Summertime Farm Update

Hello, everyone, and welcome to your summertime farm update starring Nora, lots of green stuff, an abused minivan, and a front porch.

As I write this, I'm listening to Roy Acuff, so feel free to rock a little of that while you visit us here on the farm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UipkTPGIOm4&feature=fvst

Right now, Nora and I are spending quite a bit of time at the pool, but we're also doing some interpretive dancing in the kitchen with homemade stuffed animals.  This is Nora's new owl "Chew Chew."

Ila's roses are a magenta exclamation point that says something like:  "Live Here!  You'll love it!  Come on in!  We've got sun tea!"  My aunt Dottie once told me when I was little that angels smell like roses.  This is what I'm thinking whenever I am near a rose, and I close my eyes so my nose can see better.

The garlic has started to form scapes.  They will lift their heads slowly, uncurling with the grace of a hesitant swan.  Also, did you know you can eat these?  Cut them early before they get tough.  They have a milder garlic flavor.  I've even seen recipes for garlic scape chutney.  Yummy.  (Sidenote:  Once your garlic bursts open in purple flowers, cut them off so the plant's "energy" can focus on the bulb growing in the ground.)

Yellow.  I put in a few of these perennials dug up and shared by Grandma B down the road.  This year, they filled in so beautifully.  I'm definitely going to be stealing some of these plants to fill in a few bald spots around the flower bed.  Neighbors, let me know if you'd like some, too.

And here it is, folks--the reason I need one of those pick-up trucks I was dreaming about last night.  (Contents:  2 hay bales, paper recycling, survival kit including shiny thermal blanket and a whistle just in case I need to look at something shiny and call a foul, car seat, Bob Dylan and Neil Young cassette tapes for a cassette player that no longer works)

The garden is revealing the secret message I wrote in seeds a few weeks ago.  Today I put in a soaker hose wound around the tomatoes, peppers, squash plants and cukes.  (Thank you, Mom and Mike!)

And here it is after I put down the straw mulch tonight.  (Thank you, Jessica and Matt, for sharing!  This is what they mean by "hitting the hay."  I'm pretty sure anyway.)

There's still a lot of room in this garden, and this is a good thing because things are going to get a lot bigger (we talked about this--room to grow, spreading your wings).  Contents of this photo:  potatoes (lower left corner), asparagus bed (this is after two years--it takes at least one year before you can harvest), blackberry bush, and everything else.

I send lots of love, good people!  Grow wild and useful.  Don't hold back.