This weekend, I planted the arugula seeds I harvested from my original planting early this spring.  They haven't germinated yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

After work yesterday I planted the first of my late-summer/fall crops, double digging a section of the south bed that I hadn't double dug before.  Wow - that was some compact dirt!

In a 20 square foot area I planted the following

Mixed Lettuce: 40 varieties mixed from High Mowing Seeds. http://www.highmowingseeds.com/gourmet-lettuce-mix.html

Jericho Romaine: 28 days to baby lettuce, 57 days to a full head, also from High Mowing Seeds: http://www.highmowingseeds.com/jericho-romaine-lettuce.html

White Beauty Radish: White radishes, 28 days to maturity.  Again from High Mowing Seeds: http://www.highmowingseeds.com/white-beauty-radishes.html

My breakfast this morning was deeeeelicious.  I'm finally starting to reap the rewards of all those tomatoes I planted.  Today I had the first real serving of my garden peach tomatoes.  I've plucked a couple off the plant before and just eaten them in the garden.  But today I had three decent looking fruit.  Also on the menu this morning was fresh cucumber - here we have about 1/3 of the cucumber I ate most of last night.

For the locavores among you, I am also having a fresh Hickory Nut Gap Farm egg, chevre from Spinning Spider Creamery, and bread from Farm and Sparrow Bakery.

This year I have had the most amazing success with my zucchini plant.  For the last several weeks we've had all of the green squash we can eat.  It really does amaze me that, from a little seed, sunlight, water and soil comes such fruitful bounty.  I must have picked 3 dozen zukes off of the plant already.  Almost every day there is something to harvest.  Here's what I found today.

The yellow squash is doing OK - we don't get daily produce from it, but we get a few per week.  The 4 zukes here however represent a not-atypical daily harvest. Whatever I did this year, I hope I can reproduce it next year.  Maybe I should save some seeds from this plant!

We've had the squash prepared many different ways: raw, ratatouille-style, grilled.  Mostly we grill them.  I've tried various grilling methods over the last month or so and now I feel well seasoned enough to share some cooking tips.

• Quarter the zukes, don't slice them.  When quartered, they are thick enough to retain some firmness after being on the grill.
• Salt and pepper and fresh herbs before cooking are OK, but do not put oil on until after they are cooked.  Oil tends to drip down onto the coals and cause flare ups.  The acrid smoke adds an unpleasant taste to the zukes.
• Keep the heat low enough so that you can get those nice grill marks on both sides without overcooking them.
• Add fresh chopped herbs, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil after you take them off the grill.  Toss and serve.

I use whatever herbs I have growing - which at the moment include thyme, lemon thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano and sage.

I have also read recently that you can eat the flowers of the zuke plant.  I haven't tried that yet. 

After being away on vacation for a couple of weeks, there was a lot to do in the garden after our return.  This week was about the basics.  I weeded everything, pulled up the lettuce, arugula and spinach that had all bolted; watered a lot; and made room for more plantings.

During the week, I received 2 cubic yards of mushroom compost and 2 cu. yards hardwood mulch.  A bunch is still sitting in my driveway - I'm sure my neighbors love the smell.  But about 1/2 of the compost is now spread around the garden.

Finally, yesterday, I got more veggies in the ground.

In the south bed, there are now 4 rows of Silver Queen corn (at 85 days, it'll be late Sept before we can eat it!).  In the north bed, I've got more lettuces and some green beans.  I'm hoping the tomatos growing all around it will help shade the plants, keep them cool and moist.

Finally, in my new west bed, I realized that the 6 ears of corn that germinated aren't really going to cut it, so I scattered some wildflowers in with them just for fun.

Given the unbelievable cicada emergence we have been experiencing here in my neighborhood (written about here and here), I've had the opportunity to see the lifecycle of this insect up close and personal.

In my first journal entry about this experience, the nymphs were emerging from the ground after 17 years, shedding their skin, and becoming flying insects.  Now, after about a month of this, the little bugs are in the full throes of lovemaking.

They aren't shy about it either.  This couple was doing the nasty on my front sidewalk!  I caught them in the act.

Really, it's kind of sad.  They get one chance.  It's hot outside, the sidewalk is uncomfortable, there's the threat of being stepped on or having your wings torn asunder by children.  Soon after this couple finished their business, they will both die.  Their corpses falling from the sky to cover our lawn.  The little cicada nymph from the trees above soon after.

Last weekend was all about getting the veggies in the ground.  This weekend, it's all about containers. 

This morning I spent a couple of hours finally getting all the rest of my seedlings and starts I've picked up in the last week or two into pots.  I had so many that I managed to create quite a nice little container garden out on my back deck.  Most of the plants are still small, but the season is early.  I'm pretty excited about what this will eventually grow into.

Here's a picture of everything together.

On the left there's a ham boiler with lavender, poppy, columbine and some kind of grasses.

Little columbine sprouts and some French lavender.

There is a pot full of the little flowers and such that Katie got for Mother's Day from the boys.  On the bench, there is Cilantro, arugula, cosmos, and geraniums.

