Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Garden Update

There are no freaky supposedly edible creatures with tentacles in today's post. You're welcome! Instead, I thought we should tour the garden. The nice, innocent, wholesome garden. Because I spent a long time there yesterday wielding my hoe to kill the weeds and hill the corn, and now my left arm has seized up into a permanent cramp.

I hate hilling. As I may have whined to you before.

ANYWAY.

Yes, corn is supposed to be hilled, just like potatoes. I didn't do it last year, and several of our corn plants toppled right over. Whoopsy. So I'm trying to be more diligent this year with the hilling, even though it makes me say very bad words and rue the day I ever decided to plant ANYTHING that needs hilling, much less plant half the garden with such things.

That's right. I said rue.

There are lettuce and spinach planted in between the corn. The corn is supposed to shade the greens and keep them from bolting too fast. Except the timing may be a little off here, because the greens are already pretty big, and the corn isn't shading anything yet. Stupid, useless, high-maintenance corn.

ANYWAY AGAIN.

Of course, the hilling wasn't the only thing that kept me out there with the hoe. I was also attacking the ever-present weeds. This time of year, I'm pretty consistent with the weeding. It's not until later that it all goes to hell. I figure if I can just keep ahead of the weeds until the plants are big enough to hold their own, I'll be good. That will probably be about mid-July, when I give up entirely and let the scary jungle-like growth of upstate New York take over.

The garlic is big enough to fight back already. So are the shallots. But those tiny beets, chard, and parsnips in the background? They need me.

The tomatoes are sulking and refusing to grow in any significant manner. They do not dig the 40 degree nights we've been having. The San Marzanos, in particular, are saying, "Lady, this is SO NOT Italy." Is it a bad sign that my tomatoes talk to me?

Don't answer that.

But their trellis network? Still BAD ASS.

Nothing else is really appreciating the cool nights, either. Except for the peas and the lettuce. Oh my God, the lettuce. I went out yesterday and harvested a massive dishpan full of lettuce. And there is more. There is ALWAYS more. I could make salad for the entire village and still have some left over. We do this every year. We do three separate plantings of lettuce, and then they hit all at once, leaving us drowning in leafy greens.

One of three lettuce beds. Also, flowering blackberries, the barn, and a shitload of weeds. Pretty.

So that's it for the photos. There's lots more in the garden, of course--potatoes, various squashes, beans, carrots, and on and on and on--but they're mostly too small to show up well in photos yet. Give them time. Well, time, and some heat would be nice, too.

As the tomatoes said, definitely not Italy.