Independence Day update: May 25, 2012

I’ve been so busy practicing gardening that I haven’t had sufficient time to write about it. By no means am I done putting in the vegetable garden, but I do have all but the bean and corn beds planted by now, with time to get these done over the next few weeks. At least that’s the plan. I had hoped to get the bean beds dug this weekend, but with the hot forecast (near 100F for highs) I will likely concentrate on weeding the veggie beds and thinning the peach trees. If nothing else, I should be able to clear the weeds off the bean beds in preparation for digging them next week after it cools off.

The accomplishments below are for the preceding week only (lots happened between the last post and now!). I hope to begin posting a little more often now that most of the veggies have been planted.

Planted: winter squash, zucchini, melon, and cucumber seeds. I also planted seedlings of catnip and of purple coneflower. Mike started stropharia mushroom spawn in a bed of wood chips and oyster mushroom spawn in some logs from the silver maple we had taken down last month.

Harvested: lavender, dill, nasturtium blossoms, lettuce, alpine strawberries, lambsquarters, kale, plums. This is the first year we’ve gotten some ripe plums, and they are delicious! The variety is ‘All Red.’

Preserved: some of the lavender, by drying.

Waste not: we haven’t turned on the air conditioner yet.

Want not: nothing this week.

Eat the food: Mike made a stew in the sun oven a few days ago, and it was delicious! Today he made a thick soup/thin stew with potatoes, frozen Jerusalem artichokes from last year, the kale and lambsquarters I harvested, onions, carrots, last year’s garlic, and one Trinidad Scorpion pepper, frozen from last year’s crop (he made it on the stove because it was cloudy through lunchtime). It is also delicious! He used last fall’s Black Spanish radishes, the dill and nasturtium flowers,  and some lambsquarters that I harvested, along with the lettuce and store-bought goat cheese, on the salads. Also delicious! We’re eating the strawberries and plums for the breakfast fruit course and also for desserts and snacks.

Build community food systems: Last Sunday our yard was included on this year’s Spanish Lake Garden Tour, one of 11 gardens on the tour this year. Almost 300 tickets were sold and people were in our yard nonstop for over 4 hours, with a few more in the last hour of the tour. I made up a poster for tourgoers, showing pictures of the yard when we purchased it and including info on notable features and our gardening practices. We got lots of compliments, I answered some folks’ questions, and I learned something from some of the folks as well. Here's how the herb garden looks today.

Skill up: nothing this week.