I can’t believe that we’re already sweltering away into the middle of July!   As I sit inside, enjoying the AC, I thought I’d give a quick update on our Garden’s progress.

That's Me Hiding Behind The Tomato Tree

Let me start by saying that if crabgrass were a cash crop, I’d be rolling in green right now (pun quite intended).  Seriously — some parts of the garden, the crabgrass is so thick, I can’t even remember what I’ve planted.  It seems like the hotter it gets, the faster it grows.  And, of course, the hotter it gets, the less likely I am to stand outside weeding.   Anyway, on a more positive note, the runaway hit of the season is our tomato tree.  This was a little seedling that we got as a freebie at the Roger Williams Park Zoo on Earth Day, back in April.  My daughter carried it all day and managed to break almost every branch.  Even though we were instructed to wait until Memorial Day to plant it, I figured its only hope was to go into the garden early.  So, in it went the first week in May.  By July 4th, it was bigger than me!  I’m pretty sure some of the tomatoes will be ripe by next week.  Yum!  The tomatoes that we started from seeds didn’t fare so well.  I think their biggest hurdle was that they never got watered regularly when they were tender seedlings in our sun room.  … Something to do with a disagreement my husband and I had over who was responsible for watering them…  But, we got lucky, because a whole slew of ‘volunteer’s popped up all over the garden.  They must have been seeds from all the tomatoes that dropped of the vines last year.

We are also having good luck with our squashes, which is wonderful after last year’s disappointment (the rainy summer of 2009 caused all over our squash to get fungus and die back early).   Here is a picture of our first zucchini of the season!

First Zucchini Of 2010!

Happy Zucchini Plant

And, I can’t wait until the pumpkins start coming it!  As usual, the greens are a big success.  If you are new to gardening, I definitely recommend growing greens of any kind.  They are soooo easy to grow, its almost like instant gratification.  Between the early spinach, kale, arugula and other mixed greens, I haven’t had to buy salad greens in two months.  In fact, I’m actually getting sick of kale, but it just keeps on growing.

Unstoppable Kale

Here is a picture of a yummy salad using only stuff we grew — kale, zucchini, chives, and spring onions.

Yummy Salad

I’m also pretty happy with my herb garden.   So far, we have tarragon, chives, rosemary, thyme, mint, basil, oregano, flat parsley and cilantro.  Of course, it would be more visually appealing if I managed to get rid of all that crabgrass.  I just bought some lemon balm,  curly parsley, and stevia  plants to add.

The ‘volunteers’ sprouting up from our compost bin were also a pleasant surprise.  We have a few enormous squash vines (I have no idea what type of squash, but hope to find out soon!) and a veritable shrubbery of tomato plants.

Look What Grew In The Compost

Our ‘experimental’ corn and okra seem to be doing OK, too.  I call them ‘experimental’ since I’ve never grown either of them before and really have no idea how to grow them.  The corn was definitely ‘thigh high by the 4th of July’ and is sporting tassels, so I think we might end up with a few ears.  The okra had a rough start dealing with bugs but seem to have caught its stride.  The jury is still out on whether it will bear fruit…  Speaking of fruit, did I mention I almost killed my blueberry plants and apple trees?  Yeah, I went crazy spraying them with soapy water because I read it would kill bugs (they were infested with little green worm).  Well, it killed the worms, but all the leaves fell off!  The leaves eventually grew back, but no fruit on any of the bushes or trees.  Lesson learned — use VERY diluted soap/water solution.

If you’ve been watching the news, you know that those of us in Rhode Island have had our fair share of rain last week.

Spring Daffodil

Even though we got by relatively unscathed, it was still pretty weird to see your backyard turn into a swamp in a matter of hours.  Although the highways are open again, and most of the water has subsided, many of our neighbors are still draining their basements, and some friends are still waiting to get back into the house.  The ’silver lining’, so to speak, is that now everything is turning green and growing like crazy.  So, I thought it would be fun to write about our early gardening ventures and show some pics of all the great things getting a head start in the yard.

Last year, Jon built 5 raised beds in the yard and built a cloche over one of them.

Bacco and Max check out the sage and lavender

Typically, seeds packets advise you to wait until the last frost to plant outdoors, but we figured we could shave of 4-6 weeks by planting under the cloche.  So, as soon as we had a sunny weekend, we got started with our early spring crops.  The Demesne garden site has some good info on spring planting, and some fun ideas on companion planting.  In the end, a lot of what we ended up doing was based on trial and error.  A few things to note – most of the planting was done pre-flood, and you can’t get seeds in a straight row when a 4 year old is helping!

