Vermont to Switzerland
8′ tall sunflowers. 7′ tall sugar snap peas. Tomatoes coming in. Zucchini all over the place. Broccoli has been delicious. More romaine and endive and escarole than we know what to do with. And now raspberries and strawberries everyday.
More growing. Some strawberries are turning pink. We have a single pear on our tree. Sunflowers are opening up. Chive smells delicious. Snap peas are starting to blossom.
Strawberry blossom:
Baby strawberries:
Baby beans:
Water droplet (on the broccoli?):
Spring is firmly planted here. The pear and apple tree are blossoming, along with the strawberries and blueberries. The dandelions are in full attack on the lawn. Garlic that went in last year is 18″ tall. Snap peas are starting to climb their trellis – they are about 8″ tall, and will hopefully go to 5-6′ this year. This weekend we’ll be moving the balance of our starts out of the basement to the garden – about 300 plants. A sample of what we are growing this year: snap peas, beans, tomato (3 varieties), basil, chive, endive, sunflowers (80 of them!), chard, escarole, romaine, radish, turnip, carrot, asparagus, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, corn, zucchini, and … probably more that I’m forgetting.
We have just about the same area of living space in our house as we have growing space in the garden – and we have a bit more expansion to do this year – too many starts, too little room. We are slowly trying to move from a ‘normal’ backyard to one the produces more food than grass clippings. And we our sketching out the front yard to be a wildflower bird and butterfly haven – but that will take some $$ and muscle to get moving. The backyard garden will likely to soak up extra $$ and free time for the rest of the summer.
Our garden continues to expand. Plants making their way from the basement to the wilds of the backyard. Currently we have nearly the same amount of square footage in soil ready to plant as we have house.
Go away for a few days to have a baby, and the garden goes mad. We’re into our 8th or 9th zucchini, cucumbers are coming in every 3-4 days, beans get cleaned out weekly, peppers looking good, tomatoes will be ready early next week, corn is moving slowly but surely, baby eggplants have appeared, snap peas have blossomed, and the chard continues to climb skyward.
Rain is subsiding. Lake is receding. Garden is growing.
