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Originally uploaded by rodeworks

The lettuce has done very well this season. The copper collars did a great job keeping the slugs off for the most part. It is getting pretty hot weather-wise, but luckily the plants all headed up before then. These are the last two heads ready for picking. The peas are mostly done too. Time to move into the summer crops. I picked 2 cucumbers today and the beans are coming along quickly. I like the harvest changes as the garden makes its way through the season.

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Originally uploaded by rodeworks

It has been a long time since I’ve posted anything here. Not because there isn’t anything happening in the garden- just to opposite. Quite a bit is happening. And all is just on the verge of hitting full production. We’ve already had a steady stream of lettuce, 2 cabbages so far (I am making some sauerkraut) , boatloads of peas, Kale, Swiss Chard, some carronts, many strawberries, and plenty of herbs. I picked the first garlic today. It looks like some zucchini will be ready later this week.

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Originally uploaded by rodeworks

The lettuce transplants are growing well. They have a ways to go before harvest. But the spring planting of greens has already been supplying our dinner salad needs. These are some red Iceburg lettuce that did very well for us last year, and so far are growing well this year too. Hopefully my new copper collars will keep the slugs out of them — nothing spoils a nice garden salad like a couple of unwelcome dinner guests!

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Originally uploaded by rodeworks

It was so nice today to finally have some sunny, warm weather. It is starting to feel more like spring. I’ve been hardening off the lettuce plants this week and planted them today. Last year this red leaf lettuce did very well — it grew great, was tender and sweet. The only real problem was the number of slugs who seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. It was a pain to pick them off, and there was always the fear that one would sneak through and provide an unwelcome tasty morsel in the salad! This year I’m going to try using copper collars to keep the buggers off.

An article in this week’s New York Times got me thinking about horseradish.  That and the arrival of passover, with its bitter herbs and all.  Our neighbor Patricia has a pile of plants growing in her garden.  So after plying her with a dinner of slow cooked rosemary chicken, wheatberries and spring greens (fresh from the garden) we went horseradish hunting.  She wasn’t quite sure where it was (nice to see I’m not the only one who forgets exactly what is planted where!)  but after poking through the leaves we came across one good bunch.  Horseradish is the kind of thing that once it gets growing it spreads quickly — she was happy to share (the dinner helped.)  We got one root for the passover dinner tomorrow and another piece to plant in the herb garden. 

In The Garden – Growing Your Own Horseradish – NYTimes.com

OUR horseradish roots looked so innocent when they arrived in the mail last spring. Just little brown sticks, about eight inches long and as narrow as pencils.

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Originally uploaded by rodeworks

In the summer of 1992 we were living in Fairfax Virginia. I had my first ‘grown up’ garden — the first since high school days. The plot was in a community garden space. Because I was new in the group I was assigned a spot way up in the back. But it worked out well because I got a slightly larger plot. And I didn’t mind hauling my grass clippings up there to mulch.  It was a great garden year — fabulous broccoli. I even grew okra (it was the south after all!)

Leo often accompanied me to the garden, helping to pick produce, eating green beans off the plant, and picking from the raspberry bushes growing wild at the entrance.  What a cute little guy!