herbs and tomatoes

Finally have a few large tomatoes to pick- I get them early and let finish ripening on the windowsill (otherwise the squirrels eat holes out of them). Some are oddly shaped this year! 

There is also an oddity in one of my basil pots. A seed came up looking the same as all the rest, but grew tiny leaves. They have the same flavor (maybe a little sharper) just small for some reason.

As for the other herbs, well some have failed me. Dill is pretty much done- gone to flower and now dying off. That's usual. But my pot of summer savory on the deck, only has two surviving plants out of the six or eight I stuck in there. The pot of dill never did well either, and the parsley is only a few small leaves, really struggling. These did so much better when in planters on the deck railing.

Chives, thyme, basil and mint are doing well. Tarragon is sprawling in the herb bed (this French type doesn't seem to grow upright like the Russian one did I had before), sculpit is putting out its balloon flowers, and green onions continue growing. I hope to eat more of those soon.

green onions

First cutting. Not many- I only have three onions growing there. But cutting them is supposed to encourage the bunching growth, and this was just enough to sprinkle over some portabellas cooked in a tamari sauce for dinner.

We're continuing to eat carrots from the garden almost every other day- because that's what I have the most of, that's doing well out there. Beets once or twice a week, chard about as often now. Their regrowth has slowed down, I think because of the heat. I somehow lost half my swiss chard patch last week- there are only three plants on that side remaining. Were a bit smothered by some of the carrot foliage falling over- did the shade and heat do them in? or bugs got it, I don't know. 

The peas are done. The tomatoes are slowly coming on- my sweet 100's completely died (dunno why) but I have a handful of cherokee purple cherry tomatoes every few days, and larger ones too- beefsteak and others. I pick them when they are just starting to turn color and then finish ripening on windowsill, otherwise the animals/bugs get them.

Had a second helping of turnips, once again cooked with peas and salmon. My husband really likes that dish so I definitely have to grow more turnips next year. Seems like such a homely vegetable, but it does so well without any care! Cut the first lot of collard greens to eat tonight- the leaves are on the small side, and not great-looking. I've read that the purplish hue is probably from potassium deficiency in the soil, though they're still fine to eat. Funny, I planted more blue collards than yellow this year- because in the past I have preferred the blue ones. But the yellow ones are looking much healthier, so I should have done it the other way around!

A few purple podded green beans. I picked a small handful (enough for just one serving) last week, and only two ready-sized beans today. Missed half a dozen the first time around that are now too fat with seed maturing- so I will leave those to dry on the vine and be my seed next year. But now there are no new beans forming. I'm not sure if this is because of heat stress, or because my leaving some pods to ripen made the plant think its job is done.

Lost one small asparagus plant. Two others are doing great (so far as I can tell) and the third is half the size of the others. 

Nothing else to report. We're having hot days in the upper nineties again. On the days where I happen to wake up too early- at five or six am- instead of trying to go back to sleep I get up (even though still tired) and go out to the garden before it is hot. I have just enough time to put out the compost, weed a few beds, harvest food for the day and water the garden with the hose, before temperatures rise and the sweat starts rolling down my back just standing still.

reckoning

There's a lot to re-evaluate as I start working in the garden again. I found out which plants can't survive the winter without extra mulch and care. I've lost my potted figs, chocolate mint, green onions, tarragon, some stinking hellebores, the hyssop, winter savory and probably more that I can't remember now. Or have forgotten their names. 

I was surprised to find that both rosemary plants are still alive- doing better when I ignored them. My shady sideyard has been overwhelmed by the joe pye weed and black-and-blue salvia (which pleases me). The salvia crowded out the lamb's ears and gladiolas. Somehow I don't mind loosing some glads- I'm not as fond of them anymore- but I do miss the lamb's ears. Mabye I will try to move them to a different spot, because I love seeing the blue salvia thrive. I even saw two hummingbirds fighting over the space this week! 

I find I'm not too keen on the yellow salvia under my trees anymore, or the sensitive fern that looks terrible half the year, or the 'autumn joy' sedums that the deer munch on so they don't look great and have very few blooms. My lilac appears to be suffering, some branches have died, and my lavender is much reduced in size, but I cut out a lot of dead stems and hope it will grow back.

Today I pulled out a ton of mock strawberry in and around some garden beds, and straightened out one whole brick row of edging, on bed 4. I thought I was lining the bricks up straight enough, but then when I got to the end the last brick wouldn't meet the corner one square. So I took them all off again and ran a string line from one end to the other. Redid it- much straighter! Packed the clay soil in tight underneath and hopefully I won't have to re-do this one for several years (the clay gets pretty solid). I'm pleased because this bed has always had a crooked edge where the stump of an old tree never came out. I finally broke up and removed most of that. Then planted some calamint (nepitella) along the edge- which I'd pulled up when trimming in the front bed. Stems had rooted where they trailed on the ground. Easy to move and put in more areas. Such a bright, sharp scent.

The lovage there at the end wasn't doing too great but a few weeks ago I cut out yellowing foliage, weeded around it, mulched and watered. It's perking up a little bit.

In bed 1, I yanked out all the mock strawberry but left half a dozen of this plant that's growing there as volunteer (or weed) also. I've always left a few of these around the yard, they seem to get eaten more by the insects - so I view it as a decoy or trap plant. I still don't know what it is!

I was also pleased to see that the little broken stone "mowing strip" I dug in along the outside base of bed 1, is mostly still in place! There were some weeds in the cracks but once I pulled those up, it was far easier to make this a clean edge when mowing. Encourages me to continue with that project (I have a lot of rocks stacked on my bench intended for this). There are more edging bricks to straighten too (as visible on the left).

Here's the few herbs I have: parsley, thyme and chives. All bought as starts from the nursery months ago, I didn't do anything from seed this year. With my cat Eliza in the window.

She was meowing at me.

I had basil and mint also, but they died. I forget to water sometimes, still. I've removed and dumped the soil from the planter boxes that hung on my deck railings. One was badly cracked and spilled- I'd fixed it with duct tape years ago but it wasn't holding and looked awful. Another was warped, and all four the plastic really faded and discolored. Not sure yet if I will replace those or use them somewhere else. 

It's a lot of work but I'm trying to just do a little bit at a time. Mostly focused on rebuilding and fixing structures in the garden, improving the soil again (when I pulled off the bricks, nice to see the soil was still dark and healthy-looking under the dried crusty top inches), and getting rid of weeds. Have to figure out a fencing solution too, or the rabbits will just eat everything I grow. Oddly, I have not seen many squirrels in my yard this year. We do have red-tailed hawks, an owl and foxes that come through regularly, I wonder if they have just reduced the numbers. Or if they don't have as many nuts to bury, or if they aren't interested in digging in my garden because the soil got so hard and compacted without me working and amending it.

so very late

but I did finally pot up my herb seedlings. Even though they will probably go into their larger pots and/or the ground in just a week or two, they needed nutrients from regular soil. So small still! Basil

Dill 

Summer savory 

Thyme

Actually got a few fenugreek- two more sprouted in the seedling tray

The parsley, 

garlic chives and green onions aren't quite big enough to prick out yet 

It seems like the cardinal climbers leapt overnight- this was a few days ago when I potted them up

And now: is it my imagination, or are they slightly larger already

Here's a more visible difference in size: summery savory seedlings just before I took them out of their tray

compared to a few of the same plant, that grew back from roots in the planter box on the deck! I didn't know this herb could survive the winter, but these two did just that (only two out of the dozen I had growing last year, so not much but still)

first up yesterday-

Two of my seedlings- fenugreek (so small!)

and cardinal climber (leaves have not unfolded yet). 

Already facing the difficulty I always imagined having if starting seeds late in the spring- it's too darn hot. The little greenhouse is an oven during the day, even leaving the trays just on the deck table they dry out super fast. I have to keep hydrating or set them in a tray water but then am I overdoing it. When I can put them in regular potting soil I think they'll do better but right now it's tricky.

Today a few green onions, basil and thyme sprouted.

today is cold and damp

Perfect for digging and moving things. I dug up nearly the entire perennial herb bed (sparing only the corner where bunching onions grow) and raked in three scattered layers of broken rock. Leftover fragments of stuff my husband brings home from fossil-hunting trips. It was a heap on the back patio and now it's dug into my herb bed. Because I've read that they prefer rocky soil.

The sorrel was getting quite large so I took some divisions off the sides of the clump, but also accidentally broke off nearly all the leaves. However it seems pretty robust and I think will grow back quick enough. It's now in the far corner alongside the onions. Lemon balm replanted to its right.

The middle is rearranged- left here it's winter savory and tarragon, sculpit in the middle, two sage plants on the right.

Most of it doens't look like much right now, but the winter savory (which got a trim) has tiny leaves sprouting in its tangle of stems,

and the sculpit is only scraggly because I've been eating it.

Lavender replanted on the other end.

I tossed a finally layer of broken rock over the surface after replanting, and then tucked all the leaf litter back in place- because we have a temperature drop again this week, with nights just below freezing. 

dried tarragon

 The only thing to eat from outside right now in bitter cold (we're having nights down in the teens) is an occasional picking of winter savory, green onions when it thaws out for a few days, and once every other week, tokyo bekana from the greenhouse. It really doesn't keep anything warm enough. Success was low. While I feel better that there's not plastic sheeting bits potentially shredding across the yard, the mini greenhouse doesn't gather any warmth from the ground. My chervil never got beyond seedling stage, the dill and lettuces are just barely alive. I have a few tatsoi but the only one that is doing well, got the earliest start. Really the only plants in there worth tending and picking from time to time are the tokyo bekana now. 

But I have my favorite herb all dried and stuffed in jars. I was always so stingy with tarragon in the past, having one plant that did poorly. Last year's new variety thrived so, I was able to pick and dry tons. It feels a bit extravagent to be able to have eggs with cheddar and tarragon whenever I want, or add it to chicken soups and pies.

My bay leaf plant is also doing great, and the rosemary down in the basement window. Maybe I will get a photo of that to add here soon. The bay leaves look so healthy.

winter greens

It has been very cold nights, some down into the low twenties, but often warm again during the day. The leeks I left in the garden didn't last, but the few green onions left are still okay, and I can still pick to eat sorrel, winter savory, sculpit, and purple dead nettle in certain sheltered spots. What I tried to grow in my little greenhouse- only part worked out. Nearly all the pots sprouted- but the lettuces are doing very poorly and leggy. Lack of light, or the soil was too poor, or it's just been too cold for them to thrive. Tatsoi I only got one good plant, but that one's doing fine. Haven't eaten it yet because I wish there was more. Chervil all growing but are slow to put out their first true leaves. Dill is okay and I've used some of it. Tokyo bekana is doing well!

A bit spindly, but grew much better than anything else. I actually picked some to eat just yesterday, glad for a bit of fresh greens. 

Maybe if I do this again next year, skip the idea of lettuces (unless I start them sooner) and just do the cabbage and spinach relatives.

garden to food

Picked the first few cowpeas. Young pods. They grow out very fast, long and straight, sticking up at an angle from the stems, so easier to see on the plants. I don't have many yet.

The vines are also getting a lot longer, I'm thinking to try and train lines up to the deck for them to climb, as none of my poles are tall enough. 

Getting more short fat zucchinis. I really think the speckled skins are pretty.

Cooked a shrimp stir-fry with homemade sauce. Included from the garden cowpea pods, sliced zucchini, green onions, ginger mint. The cowpeas were too few and smothered in sauce to get a taste- but added a nice crispness as I hadn't simmered them long enough to be soft.

cicadas!

Everywhere.

I took all these pictures just walking through half the garden- a small fraction of my yard. Here's one on a decking post:

On an onion stem

On turnip leaves

In the rue

On a curlicue of my new trellis

closeup:

These two I found just recently emerged from their larval skins, so the bodies still fat, the wings small and crumpled

The birds and lizards are feasting. I keep startling sparrows and robins out of the garden. I watched a large skink tackle one this morning. And I find their body parts- especially discarded wings- lying about.

there are a few things

to eat so early in the garden, holdovers from last year or perennials. One leaf lettuce that survived all the winter without cover:

Sorrel- doesn't look great yet but we had some in wraps with lentils.

Sculpit- I picked and tossed in a dish with onions recently

Green onions- haven't eaten these, but I did pull and chop to cook with portabellas a few skinny leeks from last season (not pictured)

Not going to eat last year's tokyo bekana anymore. It's bolting under the row cover! Maybe I will get seed.