this evening, in the garden

We have arrived at the heat of the season, having spent most of the past week breaking ninety degrees. And the garden loves it! So much is thriving in the garden right now. This is a great year for expansion, and I am riding the current state of it like a giant wave of motivation […]

this month, in the garden

Here, enjoy a photo-dump of June’s progression in our garden:

more lilyfest, plus a walk through the garden

Lilyfest 2023 has hit its peak, with nearly all performers having taken the stage. Walking the garden after taking in Lilyfest, various wonders abound:

untangling the overgrowth

Last year was rough for the garden. My old position at work required so much overtime that very little was planted in time. When season ended and the summer heat arrived, I was so angry about the shit life-work balance I had that I took it out on the garden, lacking the motivation to endure […]

today I learned…

I was today years old when I learned that okra was part of the hibiscus family. Looking at the photos from our garden, you’ll understand why I went to Google… Also, rose of sharon, which also makes sense.

today’s small bounty

It’s time to pull the potatoes. From a coworker: “After they bloom and lay down.” I have two 2×4 foot elevated beds that I’ve begun alternating with onions and potatoes. This year, I went with blue fingerling potatoes and red and white onions… Today, I pulled about half of the potatoes, and I thinned out […]

first harvest

The first pick from the garden: Pink Beauty radishes! They were delicious in a slaw with cabbage, cilantro, and green onions. Pink Beauty radishes are fast spring radishes. They are mature at different rates, so hopefully we can stretch out the batch. A definite keeper!

fall beds, fall cooking

Today is a chili kind of day, but dinner got started late, because darkness at two-thirty is messed up and tomatoes need to cook down. While the remainder of our green tomato harvest roasted with onion and garlic, I headed outside to tend the fall beds. We’ve already had snow and numerous frosts, so I […]

end of harvest soup

I harvested delicate things prior to the snow: tomatoes and herbs, planning for a batch of end of harvest soup. As the green tomato base roasted in the oven, I headed into the snow to harvest some hardier veggies: bok choy, carrots, and kale. (We opted to save the kale for something else.) Ground beef […]

the last fair day

Tonight is expected to hit freezing. So today, I pulled the rest of the non-hardy crops: tomatoes, hot peppers. And basil. I made my first pesto. We had no pine nuts in our pantry. Fortunately, pesto has become more of a framework formula than specific recipe: herb + oil + garlic + nut + sharp […]