“Solstice Artichoke”, by loyal commentor Raven.
And from commentor Kathi C:
About the only thing that beats picking your own veggies from the yard is the opportunity to prove to the 5 year old grandson that there’s something he likes under those “weeds” (as he’s been calling them). The carrots needed to be thinned and he was willing! If he’s this excited about the carrots, he may burst with pure joy over the Sugar Baby watermelons. I’m pulling bunching onions and the cukes and grape tomatoes should be ready in another week or so. I just love my new “island” with the raised bed. Looks like we’ll have bumper crops of grapes and blackberries too.
Those Oriental lilies are almost scary – last year they topped out at level with the birdbath that they surround and this year the birds are having to fight their way in. I never grew lilies before this house and I don’t know why. Now I’ve got ‘em in all colors & sizes and I really need to start thinking about dividing the daylilies before they march right out of the beds…
How are things looking in your gardens this week?
rachel
Once again, my cantaloups don’t seem to be doing anything. :(
raven
We’re starting to get some tomatoes!
Linda Featheringill
We have two tomatoes [green] and two young zucchini.I’m rather hoping for a nice salad on the 4th.
raven
It’s been so unseasonably cool and wet here it is going to be interesting to see what impact the weather has on the gardens.
Joseph Nobles
OT: Ed Snowden is on the move. He is either on a plane to Moscow or has just landed. It appears right now his final destination is Caracas, Venezuela.
Elias
Well, my garden isn’t that impressive. Planted a couple tomato plants today. That’s it.
My roommate did 2 in the same spot, same soil last year a month earlier. They grew about 6 feet tall and we picked an unbelievable number of tomatoes. Got a little out of control. For this first-time gardener I’m optimistic.
Another Halocene Human
The pix are amazing, everybody.
Another Halocene Human
@Joseph Nobles: l’il shit
I like that Pelosi brought up the use of private contractors to do classified work at Netroots. She’s not one to forget shit like that. And a story just came out about sequester cuts stopping background review checks by the Pentagon. Are the VSPs paying attention?
geg6
Our peach trees have little tiny peaches and I think they are going to love the next week here since it will be hovering around 90F all week. And the berry bushes are about ready to burst out, too. Everything else is looking very good other than our bean plants. I think the local deer ate all the blooms off of them. One day they looked lovely and had tons of blooms and the next all the blooms were gone, so it looks like no beans this year.
Oh, and does anyone want some cilantro? I sent John to the fruit market just down the road (they call it a fruit market, but it’s really a deli, fruit and veggie market and gardening store) to get a parsley plant for my container herb garden on the deck. He came back with two plants and put them in pots. When I went to carry them up to the deck, I thought they looked funny. I sniffed them and realized they were cilantro. So I asked him why on earth he got us so much cilantro and no parsley. He insisted that they were parsley and pulled out the the little plastic tags. In very small print, the tags said “Chinese parsley,” just under where the large print said “Cilantro.” Somehow, without his reading glasses, he only read the very small print and missed the big print.
I have no idea what to do with it all. I use cilantro, but very, very sparingly and mostly just to make salsa. We have enough cilantro right now to make vats of salsa. And my John had to go out and get some seeds and start the parsley. It’s not yet large enough to put in the large pots we use on the deck.
rachel
@geg6: Cilantro-pecan pesto goes well with grilled fish. I also make Indian food a lot; it’s good for that.
p.a.
@geg6: why can’t I grow cilantro? I never have a problem with my other herbs, using my tried-and-true benign neglect method. I have tried over watering, under watering, ground planting, pots. When I top them to prevent flowering they croak, when I leave them be they go to seed and I get no leafage. I do use the seeds, but I am at a loss. The only thing I haven’t changed: I plant them in direct sun- I figure Mexico=hot=sun. Any advice?
Maude
I transplanted the wave petunia into a larger pot last week. She looks happy. She slowed blooming to grow roots. She has set a ton of buds.
Maude
@raven:
You have those wonderful flamencos. There were two kinds that I saw when they were popular here. The darker pink weren’t as nice. A block away, someone has four in their little yard garden plot.
J.
What a beautiful little garden! So envious you have veggies already, Kathi C! (We are waiting on our first little cherry tomatoes.)
