karl.tsakos.us/blog

It’s been a rainy week. Some plants are going to flower, other are stupid annoying plants who refuse to grow beyond their cotyledon state.

I picked a not so great week to be on vacation. It’s rained almost every day and has been overcast ninety percent of the time. Temperatures have been lurking in the sixties. Not much inspiration for getting out and gardening or doing much else outside for that matter. I did go mountain biking with my friend one day. Hey, part of mountain biking is getting muddy. But at home, the rain and cool temperatures have lead to mushrooms growing on the lawn and in the garden. So, I haven’t been out in it much as it’s a less fun muddy.

On the other hand, the rain has been great for the garden. Most of my plants are growing like gang busters. My snap peas have started to flower. Good news since that means I will soon have snap peas to eat. Then again, the mustard greens have also gone to flower. I’m not sure what that means for mustard greens. When lettuce and spinach bolt and then flower, the leaves aren’t very tasty anymore. Mustard greens are already bitter; will have to investigate.

Speaking of mustard greens, they’re very good on a grilled burger. I’m just sayin’.

The lettuce has been bountiful and I’ve been enjoying fresh salads whenever the mood strikes me. The new lettuce plants have sprouted, but I think there will be a gap between their being edible and the others bolting. Ah well, there will be other vegetables to keep me occupied.

Pretty much any of the plants I started indoors have stalled at the cotyledon stage. I moved them all into the garden where some have died and others seem to have started growing, all be it slowly. I planted some beans about a week ago and they are already bigger than the indoor seeds. I’ve added some fresh chicken manure around the garden with hopes that it will help. It could just be that the potting soil I got is worse then crap (since I’m using crap for fertilizer and that does work).

My herbs are all doing fairly well, except of course for the ones I started indoors. I already gave up on the sage and bought some at the store. If I don’t see signs of improvement in the next few days, it will be the same fate for my basil and thyme. Coincidently, the herbs I started growing outdoors, such as the fennel and chives, are doing well.

Speaking of herbs, I was finally able to find some marjoram, but I’m still unable to find any tarragon. Oh, there’s plenty of basil, oregano, sage, and thyme at the stores, but there seems to be a real lack of the less common herbs. I wonder why that is. No, really – I wonder.

Not much else is happening in the garden. Until next time then.

So much has happened. And yet, some things that should have happened didn’t happen.

First, I’ve been eating my lettuces and mustard greens. Both farm fresh and delicious. The radishes are all gone. They were eaten on french bread with butter or in a salad. They had very mild flavors for radishes and were fairly small in size. I will most likely plant some more since they should be able to grow most of the summer.

Good news, it’s finally rained. You’ll recall I purchased and installed a rain barrel. From the time I purchased it there has been no rain. At least two weeks without rain. My friends and family who live fifteen to thirty miles away from me had big thunderstorms with rain. I had thunder. When at last it did rain, the barrel filled right up and overflowed. So first, I didn’t have to water my garden because it was raining. Then I got to use free water from the barrel. And today, there is a chance of thunderstorms to refill the barrel. I’ve used very little of the water, but I’d rather it stay topped off.

Lets see, I’ve added some planters in the garden filled with herbs. I now have two types of parsley, sage, thyme, greek oregano, coriander, dill, chives, purple basil, and bronze fennel. Oh, and of course, the rosemary bush.

The volunteer plants are doing well. The garlic is still very strong and healthy. It’s nothing compared to the potato plants which are the fastest growing in my garden.

Speaking of fast growing, the poison ivy I poisoned; it didn’t act very poisoned. So today, I had round two of the rip the poison ivy out of the shrubs and ground festival. That went mostly well, although, I see there are still some spots I missed. Perhaps I will try the poison again. If not, it’s out with the hedge and see if removing it’s habitat doesn’t free me of the evil poison ivy. Of course, after the mighty battle I threw out the clothes, rubber gloves, and sneakers I was wearing. All old and ready to be sacrificed for the cause.

I also follow the theme of ripping things out by weeding the mulch around the garden. You’ll recall that I didn’t do a very good job of covering the grass when I mulched. Well,the good news is that grass growing through mulch can be torn out relatively easily.

On the lawn front — I gave in. I bought a power mower for the lawn. I just couldn’t keep mowing the lawn regularly enough to use the manual mower. However, I continue to fight the battle against neighborhood noise. I bought a battery powered electric mower. I makes a nice whirring noise, and is silent compared to a two-cylendar mower. Also, it’s not self propelled, so I can still get some exercise from pushing it. Just to be clear, I didn’t get the mower to save the environment, I got it because it fits my life style. Now, if everyone around me would take my lead and get quieter mowers I could actually enjoy sitting in my yard while writing this without the noise of the mowers and weed eaters down the street. (As I wrote that last sentence, a marching band started playing at the school a few blocks over. I guess I’ll have to move to Montana if I want real quiet.)

Lastly, the new additions to the garden. Under the category of things that should have happened but didn’t, my tomato seedlings just stopped growing. They got as far as the point where they grow real leaves and then stopped. So I said to heck with it, I’m going to plant them in the garden and see what happens. If they die then it’s off to the store to buy some new ones. If they grow then huzzah! I’m holding off a little longer on planting the peppers as they like very warm ground anyhow. We’ll see if they develop any more than the tomatoes did.

Finally, other additions to the garden are some beans and cucumbers. I also planted another bed of lettuces so when the current crop starts to bolt I’ll still have some growing to eat.