Had the bok choy in a stir fry with beef and baby bella mushrooms. The sauce was cooking oil, soy sauce, and an onion. Pretty simple but very good. Had it over brown rice, with enough leftover to eat for dinner later in the week.
Cool!
Nice flower.
For another interesting if relatively mild stench, try Gynura bicolor (a.k.a. Okinawan spinach, which implies someone is eating it). The main ornamental attraction is the chocolate-purple leaves with green veins (makes a nice groundcover in warm areas), but the small yellow-orange flowers, if you stick your nose right in them, smell like used sweatsocks.
All right, here I go.
Last fall, I finally got the front and back yards taken care of. (This house was divided into five apartments when we bought it in 2007; we’ve taken it back to a single family house. The back yard was a parking lot; the front yard had crushed brick with no plastic or landscaper’s cloth under it, making it a thistle conservation zone.)
I now have a lawn in the back, with a two foot vegetable and herb garden bordering the north and west fences. The second floor deck has a container garden, the third floor deck also has a container garden, and the front yard has a flower garden. After five years without a garden, I’m going a bit wild.
I’m just thrilled that so many of the perennials have taken, even though they’ve only been in for a few weeks. I’ve filled out the space with some annuals and vines, which are getting cheaper (because they’re getting root bound).
I’ve also just today figured out how the ‘macro’ setting on my digital camera works, so here are a few photos of what I’ve been up to… I’ll happily post more as the summer progresses.
Strawflowers in bloom on the third floor.
A Black Eyed Susan vine in a container on the third floor deck.
Zinnia in bloom.
A third floor container.
Benji, the overseer.
Strawflowers in bloom.
Celosia in bloom.
Blanket Flower almost ready to bloom.
Beebalm almost ready to bloom.
Clematis, Forsythia and Monk’s Hood. They might not do anything more than set their roots down this year…
Lily almost ready to bloom.
[Liatris](http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k340/LeMinistredelaudela
/Decks%20and%20Gardens%202013/DSC02897.jpg) almost ready to bloom.
Wow, everybody! 
Meanwhile, here in the Hudson/Mohawk area we are getting our third straight week of near-constant rain. :mad:
I think my flower seeds are all drowned and the things I thought might be flower seedlings were just opportunistic grasses. All those beautiful marigold seeds, Broomstick! 
Still, the veggies are hanging in there and last year’s two, count them, two lupines seem to be growing well. Also the new clematis isn’t dead yet. Could be worse! 
I’ve been making insalata caprese from my Better Boys, Early Girls, and basil. I also cheated and bought local Creole tomatoes from a roadside stand since they’re in season. I tried making refrigerator pickles with my Picklebush cucumbers, but they turned out way too sour to eat.
My neighbor gave me a whole bunch of plums from her tree, so I’ve been snacking on those for a few days. She and her husband have a mini orchard, so I get all kids of goodies. During the winter, I’d come home to bags of citrus on my porch.
Anyone else in harvest anything good lately?
I guess it’s harvesting-- This weekend hubby and I trimmed our out of control mulberry trees and I made jam. My fingernails are still purple.
Our tiny strawberry patch has enhanced our ice cream with sauce for two weeks now but I think they are done for this season.
No tomatoes or peppers yet but it is waaaaay early. I think I’ll check on the garlic and see if they are ready.
Also just arriving-- My Purple Prince Zinnia has bloomed. He’s so pretty. He bloomed before the marigolds, which is surprising.
Had a very good bok choy, radish, and spinach crop this spring. In fact, this morning I plan to put the rest of them into the freezer. Also good showing in the lettuce patch, which I expect will keep producing at least another week or two as the weather hasn’t been too hot and only variety has bolted.
I’m going to plant beets, and a few turnips where the bok choy was, and probably more carrots and onions as well. When the beets and turnips are done it should be time for the second round of bok choy and spinach.
The chard and the one volunteer kale are producing now as well, but I just trim them over the summer and into fall so they keep producing.
Welp, it’s official. God does not want me to grow Beaver Dam peppers. At least not this year.
To review:
- I planted 10 seeds in starter pots
- Only two germinated.
- Two weeks after transplanting outside one of them just up and died.
- THIS week, during one of the several storms that have rolled through this area, one of my trellises came down. It missed every single plant in its path to the ground. Except the lone remaining Beaver Dam pepper. Which is now most sincerely dead.
