Benefits of a wet spring

I like to think of the glass as half full, for me the world just works better this way. 
For example, I could spin you the sad tale of the state of my tomatoes, peppers, and melons after this cold wet spring.  However, they'll get big eventually. 
In the meantime, after using some netting to keep the birds out, my peas are looking beautiful and filling up my A-frame nicely.

My Garlic is on autopilot and looks like we'll have nice big heads.  Essentially, all I've been doing for the garlic since I planted is watering once a week if it doesn't rain, and weeding.  I'll be pulling these up in a week or so.

The wet weather has also boosted the populations of my beneficial insects.  Look at this beautiful dragon fly, fat from eating pests like aphids and mosquitos.

We had our first appreciable harvest of summer greens.  From left, Rainbow Chard, Lacinato Kale, Collard Greens. 

And last but not least, strawberries.

All said, it has been a good week.

Colors of June

Things are mostly green out here in the June Garden, but there are stirrings of other hues.
Take this Radicchio for example, its getting nice and purple in the center

And it turns out that blue potatoes make blue flowers, how lovely.

I keep catching Carson "red" handed...hey, did you just swipe my gloves?

When Greens Bolt

If you are like me and live in the northern climes of the US, some of your greens are getting ready to bolt or already have.  Let's discuss bolting, shall we?  This is what you will see when things are moving in that direction

The individual plants will start to look taller with what will appear to be one or many flower heads developing at the top.  The plant is now placing its emphasis on reproduction and producing seed for self propagation.  For most mild lettuces, this means that you have missed the boat, the leaves will already be much too bitter to enjoy.  For Arugula, which is spicy, this is your last chance to pull up and harvest, like I did here

I pick off all of the big leaves and leave the feathery looking ones at the top near the seed head for the compost bin.

Additionally, I leave a few plants scattered throughout the bed and let them go completely to seed.  I try to leave them in places that won't interfere with the other plants and along my drip line so that I will not need to add extra watering work.  This way, I end up with more seeds for these varieties of whatever green I grew, Sylvetta Wild and Sputnik Arugula in this case.

I used to think about seeing my greens bolt as a sad ending to a good thing.  Now I think about it like this (greens + seed = bonus!).

Cool and Stormy? Let's cook!

My game plan would be ideally be to spend this holiday weekend out in the sunny backyard with my family and friends.  However, I don't control the weather.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, this has been an especially cool and wet spring and lots of the garden is way behind where it should be.  I looked back in my garden notes from 3 years ago and I'd had small zucchini by now.  So what am I cooking?  Tabbouleh using a recipe from the lovely folks at Culinate.  Luckily, I've got the requisite ingredients for this growing including Mint, Parsley, and Lettuces.

Honestly, this might be the nicest my lettuces have ever looked.

I'm also working on some home made hummus from scratch.  Maybe if it stays rainy, I'll post the recipe later today. Add Kalamata olives, some local feta from Shepherds Dairy, and some pita bread from O'Falafel ( I should wax poetic about this place at some point, if you live in SLC and have not eaten here yet, shame on you.)

Oh yes, we'll have radishes with this meal too.  They're a hit with the home team!

Think Sun!!

Spinach

This is 1 pound of spinach.

It was harvested, rinsed, then cooked into a simple pasta bianco.  So delicious.
We are also eating salad greens, including perfectly peppery arugula, aka Rocket.
Did you know why its called rocket?  It bolts quick.  Ours is close.  I'm waiting for a hot sunny day to document this process.

Progress and Pests

Midway through the month of May things continue to be cool and rainy.  Needless to say, some of my plants are loving it, like the lettuces

 

The  garlic and potatoes also seem pretty happy

However something is eating my peas.  I'm not sure what, so not sure how to destroy the offender since I'm not game to go spraying poison in my garden.  (just not my style)

In other news, remember that hoop house I planted back in November with Spinach and Arugula?  Awesome, check out the parallel rows, arugula on right, spinach on left, 2 varieties of each.

I'm eating some serious salad.  What about you, were are you and what are you eating out of your backyard garden?

Waterwise

It can be sort of hard to think about drought tolerance when it has rained more days than it has not rained in the last month.  However, I think its important to note that Salt Lake City has a desert climate and once it stops raining in June, it will likely be late August before we get some reliable storms again.  Here are some waterwise plants we have procured and planted this weekend.

Agastache

Blue Oat Grass

Navajo Tea

Creeping Phlox

Purple Fountain Grass

 Pretty, right? Not just spiny cacti and rocks in this landscape.