Sunday, June 26, 2016

Eggplant.
My eggplants are growing nicely
My petunias are beautiful

and the spinach are going to seed

Monday, June 13, 2016

Basil, Spinach.
Some of my basil is ready to be pestoed (6 net ounces)
with partners pine nuts, parmesan, a bit of garlic, and olive oil.
The spinach is giving signs of wanting to bolt,
but I was still able to harvest 10 ounces worth of leaves, a nice amount. In a while I will be collecting the seeds of this excellent producer.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Smells, Sweet and Not.
The Scotch broom, or Spanish broom, or ginestra is in glorious bloom. The photos do not do it justice, but they look good and their sweet scent is strong:

as is that of the honeysuckle:
I have used some left-over "All Purpose Plant Food (7-4-4) Pet & People Friendly" in the eggplant patch in the greenhouse trough. One of the ingredients of the plant food is "Bird Guano," and believe me, it's strong! It must be good if it's this stinky.
We had overlooked the last butternut squash stashed in the basement, and recently I found it in its mummified state, but in nice living colors:

On a more gardeny note, the spinach continue to produce excellently. We have harvested (and eaten in a delicious stir fry) our first snow peas.
I have 22 tomato plants in the penitentiary; 11 in containers. A few others await a final destination.
The eggplant plantation consists of ten plants in the trough, several others in containers, and six that await the end of spinach to populate the window garden.
I have planted green beans in the flower box (growing beautifully) and in the wagon garden. The wagon garden remains a mystery. The snow peas are healthy, productive, and beautiful. The spinach is rachitic; the chard even worse. I am hoping a few beans will germinate and produce well. Finally, the various squashes in the penitentiary do not look particularly well.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

More Updates.
I have put in the ground 30 lupini beans, using different methods, such as soaking the beans overnight before planting them, and planting them at different depths. So far 1 out of 30 has sprouted. Not what I had hoped. The lone sprouter seems to be doing well.


I have concluded that only one of my six grafts took. It's doing great. The early sprouters are clearly dead, victims of the cold spell, I presume. The same cold spell that killed all the peach, apricot and plum flowers (but not the apple flowers, now turned to apples the size of cherries). I have topped the peach tree and will graft again next spring.

My snow peas are coming along well. The plants are full of flowers, some already turning to pods. I have had to enclose the plants in chicken wire because our visiting deer had feasted on them (as well as on the low branches of the apple tree and on the baby cherry tree). Let's hope he stays away.

I have started transplanting the tomatoes in the penitentiary (4 so far) and in containers (7 so far). And three petunias are now gracing the greenhouse wall.