Speaking of beautiful gardens, those of you in the NYC area should definitely pay a visit to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. I was just there, checking out the Rose Garden and the new Wild Medicine exhibit (you can see photos here), and HIGHLY recommend.
OzarkHillbilly
Green. Very green.
Pole beans are climbing the trellises. Bush beans filling out nicely. Corn about knee high. Eggplants finely getting a step up in the battle with flea beetles. Sweet potatoes looking good. Brussel sprouts and Broccoli have a small infestation of cabbage worms that I will take care of today. Lettuce out the a$$. The hot peppers are a 50/50 mix so far: Jalapenos and Cayennes look good and are producing well but the Poblanos and Anaheims look kind of weak with the Serranos just so so. My tomatoes are busting out all over. The squash is running behind but looking good.
The sweet peppers look to be a bust. Something got into them (Tobacco Mosaic Virus? I don’t smoke but that is what it looks like). The wife will not be happy as she so loves Banana peppers.
The herb gardens are overflowing with the exceptions of the Cilantro and yesterday I noticed my sweet basil has crashed and burned. Don’t know what happened there. We have gotten an abundance of rain (3″ Tuesday and Wednesday) so maybe that has something to do with it? I think Lowes still has some basil so I will try again.
Anyway, most of my problems are good ones to have. Too many tomas on the way, too many beans on the way, etc. I will be a canning and freezing and drying fool this summer.
Poopyman
@rachel: Have patience. Our melons languished in the corner of the garden until a few days ago, when they suddenly started throwing out runners and have taken off.
My first couple of cherry tomatoes had splits from pole to pole, but things seem to be improving now that I’ve got mulch down to moderate the water intake. The pole beans have topped the 8′ trellis but so far no pods. I’ve got tiny yellow summer squash that promise to overwhelm us in a few weeks. The flea beetles have seriously retarded the eggplant, sadly. But the okra is coming along nicely – my first attempt with it.
We’ve had a pretty heavy walnut drop over the past couple of weeks, but the trees don’t look stressed. I don’t know what’s going on with that.
Schlemizel
Third straight day of rain after mostly rain for 2-3 weeks. Friday and Saturday storms brought down threes with 70+ MPH winds.
Then yesterday we were making a grocery run but got blocked about 2 blocks from the house by this scene:
http://i.imgur.com/GiiO8HI.jpg
It rained all night & we have rain forecast for every day through Wed so far
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: I composed my first message before you submitted yours, and you remind me that something’s been eating our Brussels sprouts. They don’t seem to mind terribly, luckily.
OzarkHillbilly
@p.a.:
I don’t know. Been having problems with them ever since we moved out here in the woods. I am considering sneaking back into town and surreptitiously planting some at our old place.
Kathi
Rats. Just sent the dog out to chase off a baby groundhog that was standing with his front paws on the side of the raised bed and looking at the cukes…
OzarkHillbilly
@Poopyman:
Yeah, BS are pretty stout. Still I like to get after the cabbage worms before they get too entrenched. A little insecticidal soap usually does the trick.
Svensker
@Kathi:
Groundhogs are the devil. We got infested with them in NJ and the bustids ate my garden down to the ground. Every single thing, they ate, in a 10×10 plot. We put chicken wire fencing around and planted again and they figured out how to get in and ate every single thing down to the ground again. Then we dug down into the ground and put metal below ground and a higher fence and replanted — and they figured out how to get in and ate every single thing down to the ground yet again.
The years before they arrived, we had so many beans, squash, tomatoes, okra, and lettuce, that we were giving away, canning, etc. Then the plague of furry locusts…
SuperHrefna
I need to get out there and pick the peas! My runner beans are running up their bean tower, and over in my container garden ( I have six earth boxes, excellent system) my ccumbers, tomatoes and peppers are flowering. This year I’m also trying to grow potatoes for the first time. My nurseryman told me to try them in big pots, adding an inch of soil every week and I have hopes.
Over on the flower side if things I was thrilled to discover some shade loving abutilons that look like hibiscus but love my woodsy garden and those and various pretty begonias are making up for the lack of impatiens this year.
