Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Eating from the Garden

I have been overwhelmed with ordinary life and not posting as much as I expected. But I'm sure that next year I'd want to know that we are indeed eating at least a bit from garden. Lettuces and herbs. Some of the lettuce started shooting up along a central stalk last week after our hot spell and I assume they were starting to go to seed so we promptly harvested and ate them. Since then I have been plucking a few leaves here and there for small salads. The pleasure of just a few sprigs of herbs. The unusual interesting taste of winter sorrel. Not something I'd want in a salad but interesting. Biting into a single sorrel leaf I clearly taste the lemony tang but it disappears when shredded into a salad. The cilantro has bolted without ever producing much.

Our neighbor across the street is away for a bit and asked us to pick all the citrus that we want.

The Early Girl tomatoes are getting quite large but still fully green. The eggplants and beans and peppers are flowering. The cucumbers are spreading like crazy and I see tiny cukes. Some of the zucchini and the summer squash should be ready to eat soon. Some of it is withering away instead of growing longer than an inch or so. I adjusted the timing on the irrigation to water a bit more frequently and to water the small containers daily, as it is dry and windy although not especially hot yet.

This next item may prove to be a mistake. I planted several types of mints in the raised planters. I've been unable to grow mint here in the past, even in a self-watering pot. This probably sounds crazy to you who find mint impossible to get rid of!

There are no figs on the fig tree although it seems healthy and is growing. Other fig trees in the neighborhood have big fat unripe figs. Our tiny tree had figs last year but also almost died from frost so maybe it is still recovering. Maybe there will be figs in the fall. I have pictures of a fig tree in a neighbor's yard which is huge. It must be 30 feet or more high. They say it might be the largest in Phoenix, according to their gardener. They have flood irrigation and we do not and that makes a big difference. I'll post the pictures later.

1 comment:

...Not-enough-time said...

Lucky you! When I was going thru some old photos last week, I found one of my lone cucumber from several years ago. Nice and long for slicing, but only one. If they aren't fertilized in warm weather before the fog sets in, it's no curcurbits for us!

We're thinking about planting a dwarf orange where the fig is refusing to grow. Gophers, we think. Supposedly, they love fig roots.

I'll probably plant tomatoes, because I love them so much, but move the spot a little. The Artist wants to plant another fruit tree. Maybe a Granny Smith? The columnar apple has no blossoms, but the Gravenstein is loaded. All sorts of bees today. Sweet peas!

We have to get to work on the rest of the garden.