HeronDragonWrites: Full-on Summer

The tasseled corn experiment

The corn experiment is short, but there are tassels, so sometime in September I may actually get a few ears of corn! Most of my onions have been harvested, and all the shallots and garlic, and I’m using leeks regularly now. One actually produced a scape and it was delicious. I also pulled all the Egyptian onions (these are also called walking onions; they’re perennials, and reproduce in a bunch like shallots, from the bulbuls that form up their stems, which fall over from the bulbul weight and the bulbuls then send out roots and start a new plant. The bed was getting crowded this year, so I decided to pull all the older bulbs to eat, and planted all the bulbuls, and when I get a moment I’ll add some composted cow manure to that bed and in fall, plant some of the garlic cloves I harvested this summer.

The shoots and leaves of alliums – onions, leeks, garlic, shallots, Egyptian onions – are all edible; they’re all we eat of the chive plant, and most of what we eat when we’re eating scallions. The older and rattier they are, the tougher they are, but onion tops and garlic and leek scapes (the pod that forms on the stiff stem the plant sends up as a flower) and leaves are all very tasty chopped up and used as seasoning in rice (stir them in after the rice is cooked but while it’s still hot, preferably with some butter or oil) and soups and boiled potatoes (add them as in rice, after they’re cooked and drained but still hot), and sautéed with chard or summer squashes or fresh new shell beans.

Amaranth flowers and leaves and sunflowers make an incredibly lovely bouquet

I’ve been picking small ripe arctic tomatoes for a couple of weeks, and sweet yellow cherry tomatoes started ripening this week. I also have two honkin’ big heritage tomatoes that’re ripe, and another on the way, and some green peppers that are almost big enough to pick – but I won’t, hoping for red ripeness eventually. The sunflowers are opening; the peas are done, except for some very determined French pea vines which are yellow but flowering again; and the yellow beans are pretty much history. Green beans are lovely – I’ve been planting a variety called “Jade” the past few years, and they’re wonderful – they keep well on the vine, don’t get woody or fat, just keep getting longer, and the taste is really good. Many of my new asparagus plants are covered with red seeds, and the blueberry plants this year have outdone themselves, starting early and continuing even now, weeks later – it’s possible to stand and pick handfuls at a time.

The Gryphon has moved from indoors to the garden

My fava beans aren’t great this year, but the witch up the hill had early and wonderful favas. She planted hers earlier than I did, and she took the time to soak them overnight in legume innoculant – I may try that next spring. I added innoculant directly into the row when I planted, but it may be that with all the rain we had in May and June it just washed away.

The purple carrots and the beets are making up for it – I keep saying I’m going to have to make some pickled beets, but haven’t gotten to it, but I need to – if they get any bigger they’re going to start resembling softballs. Maybe I’ll roast some tomorrow – they take an hour or longer, so I could put them in then go back into the garden. (Day later note – I did roast them and omg are they good roasted – like eating roasted dessert!)

Irish Bells

The weather today has been perfect for garden work: not too cool, not too warm, a nice breeze, enough sun, and until dusk, no biting bugs. The cleaned-up area at the south wall of the garage is nearly finished. I gave in to my longing and bought another half-pallet of rock-like chunks to make a wall, and some more bricks to keep the pebbles in place, and I planted the azalea The Actress gave me for my birthday at one end, to keep the hibiscus company and maybe bloom in spring when they haven’t even emerged from their winter snooze yet. I need to find another plant for the shed door end of the wall, and figure out how I’m going to handle the weedy mess right in front of the door, but it’s nearly finished, and as I was packing up for the evening I decided I should probably put down pavers in front of the door – that would be relatively easy and solve several problems, including eliminating the freak-out I experience about whether ticks are crawling on me every time I wade through the tall weeds to get to the shed. I’ve seen photos of people whose garden sheds are just beautifully landscaped and cute as a button to look at: mine’s never going to be that nice – it’s just the space under the stairs to the top floor of the garage, after all! But I can try for welcoming, at least…

Part of the new bed on the south wall of the garage

Summer is well and truly here – even the morning glories have started to bloom. This year they aren’t taking over the garden, but the French pumpkin plant is working on that. The last couple of weeks there’s been a female hummingbird who acts, and sounds, quite a lot like Buzzy Boy – several times she’s dashed down to hover about one of the feeders whenever I’ve been out watering the plants on the wart, and she’s come into the garden to investigate what I’m doing on several occasions. Her wing noise is very loud, like Buzzy’s, and she’s curious and pugnacious like him. I assume she must be a daughter of his – I hope so, and I hope she likes it here. I see Buzzy this year, and he’s chased me in from the garden several times when I’ve been out too late according to his rules, but I think he must be fairly elderly for a hummingbird. Long may he prosper, and I’m quite charmed to have a Buzzy Back-up!