First Harvest!

It is now almost the end of May and I have gotten some of the first produce of the spring! I wasn't expecting to get anything out of it other than some lettuce until later next month, but there were string beans were waiting for me in the garden.

The sunflowers (which are supposed to be giants) are indeed tall--about five feet tall at the moment. I now know for future use that they really keep the area around them cool. I was relaxing in their shade during the 95 degree weather, and it was quite cool--so was the ground beneath the leaves. These particular sunflowers also seem to be exceptionally wind resistant thanks to their thick stems, which are almost an inch and a half thick!


I also found out that I have a volunteer squash plant that seems to be a pattypan type and is loaded with baby squash. I can't wait to have fresh summer squash again, but now I may end up with too much thanks to the extra plant. Oh the woes of a garden! (Insert sarcasm here)

The lettuce is ripe for the picking and is happily growing away. I should have planted more of it in with the sunflowers, but alas, most of it is in almost full sun. We shall see how long it takes the lettuce to go bitter in the heat. I also have baby spinach plants that are replacing the few winter-holdover plants that are bolting/bolted. 

The garlic is nearing ripe--at least for the softneck grocery-store variety I planted. The hardneck bulbs won't be ready till at least late June. I picked some of the bulbs from each that were crowded/ripe and boy are they strong! My kitchen smells of garlic curing in the windowsill. (Normally people leave them outside for a few days to cure, but the temperatures vary so much here that I cure them inside by hanging them)

The potatoes are in need of straw to pile over the existing plants (so I get more taters growing in the straw as well as the soil), but I haven't gotten around to buying the straw yet. Oops. 


Nothing else to report, so I am off for now!