Kathi
@Svensker:
I’ve got a nest of the suckers living under the garden shed. The next door neighbor thinks they are adorable but she doesn’t garden…
nancydarling
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m on critter duty—3 dogs, a cat, two doves, and 2 pet goats—for my neighbors across the road and also taking care of their small garden as well as my own considerably larger one.
Yesterday, I discovered Japanese beetles in their garden and one hornworm egg on their tomatoes. I’ve ordered Thuricide on line; they don’t stock it at Wally-world in their aisle of poisons.
Is there anything other than row covers and traps to control the beetles? I bought a trap yesterday and will set it out today. Right now I’m picking and squashing them. I also discovered a new beneficial insect—the carnivorous wheel bug. I actually saw one grasping a beetle and sucking the life out of him. They are really interesting looking. Check them out on google images. According to my research they have an extremely painful bite but aren’t aggressive and you would have to work hard to be stung by one. They seem to be visual hunters.
One other question for anyone who knows. The beetles seem to be most attracted to my neighbor’s hollyhocks. She has 4 big stands of them right by her garden area. I have several started in pots that I was going to set out today. Now I’m thinking I shouldn’t put them out at all. Or maybe put them at the far end of the pasture where my garden is. Any ideas from anyone?
This is not about gardening, but my neighbor has a dozen or so head of beef cattle. This year, the young’uns seem to be mostly baby bulls and they are really playful. One neighbor dog spends half his time at my place and last evening he was following me home. He cheats and cuts across the pastures and the baby bulls chased him. He loved it! He turned around and chased them for a bit and then they gave chase again. It was a joy to watch all the romping around and high kicking in the cool of the evening.
Also we had a red moon rising over the hill on my place last night. It was very beautiful and should be even more spectacular tonight.
JPL
Tomorrow my tree person is sending in two crews to clean up the tangled mess of trees in my backyard after a storm we had a little over a week ago. If you live in GA, it’s nice to know someone who removes trees and is trustworthy. The property line is the back is not straight across and it takes a jag. When they clean up the trees, some limbs are going to fall on the other side of the fence. I contacted that property owner to let him know and he laughed and said his crew will take care of it. He lost fifty trees, so he doesn’t think it will be a problem to clean up a few more .
If I lost fifty trees, I’d be cutting them up myself and then put the house on the market.
LittlePig
Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!
That t-shirt made my day.
JPL
All the pictures are beautiful. So far I’ve had one cherry tomato and although it was delicious, I’m hoping for a few more.
keestadoll
LOVE the artichoke picture via Raven. My mother had several growing in her garden years ago and those she didn’t pick to eat were let go to flower. I made a very cool discovery–they dry beautifully and maintain that purple color and some are still in my home to this day. Just gorgeous.
Report from Humboldt County, CA: Well, at first I thought it was just me, but every gardener is having garden-anxiety this year. All these issues are in play: things coming in way too early, other things not growing at all, or bad/fungus issues. It’s been INSANE here. My potatoes, which last year took until September to die-down for harvest are now ALL dying down. ALL OF THEM. My tomatoes, which also took until late September to harvest, have all set fruit. My kales are suffering, my lettuce is bolting. My broccoli is (within a week’s time) setting crowns then FLOWERING. My chards and beets have been getting MAULED by leaf miners. It’s like every day I go down to check, I have to take an Ativan.
Curious to hear from anyone else in the PacNW!
keestadoll
@nancydarling: Re Hollyhocks: sounds like an ideal “trap crop” if you’re trying to get Japanese beetles away from something else. With all pests, it depends on their method of approach. If by air, row covers are your best friend. If by ground, diatomaceous earth. When in doubt, do both.
OzarkHillbilly
@nancydarling: I set out traps for the jap beetles last year and they worked really well for me. You just have to make sure to set them out downwind (prevailing) of your garden. For instance, our prevailing winds are out of the southwest, so my traps are placed to the northeast of the gardens and fruit trees. That way the beetles come to the trap before they get to the garden. Thanx for the reminder tho… something else I need to do today.
Poopyman
@nancydarling: I seem to recall that traps attracted beetles to the area, so I’d put the traps – and the hollyhocks for that matter – as far from the garden as practical.
