Today it not only felt like summer in the garden, it looked like summer. The squash have been blossoming, the chard has been prolific and even the tomatoes are starting to look encouraged, probably by the warmer nights.
Front to back, new garlic, Cornetto di Bordeaux, chard, carrots…it’s lush.
I harvested a batch of peas and pulled quite a few carrots this week. The peas were delicious; I sautéed a few of the carrots with them and threw in some rosemary. Yesterday, I harvested some of the Cornetto di Bordeaux, which is just a magnificent looking lettuce, along with some of the Marvel of Four Seasons to take to a weekend house party in the country.
Not only is this neat to look at, it’s very tasty if you like a salad with some zing.
I’m also taking chard, which my hostess wants to include in Sunday’s cookout for ten.
The voles have been doing their worst—biting off the pea plants at the bottom so that, of course, the plant and any of its fruits die. Today, I put up a little fence of bird netting around the base of the bean tower to try to forestall the evil little rodents from biting the pole beans off. The other sad story involves my poor eggplants, which have been savaged by what I think of as the lace leaf bug.
Three of five eggplants have succumbed. I hope two will survive, but I’m not running a sick plant clinic…
If the two plants that are left don’t survive, I’ll have to buy eggplants for the garden. We’ll see.
Overall, though, the garden is very lush. I’m looking forward to harvesting my garlic and watching the onions and leeks grow—not to mention harvesting lots of tomatoes, squash, herbs, green beans and peppers (and, if I’m lucky, eggplant).
The Blue Hubbard squash is looking very happy.
