Monday, May 11, 2009

What's green, delicious, and in mah belly?


Lettuce!

We're having it tossed with sauteed tofu, a little cheese (that perfectly melted onto the tofu), and, of course, a little ranch dressing. I don't even mind sharing with the aphids, because my two (just 2!!) rows of Black Seeded Simpson just keep giving and giving and giving.

Life is tasty, this fine May evening.

May the crunch be with you.

--Kelsie



Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Quasi-Final Veggie Tally!

Alright all--I've pretty much set out all the plants my garden can hold. It's going to be an absolute JUNGLE...and I love it. The tally stands thus:

15 tomato plants (Cherokee Purple, Super Choice, Deppe's Pink Firefly, Pink Brandywine, Big Rainbow, Yellow Pear, Ribenstrauben, Mortgage Lifter, & Arkansas Traveler)

8 bell pepper plants (Big Bertha, Marconi, Orange Bell, and Red Bell)--I had to buy these as starts, because my peppers weren't sprouting. Now I have 6 Marconis and 2 Long Red Cayenne starts that FINALLY sprouted and are coming along, so I suppose I'll pop those in containers, when the time comes.

6 eggplants (Rosa Bianca & Listada De Gandia)

11 bush beans (Dragon's Tongue, Buff Valentine Contender, and a mix from Burpee)--I also bought some "Soldier" beans, which are a very antique variety of drying bean. If I can find the time this week, I'm going to scratch out a bed for them and give them a whirl. If not, I'll just save them for next year.

Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans (there are many of these plants, all working on climbing the bean teepee)

Sugar Snap peas (again, multiple plants are trellising)

2 rows lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson)

4 rows carrots (Oxheart, Dragon, Little Fingers, and Short n' Sweet)--I'm also adding two more rows of carrots this week--one of Parisian Market carrots (little round ones, sometimes called "Thumbelinas") and one row of a North African carrot called "Muscade"

1 row beets (Bull's Blood)

10 squash plants (Early Gold Crookneck, Bush Buttercup, Table Queen, Spaghetti, Yellow Scallop, Ronde de Nice Zucchini, Tromboncino--aka "Giant Dog-Eating Squash")

6 cucumbers (Parisian Pickling, Telegraph Improved, and African Horned--aka "Jelly Melon")

5 melons (Golden Honeymoon--honeydew, Minnesota Midget--muskmelon, Bush Sugar Baby--watermelon, Moon & Stars--watermelon)

2 Pumpkins + 3 or 4 volunteer pumpkins (Cinderella's Carriage & Small Sugar)--the volunteer pumpkins are all from last season's Cinderella pumpkins; I will be more than happy to allow them to run wild

8 rows of corn (Blue Jade & Silver Queen)

Strawberry plants (see prior post)

1 Gourd (Speckled Swan)



So aside from all of the culinary/medicinal herbs and the few flowers I've got going (marigolds, morning glories, zinnias, foxglove, black hollyhocks, viper's bugloss, convovulus, 3 kinds of poppies, Canterbury bells, snapdragons...) AND Jacob's sunflower forest (because we can't forget that), I think that pretty much answers the question of "What's growin'?"

We're rich!

Time now for a hot, Dr. Bronner-y shower and a glass of bubbly. Tomorrow, rain. Thursday? Endless weeding.

<3,

-Kelsie

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Beltane Foxglove

This flower opened near twilight on Beltane. I've been in the rain for the past fifteen minutes, angling for the perfect shot. There's something about a foxglove that can make even the cheapest digital camera do something magical. As I snapped this photo, the little green tendril in the upper left extended down into the shot. I think we all know why that happened.

They didn't call them "folk's gloves" for nothing. Click for the full-sized version: