Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Garden Tuesday

"Civilization is a social order promoting cultural creation. Four elements constitute it: economic provision, political organization, moral traditions and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. It begins where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free and man passes by natural impusle toward the understanding and embellishment of life." - Will Durant, The History of Civilization, Volume 1, Chapter 1, page 1.

(and this is typical of what I read in my spare time. Could I be more boring?)

Mr. Durant says the earliest economic provision is agriculture. It's at the start of all civilization, and without agriculture, there is no civilization. Ergo, I'm promoting civilization in my own back yard. (You knew this had to tie in somehow, right?)

We finally got some sunshine Saturday, and the lawn service arrived Saturday for the first time in 2 weeks. Half a day's sunshine each Sunday and Monday, and we finally have some garden progress!

My Simpson Black Seeded lettuce looks great. Soon there should be enough for more than one salad for the whole tribe, right? The plant in the second square up is arugula, planted 2 weeks ago, as is the fourth square up, squeezed in at the top, and the third one up is a sugar snap pea.

The carrots look good, or, rather, the greens do. I'll know how good they actually look in mid-July. I might even have enough for a batch of glazed carrots.
Spinach, 2 weeks after planting. Last week, it looked like grass. This week, the little round leaflets have grown on the plants. I love spinach.

And the radish greens! The boys pulled one up, and they are long skinny roots with lots of greenery. What's up with that?


Some of my plants didn't come up, probably hindered or killed by the 4 weeks of cold rain we had. So, taking a page out of Dog's book, I took an egg flat and planted replacements: 16 carrots, 1 cucumber, 2 yellow squash, and one each pink tomato, cherry tomato, beefsteak tomato and sasha tomato. The sasha tomato hasn't come up yet; what is it doing? I'm getting ready to declare that entire breed of tomatoes to be worthless dunderheads! Actually, I'm pleased with the rest of the plants, since I only started them 8 days ago.
So, that's the garden news from my little corner of the world. How are all of your corners faring?

8 comments:

SissySees said...

We aren't gardening this year, but I'm sure I've said that already. We're under a severe thunderstorm warning and a flash flood watch AGAIN. Sigh.

tavolini said...

We've been having rain and rain and rain here, too. Luckily, though, it's in the high 80's so everything is coming up quickly! I'm inspired by your post here, I think I might pull together a garden post for us, too ;)

Our basil is definitely looking healthy enough for us to indulge in a bit of pesto...

Paula said...

Marjie! Your garden looks great, especially considering your weather! Tell your boys that Tessa experienced the same "what's up with this" factor last year when she checked on a radish. If you are growing the red variety, tell your guys to wait until they see the top of the red globe sticking up at the base of the plant, then they'll be ready. I don't know about the white variety! That egg carton idea is genius! With all the eggs I go through around here, I'll be able to put the cartons to good use! My big parsley plant is going to bite the dust soon, so I'll plant the parsley starts in the egg cartons! Wonderful tip! (Oh, and you could never be boring!)

Unknown said...

We just finally got our garden in last Wednesday - i know, right? My lettuce, beets, carrots and radishes are all showing green leaves already though. The squash and tomatoes we started from starts and they are growing good. Not sure how the peas, bean or brussel sprouts are growing they are at the top of the yard.

Oh and I have fruit too - strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, kiwi & avocados. Yep! g

The Blonde Duck said...

Well since Thor resisted extra Twirls, I can't resist...

noble pig said...

Yeah, how much lettuce would you need to feed everyone, an acre?

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

Your garden is coming along so nicely. I am glad the boys are still interested.

pam said...

I was thinking what Noble was...just how much lettuce are you going to need!