OzarkHillbilly
@nancydarling:
Tonites full moon will be a supermoon as it will be at perigee (the closest to earth for the year). Good night for the binocs.
gelfling545
@geg6: Do not under any circumstances let it go to seed or you will spend years digging it out of your garden. I know this from sad experience. Fennel is the same except worse. I just buy both at the supermarket now because I don’t trust them.
Betty Cracker
We’re ahead of schedule since we got an early start in FL. The beans were awesome but are now played out. We were swamped with tomatoes, but they’re starting to taper off (thank god). We have tons of peppers of every variety, including way too many very hot ones. I like spicy stuff, but some of these are taste bud-slayers. We’re making a lot of hot sauce.
We had some excellent eggplants, which with I made an eggplant parm and the mister made a delish babaganoush. I think that’s it for round one. The mister is readying the summer planting now. I think he’s going with cherry tomatoes in the next round. Last year, we had some really awesome purple and yellow cherry tomatoes.
geg6
@p.a.:
This is the first time I’ve grown cilantro, so I’m no expert. But ours are growing gangbusters! They are in terracotta containers and get watered once a day. They get sun most of the day, but not every minute. They are huge! Only my thyme is bigger.
geg6
@gelfling545:
Not a problem. All my herbs are in containers on the deck. We learned with mint years ago. The mint has resisted all attempts to get rid of it, so we still have tons of mint all over the front yard. At least it keeps the weeds down.
Poopyman
@gelfling545: When our fennel went to seed it fell over into the lawn. Now when I mow that patch I stop to savor that sweet sweet smell.
I could have a whole lawn of fennel. But then, so would the neighbors eventually.
Laguna_Bob
@p.a.: I’ve had the same problem and I’ve read that they are annuals that bolt to flowering at the first sign of heat, and that the best solution is to plant from seed as early in the spring as makes sense in you climate zone, and follow every few weeks with more planting. This is too much for me, especially when perfectly fine cilantro is available around here at reasonable prices.
p.a.
@Laguna_Bob: yeah I’m coming to that conclusion. Thanks geg6 and gelfling545. I think coriander seeds would successfully germinate and grow on a sheet of stainless steel.
scav
As ever, not my garden but was my week as rent a gruntwork destructo. Major buckthorn and sucker attack, weeding and general haulage of mulch. And I dig the holes — lots of astilbes this go-round and variegated solomon’s seal. Had the great pleasure of making a late night raid to rescue an enormous and well shaped hosta on the very eve of being bull-dozed. The Hosta of skullDuggery is triumphant, didn’t even bother to look vaguely faint, let alone wilt.
Betsy
@p.a.: most of Mexico is not that hot, only the part near the u.s., and the yucatan / isthmus stuff down at low elevations. much of the rest is highlands that are quite temperate.
Regardless, cilantro does well in reasonably moist soil, reasonable cool/warm sun or part sun. It bolts quickly in heat, but generally bolts quickly under even ideal conditions, so you have to just plant and re-plant the seeds every several weeks. Partial shade may help a little. It’s a tough plant to keep going, although not that tough to grow for short periods.
Regarding what to do with piles of cilantro — chop up a half cup or more, add lime juice and olive oil and garlic and finely chopped oinion and salt, perhaps parsley too, and marinate fish such as red snapper or salmon, or nice tender steaks, in it. Reserve some of the sauce before marinating to put on the steak or fish after cooking on grill or under broiler. This is chimichurri.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I know, dead thread, but. Cilantro.
We tried this last week, since the locavore food box included corn and, well, corn doesn’t keep.
Marvel
We harvested our garlic (planted last October) today: 126 heads of Silver Rose — a delight and pulled out the last of the shelling peas (the past-their-prime pods are going to a neighbor’s chickens). Still eating lettuce, kale & spinach from our Winter/Spring garden. Squashes, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and peppers all look to be hitting their peak a little sooner than last year. Quinoa (first time we’ve planted this) is lovely and starting to bud out. YAY Summer!
Karla
This week I finally planted the rhubarb crown divisions that sat in their shipping box for a week, started showing signs of mold, and then sat in the fridge for nearly a month. Two nevertheless had buds, so fingers crossed.
Last week I planted a bunch of seeds for two perennials, sorrel and milkweed, and had the idea to surround them with circles of either radish or zinnia seeds to mark where they were. Now I know which things are weeds and which are seedlings.