her able hands

Summer has arrived in her full-bodied, humid suit of wetness. The air is thick and my lungs feel like I’m trying to breathe bubble gum. After a few heavy rains followed by sunshine, the garden has started to grow in that lush, big-leaf way of gardens. I’m behind with the trellis-making and need to take some time to finish that up before all of the plants begin to lay down and send roots into the ground from their stems.

We’re not eating from the garden yet, though, and that frustrates me—it’s July and I’m still buying produce. Talk about a bust. Whenever I make a trip out to the old house, I grab a few garlic scapes, some fennel fronds, whatever chard looks decent (we’ve had some issues with the chard and I’m too busy to figure out what’s leaving small, brown, slimy spots on the leaves and stems.)

Soon I should have some early potatoes, the 150 plants (!) are almost all blossoming. Flea beetles got at the leaves so the plants are a bit stressed. I’m just not going to deal with that though, it’s too much to get out there early enough to spray with the Pyrethrins and frankly with that many plants, a lower yield might just be a good thing this year.

The garlic leaves are starting to turn brown, about halfway there and I suspect I’ll harvest in a couple of weeks. When I pulled up a few cloves to take a look, they’re pretty small yet. I hope the decent mix of sun and rain helps them bulk up, but I wonder if the weeds choking out the edges of the beds, and starting to invade the rows will keep them small. I mulched early, but never made it back out with another layer, or ever bothered to pull a single weed.

The other day I noticed a ton of volunteers in the old garden, so next time I go out I’ll plan some time with a shovel and some pots. There’s French Marigolds—a couple dozen plants, the Cosmos have gone hog-wild, and dill plants thriving all over the place. I saw several Tomatillos, which thrills me because only two of mine survived the ups and downs of the spring and the move. I have to make at least one batch of Roasted Tomatillo Salsa again this year. So good.

If it ever stops raining every two days, I’ll start making garden beds around our new property, but I suspect we have heavy clay here and the ground needs to dry out before I can deal with it. I’d like to use the lasagna method, but won’t have the materials available for that until the fall. I hate rototilling, especially in clay soil. Maybe I’ll just wait for leaf fall and start building my keyhole beds when the weather is cooler and we’re completely moved in. I’m envisioning an edible forest.

I realized something last night as I was eating our impromptu dinner of cheese quesadillas and a big tossed salad with hard boiled egg. I was fantasizing about how delish a nice little bowl of chilled Gazpacho would taste with the salad, and how I cannot wait to try the Bloody Butcher tomatoes, and that the organic Japanese Climbing Cucumbers might go well in a soup with those, but shoot! I forgot to plant cilantro! So I’ll have to buy that at the grocery. I won’t have to buy celery, because I have eight thriving Red Celery plants (seeds from Territorial,) in the next-door garden. Check out the stripey stalks!

Is it too late to plant lettuce again? I think it might be too hot now, and that just makes me so sad. The lettuce in the stores is abysmal and nobody has any at the farmers’ market for some strange reason. I may have to get in the car on Saturday and drive out to the market in Peninsula where some of the bigger organic growers sell, I hear they have a lot more variety.

As to doing the market myself this year, I just have no idea if I’ll make it or not. I’d love to, and think maybe I’ll have enough to do a few Saturdays in the early fall, but I didn’t plant nearly enough to do anything much. I could bake, but if I have a full-time job that won’t happen. Oh, but my Apple Crostates! So labor-intensive! So melt-in-your-mouth incredible! So hard to think about doing it on top of working all day, and for what? $75? When I can make so much more getting paid by the man? Eesh.

What’s happening to my little organic life?

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