Across the railing there's coleus, sage, eucalyptus, basil, basil, more basil, and some more lavender.

It was a busy morning getting all this potted up.  I didn't have any potting soil, so I improvised and made some up.

I honestly have no idea if what I concocted will work, but I improvised based on what I have and what I've read.  10 parts compost, 7 parts garden soil, 7 parts sand, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part organic fertilizer.  I think that should provide plenty of drainiage with some good nutrients.

The most exciting thing about all of this to me is that the majority of these plants I propogated from seed.  It's almost like magic that a little tiny seed like that can become such wonderful, smelly, and tasty plants just through some dirt, sun and water.

I've been so busy lately that it's been hard to keep up with all of the gardening that I've been doing on the weekends and spare minutes when I can.  A quick summary:  The garden fence and gate are finished.  The garden beds are nearly full.  There is a new west bed, that will have corn in it as soon as I can plant it.

Today we'll take a look at the south bed.

This picture was taken back at the beginning of the month.  Just in the 2 intervening weeks, the lettuce, arugula and spinach in the foreground have exploded.

I've also got a few other plantings in the bed that haven't received much mention before.  A few of them I picked up at the herb festival a couple of weeks ago.  For example, the habenero and squash both came from there.

Both of these are marked as being planted on May 6, but really, the seeds must have been started much earlier.  In any case, they are healthy and growing well.  The habenero is slower to grow, but I think as the summer really rolls in, it will do well.

At the Saturday morning tailgate market I picked up a couple of Garden Peach tomatoes.  I love these plants.  They are really prolific, have a great flavor, and are just the right size for a quick snack. 

I did a little poking around on Wikipedia, and discovered that it's not even the same species as your standard garden tomato.  Garden Peach are sessiliflorum, while your standard tomato is lycopersicum.  Whaddaya know?  In any case, they are rich in Iron and vitamin B5.  So, they are good for you too.  Eat up.

My 7 year old, Renny, has really become interested in all of this gardening, so he decided to grow a watermelon.  It's in the south bed too.  It sure is going to be crowded in there in a couple of months.

And there are radishes.  This one seems to be doing pretty well.

I've also got a couple of other things growing in the bed: a yellow squash, avon spinach, and bok choy which is doing great!  But those are plants for another posting with updated photos. 

I'll be interested to see if there are any yield differences between this bed - which we did not double dig - and the north bed, which we did.  Oh - yeah - the north bed is also fodder for another post since we planted it last weekend. 

So far, with the early stuff, the garden is turning out well.  We've had a lot of salads with the spinach, arugula, and oak leaf lettuce.  And they just keep producing.  Last weekend we gave a shopping back full of greens to a friend and we have plenty left. 

Tonight we focused on the arugula entirely.  Lightly sauteed with olive oil, salt, fresh oregano and chives (from the herb garden), and cooked with local farm fresh eggs and goat cheese.  Local toast on the side.  Yum!

Over the past 2 weeks I've slowly been moving some of my seed starts out to the garden.  My Oak Leaf Lettuce and Viroflay Spinach are looking good, along with my Heirloom Arugula.  Last weekend, the radishes, pak choy, and some more spinach came out.

All of this shuffling about of my plants presented a problem for me.  One that I knew was coming and that some of our beta testers had already mentioned.  When I started these plantings, they were but seeds in a corner of my basement.  Now they are out in the garden.  I wanted to have that reflected in my Greenthumbr garden.

So - big new feature announcement.  You can move your plantings around your garden now.  And you can specify when they were planted, since you're not always going to run directly to your computer the moment you get something in the ground.

We're excited about all the changes that are happening here on the site.  And there are more on the way.  Stay tuned!

Just last week I was looking at a little section of our back yard that kind of came together by accident.  Some chives sprouted last year, so I tended them and they rewarded me by coming back very full this year.  We wanted to attract birds, so we added a bird feeder.  We inherited a bird bath, so there it went.  Some lambs ear was growing, so we mulched and added an old tree stump.  We received iconic religious type statues as gifts, so we put them there.  All in all, it turned into a nice little part of the yard that I had started to call Monk Alley - well, in my head anyway.

Two days ago I said to Katie, "I love this little part of the yard, it's really nice."

I may have mentioned in a previous post that I have 2 dogs.  We acquired them last year as 6 week old puppies at the end of August.  So, they are still considered puppies - only 9 months old or so.  But they have grown a LOT.  Nutmeg, the bigger one is at least 60 pounds now. 

It seems that these sweet little puppies like to hunt, chase and kill moles.  Last night, it seems, there was a mole that must have been hard to catch in Monk Alley.  Here is what I woke up to.

Monk Alley is no more.  It has been completely devastated.  As am I.  Katie says I need to just let it go.  That whatever will be will be.  And we should give up on the backyard at least until the dogs are a little older.  She reminded me that's why I put the new fence up around the garden - to keep the dogs out.

This is a test for me - for my patience and goodwill towards other living things.  :)  But I still really miss Monk Alley.