June in the Vegetable Garden

I spent the morning tending my vegetable garden. Nothing lifts my mood more than gardening, and this morning as I weeded among the tomatoes, the scent of rich earth and pungent tomato leaves brought my back to my grandma’s side, circa 1970-something, as she tended her tomato plants in the backyard garden in Bellerose. I could even hear in my mind the rustle of her navy blue house dress and see her feet in their tan orthopedic shoes as she bent, sunlight glinting off her cat’s eye glasses, to tie up her tomatoes with rags.  Many things trigger memories of my grandmother; gardening and cooking, mostly.  It’s nice to imagine her at my side when I’m doing these homey chores.

I weeded each bed and was pleased at most of the vegetables’ progress. The sweet potatoes made me smile – those sickly looking twigs are now robust vines. I took some closeup pictures because I could hardly believe that these were the same spindly-looking things I got in the mail!  They are really taking off with lots of robust new growth. The tomatoes look wonderful too, with lots of flowers, and so does the zucchini. One of my favorite summer dishes of all time is simply sauteed zucchini with onions in a little butter or olive oil. I’ve been known to eat that for days on end in the summer.  And I have a great zucchini bread recipe, which I’ll post to my sister blog, Recipes from the Garden.  Zucchini bread is hard to get just right – some recipes, the bread comes out like a brick, while others it’s so moist it doesn’t bake. Not my recipe.  Stay tuned….

The corn perked up after getting knocked down by the rain, and the cantaloupes and watermelons are really going strong.  I have one volunteer watermelon, a baby Moon & Stars, that is growing next to the seeds I planted this year, a giant variety named Congo. Does anyone know if they cross pollinate? I don’t want horrible watermelon and I could pull up Moon & Stars…..someone let me know if you think they’ll cross pollinate!

Plenty of cucumbers and my butternut squash looks fine. I did have one plant so wilted it was a bit odd, so I pulled it out in case it’s got a virus or something.  Carrots are doing fine – I pulled one out by accident and was surprised at how far along they are. I can harvest them in about a month. Same with the garlic; the bulbs really will be ready by the 4th of July, just as the old wives’ tale says (plant on Columbus Day, harvest on 4th of July – check, it really works!).

Peas – got my first pea pods today!  It’s a pitiful harvest but I’m going to eat my raw peas for lunch. All six of them (hee hee).

The herbs got hacked back to a reasonable height.  The only bed where nothing is growing well are the onions and beets.  Last year I had abundant beets and onions. This year, tiny, sickly looking beet plants and really awful onions.  Not sure why.

We had some excitement too while we worked. As I weeded, John used the edger to trim the tall grass the push mower can’t get between the raised beds. We had Shadow out with us and Pierre. He’s really an indoor cat, but he loves being outside, so we allow him supervised jaunts outdoors. Suddenly John let out a yell, put down the edger and went running back towards the house. Pierre had been sunning himself on the back deck.  As Pierre raced around towards the front porch, I saw something big and black hanging out of his mouth.  We both took off in hot pursuit with Shadow eagerly at our heels. She loves nothing more than to herd Pierre, proving you CAN herd cats if you really put your mind to it.

Pierre hid behind the hydrangea at the front of the house but not before we saw him release a large skink. I think it is a type of lizard. It was black with gold racing stripes.  And no tail! Poor guy lost his tail somewhere. We have a mesh screen to keep wildlife out from under the porch, but the holes in the mesh are large enough so that Mr. Skink slunk under the porch. Poor Pierre….mewing and struggling, voicing his protests, we brought him back into the house.  He’s been pacing by the front door ever since, hoping for the chance to get back for round two with Mr. Skink.

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