First Harvest

We've had an exciting weekend so far. Okay, I say that a little tongue-in-cheek, but there's something invigorating about sinking your hands into the loose, cool soil, and being part of the life cycle that begins with a tiny seed and that ends with a wonderful meal made with your fresh vegetables.

These tiny pea pods were the first "harvest" of our little garden. Anthony is certain all plants should be pinched to encourage more growth. I'm not so sure this applies to vegetables. However, I was making fresh soup and decided to pick a few of the sugar snap pea babies to give his theory a try and to give our soup some home garden goodness. I used the Italian parsley from the garden as well. The herbs in the garden bed are doing splendidly--much better than they would have done in pots on the porch.

We also planted our 10 butternut squash babies from the compost bin, an additional four strawberry plants, dahlias, a peony, stock, and blanket flower. This planting frenzy necessitated the cleaning and redefining of a planting bed and some serious weed pulling. Then, we ran out of daylight.

I have basil, lavender, and snapdragons that need planting, too, and I'm going to go against my planting by the moon to get them in the ground. Maybe they can serve as an unofficial experiment.

J'ai besoin de la France

Today's blog is a little self-indulgent--that's what happens when one has too much time on one's hands.

I am patiently waiting for the phase of the moon to change so that I can plant more beets and transplant flowers, more broccoli seedlings, and sage cuttings. In my idle hours, I went to the grocery store and found these beautiful sunflowers marked down. Rambling around the yard, I picked a few things that were blooming, which included Spanish bluebells and vinca major, dogwood, azaleas, a Gerber daisy, and a rosebud.

After arranging them, I noticed I had paired the sunflowers with bluebells and vinca, and this reminded me of traveling to Provence in the south of France where sunflowers adorned linens and lavender bloomed profusely along the roads, especially going into the Luberon out of Apt. I smiled.

And I remembered what I tell my traveling friend Glenna: bring a little of France into your everyday life. So I did. I reveled in my flowers, and tonight I will enjoy a leisurely meal with my husband and a glass (or two) of good wine as I wait for the moon to cooperate with my itchy green thumb!

For the other arrangement, I used the flowers I had enjoyed last week to fill my teapot. I use this teapot only in the spring for the azaleas and dogwoods, daffodils and Spanish bluebells. I waited too late for the daffodils. As I was arranging last week's sunflowers, the petals began to fall off. I ripped them off two of the flower heads and noticed something: They reminded me of Van Gogh's sunflowers. My memory may be poor, but I believe some of the flowers may have been painted without the yellow petals. Either way, they are beautiful.

Well, this is a food blog, so I suppose I should end on a food note! In the garden, I have five potato plants sprouting leaves and two rows of beet seedlings have pushed their way through the soil. I've never grown either before, and I'm so excited to see them growing.

Leave me a comment. Tell me what you're doing to bring a special memory into your home. Or, maybe you're planting something new in the garden. I'd like to hear about it.

C'est tout!

Planting!

You see behind Little Man tomato plants that came from Lowe's today. Confession: I had vowed to plant only heirloom tomato plants, but I've yet to plant the seeds. I'm a little nervous about the seed-planting thing. How far we humans have gotten from our food!

So, Anthony (the husband) and I went to Lowe's to get the materials we needed to place a raised bed of blueberries in the front yard. That disaster is a topic for another day--maybe tomorrow after we lay them in the bed. But, during one of our trips to Lowe's, we looked at the discount plant racks and found a beautiful Gerber daisy, some cosmos, and a container of budding, fruit-setting tomato. We were able to get three separate plants from the container. They may not be heirloom tomatoes, but they are insurance: We WILL have tomatoes (if only a few).

It was a frustrating day because we didn't get the blueberry bed set and planted before the sun came down. It was a good day because we were outside, playing in the dirt, getting our hands dirty together. I thought about how much money we're spending on this experiment, and I thought: So what! We are out in the beautiful weather, working together under blue sunny skies, and we're touching life; life that may actually feed us. But, if it doesn't feed our bodies, it has fed our souls. And don't we all need a little soul-feeding?

Spring Planting

With the beautiful weather we've been having, it's hard to show restraint and NOT begin planting. The husband and I have used the past several weeks of warm weather to do garden chores: breaking up concrete to double the garden bed; amending soil; building a compost bin; buying seeds; studying planting by the moon. Yes, planting by the moon. I read where a gentleman in England experimented on his potatoes, planting some according to the moon (a waning moon for underground crops) and some at a different time. He said you could see the difference. Not exactly a guarantee, but it is encouraging.

In the whiskey barrel, you can see the violas that look so happy and smell so sweet, spires of red onion, and miscellaneous greenery--lettuce mix. I hope to be able to plant some cherry tomatoes in here for the summer.

We've planted another fig, and blueberries and raspberries are waiting for their beds to be prepared. Red onions are in the ground, and I planted sugar snap peas Friday. Sage is cut into mini-plants for rooting and sharing, and a few seedlings of broccoli and spinach have pushed through the soil and begun sprouting their first sets of true leaves. Today is the second day of the second quarter moon, the waxing moon; and according to moon-planters, never plant on the first day of any moon phase. I'm waiting patiently for the weekend. That is the recommended day to plant raspberries, but seeds rot in the ground. I'm a wee bit late for tomato seedlings, but my plan is to start them Sunday or Monday. It could be my eagerness to plant is ahead of actual planting, in which case, I'll be starting them right on time.

We'll see how this whole business of planting by the moon goes. I'll keep you posted. Check out Farmer's Almanac for more information about planting by the moon.