For the first time in about 10 years I planted a garden. We are always drawn to shaded lots, so we’ve never had a place for one before. Even here we’ve got five acres… and they are all wooded. Normally? Great. For a garden, it’s kinda the suck. This year, I decided to plant a garden in the right-of-way/frontage and the heck with what the neighbors think. So, raised beds to avoid the clay soil problems, fencing to keep the deer out (btw – know any bow hunters? I may be a vegetarian, but the deer are getting on my nerves), and we’re set to go.
I started planting late winter/early spring crops back in February and they’re starting to come into harvest. The picture below is from a week ago and the plants have since grown significantly larger. Last week we did an arugula [1] and basil pesto, this week it’s been a salad and probably spinach quiche [2]. I think that by the time everything starts to bolt, it’ll be warm enough for summer vegetables.
Let’s see, clockwise from the bottom right, the boxes are growing: 1) spinach, arugula and leeks; 2) kale, lettuce and a mesclun mix (not to be confused with mescaline – that’s a completely different plant 🙂 ); 3) broccoli, beets and fennel; and 4) peas, carrots and turnips. Yeah, I went a bit overboard. I figure that we’ve got about a month for harvest, the kale/lettuce/mesclun will wrap up first. Last will be the broccoli/fennel/beets plus the leeks which won’t finish developing until late summer.
Footnotes:
[1] It seems like every liberal type I know who has planted a garden is growing arugula. FWIW, I suspect there are two reasons for this: 1) it’s awesome, and 2) it’s a big FU to the republicans who thought that “arugula eater” was an insult. If it makes you happier, call it rocket – the southern corruption of roquette.
[2] Yeah, don’t give me that “real men” b.s. We’re talking about a meal with a pie crust, cheese, cream and 3 or 4 eggs. It’s a heart attack waiting to happen, which as near as I can tell is what makes it something a “real man” would eat 😉