a garden weekend

The garden has grown so much in the past couple of weeks and so I wanted to share an updated photo. The "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash are doing well after getting off to a sluggish start, literally. The slugs chewed them up pretty heavily until I left some weeds for them to go after. Now that the sisters are bigger, I've gotten rid of the weeds once again. Salad greens are nearly over, getting ready to bolt and become bitter. The spinach is already a goner. The red beets did particularly well this spring, producing much more than expected. They've been going in salads, roasted as a side dish, and now pickled. Good stuff.

pickled red beets

The sunflowers are turning their faces to catch the rays, the mustard is in full bloom and covered with honey bees, potatoes are just going crazy, growing and blooming on and on. The tomatoes have also begun to bloom, so hopefully soon I'll see some little ones growing.

Some of the herbs were big enough to begin cutting. The mint planted earlier this year has just taken off - doing its job and filling in a hard-to-mow area which has been turned into a mint bed. I think it likes it there. I was also able to cut some parsley and basil, and as you can see at left, all three have been hung up to dry in my kitchen. And by the way, the kitchen smells great! Best of all, this is just the beginning of a harvest that should last until the end of summer.