After the Rain

Everything pops!

The Genovese Basil added 3" and lots of bushy leaves.

The comfrey I transplanted has taken hold, and (with any luck) started to spread. These two plants are actually blooming.

The spearmint has grown at least 12" and should be blooming in the next couple weeks, drawing hundreds of bees (they love its nectar), and guaranteeing my other plants will be pollinated.

Sugar snap peas are over a foot tall now, meaning I need to add the string trellis.

There are one or two blossoms, and there should be a lot more this next week. Peas come in around June 1-15th, so we are very close.

Cauliflower added 3" easy and the little seedlings are 4" high now.

Look on the left about mid-point down - the first tiny green tomato is there. Fresh tomatoes are within our grasp!

This is my first year growing butternut squash, so no idea how much this baby will grow. I'm thinking it's probably like a zucchini or gourd plant, so I gave it plenty of room.

Meanwhile in the greenhouse, a couple of the cauliflower plants have crossed with the neighboring broccoli, meaning I now have caulibroc, which I love - it has a nutty taste, and goes great in salads.

Caulibroc is like tiny heads of cauliflower with the size and taste of young broccoli, but white. It will never form a proper head, and will be ready for cutting tomorrow or Friday.

This is a lesson in gourd growing. They hate transplanting. The two at the bottom in the pot came up in the middle of the blueberries, and had to be moved. The healthy one at the top came up exactly where it sits. Hated to move the other ones but they would have killed the blueberries, and nothing comes between me and my blueberry crop.

First broccoli is out.

And I add this only because someone else may have this problem. This is Virginia Creeper. We have it everywhere. I pull it up constantly so it doesn't overtake my garden beds.

I probably should use gloves, because.....

Turns out I'm allergic to it. It's not the same as poison ivy which has an oil in it that binds to your skin (that's the reason it takes so long to get rid of it). Instead it has oxalate crystals. Those are nasty little diamond shaped crystals that literally cut into your skin. Only 5% of the population is allergic to those crystals.

Lucky me - I'm one of them. It'll go away in a week or so. And I have got to remember to put gloves on the next time.

Why I Can't Garden in the Rain

Nessie covered with Virginia Creeper

This was suppose to be the week of planting, and laying water pipe, and mulching.

Instead it is the week of sitting inside listening to the rain.

I know we need the rain. My rain barrels are full, the blueberry plants are in heaven (they have no words for "too much rain"), the irises are blooming, and the Virginia Creeper is spreading like wildfire.

I have a love/hate relationship with Virginia Creeper. For those of you not gifted with this wild perennial, it's a vine that spreads sometimes as much as a foot a day. And all along that foot of vine, new plants spring up.

It's the perfect plant for covering the fence along the puppy pen, and in the fall, the leaves turn bright red.

Other than that, it takes over everything (well, everything that isn't overrun by wiregrass, it's evil twin with no redeeming qualities). Already this year I've pulled up massive amounts out of the onion bed, and it's creeped back already.

It's is kindof pretty though, with those delicate bright green tendrils. For the sake of my sanity I'll continue to think of it that way. For at least another week or so. After that's it's toast.

Massive rainfall also brings huge showy iris blooms. I love irises - no maintenance, no special care, poor soil is fine - the perfect garden flower.

This is my favorite photo. Just to the right is the trunk of a old locust tree, complete with a fern-covered shady entrance, leading to a hollowed out nest. I suspect this is where our possum family has made its home, but I'm not about to stick my hand in there to find out.

After our possum-encounter-of-the-third-kind earlier this week, we have established a truce. They stay out of my greenhouse, and I will stay out of their tree trunk.