plants

I realize I've spent a lot of time writing about the animals here and have missed the less obvious goings-on of the plants. The peas bloomed, and then were laden with pods, and then were picked nearly clean and are now starting to yellow. With the Boys and Girls Club group we sauteed the peas with soy sauce, honey from the hives here, and some red pepper flakes. The week before, we picked the last of the pokeweed before it starts to flower and is no longer edible. We did the recommended boiling in two waters, and in the meantime made cornbread (with cornmeal from Riverview Farms and eggs from the chickens here). There was a small fight over who got to eat the last of the poke greens.

The cilantro and Paris Island romaine have been harvested and sold to Nectar. Just planted beans and okra between lettuces and the red mustard in preparation for the transition to summer crops. And we planted about 500 flowers--marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, quinoa, celosia, gomphrena, bachelor's button, calendula, coleus, strawflower and pincushion flower. Most of these had sat in their pots too long and are stunted, rootbound, and bolting. Hopefully they'll overcome this adverse beginning, take root and grace us with a very colorful summer.

The spring weeds are beginning to give way to warm season plants--the chickweed is yellowing and the ragweed knee high. And the bees are finally getting some good flying weather. Ok, a little bit about the bees, because a lot has happened. We've added 3 nucs, a swarm someone caught and gave to us, and a split with a new queen. A total of 7 hives now, one queenless, or at least, queen-not-right. One of the nucs came to us queenless, and they were raising a few new queens. When I checked this week, at least one queen had emerged but there were no eggs and the colony roared loudly, a sign that all is not quite well with the queen--either there's no queen, or a queen who's not laying yet. I'll check again next week and hopefully see eggs.

The elephant garlic, grown from seed passed on by Daniel, who got it from Omar, who himself passed this winter, is nearly ready to harvest. Its long scapes are starting to kink, with pointed buds on long graceful necks seeming to peer this way and that in the garden.

I have given up planting by the biodynamic calendar--I plant whenever I can at this point in the season, trying to get everything in the ground in time, and waiting impatiently for the garlic and potatoes to give up their space so I can plant more summer crops.

The push pull of the garden is at its highest tension right now. Wait to harvest cool season crops, but not too long or the bugs will get them, and not to soon or they won't be ready. Wait for space to open up to plant more summer veggies. Where to plant all the flowers? And the gourds and okra that need so much room? The garden is sometimes like an overcrowded closet, with plants thrown in wherever they fit, or even if they don't. And remember to leave room for the people...