Time for a Garden Update!

Wheee! Do we know how to have a rockin' good time around here or what? Since so many of you asked (okay, so no one asked, I just felt like sharing) how the garden is progressing, I thought I'd give you a status report.

We ate all the radishes already. They did splendidly in the cold spring we had. Everything else is in arrested development and is trying to catch up. The Walls o' Water did work on the tomatoes, though I will not be having tomatoes in June (boo), and I moved some of the Walls to a few bell pepper plants, which are still disappointingly scrawny and not looking like they're going to produce any bell peppers this century. That might be because something was eating them, too. Then my garden guru (the MiL) told me to mix up some cayenne pepper, crushed garlic, and a bit of water and pour that on the plants. It seems to be working. I hope those miserable bugs burned their mouths on the cayenne and then died. Yes, I am vindictive.

The Roma tomatoes were not planted until Mother's Day, and yet still got a little bit of frost damage. I mean, come ON, Mama N., frost at the end of May? Please, be a little kinder in the coming months.

The corn is coming along nicely, the lettuce a little less so (I blame those goddamn rabbits--I wish Leda would kill them instead of chipmunks). The beets are okay, if a little spotty. I haven't seen any leeks yet, but I have faith they'll come through.

The shallots and garlic are going great guns; the celeriac is hilariously tiny. As you can see from the photo. In the foreground are the shallots, the big plants in the background are garlic, and if you can even see it, the celeriac is planted in between the rows of shallots. Oh, and there are some nice weeds in there, too. The weeds are growing fabulously.

The asparagus is there, and I have great hopes for the future harvests. None this year, since this is the first year of growing it for us and you have to leave it alone to re-seed for a few years before harvesting it. It's so tantalizing having those delectable spears out there and yet be forbidden to enjoy them. (Wow, did that sound really naughty to anyone else?)

My precious potatoes, for which I damn near broke my back, are growing very well so far, especially a variety called Bake Kings. And the fennel doesn't seem to be growing very fast, but at least it's not dead.

And really, that's pretty much all I ask for--not dead. What a dedicated gardener I am.