may garden

our may weather has been ideal for gardening. days of rain followed by bursts of sunshine, who could ask for anything more? as mentioned, john built us a new 4 by 6 foot bed. we've filled it with basil, five roma plum tomato and edamame.

bed three houses beets, carrots, and sugar snap peas. bed two: peas, carrots, kale and lettuce, and bed one: echinacea, plum tomato, shelling peas, spinach, cilantro, cucumber and dill. the peas are not as plentiful as i would have liked, but there's always fall to try again.

maple sprouts are popping up everywhere and i've been plucking them left and right! oh canada!=)

these pansies are for you, bitt! aimee inspired me to use pansies for plate decor a few years ago. she's moved from the northwest to the southeast and can no longer enjoy her beloved pansies.

pansies are edible and help when your meal looks like swamp sludge.=)

green brunch smoothie: frozen banana, blueberry, garden collard and mint, cucumber, carrot, dried coconut, irish moss gel and spirulina.

the center of bed one was supposed to be filled with spinach. instead purslane weeds grew. now i'm trying to grow cilantro and dill in the space. volunteer cilantro has popped up in a few pots.

the echinacea is growing like a dream. the first few blooms are hiding.=)

in bed three the lettuce is taking its sweet old time. the seeds were sown in march and the romaine are transplants. definitely not the mvp (most valuable plant) this spring!=/

the fall kale on the right, however, made it through winter and is now producing seeds! i'm going to leave the pods to dry and we'll save the seeds. squash is supposed to grow in its space but since we've started two at the community garden, it can wait a few weeks.

today i'm going to start yellow beans above the lettuce and maybe pull those fall carrots. john loves carrot cake so i think i might surprise him with dessert.

in the flower garden, the zinnias will grow in honor of my neighbor, jimmy, who passed suddenly wednesday morning. he liked to walk by and look at the garden, and volunteer zinnias have been sprouting up all over the place. i will miss jimmy's smile and his fishing stories. i'll even miss him snooping in my bins.=) jimmy was a sweet man.

you may have noticed from my list that i'm growing more flowers this season. i made popsicle stick markers with color-coded yarn for when the ink washes off.

i'm most excited about the poppies that have been growing since march, the cosmos sprouting so quickly and the peony plant above my mom gave me (she's added so much to my garden - the fig tree, hydrangea, plumeria, lilac, pansies...thanks mom!). peonies have the best smell in the world. i think i actually snorted a bug the other day sniffing one! (not really, but maybe.=)

have a wonderful weekend, my friends, and stay tuned for a may community garden update! xoxo