The Latest and Greatest

Wow, how long has it been since a garden update? Too long, right? I'm sure you're all worrying in bed at night, fretting until the wee hours about the state of my broccoli plants, and did the tomatoes survive The Great Stupidity of 2010, and WHAT ABOUT THE POTATOES--WE MUST KNOW.

I'm so sorry for causing you such anxiety. Allow me to soothe you with a detailed garden update.

The broccoli is fine, as are the cabbages, which are expanding rapidly. As cabbages are wont to do. Soon there may be Cabbage Patch Kids under there. Fun! Okay, that would actually be really creepy, but moving on.

We've been eating a lot of peas, both the shelling and non-shelling kind. I planted snow peas and snap peas for the first time this year. We're not wild about the snap peas, but the snow peas are definite keepers. Not least because they don't have to be shelled. And you know how I feel about shelling peas.

The lettuce and spinach haven't entirely bolted yet, but their days are numbered. The chard, however, is still going strong, so we won't have any shortage of leafy greens.

The corn . . . oh, the disappointing corn. I planted the corn a little early this year, because of the unusually warm weather we had in April. That was a mistake. We then had cold, rainy weather, with the result that I have about a dozen corn plants out there. Which represents maybe a ten percent germination rate. Awesome. We decided that instead of re-seeding, we'd just buy a bushel or so. Everyone around here grows it, so it's not exactly hard to find. So not to worry--there will still be maquechoux in our freezer this winter. I know that's a load off your mind.

The potatoes are huge and flowering and I can no longer get in between the rows to hill. Isn't THAT a shame. Now I just wait for them to die down. Which should be awhile.

And speaking of dying down! The garlic has started browning at the tips, which means harvesting isn't far off. The shallots we planted in the fall as an experiment are ready to be dug up at any time, and I think they are going to kick the asses of the shallots we planted as usual in the spring. Which means fall planting of shallots for us from now on.

Let's see . . . beets, carrots, and parsnips are all plugging away, awaiting their days of glory in the fall when all these fancy perishable vegetables are dead and only the hearty root vegetables remain to save us from certain starvation.

Or something.

Flea beetles have been plaguing the basil, but it's still growing nicely. As are the hot peppers and bell peppers. No flowers on them yet, but all in good time. The eggplants are being annoyingly slow, as always, except the one Ichiban eggplant seedling I bought that already has blossoms on it. Two thumbs up for the fancy foreign eggplant!

The cucumbers sprouted nicely, and will soon be rambling all over the patch of ground they share with the Ronde di Nice zucchini, butternut squash, and some random sweet potato vines the MiL was given. That's a whole lotta vines. It's going to be scary in there in another month.

NOT in the scary vine patch, but instead secluded off between the blackberries and the barn, are a few Chioggia pumpkin seeds I saved from some pumpkins given to us by a family member last winter (thanks, Mark!). Have you ever heard of these? They're DELICIOUS. The flesh is more like a sweet potato than a pumpkin, dense and kind of dry. And they get huge. I hope the damned squash borers don't ravish these, because I would really like to have some of these pumpkins to store this winter.

And last, but of course not even close to least, the tomatoes. Yay tomatoes! Not dead! Growing nicely! There are wee tomatoes on the Stupice plants, swelling every day!

Life is good.