Spinach – the spinach was actually planted last fall and somehow managed to survive the winter as a little sprout.  When Jon put the cloche back up a few weeks ago, it really took off.  This is definitely a hearty plant!

Spinach Plant

Snow Peas – for some reason, I just love the way pea shoots look.  They are so cute!  These seeds were ones that I saved from the peas we grew last summer.  They sprouted in less than a week under the cloche and are growing well.  These are a great cool weather plant.

Snow Pea Shoots

Arugula – we always do really well with arugula.  These seeds were also from plants we grew last year that went to seed.  They sprouted in less than a week, and the ones in the cloche are growing very rapidly.  I hope to be eating arugula in a couple of weeks.  (As an experiment, I planted a few rows under the cloche and one row out in the open; the ones under the cloche are about 3 times as big).

Arugula

Kale – I never grew kale before, but heard it is a great cool weather crop.  It sprouted in a little over a week and already has its second set of leaves.

Kale

Carrots – These are supposedly a good cool weather crop.  Ours haven’t sprouted yet, but I’m still hopeful.

Garlic – You can’t go wrong with this herb.  Put them in the ground around Halloween, and don’t worry about them until August.  I planted cloves from one head of garlic last fall.  All of them sprouted over the winter and have been growing steadily.  We’ll have scapes early summer and 15-20 heads of garlic by the fall.  Yum!

Garlic

French Tarragon – I was told this plant couldn’t over winter in our zone.  I dug it up and put it in a pot, but accidentally left it outside all winter.  Much to my surprise, it totally came back!  I just moved it into its permanent home in one of the raised beds.  I guess it is pretty hardy after all.

French Tarragon

Sage – This is a very hardy plant.  It stayed out all winter, and its all ready getting full and bushy.

Parsley – Once again, I didn’t think this plant was a) a perennial, or b) could survive the winter.  Well, our parsley is alive and well!

Mint – What can I say about mint?  You can’t keep it down even with a steamroller.  Get ready for mint juleps!

Basil, Dill, Cilantro, Oregano – just put these seeds in this week.  The jury is out!  (although we always seem to do well with herbs)

Rhubarb – this is the second year we’ve had this perennial in our garden.  The roots were a transplant from my uncle’s and aunt’s garden in Maine.  They seem to be thriving!

Rhubarb

I can’t wait until we start picking and eating!  Happy spring, and happy gardening.

Azalea

As I write this article, I’m looking out my window watching three doves take a bath in our birdbath.   After a long and frosty winter, it really seems like spring has made her move.

Wheelbarrow Ride

I can’t believe the temperatures were well into the mid ’50’s all weekend.   I thought I would never be able to rid myself of my heavy coat and hat.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m not naive;  this is New England, so I know the cold and ice will be back before I know it — we may even get another snow storm.  But in the meantime, I’ll heed the buddhist teachings and live in the moment.   And, what a great ‘moment’ this weekend has been!  My family and I were outside getting a headstart on all our spring cleaning.  We raked leaves, cleared out flower beds, and checked for signs of life.

Budding Daffodil

The kids rode around on their bikes, and I even took out the old skateboard for a spin. (don’t get me going on skateboards…I’m not that good, but good enough to ride one home from Manhattan to Prospect Heights during the big blackout of 2003).

But, the biggest coup of all was getting our first veggie crops planted in the garden.  Jon had noticed that a small patch of spinach had managed to survive the winter in our mini-polytunnel.  It was suprisingly balmy under that plastic canopy.  I figured if that little patch of spinach could pull through, maybe we could give it a go with some of the early veggies.  So, we put in arugula, kale, mixed greens, peas, and carrots.  I’ll keep a close eye on them over the next few weeks to see what sprouts.  If all goes well, I’ll do an updated post with some pics of our seedlings!

The Poly Tunnel

Spring Spinach Shoots

Spring definitely gets me in the mood for fresh veggies.  Although it’s still too early for most of us to pick anything from our own gardens, did you know that you can still buy fresh produce at certain farmer’s markets in the winter? For those of you lucky enough (like me) to live in Rhode Island, the Pawtucket Wintertime Farmer’s Market is open from Nov. 7 – May 29. I’ve also enjoyed going to the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan and the Grand Army Plaza and Fort Greene Farmer’s Markets in Brooklyn year round.   And, remember, only two more weeks until the official start of Spring!

Hanging Out In The Trees

Helping With the Yard