Thursday, May 13, 2010

Spring Garden Report

Some things are happing in the garden. I didn't do a traditional spring garden this year, but some fruits of previous years' labors are evident.
Rosemary is a perenial herb and usually survives our winters. We use it a lot with roasted or mashed potatoes, chicken, and lamb.

The sage survived and is now blooming. The purple flowers are a favorite with bees.

The oregano came back with a vengeance. It will take over a garden area like mint does.
Speaking of mint.... I've cut several sprigs to make mint tea.

Our dill self seeded and is lush with growth. I've cut several sprigs to put in salads at night. If only the cucumbers were ready now.

Our cilantro also self seeded. We've enjoyed that with some sauteed fresh corn the wife fixed and in salads.

I planted some sugar snap pea seeds this spring, but I may have started them too late. They don't like hot weather. We'll see.

We also planted lettuce. It's nice to pick your salad fresh that day.

The big hit so far is asparagus. We've enjoyed fresh asparagus for the past several weeks. Two years ago when we started the garden, I planted some asparagus roots. Last year I planted some more. The older ones are producing well.

I cut the spears when they're 9-10" tall. The spears need to be thicker than a pencil. We would have enjoyed more, were it not for our newfound imp...

named Alys. She looks innocent enough. You wouldn't think she'd pester her sister, dig in the garden, hop in the compost bin to enjoy vegetable scraps, and eat asparagus, but I've caught her doing all of that. The other day I caught her in the asparagus bed munching on a fresh spear. She didn't even ask for butter or lemon. Earlier I saw a partial spear in the lawn and didn't make the connection. And I had several cut spears in a cup of water by the back door. She helped herself to one of those, too. Her latest transgression was digging up a just-transplanted tomato plant. I'm having to fence the garden to keep her out. On the positive side, she does deter squirrels and chipmunks. She left one chipmunk carcass by the back door and delivered another to us in the kitchen. No, I didn't prepare sauteed chipmunk!
I've transplanted tomato, squash, cucumber, and okra plants. I need to sow more okra and green bean seeds. We'll see how they do.

1 comment:

  1. Alys has good taste!

    Your garden looks fabulous. I'm jealous of Dr. Styles.

    ReplyDelete