Saturday, June 26, 2010

Pull On Your Boots

We're going for an early morning garden tour. It's still very, very wet out there but we have lots of sunshine. A little, teeny-tiny bit overcast, but I'm ignoring that and hoping we'll have enough sun to dry things up by noon so I can pick strawberries.

Yippee, my little stand of Swiss chard is big enough to harvest for a Green Pie. I think I personally prefer a Green Pie made with Swiss chard over one made with spinach. Hubby would vote for just the opposite, but we've already had several using spinach so it's time for the Swiss chard edition. Besides that I'm the cook, and I can do whatever I want. And any time anybody else wants to be the cooker, I'll gladly eat whatever he/she chooses to prepare. I never get enough of other people's good cooking and really do get tired of my own. Can any of you out there relate?

I'm so happy with my mizuna mustard greens. Love these little leaves in a tossed salad. Usually by this time of the season all my mizuna would have bolted and been done gone. Must be the rain and/or cool weather this year?

Despite lack of sunshine and warm weather, lo and behold, my zucchini plants are looking happy and healthy. Small but healthy.

The four cherry tomato plants are lush and green. I don't think the little blossoms have changed one iota in the last few weeks, but I still have hopes.

My second planting bed of lettuce is lookin' kinda purdy, don'tcha think? Growing up I never knew there was anything but iceberg lettuce. What a shame. No wonder tossed salads taste so good now when I know there is a plethora of colors, tastes, and textures of lettuce to use.

Here is a row (unthinned by the by) of Osaka Purple Mustard coming along nicely. But what is that right in the center of the row? Obviously, somebody slipped a seed into the packet that didn't belong there. Who is this foreigner? Is it some kind of radish? Needless to say, I can't pull it out until my curiosity is satisfied.

This mish-mosh of a bed is my "wild flower" bed. As it was growing, I pulled out everything that I knew for sure was a weed even leaving some that were questionable.

You probably can't tell from this picture but it looks to me like the whole bed is stuffed with only one kind of flower. (At least I hope it's a flower.) The packet said the seeds were a mixture of Bachelor's Button, Shasta Daisy, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Calliopsis, Foxglove, Purple Coneflower, Blanket Flower, Catchfly, Dame's Rocket, Blazing Star, Toadflax, Evening Primrose, Phlox, Corn Poppy, and Black-eyed Susan. Now, I am NOT a flower expert but I know what some of those look like growing and I can't find anything but the one kind of plant.

The packet was supposed to sow 25 square feet. My bed is 32 square feet so the seed shouldn't have been too crowded for some of each seed to take hold. Oh, well. Time will tell. At least something germinated this time. I think this is the third or fourth time I've tried to establish a wild flower bed without much to show for it.

Okay, time to get off my duff and make some progress on my list for the day. Hope you all have a wonderful, sunny Saturday. (But not too, too hot!) Unless you need rain, of course. If I could, I'd share some of ours with you!

10 comments:

Jo said...

Your gardenlooks lovely. Perhaps I missed it in a previous post -- what is a green pie? A type of quiche? And by the way, I would be very happy to trade off cooking with you. You're right, other people's cooking always tastes better!

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Jo - I did a post about Green Pie (recipe and all) last July. If you go to http://ahomegrownjournalblogspot.com/2009/07/green-pie.html you'll find it. Or scroll down on my home page until you get to the "Search" box (on right hand side), type in Green Pie and it should pop up.

Why, oh, WHY! don't we all live in the same community??!! We could share cooking and all kinds of other things. And collectively could probably solve all the world's problems, too!

Lorie said...

Everything looks wonderful. The purple mustard looks intriguing. Will have to give it a try sometime. We have been having garden mustard greens on our sandwiches....adds a zing that is soooooo good.

Erin said...

hahaha that is definitely a radish! I would say that maybe a bird relocated seed there, but from the looks of the straight line spacing, that little bird would be you! Who knows? Tricksters at the seed company, they get bored, y'know? I LOVE the look of lettuce beds, I interplant mine with flowers too, it is the one bed that really calms me when I look at it, all orderly and neat! I grew Mizuna for the first time in February, loved it and can't wait to be able to plant it again in the fall, too hot right now.

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Lorie - Thank you! I think you'd like the Osaka Purple Mustard as it's much like other mustard greens. Also, it repels aphids so I plant it next to my dill because I always seem to have a problem keeping the aphids off the dill.

Erin said...

and oh, how cool would it be for all of us to have round robin dinner nights? Except when you came to my front porch a sign would say "unless you managed to make wine out of that Rhubarb, leave it on the porch" LOL! just kidding, I am sure I will learn to prepare it some way I will like, but until then the rhubarb slamming will continue...

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Erin - So you vote radish, eh? I'll have to agree with you that it looks like a radish. Hmmm, looks like a radish, talks like a radish, walks like a radish . . . I'm going to let it mature so we shall see!

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Erin - Do you know the best homemade wine I ever had was rhubarb wine?! It was the most beautiful, clear pink color and (you will be happy to know) didn't have the faintest taste of rhubarb. Hey, if you could make wine like that, I would have no qualms about turning all my rhubarb over to you! (Well, maybe I'd have to keep just one little plant for pies.)

Katidids said...

I love those raised beds! They look so nice. We are past strawberry and into blackberries & blueberries...Jam time!

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Katie - Thanks! These big strawberries we get at first really spoil me for the little ones later on! Takes just as much time to pick and clean a small one as a large one . . . and I MUCH prefer the large ones! :o)