—i’m trying to find out more about it, since it’s the only one of its kind in the patch. i first noticed it was different when i was editing the photo; when i went outside to look, sure enough, it’s the only one like it. i looked a little bit online to see if maybe it was a male flower or what, but couldn’t find any info on bee balm sex characteristics (if any even exist).

it appears that it’s only a double flower, with the second one just beginning to open. while doing that research, however, i just read that these plants are really good companion plantings for tomatoes, so i may ask david to build some sort of planter by the back fence so i can divide this patch into it. they are too invasive to plant directly in the ground near my vegetables, but in a pot or planter, they’d be wonderful at the edge of the backstreet.

anyway, enough about the flowers. my vegetables have taken off in the grandest way and as such, were sorely in need of thinning and hoeing when i got back.

i left part of the garden without mulch because we ran out of straw and because the root vegetables were much slower to germinate. naturally, the very conditions that have caused a surge in plant growth have ignited a rash of weed growth in those uncovered areas—by yesterday, there was plenty of work to do.

that’s the rutabaga, which i’m growing for the first time.

the cruciferous vegetables (collards, rapini, rutabaga, turnips) all germinated REALLY well once again—as in, so many they are growing on top of one another; i have to thin aggressively. ditto for the alliums (onions, leeks, garlic, shallots, scallions). still struggling to get that same healthy result with beets, chard, carrots, and parsnips.

i need to mention that to our garden supplier and see if she has any ideas for me. we got very few carrots form our first planting and NONE of the parsnips germinated; not even one. so sad—i really love them and they are not to be found in our grocery stores.

but good surprises were in store for me too

my green beans have flower buds that are just about ready to pop open; it won’t be long before we have fresh beans on the table.

and, and . . . . AND

i couldn’t believe my eyes when i peered closely at the tomato plants—wow. and not just one plant, but all of them at once. above are the san marzano and below are the stupice

and the sweet 100s

so anyway, for several good reasons, i took yesterday off from desk work to get out and work in the garden. mainly, i had massage therapy scheduled for last evening and i wanted to get all that bending and kneeling work out of the way BEFORE hand. also, we were supposed to get several days of rain in a row, starting yesterday afternoon. so far, not much of that has materialized, but the work is done now, in case it does.

i started at the back with the tomatoes, giving them all a good pruning to encourage more fruiting and better air circulation. you can do the same, but don’t take my word for it—click here to explore the wealth of information about it on the internet.

after that, i tackled the green veggie patch, where i had a lot of thinning and transplanting to do. the collards (above) are just one example.

i thinned them this time to about nine inches; the seed packet said twelve, but i want to see how they do at this spacing first (supposedly, you can actually keep plants a lot closer than the recommended distance and still get good results).

the turnip row was even more heavily populated, thought these can live just inches apart.

between the collards, turnips, rapini, and escarole, i gathered a huge basin of baby greens, which i soaked and cleaned afterward so we could use them in a simple spring soup we love, with broth and chick peas. i even got a bunch of tiny, tiny white turnips to throw in. we’ll be eating good tonight, mmm. i’ll try to remember to take pictures.

the chard and beets germinated in a much more irregular way, with some parts of the rows thick with plants and others completely bare. i dunno what’s up with that, but it’s similar to last year and the year before. the plants we do get are healthy and tasty, but the germination is spotty.

i thinned the full areas and transplanted to the thin areas, where, as of this morning, the restarts seem to have taken very well. they looked awful yesterday after being moved, but were upright and perky this morning.

next i worked on that rutabaga patch, weeding and thinning the plants to stratch them out along the row, using some of the space where the parsnips didn’t come up. again, the transplants looked terrible yesterday, but they are all still alive today and seem to be perking up (though the leaves are still not as crisp as the chard this morning).

haha, it kept trying to thunderstorm all through the day; the sky would darken, the wind would pick up, and the rain would begin. then, just as i gathered my tools and headed for the door, it would stop. then the sun would come out and shine hot and bright for another hour. then we’d do the whole thing again, heh. just to yank my chain i guess, but since it did wait for me to finish before sending a real downpour, i can’t complain.

in may, i devoted quite a bit of planting space to carrots and parsnips because i SO enjoyed the few i planted and harvested last year. however, i cannot tolerate seeing all that space stand empty and weedy. i’m out of parsnip seeds, but i reseeded the carrots rows and hopefully, they will take this time. i used a little space for some additional chard planting (i love my greens, after all).

after that, it was on to the potato patch with desperately needed hoeing and hilling, before we put down the rest of the newspaper and straw mulch (david bought more straw this week). i figure i’ll hill them with dirt this once, since i have the opportunity, then pile up straw as needed over the rest of the summer.

i was just hoeing the last plants when the lightening, thunder, and heavy rain started. phew!

i went in and cleaned my greens, making them ready to use for today’s cooking. we had leftovers last night; something easy after a strenuous work day.

this morning, when i stepped out the back door, the whole yard looked wonderful in the bright sun. the garden was all clean with dark, freshly turned soil (if you have a garden, you know exactly what i mean).

i picked the berries that were ripe and sat on the bench out there to eat them while they were still warm, mmm—too lazy to even run in and grab a biscuit to go with them.

afterward, i went up on the second floor porch to take some aerial shots, wanna see?

ok, from front to back, i’ll tell you what-all we’ve got planted:
summer squash (off camera, to the bottom left),
basil, oregano, parsley (front)
celery, shallots
garlic (the tallest plants)
leeks
celeriac
onions and scallions (farthest right, where the garden widens out)
potatoes
rutabaga and spinach chard
rutabaga and carrots
more carrots (just in case, haha)

then in the back from right to left:
strawberries and asparagus (along the fence, far right)
rapini (broccoli raabe)
red chard (2 types)
turnips
spinach chard
collards
shiraz tall top (red) beets
golden chard
red beets (2 types)
erbette (heirloom chard)
green beans (2 types)
more green beans (2 types)
golden beets
japanese eggplant
glob eggplant
hot peppers
red sweet peppers, yummy peppers
roma tomatoes
san marzano tomatoes

and across the back fence, more tomatoes (12 plants total).
the whole thing is approximately 700 square feet (i think); about the size of our third floor. so far, i love everything about this layout and the variety of vegetables we have (except the darn parsnips which failed me). it’s as compact as it can be with great range; too bad it’s not a good idea to replicate the same design year after year.

i’m glad i did this list with the photo; next year when i’m planning, i can refer back to see what i did (i never remember the details otherwise). the only thing missing is david or myself, added for scale, haha.

and now, i think i’ll get that soup on the stove; i like cooking the chick peas in the broth ahead of time and let them sit for a while to deepen the flavor. then just before serving, i saute the greens in garlic and add a pile to each dish with fresh grated parmigiana, and bread. mmm

and with THAT, i’ll leave you for the kitchen . . .