In The Garden with Judy 6-5-10
Is anybody else feeling like this?
“Aaaaagh!!!”
It’s early June when the garden goes wild and the chores are stacking up. I still have plants to get into the ground, the perennial border to weed, delphiniums to divide, weeds to pull, and a load of mulch to distribute. Did I mention weeds to pull???
This time of year, things are popping up like crazy, and a lot has grown since last week. In another two weeks, the garden will look dramatically different again. It’s a transition period from spring to summer when there’s still so much to do. The spring blooming plants like Alyssum Basket of Gold and Candytuft are done blooming and need to be sheared back to keep them compact—another chore to add to my list. Aaaaagh!!!
Since, I’m so busy, I’m delegating a little blog talk to my daughters today. Sophia is 9, and Catherine is 17. They’re going to do a quick interview with me about some of their favorite things to eat from the garden.
“Sophia, do you like to help plant in the garden?”
“You do the planting. I do the eating!”
“What’s one of your favorite things to eat from the garden?”
“I love peas—any kind of peas!” Her blue eyes get as wide as her smile as she points to the shelling peas and snap peas that will produce tasty crops in just a few weeks.
“What else do you like to eat out here?”
“Strawberries.”
“What about this spinach over here?”
“Mmmm…strawberry and spinach salad with poppy seed dressing.”
“I bet I know another one of your favorites. What about kale?”
“Yes! Dinosaur kale!” Her sister confirms that they both eat big bowls of pasta topped with Italian Nero Toscana kale sautéed in olive oil and garlic.
“So, Catherine, my budding chef, what are some of your favorites from the garden?”
She immediately walks over to the beds of lettuce and holds her hands wide. “Lots of different kinds of lettuce for salads.”
Catherine is hoping to go to chef’s school in the future and frequently rewards us with her yummy dishes. I have one of her delicious homemade rhubarb pies on the kitchen counter right now.
“What else do you like?”
“When I’m cooking, it’s really nice to be able to run out here and grab a handful of fresh cilantro. The carrots are also good. Carrots fresh from the garden taste totally different than the ones in the store. It’s awesome to just pull one up, dust the dirt off and eat it right here.
There, you have it. My kids eat vegetables! They may not be into planting, but they sure do like to eat the fresh food from the garden. It’s another incentive to keep up with my garden chores. At this time of year, the girls often complain that they don’t see me much, because I’m always out working in the garden. It all happens so fast in May and June. I still have more seeding to do, and my salad greens are growing so robustly that they need to be thinned again. I wish I could have someone over for dinner every night to help me eat them. I guess having too much to eat is a problem we gardeners love to have!
Here are some photos from the garden today:
