Ever Bearing, Summer Bearing

I finally got around to harvesting the arugula, and planting the strawberries and spring (or maybe winter?) onions.

Most of the arugula was too large and woody to keep, but there were enough small leaves to use for salads or sandwiches. I also took out one of the basil plants; it never really came back from its cold start and after the heat we had last weekend (temps in the 90s) it took a bad turn. It wasn’t a complete loss; I got a handful of leaves from it.

In my last post I mentioned my plan to plant spring onions; a friend gave us some ready to plant from their garden. However, a few nights ago Mr. Scoakat told me he thought they were winter onions. I’m pretty sure the friend said spring onions; he’s pretty sure the friend said winter onions. I guess we’ll find out in the spring. Or we could just call the friend and ask… The spring/winter onions are planted in three rows at the back of the west garden.

The new strawberries are an ever bearing variety. They went in between the established strawberries and the raspberries. Speaking of raspberries, I finally found the email from my order and now I know they’re summer bearing. That means they’re not going to produce fruit this year. Oh well, there’s always next year.

I covered the newly planted strawberries with the awesome strawberry cover Mr. Scoakat built. Here’s hoping it keeps the squirrels out; there’s almost nothing I hate more than re-planting strawberries. And speaking of squirrels, they’ve been stealing my tomatoes ad soon as they’re ripe! Again! The marigolds are useless! Okay not completely useless, but also not the squirrel repellent I was hoping for.

Green onions are done for the year. I harvested the last of them yesterday. I’m still waiting on the carrots. The thyme and parsley are looking good. I’ll be using some of both and some basil to make meatballs soon!

Mid-August Jerk

A few days after my last post, the tomato plants in the garden perked up. For a while, they were doing much better than bucket tomato, but then bucket made a bit of a comeback, and the garden tomatoes lost their perk.

It’s not all bad news though, I actually harvested my first ripe tomato a couple nights ago from bucket tomato. It ended up in a salad I ate yesterday – YUM! Bucket tomato lives in the garden now, still in the bucket but slightly more protected from wind and rabbits. 


The carrots are still growing and the basil is doing pretty well considering its not-so-great start. I did finally make the basil potato salad I mentioned last time around. It wasn’t bad, but I probably won’t make it again. The parsley is growing faster than I can use it. I need to find the motivation to make some chimichurri… A nice beef roast or a couple good steaks might provide that motivation!

The radishes have all been harvested (and I ate the last of them in that salad) and most of the green onions too. I made a double batch of jerk marinade to use up some of the green onions, but there’s still a lot left. I anticipate more jerk marinade in the near future; that’s not a bad thing.


I harvested more thyme recently, and I really should harvest the arugula… perhaps this weekend when I plant more strawberries and some spring onions!