Thursday, June 16th, 2011

The Garden Report: Stuff is Actually Growing

I could hardly believe my eyes the other day when I took my daily stroll in the vegetable garden and discovered my very first sugar snap pea hanging heavy on the vine. How did that happen!? I don’t think I can take all (any) of the credit. It seems that a week of torrid heat, followed by buckets of rain, capped by some cool nights, has made my vegetable plantlings very happy. And since that first pea pod there’s been more: yesterday I plucked some bright yellow zucchini blossoms (which I’m very excited about because I can never find them where I live and they are so delicious stuffed with goat cheese, chopped basil, and maybe anchovies; then dipped in a beer batter, and fried ever so gently in olive oil), herbs (tarragon, sage, parsley), and more sugar snap peas. Here’s what else is starting to come up…

Little cherry tomatoes.

More zucchini blossoms.

Purple basil (not sure what I want to do with this yet).
Jalapenos! I think I’m going to pickle these.

Ragged Jack Kale, which I actually grew from seeds, not plantlings, and they’re doing very nicely.

And pole beans that are growing a mile a minute, just like Belle.

So it seems you can turn an asphalt black thumb into a fuzzy verdant green one. The beets are also looking pretty perky:

Looking forward to getting some more lovely produce from straight out the backdoor; and if anyone has any suggestions for purple basil, I’m listening.