Given how late in the summer we are I ain’t even tryin’ anymore. I give up. Apparently bell peppers and their close cousins are not something I should be attempting.
Meanwhile, the lettuce overfloweth. I am taking about a bushel’s worth to work tomorrow to share. Saturday is also traditionally Donut Day at work, too, so it will be Donut AND Salad day. I’m not sure I exactly how many varieties I have this year, it looks like everything survived. So that’s green and red leaf lettuce, green and red oak leaf lettuce, some other green leafy lettuce, another green leafy thing, I think there’s arugula (is that the same as rocket?), and at least three others… between 8 and 10 things under the “lettuce umbrella”.
I got about half the bok choy into the freezer last week, what’s left is starting to go to seed. The chard is charging along. The onions are still onioning (mmm - good!). Pretty much everything (except the late Mr. Beaver Dam) is doing its thing.
Still need to get the beets and turnips in.
Two weeks later, and the plants are doing well. The 3rd floor deck is now known as ‘The Refugium’. Some photos from this weekend.
A coxcomb celosia, or as my son likes to call them, Alien Brain Plant.
Blanket Flower in full bloom.
One of the 3rd floor mixed baskets.
The other of the 3rd floor mixed baskets.
A pink trailing vine that I’ve never planted before. (I saved the tag, but it’s well buried in the foliage, so I’ll look it up after the frost. Very happy with it, and I’ll seek it out in future years.)
Some kind of morning glory? I’ll bet the hummingbirds love it.
Yeah, look it up. I’d like to try it.
So far, we’ve had two crops of radishes. Everything else is doing well but it’ll be awhile before we can chow down on anything. Ron’s done a great job keeping the garden weed-free. He hoes and pulls weeds every day.
The corn is about 4 feet tall but no tassels yet.
Spent about two hours in the garden today. Weeded everything, which was what took most of the time. Harvested some more of the bok choi, all of the spinach (starting to bolt), and an onion for lunch and dinner. Was going to remove the bolted lettuce but the bees were having too much fun with it and I didn’t want to argue with the over the flowers so I’ll get that later. Still have most of the lettuce being productive of leaves rather than flowers. Got the fallen trellis back up and steadied the other three.
Now I just have to decide what I’ll do for mid-season planting. Turnips, beets… maybe more carrots?
Our garden is coming along very nicely - I have a lot of weeding to do, of course. 
The beds are also doing very nicely - the oldest one is filled out beautifully. I tweaked it a bit with adding a couple more plants, but it was doing very well anyway.
A lupine I just planted this year. Lupines are very photogenic, I just discovered.
Some small red lilies I planted last year. They’re a lovely dash of colour in the lush green bed.
I got curious enough, I had a poke in back and found the tag. Great Cascade Wine Red - a Lophospermum.
By the way, the lily finally blossomed. It was about 5 inches long, and an inch and a half across at its thickest point before it finally bloomed.
And the Beebalm flowers are out.
My red lily bloomed last week. It was gorgeous.
Then some [expletive deleted] STOLE it and the two white lilies that were just opening up. STOLE THEM!!! They didn’t take the whole plant, but they DID cut the flowers.
:mad:
That is one beautiful yellow lily!
Well, that truly sucks. Admire the flowers all you want, but hands off, man!
We’re in day three of ~35 degree temperatures here in Toronto - I’ve found I have to double water the container plants. I give them just a little water when I get up around 6:30-7 AM, and then give them a full watering in the evening around 7. Even with that, the Wee Willie has just about had it…
I’m curious if anyone here has tried mulching plant containers. I have a large supply of dog hair, and I was thinking of dropping it in on top of the soil as a way of retaining moisture. Any thoughts?
I’ve heard that carnivore hair (cats, dogs etc) can help deter squirrels from digging and burying nuts. And hey - you already have a ready, free, supply!
Let us know if it works!
So, this is my first year actually gardening food and not flowers, and I’m wondering if I did something wrong, or if something was mislabeled.
I put down one packet of yellow squash - a straightneck variety. The plants look lovely, very healthy, but… The squash is green. A dark, solid green, like zucchini. My biggest fruit is up to forearm size, so it’s well into mature ( probably six inches past where it should have been harvested). My google - fu seems to be failing, so… Should yellow squash turn yellow at some point? Or did I get zucchini seeds in my yellow squash packet?
Yellow squash starts out yellow. That there’s some zukes.