We were out Wednesday (I think) and stopped by Lowe’s to see if we could find a lilac to put over Rita’s grave. We did find one. I didn’t start any eggplants this year because I wasn’t going to plant any. I’m so limited on garden space and had decided not to plant okra or eggplant this year but Vince wanted eggplant and I’ll probably end up planting okra when I take out the garlic. A while back we had looked at the plants at Lowe’s and the garden plants in the cups were all $5.99 or more. I said . . no . . not doing that, but when we were there this week, they had them on sale for 3 for $10 so I said OK . . I’ll pay that. Vince was with me so we ended up with a few more than I would have gotten on my own. I wanted two varieties of basil that I hadn’t planted so I ended up getting two of one kind and one of the other. We got three eggplants, a dill, three peppers that we didn’t have (Serrano, Giant Marconi, and hot red pepper). We got 12 plants so I’m not remembering two of them.
Yesterday morning I asked Vince if he would mix up a wheel barrow of soil for me and he did. I planted all those new plants, as well as two mint I had started from a cutting, several more tomatoes and a few more sweet potatoes I had started. I used all the dirt Vince had mixed up for me and got everything planted. I cleaned out the greenhouse for the season, put away all the little starter cups, plant markers, etc. and was so proud of myself til I walked over to water a couple of tomatoes and saw this:
Nine more tomatoes to be planted. Hmmm . . looks like one cup is empty, maybe one died or never came up.. Make that eight more tomatoes to be planted. Last night I asked Vince if he would mix me up another wheel barrow of soil. I’ll get these planted and there are some pots that need a bit more soil.
Otherwise, I’m happy with the garden’s progress. Did I tell you all three figs have now sprouted from the ground? I’m happy about that.
I have a baby squash. I’m not sure if it got fertilized. I never saw a male blossom but it could have happened while we were away last week.
The potatoes are blooming.
There are almost enough peas ready to be picked and we can have them for dinner. I had this little pod that had broken off so I ate those raw.
I’m guessing the garlic will be ready to pull by mid-June, if not sooner.
I have a bowl of scapes I keep adding to. I’ll cook those with some potatoes. I can use the canned potatoes for that. I will also make something similar to pesto but use the scapes instead of basil.
This is Komatsuna, which is a Japanese mustard that tastes a lot like spinach but I don’t have as much bug issues with this as I do with spinach and it’s supposed to last longer into the summer than spinach will.
That’s about all the pictures I took. The peppers are looking a bit wimpy. Some of the tomatoes have blossoms. The asparagus seems to be winding down but it will sometimes have a growth spurt later. We’ve had a lot of cloudy, overcast days and I think it needs a bit of sun to get it going again. The rhubarb should have enough left for me to make some rhubarb/hot pepper jelly. The sweet potatoes are looking good. I set out way too many of those. I hope we get a good crop of sweet potatoes. The onions look ok. I wish they were growing faster.
These are the two elderberries I planted when I first got here a bit over three years ago. They are growing like crazy and just starting to bloom. We’ve planted probably 30 or 40 more elderberries, mostly along the property lines, from cuttings from these two.
That’s about it for now. Hard to believe that by the end of August or mid-September, the garden will pretty much be over.