In the Vegetable Garden

I am happy to finally be able to participate in Tina's Veggie Garden Update, which she holds on the 20th of each month.


I got a late start on planting vegetables, though I suppose it was no later than any other year for me. Last week I harvested my first vegetables--radishes. I'm not particularly fond of radishes--outside of eating them whole or sliced in salads, what can you do with a radish?--but I planted them, as my mother always did, along with carrots, primarily to mark the row until the carrots emerge.

The spinach and lettuce planted at the same time have not done as well. In fact, they look downright puny this year for some reason. But I do have some excellent volunteer lettuce--coming up right next to a couple tomato plants! I had planned to pull this lettuce yesterday, but we had a torrential rain storm last night, so the lettuce will have to wait until the garden dries out a little. I want to make sure, though, that this tomato has all the room it needs to grow.

I have had a vegetable garden off and on for many years, much longer than I have been into ornamental gardening. But I confess to being an indifferent gardener when it comes to vegetables. Oh, I do enjoy planning this garden and planting all the seeds, checking every few days to see if the green leaves of spinach or the first sprouts of green beans have emerged. But once the weather gets warmer, the bugs start coming out, and the weeds begin to grow faster than the veggies, I start to lose interest. When the green beans are ripe for picking, I willing spend time in this garden again. But it's not until August when I get really excited about growing vegetables, because August is the time when the star of the vegetable garden is ready--the tomatoes!

No other vegetable, in my opinion, tastes so different and so much better than anything purchased in a grocery store as a home-grown tomato. The rains and warm weather this past week have really been a boon to the tomatoes. Most of them are now sporting a few blooms like this shy one.

Even though I couldn't find any blooms here, the green beans are also looking very healthy.

One of the reasons I lose interest in the vegetable garden is that I get overwhelmed: I have a big problem with a weedy kind of grass that seems indestructible. I don't know if it's nutgrass, quack grass, or what, but it has long roots and seems to come back despite my best efforts to eradicate it. Last year by the end of the summer I wouldn't even show a photo of my whole garden out of sheer embarrassment. I am determined this year not to let that happen again, so I had planned to mulch the whole garden with straw. However, my son gave me lots of free wood mulch when he replaced the mulch in the grandkids' play structure with rubber mulch. I had so much left over that I decided why not use it in the vegetable garden? I put newspapers down first between all the rows and layered the mulch on top. So far it seems to be working, but I've never seen anyone use wood mulch in the vegetable garden before. Please, please tell me if this isn't a good idea. All the plants seem to be doing fine so far, but I'd hate to use something here that's not good for them.

Have you ever eaten fennel? I've seen it included in several recipes the past few years, but last year was the first time I'd ever eaten any. It was served as a side dish and has a slightly licorice flavor. This is the first time I've ever tried planting it, and I'm not sure my family will even like it. But I'm not concerned with eating it, actually; I planted just a few seeds primarily for the butterflies. The rest of the package was planted in the "wild" garden, so I'm hoping the butterflies find it.

Other vegetables growing besides the ones already mentioned: onions, chives, beets (a first for me), and green peppers. I have a small vegetable garden, and for the first time I actually ran out of room for everything I wanted to plant. I may tear out the spinach and lettuce soon if they don't start looking better and plant some zucchini and summer squash.

This is not in the vegetable garden, but I had to show you these blooms on my Monarda, "Petite Wonder," I think. True to my hypothesis, these blooms appeared on June 15, after I had finished my Bloom Day post.

And just a few days after Bloom Day, the hollyhocks all began to bloom. Notice all the little critters on these blossoms; I'm not sure what they are, but I do hope they aren't destructive. With the rain and the warmer weather, the insect population is really growing, but I do have a little help in that department . . .

. . . my friend, Mr. Toad. If last year was the year of the Praying Mantis here at "The Prairie," then this year has to be the year of the Toad. They are everywhere! Hopping out of a tray of plants, out from under the green beans, or even jumping out of a container as I put new plants into it, this is not just a family of toads, but a whole community! As long as they don't hop onto my lap and startle me, they are certainly welcome here and can invite all the cousins, nieces and nephews, and in-laws they want. I just wish besides eating insects, I could get them to eat some weeds as well:)

Check out Tina at In the Garden for other vegetable updates.

You might also be interested in participating in another ongoing post topic--public plantings. Veg Plotting has been showing different scenes around her home town and other parts of the UK, illustrating some lovely and not-so-lovely plantings. I had mentioned to her after Spring Fling that Chicago had some of the best downtown plantings I had seen in a city, but wouldn't you know it, when I checked all my photos I never took one of the city streets! So, Spring Flingers in particular, if you took some good photos of street or curbside plantings, please consider posting them. You can click here to find some suggestions.