Garlic Scape Pesto! Tomatoes, More Strawberries... More Weeds

I've grown a hardneck variety of garlic the last few years. In previous years, I've cut the scapes off and thrown them in our compost bin. This year, I decided to find a recipe to use the scapes. The recipe I found, garlic scape pesto, is so good. If you like pesto and you really like garlic, you should try this! I opted to use half basil and half garlic scapes, and only used lemon juice, no rind.



The tomato plant in the bucket seems to be doing better than the two in the garden. This might be worth paying attention to. Buckets are ugly, but I'll put up with ugly if it means a good tomato crop!






Not much else to report on. We're still getting a few strawberries here and there. And I spent another hour pulling weeds! I'm beginning to think they might be my most successful crop this year...

Tomato Cages, Raspberry Adjustment, and the First Strawberry

It was time to get the tomato plants caged up for the season. I’m growing grafted tomatoes this year, so before I could cage them, I had to pinch off suckers growing from grafting scars to prevent the scions from rooting.

 

 

The raspberries in the back continue to spread, as do the weeds growing amongst them. After a lot of weeding, we moved the back support wire on the bottom cross arm of the trellis to its widest position. Eventually, we will need to move the back support wire on the top arm too.

 

And, as promised, Mr. Scoakat enjoyed the first ripe strawberry of the year!  It looks like we’ll have several more ripe berries by the end of the week, and the runners on the new plants have already rooted so we should have many more plants by the end of the summer.

Ms. Scoakat Blogs

The garlic, planted last fall, is looking good. It’s the same type I’ve planted the last couple years and I really like it. Great flavor, nice size heads, and easy to peel cloves.

I planted cilantro seed disks again this year and they are doing well; not quite as well as last year’s but I wasn’t able to get them from the same, local company this year. Funny story about the cilantro seed disks this year… Mr. Scoakat accidentally threw away the first pack of seed disks I bought this year. They were sitting on top of the TV stand with the shipping invoice (I had to buy them online this year) next to some junk mail… it was an honest mistake.

The peas are doing well too. Last year, several weeks (and a lot of damage) passed before I realized the pea sprouts were being eaten by birds! This year I covered the east bed with bird netting after planting the first seeds in April.

As previously noted, I harvested the radishes on Thursday. I’ve had a few as snacks and they are delish! I will have more in salads soon. I might even be able to convince Mr. Scoakat to try a few slices in his salads (yes, he eats salads… don’t tell him I told you).

The lettuce seeds I planted in April are MIA, or AWOL… or maybe they were abducted by aliens??? The point is, no lettuce.

Basil is a cat (an emotionally needy, rather large, scaredy-cat; see Scoakat’s Blog for more information) but basil is also a Mediterranean herb that is lovely in Italian dishes but does not like cold temperatures. We had two or three nights under 40 degrees this week, so the basil’s not looking too hot (ba-dum-ch).

The parsley looks fine. Especially when you consider it had to travel to hell and back seven times before it ever even sprouted!

I planted marigolds around the tomatoes on Saturday; they’re supposed to keep squirrels away. We’ll see how that works.

The thyme is adjusting well to its move. Apparently thyme is on my side…

On to the other side of the garden!

I’ve done a lot of weeding on this side lately, and there’s a lot more to do. The red raspberries (in the back) are spreading in a way that makes me happy and nervous at the same time! I’m glad they’re doing so well, but I know raspberries can get out of hand, so…

The ‘purple’ raspberries (in the middle) aren’t doing quite as well; for now, I’m okay with that.

I planted six new ever-bearing strawberry plants on Saturday. A few of them already have healthy runners and due to the new strawberry cover, I’m not too worried about the squirrels tearing them out; so I’m hopeful we’ll have strawberries to eat this summer. Of course, the first ripe berry goes to Mr. Scoakat; a reward for crafting the new (Improved!) strawberry cover.

Catching Up*

Just to catch up, last Saturday Kate planted stuff in the east garden.  From the bottom row, tomato, thyme (replanted), tomato.  Next row up is basil, parsley, basil. Also, on Thursday she picked the radishes.















On a side note, my wife Kate will be taking over posting on this site.  Well, I hope so.  We'll see how much I end up doing still...






*Edit: These pictures were taken Friday evening, yesterday. Kate has put much more work into the gardens today and will be posting her first post here hopefully tomorrow, with pics taken this evening.

I'm really looking forward to her perspective and personality here!

Strawberry Cover and Plant Day

Yesterday I made a taller cover for the strawberries so they have room to grow and still have protection from birds and squirrels.  I threw it together out of scrap wood that I had, thankfully I have a table saw.  We did have to buy some more chicken wire but at least it's pretty cheap.  Now we're hoping to actually get some strawberries to eat this year.

We also went out and got plants yesterday, a Spring ritual.  We bought two hanging plants, one for front and one for back, and several smaller plants to put in the pot out front and Kate pulled several old pots out of the garage to fill with plants to put on the stump in back.

Plant Day pictures after the break!

Yard and Garden Pics

Wednesday I mowed the lawn for the first time this year.  I also got out and about the yard with the camera.  For keeping a photo record's sake, a tour of the back yard and garden flora... and some more rocks.

The reason I have a project tomorrow.

Planting Today*

Kate got some planting done in the garden today.  Now in the west garden, below the garlic that was planted last fall, are 4 rows of newly planted seeds.  From the top, peas are planted zigzag along the pea trellis, then rows of radishes, green onions and lettuce.  There is still room along the bottom for future plantings of two tomato plants, two basil plants, and a parsley plant.  She covered the whole thing in netting to minimize the inevitable bird and squirrel mischief.








In the east garden there are no new plantings, but the top row of raspberry plants are spreading out and the middle row, a different kind of raspberry, is coming back as well.  They make me nervous, these raspberry plants.  I do hear how they like to spread so I hope we did not create a monster.  Most of the strawberry plants in the bottom third of this side have come back.  My wife has charged me with building a better, taller squirrel- and bird-proof cover.  I'll need more chicken wire, but I should have the wood for this small project.


*Edit 4/21:  I was reminded by my wife that I forgot the row of cilantro, just above the peas.

Early Garden Clean-Up

Kate spent some time cleaning up the gardens today.  The soil was too wet for planting, but one step closer.  Also we've had our first flower for a couple days now.  And third, the tree.  Sigh.  The tree will be (expensively) brought down very soon.

Spring 2015

A first look at the gardens, taken Saturday.  The weather has improved dramatically over the past week.

Catching Up Before Winter

I had been without a computer for a bit so here are the last pics of the garden and yard for the year.

First, the lemon pepper plant being harvested before removal for winter.

And the burning bush peaking.

The garden and yard all prepped for winter.

Finally, the garden as it looks right now. We just came off 10 straight days of below freezing temperatures. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be wet and warmer, temporarily.

Barring anything unforeseen, this blog will be shut down until spring. Let's hope for an easy winter!