1st week of June 2008
This week is feeling like summer; the temperatures are hitting 80, we took the plastic off the greenhouse for the summer, made the first batch of yogurt popsicles for the year, iced tea is a regular in the fridge and we tasted the first strawberries of the season. The first bites of fresh picked strawberries are about the most heavenly thing that exists, especially after we've been fruit deprived for a while. The tea patches are growing heartily and our iced tea repertoire has included lemon verbena/lemon balm, chocolate mint, peppermint, applemint and anise hyssop. I also toss in a few stinging nettle tops for extra nutrition and dried stevia leaf for natural sweetness. In the garden, the rush to get the first wave of summer crops in the ground is almost finished - the last tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, beans, etc. The rest of the melons and winter squash will have to wait till we can get all the black plastic in place.
June also means that the options for cutting flowers has increased and making bouquets is a much more colorful affair. The peonies are getting cut almost as fast as they open, Dutch iris and daisies are abundant, a few volunteer bachelor buttons are blooming in the greenhouse, and the wonderfully fragrant Sweet Williams are starting to appear. Our six year old has even been climbing the tulip poplar tree to pick "tulip bouquets" for me. We also had an interesting happening on the porch this week, we watched one of the praying mantis egg cases hatch. It was amazing to see a huge pile of creamy mini mantises pile out of their winter house and crawl off to start their lives. 100-200 can hatch out of a single case that is only 1-1 1/2 inches tall. We hope they go on to eat all the bad insects in the garden.
[Return to Garden Journal Page]