Garden journal: the engines are beginning to roar

Happy Solstice! In celebration of the longest day of the year, I am posting a garden tour.

First day lily of the season. The drought hasn’t hurt them, just made them oranger.

Herbs: parsley, lavender, basil, thyme and curry. Those monsters in the back are kale who wintered over. We hope to save the seed.

Red onions, eggplants, and tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes replaced the starts killed by late frost. A lone lettuce volunteered.

The asparagus in bloom. We had to fence the ducks out or we would have no asparagus at all!

Elders in full blow!

The popcorn already is knee high. Directly behind the corn are onions infested with volunteer potatoes. Behind the onions are eggplants, chiles, beets, and cucumbers.

Salad fodder fills the raised bed on the left: lettuce, spinach, radishes and peas.

Potatoes are tucked into straw. Behind them aged currants still yield jelly fodder.

We will free the winter squash once they are big enough to beat the chickens into submission.

Sunflowers, green beans, more eggplant, more onions, and maybe more thyme. This garden needs weeding!

Tomatoes! We have blossoms but no fruit yet. Maybe by the end of July…. I will eat tomatoes morning, noon and night.

We have more garden than we need, but then again, you never know what will grow and what will succumb to weather, pests, and weeds. If we have an embarrassment of riches, we usually can find a doorstep in need of a tomato or bag of lettuce or a giant squash.

Growing things. They are the best. Happy Birthday LIlith!